. Life and letters of Henry Van Rensselaer : priest of the Society of Jesus . s no longeran object of suspicion. For a while the material was linen,sometimes handsomely embroidered; silk soon replaced thelinen, and a set of silk vestments of all the liturgical colorsbecame a part of every ritualistic establishment. The evo-lution was well nigh complete; the chancel had become thesanctuary; the table, the altar, and all its appurtenances werethere. The cross had received its figure and was a step on which it had stood had grown tall and evolvedinto a tabernacle. Candles blazed on t
. Life and letters of Henry Van Rensselaer : priest of the Society of Jesus . s no longeran object of suspicion. For a while the material was linen,sometimes handsomely embroidered; silk soon replaced thelinen, and a set of silk vestments of all the liturgical colorsbecame a part of every ritualistic establishment. The evo-lution was well nigh complete; the chancel had become thesanctuary; the table, the altar, and all its appurtenances werethere. The cross had received its figure and was a step on which it had stood had grown tall and evolvedinto a tabernacle. Candles blazed on the altar even in broaddaylight. Not one sanctuary lamp burned before the altar,but seven, as being more scriptural. The Communion ser-vice, or the Lords Supper, by dint of omissions and addi-tions, might pass for the Mass, and was with great ostenta-tion announced as such. True, the language was English,but it. was so mumbled that it could be mistaken for Latin,or some unknown tongue. Stations of the cross wereerected; statues of the saints graced the sanctuary or side 252. CHURCH OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER,NEW YORK CITY IN THE MINISTRY altars; confessionals were provided, and holy water stoupsenhanced the semblance to Catholicity. With all this external growth, doctrinal teaching hadbeen in the lead. The faithful were forbidden to call them-selves Protestants and were Catholics or Anglo-Catholics;whereas Catholics must be contemptuously called Roman-ists, for, according to the new Gospel, Romanists were onlya sect, originating in Italy, while the Anglican Church wasthe Church, pure and undeflled, conformable to primitiveChristianity. Of course the ritualists proper were, and still are, a verysmall minority in the Protestant Episcopal Church. Butthey had a certain influence in leavening the Protestantlump, and in raising portions of it in doctrines and by far the more influential party is that known as theBroad Church, which, in reality, is so rationalistic that itreje
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectjesuits, bookyear1912
