OSTENSORIUM
345
OSTENSORIITM
guage is concerned, has limited both terms to vessels
intended for the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament,
and it is in this sense only that we use ostensorium
here.
It is plain that the introduction of ostensoria must have been posterior to the period at which the prac- tice of exposing the Blessed Sacrament or carrying it in procession first became familiar in the Church. This (as may be seen from the articles Benediction or THE Blessed Sacr.4.ment, Corpus Christi, and F^xposiTioN OP the Blessed Sacrament) cannot be assigned to an earlier date than the thirteenth century. At the same time, Lanfranc's constitutions for the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury (c. 1070), direct that in the Palm Suntlay procession two priests vested in albs should carry a portable shrine (feretrum) "in which also the Body of the Lord ought to be depcs- ited". Although there is here no suggestion that the Host should be exposed to view, but rather the con- trary, still we find that this English custom led, in at least one instance, to the construction of an elabo- rately decorated shrine for the carrying of the Blessed Sacrament on this special occasion. Simon, Abbot of St. Albans (1166-S.3), presented to the abbeya costly ark -shaped vessel adorned with enamels representing scenes of the Passion, which was to be used on Palm Sunday "that the faithful might see with what honour the most holy IJody of Christ should be treated which at this season offered itself to be scourged, crucified and Ijuried" ("Gesta Abbatuni", Rolls Series, I, 191- 92). That this, however, was in any proper sense an ostensorium in which the Host was exposed to view is not stated and cannot be assumed. At the same time it is highly probable that such ostensoria in the strict sense liegan to be constructed in the thirteenth century, and there are some vessels still in existence — for example, an octagonal monstrance at Bari, bearing the words "Hie Cor- pus Domini" — which may very well belong to that date. A large number of medieval ostensoria have been figured by Cahier and Martin (Me- langes Arch(^ologiques, I and VII) and by other authorities, and though it is often difficult to distinguish between simple r<'liqu:ines and vessels in- tended for the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, a cer- tain line of development may be traced in the evolution of these latter. Father Cahier suggests with some probabil- ity (Melanges, VII, 271) that while at fiist the ciborium it- self was employed for carry- ing the Blessed Sacrament in processions, etc., the sides of the cup of the ciborium were at first prolonged by a cylinder of crystal or glass, and the or- dinary cover superimposed. Such a vessel might have served for either purpose, viz., OsTENsoRiTTM — GERMAN either for giving Communion Gold.smith's Work qj f^j. carrying the Host visibly in procession. Soon, however, the practice of exposition became sufficiently common to seem to require an ostensorium for that express object, and for this the upright cylin- drical vessel of crystal was at first retained, often with supports of an architectural character and with tabernacle work, niches, and statues. In the central cylinder a large Host was placed, being kept upright
by being held in a lunette (q. v.) constructed for the
purpose. Many medieval monstrances of this type
are still in existence. Soon, however, it became clear
that the ostensorium could be better adapted to the
object of drawing all eyes to the Sacred Host itself by
making the transpar-
ent portion of the ves-
sel just of the size
required, and sur-
rounded, like the sun,
with rays. Mon-
strances of this shape,
dating from the fif-
teenth century, are
also not uncommon,
and for several hun-
dred years past this
has been by far the
commonest form in
practical use.
Of course the adop- tion of ostensoria for processions of the Blessed Sacrament was a gradual process, and, if we may trust the miniatures found in the hturgical books of the Middle Ages, the Sacred Host was often carried on such occa- sions in a closed cibo- rium. An early ex- ample of a special vessel constructed for this purpose is a gift made by Archbishop Robert Courtney, an Englishman by birth, who died in 1324, to his cathedral church
of Reims. He be-
queathed with other j^^^^ Ostensorium (XV Century) ornaments a golden Basilica of St. Ambrose, Milan
cross set with precious
stones and having a crystal in the middle, in which is placed the Body of Christ, and is carried in procession upon the feast of the most holy Sacrament. " In a curious instance mentioned by Bergner (Handbuchd. Kirch. Kunstaltertiimer in Deutschland, 356) a casket constructed in 1205 at Augsburg, to hold a miraculous Host from which blood had trickled, had an aperture bored in it more than a century later to allow the Host to be seen. Very probably a similar plan was some- times adopted with vessels which are more strictly Eucharistic. Early medieval inventories often allow us to form an idea of the rapid extension of the use of monstrances. In the inventories of the thirteenth cen- tury they are seldom or never mentioned, but in the fifteenth century they have become a feature in all larger churches. Thus at St. Paul's, London, in 1245 and 1298 we find no mention of anything like an osten- sorium, but in 1402 we have record of the "cross of crystal to put the Body of Christ in and to carry it upon the feast of Corpus Christi and at Easter". At Durham we hear of "a goodly shrine ordained to be carried on Corpus Christi day in procession, and called 'Corpus Christi Shrine', all finely gilded, a goodly thing to behold, and on the height of the said shrine was a four-square box all of crystal wherein was en- closed the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, and it was carried the same day with iiij priests" (Rites of Dur- ham, c. Ivi). But in the greater English churches a preference seems to have been shown, connected no doubt with the cerenionial of the Easter sepulchre, for a form of monstrance which reproduced the figure of Our Lord, the Sacred Host being inserted behind a
