A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

“That no man take offence at the word Altar, let him know, that anciently both these names, Altar, or Holy Table, were used for the same thing; though most frequently the fathers and councils use the word Altar. And both are fit names for that holy thing. For the holy eucharist being considered as a sacrifice, in the representation of the breaking of the bread, and pouring forth of the cup, doing that to the holy symbols which was done to Christ’s body and blood, and so showing forth and commemorating the Lord’s death, and offering upon it the same sacrifice that was offered upon the cross, or rather the commemoration of that sacrifice, (St. Chrysost. in Heb. x. 9,) it may fitly be called an Altar; which again is as fitly called an Holy Table, the Eucharist being considered as a Sacrament, which is nothing else but a distribution and application of the sacrifice to the several receivers.”

And Bishop Cosins, who (Nicholl’s add. notes, p. 42) speaks of the king and queen presenting their offering “on their knees at God’s altar:” though he adds afterwards, (p. 50,) on the passage “This our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving,”—“In which regard and divers others besides, the eucharist may by allusion, analogy, and extrinsical denomination, be fitly called a sacrifice, and the Lord’s table an altar, the one relating to the other; though neither of them can be strictly and properly so called.... The sacrament of the eucharist carries the name of a sacrifice; and the table, whereon it is celebrated, an altar of oblation, in a far higher sense than any of their former sacrifices did, which were but the types and figures of those services, which are performed in recognition and memory of Christ’s own sacrifice, once offered upon the altar of his cross.”

Again, Bishop Beveridge, on the necessity, &c., of frequent communion, uses the word; “Upon Sundays and holy days, although there be not such a number, and therefore no communion, yet, however, the priest shall go up to the altar,” &c.

And Bishop Bull (Charge to the Clergy of St. David’s): “Before the priest goes to the altar to read the second service,” &c.

Hence, though not presuming to dispute the wisdom of the Reviewers, or, to speak more reverently, the dispositions of God’s providence, whereby the use of the word altar was withheld from our Prayer Book, there can be no doubt that the employment of the word can be justified, if we understand it as the ancient Church understood it.—Jebb.

According to Bingham, the ancient altars were of wood; and he considers that the fashion of stone altars began in the time of Constantine. Stone altars were enjoined by the Council of Epone, (or Albon,) in France, A. D. 509 or 517; and throughout the whole of the time to which we look for architectural examples, altars were of stone.

The place of the high altar was uniformly, in England at least, at the east of the church; but in large churches room is left for processions to pass behind it, and in cathedral churches of Norman foundation for the bishop’s throne. Where the end of the church was apsidal, the high altar was placed in the chord of the apse. Chantry altars, not being connected with a service in which processions were used, were placed against the wall, and scarcely an aisle or a transept was without one or more. In form the high altar was generally large and plain, relying for decoration wholly on the rich furniture with which it was loaded; very rarely its front was panelled or otherwise ornamented. Chantry altars were, perhaps, in ninety-nine cases in a hundred, mere slabs built into the wall. At Jervaulx, however, at the end of each aisle, is a large plain altar built up of separate stones, much in the form of a high tomb. In situ but few high altars remain, but chantry altars in situ are frequent enough. They are not, however, often found in the aisles and transepts of our churches, but in places where they would more readily escape observation, as, for instance, under the east window (or forming its sill) of a vestry, or of a parvise, or in a gateway to a monastery, or in private chapels and chapels of castles. Altar stones not in situ, but used in pavements and all places, are almost innumerable, sometimes two or three or more occurring in a single small church. They may be recognised by five little crosses, one in the centre, and one at each corner. The multiplication of altars in the same church is still strictly forbidden in the Eastern Church, as it was in ancient times. (Vide Bingham, book viii. c. 6, § 16.)—Poole.

ALTARAGE, a legal term used to denote the profits arising to the priest or parson of the parish on account of the altar, called obventio altaris. Since the Reformation there has been much dispute as to the extent of the vicar’s claim upon tithes as altarage. In the 21st Eliz. it was decided that the words Alteragium cum manso competenti would entitle him to the small tithes; but it has since been holden and now generally understood, that the extent of the altarage depends entirely upon usage and the manner of endowment.

ALTAR CLOTH. By the 82nd Canon it is appointed that the table provided for the celebration of the holy communion shall be covered, in time of divine service, with a carpet of silk, or other decent stuff thought meet by the ordinary of the place, if any question be made of it; and with a fair linen cloth at the time of the ministration, as becometh that table. The sovereigns of England, at their coronation, present, as their first oblation, a pall or altar cloth of gold, &c.

ALTAR PIECE. A picture placed over the altar. It is not uncommon in English churches to place paintings over the altar, although it is a practice of modern introduction, and although there would be a prejudice against placing paintings in other parts of the church. The English Reformers were very strongly opposed to the introduction of paintings into the sanctuary. In Queen Elizabeth’s reign, a proclamation was issued against pictures as well as images in churches; and Dean Nowell fell under her Majesty’s displeasure for procuring for her use a Prayer Book with pictures. The Puritans, who formed the religious world of King Charles’s time, both in the Church and out of it, destroyed pictures wherever they could find them, as relics of Popery. We may add that the feeling against pictures prevailed not only in modern times, but in the first ages of the primitive Church. In the various catalogues of church furniture that we possess, we never read of pictures. There is a particular breviat of the things found by the persecutors in the church of Paul, bishop of Cirta, in Numidia, (A. D. 303,) where we find mention made of cups, flagons, two candlesticks, and vestments; but of images and pictures there is not a syllable. In Spain, at the Council of Eliberis, A. D. 305, there was a positive decree against them. And, at the end of this century, Epiphanius, passing through Anablatha, a village of Palestine, found a veil there, hanging before the doors of the sanctuary in the church, whereon was painted the image of Christ, or some saint, which he immediately tore in pieces, and gave it as a winding-sheet for the poor, himself replacing the hanging by one from Cyprus. The first mention of pictures we find at the close of the fourth century; when Paulinus, bishop of Nola, to keep the country people employed, when they came together to observe the festival of the dedication of the church of St. Felix, ordered the church to be painted with the images of saints, and stories from Scripture history, such as those of Esther and Job, and Tobit and Judith. (Paulinus, Natal. 9. Felicis, p. 615.) The reader will find a learned historical investigation of this subject in note B to the translation of Tertullian’s Apology in the Library of the Fathers, which is thus summed up: 1. In the first three centuries it is positively stated that Christians had no images. 2. Private individuals had pictures, but it was discouraged. (Aug.) 3. The cross, not the crucifix, was used; the first mention of the cross in a church is in the time of Constantine. 4. The first mention of pictures in churches, except to forbid them, is at the end of the fourth century, and these historical pictures from the Old Testament, or of martyrdoms, not of individuals. 5. No account of any picture of our Lord being publicly used occurs in the six first centuries; the first is A. D. 600. 6. Outward reverence to pictures is condemned. We find frequent allusion to pictures in the writings of St. Augustine. We thus see that the use of pictures in churches is to be traced to the fourth century; and we may presume that the practice of the age, when the Church was beginning to breathe after its severe persecutions, when the great creed of the Church Universal was drawn up, and when the canon of Scripture was fixed, is sufficient to sanction the use of pictures in our sanctuaries. That in the middle ages, pictures as well as images were sometimes worshipped, as they are by many Papists in the present day, is not to be denied. It was therefore natural that the Reformers, seeing the abuse of the thing, should be strongly prejudiced against the retention of pictures in our churches. But much of Romish error consists in the abuse of what was originally good or true. We may, in the present age, return to the use of what was originally good; but being warned that what has led to Popish corruptions may lead to them again, we must be very careful to watch against the recurrence of those evil practices to which these customs have been abused or perverted.