The Ceremonies of the Holy-Week at RomeBaggs, Charles Michael
Religion
The Ceremonies of the Holy-Week at Rome
Baggs, Charles Michael
Catholic Church. Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae; Holy Week services
[Footnote 35: These are distinguished lawyers habited in black
_cappe_. For an account of the various offices above-mentioned and of
their origin see The Papal Chapel, Described etc. by C.M. Baggs. Rome.
1839.]
[Footnote 36: That crosses, candles and incense were anciently used in
processions appears from S. Gregory of Tours, de Vit. Patrum, c. 13.]
[Footnote 37: The kings and chief magistrates of ancient Rome were
entitled to a _sella curulis_, or chair of state, which used to be
placed in their chariots. Gell. III; 18. They were seated on it also
at their tribunal on solemn occasions. Virgil makes old king Latinus
say:
Et _sellam regni_ trabeamque _insignia nostri_. AEn. XI. 334. The
Romans had borrowed it from the Etruscans according to Dionysius of
Halicarnassus. (Clement of Alexandria observes, That many of the rites
of Etruria were imported from Asia; and Diodorus (lib. 5.) represents
these insignia as derived from Lydia. See Phoebens. De Identitate
Cathedrae S. Petri p. XX. seq.) It was richly adorned, _conspicuum
signis_, according to Ovid, Pont. IV. 5, 18. In the Pope's carriage
even now there is a chair of state, and to Him alone is reserved the
honour of a _sedia gestatoria_. Pope Stephen II in 751 was carried to
the basilica of Constantine on the shoulders of the Romans exulting
at his election: and from this fact some derive the custom of carrying
the Pope in His chair on solemn occasions.]
[Footnote 38: This hymn is attributed to the abbot Theodulph
afterwards bishop of Orleans, who lived in the 9th century. If it
were true, that he sang it as the emperor Louis le debonnaire was
passing by the prison, in which he was confined, and that he was in
consequence liberated, we should have a historical reason for the
shutting and opening of the door, and for the hymn's being sung partly
inside the church. This account has however been called in question
by Menard, Macri, Martene and others; and hence Pouget, and after him
Benedict XIV and others are contented with a mystic reason for such
ceremonies, viz, that heaven was closed to man in consequence of sin,
and was opened to him by the cross of Christ.]
[Footnote 39: In these it is called Dominica ad Palmas, Dominica
in Palmis, and in the Gregorian Sacramentary mention is made, in
the prayer which precedes communion, of the faithful carrying
palm-branches.]
[Footnote 40: Anciently a cardinal deacon used to read it, and to sing
only the words "Eli, Eli, lamma sabachthani".]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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