ALTAR. The Latin word is altare from altus " high." The Hebrew word nzizbeal: means " a place of slaughter or sacrifice." It is represented closely by the Greek word thusiasterion. Sometimes, however, the word bOmos is given as the equivalent, which means literally " any raised place." This Is the more primitive meaning of an altar. The altar was a place set apart for a holy pur pose, that of sacrifice. As such it was natural to separate it from the ordinary soil on which men trod. This was done by raising it. Originally it was enough to pile up some of the earth, and earth altars were still in use among the Hebrews (Exodus xx., 24-26), Car thaginians, Romans, Greeks, and others. Afterwards a stone (cp. Judges vi., 11 ff.) or a heap of stones was used; and then a kind of table. When a stone has been con secrated to this use, it becomes holy, because the god is supposed to enter into it and make it his dwelling. The Old Testament contains many references to altars, those of later date relating to altars of rather elaborate con struction (cp. I Kings ix., 25; II Chronicles iv., 1). The earlier Babylonian altar was of sun-dried brick. Stone was used later, and in Assyria altars of limestone and alabaster were common. At Nippur an altar twelve feet long and six wide was found. The height appears to have been from two to three feet. Like Hebrew and Phoenician altars, Assyrian altars had at the corners of the rim some kind of decoration resembling horns. The table rested on a solid piece of stone or on a tripod. When the Hebrews fled to the altar as a place of refuge, they caught hold of its horns (I Kings i. 50, ii. 28; cp. I Maccabees x. 43, Cicero, De Natura Deorum iii. 10). Besides the altars in temples and other sacred places, it has been the custom to have small household altars. Thus the Greeks and Romans had them in the courts of their houses. The Chinese may be said to have two kinds of domestic altar. In the house is an altar for sacrifice to the tutelar deities. While the coffin of a deceased relative is still in the house, the mourners offer the soul every evening burning candles and incense-sticks. Besides this, at a Chinese burial a table is placed in front of the soul-tablet and the coffin, and on it is set a sacri ficial meal for the soul of the dead person. On it are
placed also a censer or incense-sticks and candles. The " grave table " is "a square slab of granite, either placed on the ground, or upon a massive table-shaped pile of masonry; sometimes it is entirely of granite, and carved in front with characters or emblematic figures " (De Groot). At the left-hand side of the coffin is a small altar for sacrifices to the god of earth. This altar "consists of a rectangular slab of granite, seldom higher than one or two feet, fixed perpendicularly in the ground." The front of the slab bears such inscriptions as : "Ruler of the Earth," " God or Spirit of the Earth," " Active Animus of the Ground," " Spirit of the Felicitating Agencies." In the Christian Churches for some centuries the altars were usually of wood. In the fifth century altars of stone became common. This seems to have been suggested by the use of the tombs of martyrs in the Catacombs as substitutes for altars, the marble slab serving as a table. Stone altars were ordered in England in 705 by Egbert (d. 766), Archbishop of York. They had already been ordered in France in 509. On November 12, 1550, as a result of an Order in Council, it was com manded to " pluck down the altars." Matthew Parker (1504-1575), Archbishop of Canterbury, and Edmund Grindal (1519?-1583) were anxious to assure themselves tbet this order had been carried out. In 1857 it was decided that a stone altar may not be erected in churches. In the Church of Rome the altar " must consist of stone, or at least must contain an altar-stone large enough to hold the Host and the greater part of the chalice; and this altar, or the altar-stone. must have been consecrated by a bishop, or by an abbot who has received the requisite faculties from the Holy See " (Addis and Arnold). William Laud (1573-1645), Archbishop of Canterbury, gave offence to the Puritans by ordering the communion table or altar to be moved from the body of the church to the east end and to be placed altar-wise (see M. W. Patter son. Hist.; W. L. Mackintosh, Life of William Laud, 1907). See W. R. Smith, KS., 1894: Morris Jastrow, Rel. of Babylonia and Assyria, 1898; J. J. M. de Groot, R.S.C., 1892, etc.; Encycl. Bibl.; Prot. Diet.; Oath. Dict.