. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. Fig. 191.— Sacramental Cup; a work of the Twelfth Century, in silver gilt, from the Abbey oithe Benedictines of Witten, near Inspruck. year by the fourth Lateran Council, had always for its aim the absolutionfrom sin consequent upon confession. Excommunication, the extreme punishment inflicted upon great sinners,was pronounced by the faint light of a wax taper, which the priest afterwardsextinguished and trampled under foot. In some countries the populaceused to carry a bier to the door of the excommunicated
. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. Fig. 191.— Sacramental Cup; a work of the Twelfth Century, in silver gilt, from the Abbey oithe Benedictines of Witten, near Inspruck. year by the fourth Lateran Council, had always for its aim the absolutionfrom sin consequent upon confession. Excommunication, the extreme punishment inflicted upon great sinners,was pronounced by the faint light of a wax taper, which the priest afterwardsextinguished and trampled under foot. In some countries the populaceused to carry a bier to the door of the excommunicated person; stoneswere hurled against his dwelling, and all kinds of foul abuse were heapedupon him. Of a still more solemn nature was the excommunication pro-nounced by the pope himself on Holy Thursday, in virtue of the bulltermed In Ccena Domini, against all who appealed to the general councilagainst the decrees and the ordinances of the pontiffs; against the princes H H LITURGY AND Fig. 192.—The Sacrament of the Eucharist, which keeps youth holy.—Central portion of thetriptych, hy Eoger Van der Weyden, in the Antwerp Museum (Fifteenth Century). who exacted unfair tribute from ecclesiastics; and against heretics, pirates,&c. A deacon read the bull from the balcony (loggia, an open tribunal) of LITURGY AND CEREMONIES. 235 St. Peters in the presence of the pope, who, as a symbol of anathema, dasheda lighted torch of yellow wax into the open court of the Vatican, which theassistants hastened to extinguish by trampling upon it. It was also onHoly Thursday that the reconciliation of the penitents took place, that is tosay, their general absolution, to enable them to take part in the mysteries ofEaster.
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