THE THE TERM "ALTAR." term "Altar," as applied to the structure on w the Holy Sacrament is celebrated, has first to be sidered. Although the word is that most frequently in ecclesiastical language (as by St. Paul, "We have altar") and in common parlance, yet, whether the mate be stone or wood, it is, in fact, synonymous with the te "Mensa Domini," "God's Board," or "The Holy Tak Ancient writers used both names indifferently; Mede th that the word altar was usually adopted for the first 1 Hebrews xu. 10. turies, and that the word table is not to be found in the rks of any author of those ages now existing.1 One or er of these terms is generally adopted in the Prayer Book. us, 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 rpus Christi Day, which will be found in the Sarum ssal from whence our own Communion Service is almost nslated:2 In hac mensâ novi Regis, Novum pascha nove legis, the first English Prayer Book, issued in 1549 under authority the proclamation of King Edward VI, the terms Lord's table 1 God's board are also used, though more frequently the word ar,3 and that at a time when stone was the only material used. e same practice has prevailed ever since, as in the Canons 1640, wherein it is declared that "it may be called an altar that sense in which the primitive church called it an altar.” the Coronation Service1 it is always called the altar; the m is also used in some Church Building Acts. And in the rrative of aristocratic weddings, such as daily appear in e newspapers, it is always specified that the bride was led the "altar:" no doubt it may be said that the reference re is to the hymeneal altar; but one can scarcely in fairss assume a reference to a pagan and idolatrous rite in e description of a solemn Christian ceremony. Christ's board is another term by which it was and is own in English vernacular. A few examples of this use ommencing at a time when stone was becoming the almost variable material of the structure) may be given. Elfric, Bingham; Christian Antiquities, Bk. VIII, c. vi, s. 12. (Oxf. Ed., 55, III, p. 90.) Sarum Missal; Festival of Corpus Christi. = Parker Society's reprint. in his celebrated Paschal Homily, written in the tv century, speaks of Christ's board :1 þat holie bord bugen t þat bred bruken. (Go to the holy and partake of the bread.) And further on : panne muge we bicumeliche to godes bord bugen, this wurdliche bruken. (Then may we go meekly to God's and worthily partake of his body.) 2 The Ayenbite of Ynwyt, written early in the fourt century, says : Yet eft hi ssolle by more clene / and more holy / nor pet hi s at godes borde of his coupe / of his breade and of his wyn of his mete. Godes table is pe wyeued. pe coupe is þe his bread and his wyn; pet is his propre bodi and his blod.3 Lydgate, in his Vertue of the Masse, speaks of the Altar called God's board.1 And Robert of Brunne, in the same century: Richard at Godes bord His messe had his rights.5 By these instances, it will be seen clearly that the "Altar," "Table of the Lord," "Holy Table," and " Board," have been used synonymously from very early FORM, STRUCTURE, AND MATERIAL. From the name we will proceed to the structure material. The oldest existing Christian altar is preserved in Basilica of St. John Lateran, at Rome, and is believe tradition which has come down from a very early perio 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. e been used by St. Peter; and so highly was the altar emed that, between the years 1362 and 1370, a stone lacchino was erected over it, wherein are 1 enshrined the ls, as it is believed, of SS. Peter and Paul. The altar has special dignity of being the only wooden altar allowed by Roman Church; it alone contains no relics;2 and no one the pope himself officiates at it. It presents, therefore, a cal example of the earliest description of Christian altar. consists of a mensa or table, nearly square, and formed ■broad, rather thick wooden plank, resting on four legs, ch, with the intervening spaces, are covered in by three aks on each face; the table extends considerably beyond frame of legs, and the whole height is about four feet; s said to be of cypress wood, and the surface has the earance of having been planed.3 Wood continued to be the material generally used during first four or five centuries. Wooden altars are mentioned Optatus, and by SS. Athanasius and Augustine of Hippo, the material was deemed a reminiscence of the cross of vary.5 In 509, the Council of Epone, in France, practiy required that stone should be the material used, by reeing that no altar should be consecrated with the chrism holy oil but such as were of stone.6 But in England den altars continued in more or less use till the end of eleventh century, when stone was ordered as being a e suitable material. A canon made under Archbishop franc, in 1075, directed the change; and, according to liam of Malmesbury, stone altars were introduced into 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 hurch notes, by the eminent ecclesiologist, the Rev. Benjamin Webb, of our vice-presidents. Rock; Hierurgia, p. 493. Vide Sacred Archæology, by the Rev. Mackenzie Walcott, s. v. "Altar," this and some other statements. He does not state the sources of his rmation: but, in this case, probably Bingham; Christian Antiquities, VIII, c. vi, s. 15. Glossary of Architecture, s. v. "Altar," &c. England by St. Wulstan of Worcester, who died in 109 Ireland, a canon of Archbishop Comyn, in 1186, pro any celebration on a wooden table according to the usage, but permitted the introduction of a small pi stone into the middle of the wooden mensa.1 Probal like provision was adopted in the examples of wooden which we occasionally find mentioned at all dates; example, in 1432, in the will of Sir John Raventhorp of the Chapel of St. Martin, Aldwerk: Item lego aliud vestimentum cum altari ligneo predictæ capel And so in the case of a wooden altar, mentioned by E as existing in Canterbury Cathedral. Wooden fram represented in the famous stained glass at Long M Suffolk, dating near the end of the fifteenth century not uncommonly in illuminations. In the unchanging E Church, and in the Russian branch, wood continues used. Stone altars are supposed by some to have derived from the use in the catacombs, where the bo the eminent deceased were deposited in niches scoop near the ground level, and a conch-shaped hollow leaving a flat table of rock between, upon which the mysteries were celebrated. At all events, stone becar favourite material at an early date; for we find th already mentioned), in the year 509, a canon of the C of Epone directed that no altar should be consecrated chrism unless constructed of stone. The top was originally a nearly square slab 1 on supports in every variety. In the remarkable exa existing at Ravenna, and in others represented i mosaics there, altars appear either as tables or 1 as 1 Book of Obits of Trinity Church, Dublin, published by the Archæological Society; note to preface, p. xxi. 2 Testamenta Eboracensia; Surtees Society, II, p. 29. 3 London and Middlesex Archæological Society's Transactions; ing Meetings, 1871, p. 18. |