50. But the body of Christ received by such persons, doth not defend them nor those who fly to it: partly because the privilege is granted to a church as a church: and therefore not to be misbestowed on other things: partly because that food is the support of the soul, and not of the body: whence it freeth the soul and not the body. 51. Churches are moved from one place to another on three accounts. First, on account of the necessity arising from persecutors: secondly, on account of the difficulty of access or habitation, such as the unwholesomeness of air: thirdly, when they are oppressed with the society of evil men: and then with the consent of the Pope or the bishop. Wherefore he that entereth into a church fortifieth himself with the sign of the cross, shall be said in the proeme of the fifth book.' [Footnote 194] [Footnote 194: See Appendix.] {33} CHAPTER II OF THE ALTAR The First Builders of Altars--The Difference between Altare and Ara--Various Significations of Various Kinds of Altars--The Ark of the Testimony--It is preserved in the Lateran Church--What a Man needeth that he may be the Temple of God--What the Table Signifieth--Of the Candlestick--Of the Ark--Of the Altar--Of the Altar Cloths--Of Steps to the Altar. I. The altar hath a place in the church on three accounts, as shall be said in speaking of its dedication. We are to know that Noe [Footnote 195] first, then Isaac [Footnote 196] and Abraham [Footnote 197] and Jacob made, as we read, altars: which is only to be understood of stones set upright, on which they offered and slew the victims and burnt them with fire laid beneath them. Also Moses made an altar [Footnote 198] of shittim wood: and the same was made as an altar of incense, and covered with pure gold: as we read in the xxvth chapter of Exodus, where also the form of the altar is described. From these of the ancient fathers, the altars of the moderns have their origin, being erected with four horns at the corners. Of which some are of one stone, and some are put together of many. [Footnote 195: Gen. viii, 20.] [Footnote 196: Gen. xxvi, 25. xxxiii, 20.] [Footnote 197: Gen. xiii, 18.] [Footnote 198: Exodus xxvii, i.] 2. And sometimes the words altare and ara are used in the same sense. Yet is there a difference. For _altare_, derived from _alta res_, or _alta ara_, is that on which {34} the priests burnt incense. But _ara_, which is derived from _area_, or from _ardeo_, is that on which sacrifices were burnt. [Footnote 199] [Footnote 199: The true ecclesiastical distinction between _altare_ and _ara_ is that the former means the altar of the true God, and is therefore alone used in the Vulgate, answering to the Greek [Greek text], as opposed to ara ([Greek text]), an altar with an image above it. See _Mede_. Folio 386. ]