When the
excommunicant is reinstated, a lighted candle is placed in his hands as
a symbol of reconciliation. These and many other ceremonial uses of
light have been and are practised, but they are not always mandatory.
Furthermore, the customs have varied from time to time, but the few
which have been touched upon illustrate the impressive part that light
has played in religious services.

During the Reformation the ceremonial use of lights was greatly altered
and was abolished in the Protestant churches as a relic of superstition
and papal authority. In the Lutheran churches ceremonial lights were
largely retained, in the Church of England they have been subjected to
many changes largely through the edicts of the rulers. In the latter
church many controversies were waged over ceremonial lights and their
use has been among the indictments of a number of officials of the
church in impeachment cases before the House of Commons. Many uses of
light in religious ceremonies were revived in cathedrals after the
Restoration and they became wide-spread in England in the nineteenth
century. As late as 1889 the Archbishop of Canterbury ruled that certain
ceremonial candles were lawful according to the Prayer-Book of Edward
VI, but the whole question was left open and unsettled.

These byways of artificial light are complex and fascinating because
their study leads into many channels and far into the obscurity of the
childhood of the human race. A glimpse of them is important in a survey
of the influence of artificial light upon the progress of civilization
because in these usages the innate and acquired impressiveness of light
is encountered. Although many ceremonial uses of light remain, it is
doubtful if their significance and especially their origin are
appreciated by most persons. Nevertheless, no more interesting phase of
artificial light is encountered than this, which reaches to the
foundation of civilization.

V

OIL-LAMPS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

It will be noted that the light-sources throughout the early ages were
flames, the result of burning material. This principle of
light-production has persisted until the present time, but in the latter
part of the nineteenth century certain departures revolutionized
artificial lighting. However, it is not the intention to enter the
modern period in this chapter except in following the progress of the
oil-lamp through its period of scientific development. The oil-