66 lib. ii. c. 21, §7: "Illud autem prætermitti non potest, Romanos quosdam Ponti"fices in solemni Missa in solio sedentes, "facie ad populum conversa, Eucha"ristiam sumere consuevisse, ut Christi "Passio et Mors experimeretur, qui pro palam passus et mortuus est in con"spectu omnium, quotquot nefaria "Crucifixioniadfuere tamen (?) vero Summum Pontificem, cum solemnem cele"brat Missam, se aliosque communicare "facie quidem ad populum conversa, "sed pedibus stantem in solio, corpore "tamen inclinato, cum et ipse suscipit, "aliisque præbet Eucharistiam. "Hinc est quamobrem Pontifex populo, procul et exadverso in faciem eum adspicienti, videatur sedens communicare, ut bene observabat post S. "Bonaventuram Rocca de solemni com"munione Summi Pontificis et Casalius "de veteribus 'Sacris Christianorum "Ritibus,' cap. 81, p. 333, ed. Rom. 1647." 66 From these two statements it appears that the Popes in ancient times sat whilst communicating, but that from the close of the sixteenth century they usually stood in a leaning or half-sitting posture. To these must be added a further statement of Pope Benedict XIV. in a letter addressed in 1757 to the Master of the Pontifical Ceremonies, on the general question of the lawfulness, under certain circumstances, of celebrating Mass in a sitting posture. The general cases which raise the question are of gout and the like; but in the course of the discussion the Pope describes some particulars respecting his predecessors bearing on the present subject. Pius III. was elected to the Pontificate (in 1503) when he was still only a deacon. He was ordained priest on the 1st of October, and on the 8th of October he himself celebrated Mass as Pope. On both of these occasions (being troubled by an ulcer in the leg) he sat during the whole ceremony; a seat was solemnly prepared, in which he was to sit, and the altar arranged in the form of a long table, under which he might stretch his legs ("sedem in quâ sedens extensis 66 "cruribus ordinaretur, et mensam longam pro altari ut pedes subtus ex"tendi possent)." It also appears that in the Papal chapel it is considered generally that the Pope has liberty to sit whilst he administers the elements to his court. It appears, further, that (also without any reference to special cases) the Pope sits during the ceremony of his ordination as sub-deacon, deacon, and presbyter, if he has been elected to the Pontificate before such ordination; and that the fact of this posture during the Holy Communion was considered by Benedict XIV. to cover the question generally. It will be sufficient to quote the passage which relates to the ordination of a Pope as priest. "In colla"tione sacerdotii sedens Pontifex ma"nuum impositionem, olei sancti, quod "catechumenorum dicitur, unctionem, "calicem cum vino et aquæ, et patinam cum hostia, recipit. Quæ omnia lu"culenter ostendunt haud inconveniens "esse sedere Pontificem in functionibus "sacratissimis, utque eo ipso Missam "totam a sedente posse celebrari, præ"sertim si pedibus debilitatis insistere non “valeat." He concludes with this pertinent address on his own behalf to the Master of the Ceremonies :-"Et, siquidem sedentes missam celebrare statuimus, tuum erit præparare mensam "altaris cum consecrato lapide," &c. vacuumque subtus altare spatium relinquatur extendendis pedibus idoneum ; "confidentes singula dexteritati tuæ "singulari perficienda, apostolicam "tibi benedictionem peramanter im"pertimur."1 6. The conclusion, therefore, of the whole matter must be this. In early times, 1 Opp. xvii. 474, 489. It will be observed that the acceptance of the chalice and paten by the Pope at his ordinations is not of itself the Communion. It must be further noticed that the Pope in thus writing makes this qualification: "Dum Romanus Pontifex solemniter celebrat, recipit sacram Eucharistiam sub speciebus panis et vini stans, neque sedens communicat, prout per errorem scripserunt aliqui, viderique potest tom. ii. Tract. Nostri de Sac. Missa, sect. i. c. 20, §1." It is a curious example of what may be called "the audacity" which sometimes charac probably down to the reign of Sixtus V. (as indicated in the marginal note on St. Bonaventura), the position of the Pope was sitting, as a venerable relic of primitive ages. Gradually, as appears from the words of Eustace, the value of this tenacious and interesting adherence to the ancient usage was depreciated in comparison with its apparent variation from the general sentiment, as expressed in the standing posture of priests and the kneeling attitude of the communicants, and it would seem that before the end of the sixteenth century the custom had been in part abandoned. But with that remarkable tenacity of ecclesiastical usages, which retains particles of such usages when the larger part has disappeared, the ancient posture was not wholly given up. As the wafer and the As the wafer and the chalice are but minute fragments of the ancient Supper-as the standing posture of the priests is a remnant of the standing posture of devotion through the whole Christian Church-as the standing posture of the English clergyman during part of the Communion Service is a remnant of the standing posture of the Catholic clergy through the whole of it -as the sitting posture of the earlier Popes was a remnant of the sitting or recumbent posture of the primitive Christian days, so the partial attitude of the present Popes is a remnant of the sitting posture of their predecessors. It is a compromise between the ancient historical usage and modern decorum. The Pope's attitude, so we gather from Rocca and Benedict IV., and also from Archbishop Gerbet, is neither of standing nor of sitting. He goes to his lofty chair, he stands till the sub-deacon comes, he bows himself down in adoration as the Host approaches. Thus far all are agreed, though it is evi dent that at a distance any one of those postures might be taken, as it has by some spectators, for the posture at the act of communion. But in the act of communion, as far as we can gather from the chief authorities, he is in his chair, facing the people, leaning against the back of the chair, so as not to abandon entirely the attitude of sitting-sufficiently erect to give the appearance of standing, with his head and body bent down to express the reverence due to the sacred elements. This complex attitude would account for the contradictions of eye-witnesses, and the difficulty of making so peculiar a compromise would perhaps cause a variation in the posture of particular Popes, or even of the same Pope on particular occasions. What to one spectator would seem standing, to another would seem sitting, and to another might seem kneeling. This endeavour to combine a prescribed attitude either with convenience or with a change of sentiment is not uncommon. One parallel instance has been often adduced in the case of the Popes themselves. In the great procession on Corpus Christi Day, when the Pope is carried in a palanquin round the Piazza of St. Peter, it is generally believed that, whilst he appears to be in a kneeling attitude, the cushions and furniture of the palanquin are so arranged as to enable him to bear the fatigue of the ceremony by sitting; whilst to the spectators he appears to be kneeling. Another parallel is to be found from another point of view, in one of the few other instances in which the posture of sitting has been retained, or rather adopted, namely in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. There the attitude of sitting was rigidly prescribed. But, if we may trust an account of the Scottish Sacrament, believed to be as accurate as it is poetic, the posture of the devout Presbyterian peasant as nearly as possible corresponds to that which Rocca, Gerbet, and Benedict XIV. give of the Pope's present attitude-"innixus," "in 1 1 See the minute account of an eye-witness in 1830 in Crabb Robinson's Diary, ii. 469. curvus inclinato corpore," "à demi assis," "une profonde inclination de corps" : "There they sit In reverence meet Many an eye to heaven is lifted, Meek and very lowly. Souls bowed down with reverent fear. Several conclusions are suggested by this brief essay : 1. It is interesting to observe this ancient usage becoming small by degrees and beautifully less, yet still not entirely extinguished: reduced from recumbency to sitting, from the sitting of all to the sitting of a single person, from the sitting of a single person to the doubtful reminiscence of his sitting, by a posture half-sitting, half-standing. original notice of this practice) how the two extremes of the Christian Church --the Pope on the one side and the Presbyterians and the Puritans on the other have been brought together in these sacred forms in the time of Innocent III., and, to a certain extent, even in the times of Gregory XVI. and Pius IX. 5. The compromise of the Pope's actual posture is a characteristic specimen of that "singular dexterity" which Benedict XIV. attributes to his Master of the Ceremonies, and which has so often marked the proceedings of the Roman court. To have devised a posture by which, as on the festival of Corpus Christi, the Pope can at once sit and kneel; or-as in the cases mentioned by Pope Benedict XIV. — an arrangement by which the Pope, whilst sitting, can "stretch his legs in the vacant space under the altar"; or, as in the case we have been considering, a position of standing so as to give the appearance of sitting, and sitting so as to give the appearance of standing-is a minute example of the subtle genius of that institution which could produce a syllabus capable of being explained by one high authority in the sense of the extreme Ultramontanes, and by another high authority in the sense of modern progress; or which could, in parting. with the troops of the French Emperor, deliver that ingenious combination of insults under the form of blessings"They say he is ill; I pray for his "health. They say he is uneasy in his "conscience; I pray for his soul." As the practice itself is a straw, indicating the movement of primitive antiquity, so the modern compromise is a straw, indicating the movement of the Roman Church in later times. By J. C. 2. In the requirements of some amongst ourselves for more precise ritual uniformity, it is instructive to notice the vague and contradictory state of the ancient Roman rubrics on a point which in modern times has been deemed of importance sufficient to rend Churches asunder. No member of the Roman Church can point to any rubric which certainly prescribes the posture of its supreme head at the most solemn moment of its worship. 3. The recent controversy on the subject is curious as showing how, even within the limits of the same Church, two streams of tradition and sentiment can run so entirely unknown to each other, as those which this inquiry has brought before us. 4. There is a peculiar charm in observing (as was pointed out in the 1 Kilmahoe; and other Poems. Shairp. A. P. S. |