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Latin Rite the priest i.s commanded to bow to the cross
in the sacristy before he leaves it to say Mass (" Ritus
servandus" in the Missal, II, 1); he bows again pro-
foundly "to the altar or the image of the crucifix
placed upon it " when he begins Mass (ibid., II, 2) ; he
begins incensing the altar by incensing the crucifLx on
it (IV, 4), and bows to it every time he passes it (ibid.) ;
he also incenses any relics or images of saints that may
be on the altar (ibid.). In the same way many such
commands throughout our rubrics show that always a
reverence is to be paid to the cross or images of saints
whenever we approach them. The Byzantine Rite
shows if possible even more reverence for the holy
icons. They must be arranged according to a system-
atic scheme across the .screen between the choir and
the altar that from this fact is called iconostasis
{eiKovSaraffis, picture-stand; see Fortescue, "Orth.
Eastern Church", pp. 403-4); before these pictures
lamps are kept always burning. Among them, on either
side of the royal door, are those of our Lord and His
Mother. As part of the ritual the celebrant and the
deacon before they go in to vest bow profoundly be^
fore these and say certain fixed prayers: " We worship
{irpoaKwoO/Mev') Thine immaculate image, O Christ ",
etc. ("Euchologion", Venice, 1898, p. 35); and
they too throughout their services are constantly
told to pay reverence to the holy icons. Images
then were in possession and receivetl worship all over
Christendom without question till the Protestant Re-
formers, true to their principle of falling back on the
Bible only, and finding nothing about them in the New
Testament, sought in the Old Law rules that were
never meant for the New Church and discovered in the
First Commandment (which they called the second) a
command not even to make any graven image. Their
successors have gradually tempered the severity of
this, as of many other of the original principles of their
founders. Calvinists keep the rule of admitting no
statues, not even a cro.ss, fairly exactly still. Lu-
therans have statues and crucifixes. In Anglican
churches one may find any principle at work, from
that of a bare cross to a perfect plethora of statues and
pictures.
The coronation of images is an example of an old and obvious symbolic sign of honour that has become a fixed rite. The (ireek pagans offered golden crowns to their idols as specially worthy gifts. St. Irena?us (d. 202) already notices that certain Christian heretics (the Carpocratian Gnostics) crown their images; he disapproves of the practice, though it seems that part of his dislike at any rate is because they crown statues of Christ alongside of those of I'ythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle ('Adv. omn. hier.", I, xxv, sixth edition, Leipzig, 1853, p. 2.53). The offering of crowns to adorn images became a common practice in the Eastern Churches. In itself it woidd mean no more than adding such additional splendour to the icon as might also be given by a handsome gold frame. Then the affixing of tiie crown naturally attracted to itself a certain amount of ritual, and the crown itself, like all things dedicated to the use of the Church, was blessed before it was affixed.
At Rome, too, a ceremony evolved out of this pious practice. A famous case is the coronation of the pic- ture of our Lady in St. Mary Major. Clement VIII (1592-1605) presented crowns (one for our Lord and one for His Mother, both of whom are represented in the picture) to adorn it; so also did succeeding popes. These crowns were lost and Gregory XVI (18.31-46) determined to replace them. On 15 August, 1837, surrounded by cardinals and prelates, he brought crowns, blessed them with a prayer composed for the occasion, sprinkled them with holy water, and in- csnsed them. The " Regiiia ( '(rli " having been sung, he affixed the crowns to the picture, saying the form — "Sicuti per manus nostras coronaris in terris, ita a te gloria et honore coronari mcroamur in cceUs " — for
our Lord, and a similar form (per te a Jesu Christo
Filio tuo . . . ) for our Lady. There was another
collect, the Te Deum, a last collect, and then High
Mass coram Pontifice. The same day the pope issued a
Brief (Calestis Regina) about the rite. The crowns
are to be kept by the canons of St. Mary Jlajor. The
ceremonial used on that occasion became a standard
for similar functions (see Moroni, "Dizionario di
Erudizione storico-ecclesiastica ", Venice, 1842, XVII,
pp. 239-41, where the prayers and ceremonies are
given).
The Chapter of St. Peter have a right to crown statues and pictures of our Lady since the seventeenth century. A certain Count Alexander Sforza-Palla- vicini of Piacenza set aside a sum of money to pay for crowns to be used for this purpose. The first case was in 1631, when the chapter, on 27 August, crowned a famous picture, "Santa Maria della febbre", in one of the sacristies of St. Peter. The count paid the ex- penses. Soon after, at his death, by his will (dated 3 July, 16.36) he left considerable property to the chap- ter with the condition that they should spend the revenue on crowning famous pictures and statues of our Lady. They have done so since. The procedure is that a bishop may apply to the chapter to crown an image in his diocese. The canons consider his peti- tion; if they approve it they have a crown made and send one of their number to carry out the ceremony. Sometimes the pope himself has crowned images for the chapter. In 1815 Pius ^TI did so at Savona, and again in 1816 at Galloro near Castel CSandolfo. A list of images so crowned down to 1792 was published in that year at Rome (Raccolta delle immagini della btiiia Vergine ornate della corona d'oro). The chap- ter has an "Ordo servandus in tradendis coronis aureis quie donantur a Rnio Capitulo S. Petri de L'rbe saeris imaginibus B. M. V." — apparently in manu- script only. The rite is almost exactly that used by Gregory XVI in 1837 (see Moroni, loc. cit., pp. 238-45).
(6) The Principles of I.mage-worship. — Lastly something must be said about Catholic principles con- cerning the worship of sacred images. The Latin Cul- tus sacrarum imaginum may quite well be translated (as it always was in the past) "worship of holy images", and "image-worshipper" is a convenient term for cultnr imaginum — eiVoi'oSoCXos, as opposed to fluofo- K\dffT7)s (image-breaker). Worship by no means implies only the supreme adoration that may be given only to God. It is a general word denoting some more or less high degree of reverence and honour, an ac- knowledgment of worth, like the German Verehrung ("with my body I thee worship" in the marriage ser- vice; English city companies are "worshipful"; a magistrate i.s "Your worship", and so on. See the excellent note on the use of this word in D. Rock, "The Church of our Fathers", III, p. 285). We need not then hesitate to speak of our worship of images; though no doubt we shall often be called upon to ex- plain the term.
We note in the first place that the First Command- ment (except inasmucn as it forbids adoration and service of images) ilocs not affect us at all. The Old Law — including the ten commandments — as far as it only pronudgates natural law is of course eternal. No possil)le circumstances can ever abrogate, for instance, the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Commandments. On the other hand, as far as it is positive law, it was once for all abrogated bv the promulgation of the Gospel (Rom., viii, 1-2; Gal., iii, 23-5, etc.; Acts, xv, 28-9). Christians are not bound to circumcise, to abstain from levitically unclean food and so on. The Third Com- mandment that ordered the Jews to keep Saturday holy is a typical case of a positive law al)rogatcd and replaced by another by the Christian Church. So in the First Comniamlmenl we must distinguish the clauses — "Thou shall not have strange gods before
