endit (celebrans) ad altare, genuflectit, et ipsemet nullo
diaconi ministerio accipit velatis manibus, ut prius, tabernaculum,
benedicit cum eo populum ... nihil dicens, et gyrum perficiens
reverenter reponit".

Merati thus comments on the passage:

"Celebrans ... ascendit ad altare ... et absque alterius ministerio
accipit velatis manibus ostensorium".

Baldeschi gives the same directions.

But in spite of these authorities, it is customary in some churches for
the deacon to ascend with the priest, to take the ostensorium, and
present it to the celebrant, to receive it from the same after the
benediction, and to replace it on the corporal. This usage is
established in Rome, and has been confirmed by a decree of the 12th
August, 1854, published in the _Analecta_.

_Question_: "An liceat sacerdoti accipere ostensorium per manus
diaconi istud ex altari acceptum porrigentis, ut populo benedictio
impertiatur, et post benedictionem remittere ostensorium diacono,
qui super altare deponet, prout fit in nonnullis ecclesiis? Vel
ipsemet sacerdos debeat accipere ostensorium ex altari, et data
benedictione, super altare deponere, sicut expresse docent Gavantus
in rubrica Miss. part. vi., tit. xiii., n. 7; Merati in Gavantum",
etc.

_Answer_: "Quoad primam partem, licere etiam ex praxi ecclesiarum
Urbis; quoad secundam partem, provisum in primo".

Hence it appears that the _Instructio Clementina_ and the _Caeremoniale_
have been too rigorously interpreted by old authors. We are at liberty
to choose whichever of the two usages may agree better with the
arrangements of the altar, and may be more easy to carry out. This is
the common opinion of recent authors, and is founded on Roman usage and
on the decision just cited. In addition, if the deacon is to receive the
ostensorium from the priest's hands, the priest is not bound to complete
the circle: he returns towards the altar, on the epistle side, where the
deacon is. This follows from the decree of the 21st March, 1676, No.
2776:

_Question_: "An in benedicendo populum cum sanctissimo Sacramento
sit servandus modus infrascriptus: Cum sacerdos stat ante populum,
ostensorium ante pectus tenet, tum elevat illud decenti mora non
supra caput, sed tantum usque ad oculos, et eodem modo illud
demittit infra pectus, mox iterum recte illud attollit usque ad
pectus, et deinde ad s