Process Engraving

Processions in the Modern Roman Catholic Church.—It is impossible to describe in detail the vast development of pro cessions during the middle ages. The most important and char acteristic of these still have a place in the ritual of the Roman Catholic Church. The rules governing them are laid down in the Rituale Romanum (Tit. ix.), and they are classified in the fol lowing way:— (1) Processiones generales, in which the whole body of the clergy takes part. (2) Processiones ordinariae, on yearly festivals, such as the feast of the Purification of the Virgin (Candlemas, q.v.), the procession on Palm Sunday (q.v.), the Litaniae majores and minores, the feast of Corpus Christi (q.v.), and on other days, according to the custom of the churches. (3) Processiones ex traordinariae, or processions ordered on special occasions, e.g., to pray for rain or fine weather, in time of storm, famine, plague, war, or, in quacunque tribulation, processions of thanksgiving, translation of relics, the dedication of a church or cemetery. There are also processions of honour, for instance to meet a royal personage, or the bishop on his first entry into his diocese (Pontif. rom.

Reformed Churches.

The Reformation abolished in all Prot estant countries those processions associated with the doctrine of transubstantiation (Corpus Christi) ; "the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper," according to the 28th Article of Religion of the Church of England, "was not by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshipped." It also abolished those associated with the cult of the Blessed Virgin and the saints. The stern simplicity of Calvinism, indeed, would not tolerate religious processions of any kind, and from the "Reformed" Churches they vanished altogether. The more conservative temper of the Anglican and Lutheran communions, however, suffered the retention of such processions as did not conflict with the re formed doctrines, though even in these churches they met with opposition and tended after a while to fall into disuse.

Lutheran Church.

The Lutheran practice has varied at dif ferent times and in different countries. Thus, according to the Wiirttemberg Kirchenordnung of 1553, a funeral procession was prescribed, the bier being followed by the congregation singing hymns; the Brandenburg Kirchenordnung (154o) directed a cross-bearer to precede the procession and lighted candles to be carried, and this was prescribed also by the Waldeck Kirchen ordnung of 1556. At present funeral processions survive in general only in the country districts ; the processional cross or crucifix is still carried. In some provinces also the Lutheran Church has retained the ancient rogation processions in the week before Whit suntide and, in some cases, in the month of May or on special occasions (e.g., days of humiliation, Busstage), processions about the fields to ask a blessing on the crops. On these occasions the ancient litanies are still used.

Church of England.

In England "the perambulations of the circuits of the parishes . . . used heretofore in the days of roga tions" were ordered to be observed by the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth in 1559; and for these processions certain "psalms, prayers and homilies" were prescribed. The Puritans, who aimed

at setting up the Genevan model, objected; and the visitation articles of the bishops in Charles L's time make frequent inquisi tion into the neglect of the clergy to obey the law in this matter. With "the profane, ungodly, presumptuous multitude" (to quote Baxter's Saint's Rest, 1650, pp. 344, 345), however, these "pro cessions and perambulations" appear to have been very popular, though "only the traditions of their fathers." However this may be, the Commonwealth formally put an end to them, and they only survived in some remote country parishes ; Sparrow, in his Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer (London, 1668), speaks of "the service formerly appointed in the Rogation days of Procession." Among the processions that survived the Reformation in the English Church was that of the sovereign and the Knights of the Garter on St. George's day. This was until Charles II.'s time a regular rogation, the choristers in surplices, the gentlemen of the royal chapel in copes, and the canons and other clergy in copes preceding the knights and singing the litany. In 1661, after the Restoration, by order of the sovereign and knights companions in chapter "that supplicational procession" was "converted into a hymn of thanksgiving." Akin to this procession also are the others connected with royal functions ; coronations, funerals. These retained, and retain, many pre-Reformation features else where fallen obsolete.

The only procession formally prescribed in the Book of Com mon Prayer is that in the order of the burial of the dead, where the rubric directs that "the priest and clerks meeting the corpse at the entrance of the churchyard, and going before it, either into the church, or towards the grave, shall say, or sing" certain verses of Scripture. Tapers seem to have been carried in processions, not only at royal funerals, until well into the 18th century. Processions, with the singing of the litany or of hymns, appear also to have been always usual on such occasions as the consecration of churches and churchyards and the solemn recep tion of a visiting bishop. Examples of processions in use in the English Church are the processional litanies, and the solemn entry and exit of clergy and choir. The use of the processional cross, banners and lights has been largely revived.

the article "Bittgange," by M. Herold, in Her zog-Hauck, RealencykloPiidie, iii. 248 (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1897) ; Wetzer and Welte, Kirchenlexikon, s.v. "Prozession, Bittgange Litanei" and Smith's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, s.v. "Procession." For the early ritual see Duchesne, Origines du culte chretien (3rd ed., Paris, 1903). See also G. Catalani, Rituale romanum perpetuis commentariis exornatum (176o) ; N. Serarius, Sacri peripatetici de sacris ecclesiae catholicae processionibus (2 vols., 1607) ; Jac. Gretser, De ecclesiae romanae processionibus (2 vols., Ingolstadt, 1606) ; Jac. Eveillon, De processionibus ecclesiae (1641) ; Edw. Martene, De antiquis ecclesiae ritibus (3 vols., Antwerp, 1763), etc. For the past usage of the Church of England, Hierurgia anglicana, ed. Vernon Staley, p. ii. pp. 3-22 (1903).