e ceremonies of holy-week. The reader may find
them all enumerated in the Pontifical, and on their antiquity he may
consult Morinus, De Ordinationibus; Martene, De Ant. Eccl. Rit. t.
2. etc. On the service of holy saturday see the MS. Pontifical of
the Apamean church and various Ordines ap. Martene, lib. IV, c. 24.
Formerly after the mass there was general communion; and at Rome no
Vespers were said (Alcuin), and 7 altars were consecrated.]

[Footnote 138: In the afternoon the parish-priests bless with prayers
and holy water the houses and paschal food of their parishioners.
In the Ordo Romanus, besides the blessing of milk and honey, there
is a formula of benediction of a lamb and other food. Durandus
also (lib. 6 Ration.) mentions the blessing of the lamb, a custom
which is preserved at Rome till the present time. The shops of the
_pizzicaroli_ are illuminated and gaily decorated, probably because
_they_ have peculiar reasons to rejoice at the conclusion of the
_austerities_ of lent.]

[Footnote 139: For the ceremonies of Easter-sunday see The Pontifical
Mass sung at S. Peter's on Easter-sunday etc. By C.M. Baggs. D.D. Rome
1840.]

APPENDIX

PECULIAR CEREMONIES OF HOLY-WEEK AT JERUSALEM

Having spoken of the blessing of the paschal candle at Rome, we may
for a few moments turn our thoughts towards a city still more ancient,
and trodden by holier and more exalted beings than even the apostles
and martyrs of the eternal city. The justly-celebrated traveller John
Thevenot in his Voyage du Levant describes the ceremonies of holyweek
performed at Jerusalem; the distribution of palms, the washing of the
feet on Maunday-Thursday at the door of the holy Sepulchre; and the
procession to the holy places or stations performed by the Catholic
Christians. Concerning this the eloquent Pere Abbe de Geramb, in his
interesting Pelerinage at Jerusalem in 1832, informs us that "by means
of a figure in relief of the natural size, whose head, arms, and feet
are flexible, the religious represent the crucifixion, the descent
from the cross, and the burial of Jesus Christ, in such manner as
to render all the principal circumstances apparent to the senses and
striking".

Both these distinguished writers of different periods agree in
testifying, that all the devotions of the Catholics were and are still
conducted with so much order that they are admired both by Christians
and Turks, whereas those of the schismatical Christians