Fig. 198.—The Adoration of the Magi.—From a pax attributed to Maso Finiguerra (Fifteenth Century), preserved at Florence. One of the kings is on his knees, and has taken off his crown to present incense and myrrh to the Infant Jesus; the others are riding towards the manger, escorted by their varlets and pages, and followed by a long caravan; there are angels on the roof playing the viol and the lute.
In fact, in the Middle Ages there were an immense number of festivals which gave rise to processions (Fig. 196) and to other religious ceremonies. It must not be forgotten that all great festivals were indifferently termed Easters. The anniversary of the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the great Easter, and in order to prepare worthily for it, the body was purified by baths, and the hair and the beard were cut, as tokens of the care with which the Christian ought to preserve the purity of his soul, and to remove the vices that infect the unregenerated man. The Nativity, Epiphany, Ascension, and Pentecost were also called Easter. In some churches, at Great Easter, dramatic representations were given of the mysteries the festival celebrated. A procession was undertaken to a tomb cut in a rock. Three women and two men in Israelitish dress represented the three Marys and the disciples John and Peter, and others dressed in white, with crowns on their heads and wings on their shoulders, played the part of the angels who communed with them.
Pentecost (Fig. 197), or the Easter of Roses, was accompanied with the same dramatic and religious accessories. In many churches during mass, at the words Veni, Sancte Spiritus, a sudden blast of the trumpet was given to recall the great noise in the midst of which the Holy Ghost descended upon the apostles. Sometimes, indeed, to add to the scenic imitation of the mystery, tongues of fire fell from the roof, or a shower of red rose-leaves took place; and doves, emblems of the Holy Ghost, were allowed to flutter about the church.
Fig. 199.—Knife with which the consecrated bread was cut; on the blade may be read on one side a prayer for a blessing on the food, on the other a thanksgiving, both with music (Sixteenth Century).—Collection of M. Ach. Jubinal, Paris.
Fig. 200.—Altar of the ancient Cathedral of Arras (Thirteenth Century), now destroyed; from a picture of the Sixteenth Century preserved in the sacristy of the Cathedral of Arras.—The angels on the top of the columns bear the instruments of the Passion. Along the summit of the screen are placed six reliquaries containing the relics of different saints; they form a retinue for Jesus, the chief of all martyrs. The tabernacle is not a heavy square case, but a suspended casket borne by an angel, who appears to descend from heaven. Higher up three angels collect in the mysterious cup of the Grail the blood which flows from the feet and hands of the crucified Jesus.
At high festivals the mass was followed by the ceremony of the offering, at which all present were expected to deposit a coin in a plate, and kiss the emblem of good-will presented to them (Fig. 198). This offering was in memory of an ancient custom. The offerings, which in the primitive Church the faithful were accustomed to make every day, consisted of bread and wine. They were placed before the altar at the commencement of the second part of the mass, after the reading of the Gospel and of the Apostles’ Creed. The capitularies of the early Frankish kings prescribed that neophytes were to offer bread and wine at least every Sunday. Until the eighth or ninth century, some authors assert that for the sacrifice of the mass, either leavened or unleavened bread was used indifferently; but since that period leavened bread has only been in use in the Eastern Church. From this epoch, also, the offered bread was no longer used except for distribution to the people, as a symbol of the communion, and it then took the name of eulogy or consecrated bread (Fig. 199). These pieces of bread, which the assisting priests and deacons offered successively at the altar upon white napkins, were of a round shape. They were termed hoops, crowns, and wheels. The custom of offering bread and wine whilst holding a lighted taper in the hand has been handed down, and still exists at burials in many dioceses.
The altar where the offerings were made was surmounted by a cupola (called ciborium) sustained by four columns, between which were curtains, which were closed during part of the service to hide the sacred mysteries about to take place (Fig. 200). In the middle of the cupola, above the altar, a hollow dove, made of gold or silver, was suspended (Fig. 201); in this the eucharist for the sick was kept. This silver dove was replaced at a later period by the tabernacle.
