THE THE TERM "ALTAR." THE term "Altar," as applied to the structure on which the Holy Sacrament is celebrated, has first to be considered. Although the word is that most frequently used in ecclesiastical language (as by St. Paul, "We have an altar") and in common parlance, yet, whether the material be stone or wood, it is, in fact, synonymous with the terms "Mensa Domini," "God's Board," or "The Holy Table." Ancient writers used both names indifferently; Mede thinks that the word altar was usually adopted for the first two 1 Hebrews xiii, 10. B centuries, and that the word table is not to be found in the works of any author of those ages now existing.1 One or other of these terms is generally adopted in the Prayer Book. Thus, in a cautela to the Sarum Missal: Presbyter in mensâ Christe, quid agis bene pensa : Aut tibi vita datur, aut mors eterna paratur. And so in the famous sequence, "Lauda Sion," used on Corpus Christi Day, which will be found in the Sarum Missal from whence our own Communion Service is almost translated:2— In hac mensâ novi Regis, In the first English Prayer Book, issued in 1549 under authority of the proclamation of King Edward VI, the terms Lord's table and God's board are also used, though more frequently the word altar,3 and that at a time when stone was the only material used. The same practice has prevailed ever since, as in the Canons of 1640, wherein it is declared that "it may be called an altar in that sense in which the primitive church called it an altar." In the Coronation Service1 it is always called the altar; the term is also used in some Church Building Acts. And in the narrative of aristocratic weddings, such as daily appear in the newspapers, it is always specified that the bride was led to the "altar:" no doubt it may be said that the reference here is to the hymeneal altar; but one can scarcely in fairness assume a reference to a pagan and idolatrous rite in the description of a solemn Christian ceremony. Christ's board is another term by which it was and is known in English vernacular. A few examples of this use (commencing at a time when stone was becoming the almost invariable material of the structure) may be given. Elfric, 1 Bingham; Christian Antiquities, Bk. VIII, c. vi, s. 12. (Oxf. Ed., 1855, III, p. 90.) 2 Sarum Missal; Festival of Corpus Christi. 3 Parker Society's reprint. 4 Reprinted in Phillimore's Ecclesiastical Law, p. 1074. in his celebrated Paschal Homily, written in the twelfth century, speaks of Christ's board:1 þat holie bord bugen t þat bred bruken. (Go to the holy board and partake of the bread.) And further on : panne muge we bicumeliche to godes bord bugen, his bode wurdliche bruken. (Then may we go meekly to God's board, and worthily partake of his body.) 2 The Ayenbite of Ynwyt, written early in the fourteenth century, says: Yet eft hi ssolle by more clene / and more holy / nor þet hi serued at godes borde of his coupe / of his breade / and of his wyne / and of his mete. Godes table is pe wyeued. pe coupe is pe chalis, his bread and his wyn; pet is his propre bodi and his propre blod.3 Lydgate, in his Vertue of the Masse, speaks of the Altar called God's board. And Robert of Brunne, in the same century: 66 Richard at Godes bord His messe had his rights.5 By these instances, it will be seen clearly that the terms Altar," "Table of the Lord," "Holy Table," and "God's Board," have been used synonymously from very early times. FORM, STRUCTURE, AND MATERIAL. From the name we will proceed to the structure and material. The oldest existing Christian altar is preserved in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, at Rome, and is believed, by tradition which has come down from a very early period, to 1 Early English Text Society; Early English Homilies, II, p. 95. 2 Parker Society's reprint, p. 99. 3 Ayenbite of Ynwyt; Early English Text Society, pp. 235, 236. 4 Ibid., p. 233. 5 Langtoft's Chronicle. Hearne, p. 182; quoted in the preceding. have been used by St. Peter; and so highly was the altar esteemed that, between the years 1362 and 1370, a stone baldacchino was erected over it, wherein are enshrined the heads, as it is believed, of SS. Peter and Paul. The altar has the special dignity of being the only wooden altar allowed by the Roman Church; it alone contains no relics; and no one but the pope himself officiates at it. It presents, therefore, a typical example of the earliest description of Christian altar. It consists of a mensa or table, nearly square, and formed of a broad, rather thick wooden plank, resting on four legs, which, with the intervening spaces, are covered in by three planks on each face; the table extends considerably beyond the frame of legs, and the whole height is about four feet; it is said to be of cypress wood, and the surface has the appearance of having been planed.3 4 Wood continued to be the material generally used during the first four or five centuries. Wooden altars are mentioned by Optatus, and by SS. Athanasius and Augustine of Hippo, and the material was deemed a reminiscence of the cross of Calvary. In 509, the Council of Epone, in France, practically required that stone should be the material used, by decreeing that no altar should be consecrated with the chrism of holy oil but such as were of stone. But in England wooden altars continued in more or less use till the end of the eleventh century, when stone was ordered as being a more suitable material. A canon made under Archbishop Lanfranc, in 1075, directed the change; and, according to William of Malmesbury, stone altars were introduced into 1 Durandus; Rationale, I, vii (Neale & Webb's Translation, p. 28). Lubke; Ecclesiastical Art in Germany, English Ed., p. 115. Webb; Continental Ecclesiology, p. 508; a most valuable collection of church notes, by the eminent ecclesiologist, the Rev. Benjamin Webb, one of our vice-presidents. Rock; Hierurgia, p. 493. "Altar," 5 Vide Sacred Archæology, by the Rev. Mackenzie Walcott, s. v. for this and some other statements. He does not state the sources of his information: but, in this case, probably Bingham; Christian Antiquities, Bk. VIII, c. vi, s. 15. 6 Glossary of Architecture, s. v. “Altar," &c. 7 Johnson; Collection of Ecclesiastical Laws, Canons, &c. England by St. Wulstan of Worcester, who died in 1095. In Ireland, a canon of Archbishop Comyn, in 1186, prohibited any celebration on a wooden table according to the then usage, but permitted the introduction of a small piece of stone into the middle of the wooden mensa.1 Probably the like provision was adopted in the examples of wooden altars which we occasionally find mentioned at all dates; as, for example, in 1432, in the will of Sir John Raventhorp, priest of the Chapel of St. Martin, Aldwerk: Item lego aliud vestimentum cum altari ligneo predictæ capellæ.2 And so in the case of a wooden altar, mentioned by Erasmus as existing in Canterbury Cathedral. Wooden frames are represented in the famous stained glass at Long Melford, Suffolk, dating near the end of the fifteenth century, and not uncommonly in illuminations. In the unchanging Eastern Church, and in the Russian branch, wood continues to be used. Stone altars are supposed by some to have been derived from the use in the catacombs, where the bodies of the eminent deceased were deposited in niches scooped out near the ground level, and a conch-shaped hollow above, leaving a flat table of rock between, upon which the divine mysteries were celebrated. At all events, stone became the favourite material at an early date; for we find that (as already mentioned), in the year 509, a canon of the Council of Epone directed that no altar should be consecrated with chrism unless constructed of stone. The top was originally a nearly square slab resting on supports in every variety. In the remarkable examples existing at Ravenna, and in others represented in the mosaics there, altars appear either as tables or 4 as solid 1 Book of Obits of Trinity Church, Dublin, published by the Irish Archæological Society; note to preface, p. xxi. 2 Testamenta Eboracensia; Surtees Society, II, p. 29. 3 London and Middlesex Archæological Society's Transactions; Evening Meetings, 1871, p. 18. See illustration at p. 28, post, from mosaic at San Vitale, Ravenna, which was consecrated by St. Maximinianus, A.D. 547. |