LIGHTS, USE OF, IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. A practice which prevailed in the Jewish (see Ex. xxv. 31-39) and most other ancient re ligions. and was retained in the Christian Church—not merely for the obvious purpose of illumination, but as a token of joy and with a symbolic allusion to Christ as the 'Light of the World.' This particular symbolism finds its closest application in the paschal candle which is solemnly blessed on Holy Saturday. (See EASTER.) But it is clear that from very early times, demonstrably before the middle of the third century, the use of candles and lamps was an ordinary accompaniment of Christian worship, and of the administration of the sacrament of baptism. It has been maintained uninterruptedly by the Roman Catholic and Eastern churches: at the Reformation it was abandoned by most Protestant bodies, though the Lutherans of Ger many have very generally retained it, and there are a few instances of its survival in England before the practice again became general in the ritualistic movement of the nineteenth century.
In numerous English instances the altar-candles remained. but were not burned. In the Roman Catholic Church their usage is strictly regu lated; priests are forbidden to say mass with out at least two lighted tapers; the material is limited to wax, which is used unbleached on Good Friday and in masses for the dead. Candles are solemnly blessed for public and private use on the feast of the Purification, known by the English usage as Candlemas (q.v.). A small candle called bugia is placed upon the altar when a bishop celebrates and in the case of the Pope, seven candles are carried before him or held on each side of him in allusion to the seven golden candlesticks of Rev. i. 12. Pure olive oil is required for lamps. The red lamp burning before an altar usually. though not invariably, denotes the pres ence of the reserved Sacrament. For the history, consult Schmid, Per ehristliche Altar 'and sein Schmuck (Regensburg, 1871).