Fig. 188.—The Triumph of the Lamb.—Christ, typified as the spotless lamb, with a glory round his head and holding the cross, is at the feet of God the Father; around him are the Four Evangelists, represented by their typical attributes, and resting upon wheels of fire. The archangels are bringing him their offerings. The firmament is supported by four angels. Beneath is St. John explaining the Apocalypse to his commentator.—From a Miniature in the “Commentary upon the Apocalypse,” by Beatus; a Manuscript of the Twelfth Century, in the Collection of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.
Under the last Carlovingians the liturgy gradually deteriorated; less in the East perhaps than in the West, less at Rome and Milan perhaps than elsewhere, but everywhere the signs of deplorable relaxation and falling away were manifest. The choristers attempted to assume the privileges of the clerks; the deacons arrogated to themselves impossible rights of independence; the priests despised the bishops, and too frequently the bishops, presuming on their power, had the audacity to disobey the pontifical decrees. This change and deterioration principally showed itself in the psalmody, in the chants, in the adornment of the sanctuary, and in the dress of the ecclesiastics. The Byzantine methods of treatment, as applied to architectural monuments and to the various forms of Christian art, did something to preserve the traditions of the liturgy, but from the close of the tenth century till the twelfth much confusion prevailed in the Latin Church. It was reserved for the Crusades, after a century and a half of adventurous expeditions, to bring back from countries beyond the sea, from Antioch, from Constantinople, and from Jerusalem, the elements and the principles of a Neo-Greek liturgy, in which the degenerate Gallo-Roman was as it were saturated, and its whole character remodelled.
The Catholic liturgy thus underwent a touching and marvellous transformation; this transformation was inaugurated by the construction of new churches, in which the Romanesque style gave place to that of the Ogive or Gothic; by the erection of slender belfries, recalling the minarets of the Mahometan mosques; by the introduction of transparent pictures on painted glass; by the chaste but splendid appointments of the chapels; by the dazzling decorations of the altars; by the melody of the church bells, the sonorous messengers of religion calling the faithful to prayer; and by the harmony of the human voice with the organ and other musical instruments. A complete and ingenious symbolism was contained in this comprehensive allegorical ritual, and rendered the liturgy a veritable sanctuary of Christian instruction and sacred tradition, each mystery (Fig. 188), each precept of which penetrated into the soul, as it were, through the medium of the senses.
In the thirteenth century, when the celebrated William Durand, Bishop of Mende, wrote his “Rationale of Divine Service,” a complete collection of the liturgy of the day, this sort of canonical legislation became settled as much as a matter could be which the bishops and even the mere priests were continually modifying. William Durand, following the example of his predecessors, included many innovations which were to be lamented, many eccentric rites foreign to the traditions of the primitive church, and lowering to the dignity of divine worship. Enlightened minds felt the truth of this, and the Council of Trent found it necessary to demand a liturgical reform. In consequence of this demand Pope Pius V., in 1568, issued the corrected form of the Roman Breviary, and, in 1570, the new Missal. As the principal object was to reform the errors which had crept in in later times, the dioceses which possessed rituals of at least two hundred years old could either preserve their own customs or adopt the Breviary and the Missal of Pius V.
The Church has deviated as little as possible from its ancient ceremonial, particularly in what concerns the administration of the sacraments. Nevertheless, seven sacraments, which we will rapidly notice in the order in which they are enumerated by the Council of Trent, were formerly accompanied by certain ceremonies which the change of manners and customs has caused to fall into disuse, and which we shall mention merely as a proof of their antiquity.
Fig 189.—Three Sacraments: Baptism, which inaugurates life; Confirmation, which strengthens childhood; and Penance, which reconciles manhood.
Left portion of the triptych painted on panel by Roger Van der Weyden (Rogier del Pasturle).—From the Antwerp Museum (Fifteenth Century).]
1. Baptism, which St. Peter had given by aspersion to the three thousand persons whom he converted by his first sermon, was also given in primitive times by immersion; finally infusion (from the Latin verb infundere, to sprinkle) was adopted in the manner in which it is practised in our own day (Figs. 189 and 190).
2. Confirmation was administered immediately after baptism, when only adults were admitted to the latter sacrament; but when baptism was administered to new-born infants, confirmation had to be postponed till the receivers of the rite were old enough to answer for themselves—that is to say, until they were capable of distinguishing between good and evil (Fig. 189).