Footnote 107: [(return)]
The lance preserved at Nuremberg resembles in form that of St. Peter's, but is made of common iron, united with a part of one of the nails of the cross.
Footnote 108: [(return)]
These relics are shewn to the people on holy-Wednesday after the matins of Tenebræ; on Thursday and Friday several times in the day: on holy Saturday morning after mass: on Easter Sunday after the Pontifical mass: on Easter Monday, and a few other festivals.
Footnote 109: [(return)]
The opinion of Röstell (Beschreibung der Stadt Rom, B. I, p. 400) that these phials contained the blessed eucharist under the form of wine, if admitted, would form a new proof of the real and permanent presence of Christ's blood in the B. Sacrament; yet it is a novel, unsupported, and untenable conjecture. Some of the ancient Christian Fathers complain, it is true, of the abuse of burying the eucharist with the deceased under the form of bread; but the phials of blood have been found with so many bodies, that we cannot reasonably suppose the custom to have been an abuse: and who among the ancients mentions that the eucharist was ever buried with them under the form of wine? That the palm-branch or crown accompanied by these phials of blood are authentic signs of martyrdom, see Raoul-Rochette's Memoires sur les pierre sepulcrales, t. XIII des Mem. de l'Academie, p. 210, 217. On one of the phials mentioned by Röstell was found the inscription Sanguis Saturnini.
Footnote 110: [(return)]
In the Vatican Library is a small relic-case, marked with the monogram, of great simplicity and consequent antiquity. There is another of ivory, adorned with bas-reliefs of the resuscitation of Lazarus, Christ's apprehension etc. Plainer, Bescher. der Stadt Rom. B. 2. See also Rock's Hierurgia Vol. 2, cap 6.
CHAP. VI.
ON THE CEREMONIES OF HOLY-SATURDAY
CONTENTS.
Service of Easter-eve—Ceremonies of holy-saturday-morning—Sixtine chapel. 1. Blessing of the fire and incense-procession; Paschal candle—the deacon sings the Exultet—triple candle—2. Baptism administered on this day: communion of children in former times—prophecies—3. The litany: invocation of Saints—change from mourning to rejoicing—High mass: sacred pictures etc.—Alleluja—Vespers—end of the mass: mass of Pope Marcellus—Ceremonies at S. John Laterans. Blessing of the font: baptistery—baptism of adults—litanies and confirmation—mass and ordination—Armenian catholics—their liturgy; and high mass on Easter-eve—reflections—Conclusion.
"But now Christ is risen from the dead, the first-fruits of them that sleep". 1 Cor. XV, 20.