Altar

ALTAR. - A flat, horizontal surface, raised from the ground, destined for sacrifice.

1. HEBREW ARCHAEOLOGY

In the Old Testament (Hebr. and Phoen. mizbāh "that on which one sacrifices," rarely bāmah [v.] which for the most part designates places of idolatrous worship), the altar is a mound, then a platform, on which gifts or victims are offered to God; later it implies the concept of a table ("table of Yahweh" Mal. 1:7, 12; Ez. 41:22). The first mentioned is that of Noah, Gen. 8:20; Abraham erects altars at Shechem, near Bethel, at Mamre, on Moriah, Gen. 12:7 ff.; 13:18; 22:9; Isaac at Beersheba, Gen. 26:25; Jacob at Bethel, Gen. 28:18; 35:14; Moses at Rephidim, with twelve masšebāth, at the foot of Sinai (Ex. 17:15; 24:4). The primitive form seems to have been a rocky block or a heap of unhewn stones; then the Mosaic Law sanctioned the use of rough stones, forbidding the placing of steps upon it (Ex. 20:24-26); outside the center of worship, an erratic boulder was used (I Sam. 6:14; 14:33-35). Intimately linked to sacrifice by combustion, it was minutely regulated in form and structure by Moses in the two official and essential altars of the Tabernacle, later enlarged in Solomon's Temple: a) the altar of holocausts (Ex. 28:1-8; 38:1-7), the altar par excellence (I Reg. 2:28), in the court, destined also for unbloody sacrifices, of acacia wood covered with bronze, called therefore also the "bronze altar" (I Reg. 8:64; II Reg. 16:14), three cubits high (in the Temple 10), five long and wide (in the Temple 20; the dimensions grew still further in Herod's Temple), solemnly consecrated (Ex. 30:25-28), on which the perpetual holocaust was offered morning and evening and on which the fire always burned. B) the altar of incense or of perfumes (Ex. 30:1-10; I Reg. 6:20, 22) in the Sanctuary, of cedar covered with gold ("golden altar"; I Reg. 7:48), two cubits high, one long and wide, on which incense was burned morning and evening.

A particularity of the Hebrew altar are the "horns" or projections (Ex. 27:2; 37:25; I Reg. 1:50; Ez. 43:20), at the four upper corners. Such a use in the Semitic world is found only outside Israel, in Phoenicia and in Canaan. Their meaning is uncertain; perhaps they were a remnant of the masšebāth formerly erected on the altar (hypothesis of H. Gressmann), and which the Law had forbidden to raise (Deut. 16:21). Great was their importance (Lev. 8:15; Ex. 21:14; I Reg. 1:50; 2:28): they were smeared with the blood of the victims (Ex. 29:12; Lev. 4:25, 30, 34) and conferred the immunity of asylum on the guilty.

While the unity of the national sanctuary (connected with the Ark of the Covenant) was never denied in law, the law of the unity of worship (Lev. 17:1-9; Deut. 12:4-25, often recalled in the following chapters) was not applied in an absolute manner in Israel to the unity of altar, when circumstances demanded otherwise. Moses did not entirely exclude other altars (Ex. 20:24; Deut. 12:13 ff.). In fact, altars were later legitimately erected on Ebal (Jos. 8:30), among the 3 transjordanian tribes and at Shechem (ibid. 22:9-34; 24:26 ff.); in the time of Samuel, at Mizpah, Ramah, Gilgal and Bethlehem (I Sam. 7:5-17; 9:13; 10:8; 14:35; 20:16).

Once the Temple fell, the altar ceased in Israel, and therefore sacrifice ceased, and the essence of Hebrew worship. In its place arises the altar of the messianic offering "from the East to the West" (Mal. 1:10 ff.).

For the altar in non-Christian religions, v. ARA.

2. CHRISTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

Christianity inherited the use of the altar from Judaism and in part from paganism. The use of the altar was introduced in sacrifices and libations both for convenience of execution, and for the natural concept of the table where the holocaust is burned, and for a sense of reverence and solemnity that forbade placing the offering simply on the ground.

For the altar among the Hebrews, v. above. Greeks and Romans (v. ARA) had altars in the manner of hearths or of tables for unbloody offerings (especially before the images of the gods inside the temples and in the cult of the dead) and altars properly so called, built of masonry and blocks of marble, for the most part of parallelepiped shape, and later also cylindrical; if large, with flights of steps for access; almost always adorned with reliefs (acroteria, crowns, objects of worship, laurel branches, clumps of greenery, etc.). Small altars were everywhere; large altars were only in the temples, and not inside the cella but in front of it, in the open air, where the cult took place. Every altar had to be dedicated with special rites.

From the very beginning Christians used tables (mensa) to renew the memory of the Last Supper, according to the Lord's command; but since that was also the renewal of the memory of the sacrifice of the Cross, those same tables were also called altars. At first these were the common tables consecrated for ordinary meals in the houses of the faithful; then special tables reserved for worship in the first churches (certainly already from the end of the 2nd century), placed near the bishop's chair and the pulpit. How these first altars were made we do not know. Perhaps the three-legged tables that appear in the so-called chapels of the sacraments in the cemetery of Callixtus in Rome give us an indication. Were they fixed or movable? At least it is certain that, from the age of peace onward, the use of fixed altars in churches became ever more firmly established and the use of movable ones was reduced to altogether extraordinary circumstances.

Of the altars of this period we have numerous literary testimonies and, from about the end of the 5th century, conspicuous monumental remains. The prevailing type is that of the table altar (v. below, art). The altar of continuous block form was also not rare, an evident imitation of the form of pagan and Jewish ones. The body of the altar consisted of a single block of marble or of masonry, for the most part with a special table of marble slab. Generally they were smaller than ours, since they served only for the oblation, especially when they were movable altars. Altars of simple wood were frequent, but there were also very rich ones, covered with bronze, silver, and even gold. Also frequent was a slight hollow made inside the table the better to contain the oblations, especially in the East where horseshoe-shaped or semicircular altars were in use, with twelve sections depicting the places of the twelve apostles at the Last Supper.

It was a constant law that in every church there should be a single altar placed in front of the apse, for the most part on its chord. If sometimes there is mention of several altars, such as the seven "silver" ones donated by Constantine to St. John Lateran, these are not true altars, but tables for the accessory needs of worship. Only with the beginning of the 5th century do we learn that Symmachus erected five altars in the (round) church of St. Andrew near St. Peter's. The use spread quickly. The oldest monumental examples that remain to us of secondary altars are those of S. Maria Antiqua in Rome and S. Vitale in Ravenna.

From the end of the 2nd century we have reports of a liturgical cult of the martyrs. Their commemoration was made above all with the Mass. Given the assimilation, usual among Christians, of the person of the martyr with that of Christ, an effort was made in the Mass to place the altar as close as possible to the tomb of the martyr, indeed often the tomb of the martyr itself served as the altar and the sacrifice was celebrated upon it. It is not accurate, what has been said so many times, that the table or arcosolium tombs were intentionally made for celebrating the sacrifice upon them; this use became established and determined more greatly during the 4th century with the development of the cult of the martyrs and with the construction of the numerous cemetery basilicas ad corpus. The martyr is now considered as lying beneath the altar itself, as its guardian. Thus the concept of the altar-tomb develops, of the altar consecrated and dedicated by the presence of the body of a martyr. In short this latter idea became so powerful that already in the 6th century the consecration of an altar was no longer conceived without the relics of a martyr, at least representative ones, placed inside a small burial cavity made in the very thickness of the table, or in the block that supported it, or beneath the altar in the floor. More slowly the conception of the altar-tomb or sarcophagus (v. below, art) imposed itself and developed, which was destined in the Renaissance and in modern times to be a source of such rich artistic and monumental inspiration.

3. LITURGY

In current discipline (CIC, cann. 1197-1202) the altar is fixed or movable. The fixed or immovable one consists of a table (slab or board) of stone, supported by uprights, also of stone, to which it adheres in such a way as to form a single thing. The upright may be a single one, in the center of the table, or it is formed of four pillars or small columns (and the space between the small columns may also be filled with other material), or constituted by four large slabs, which support the table, forming with it a single case. It may also form with the table a single monolith, in which case a solid altar is obtained. The movable or portable one is formed of a stone slab, of much smaller dimensions, but sufficient to contain the Host and most of the base of the chalice. It is commonly also called sacred stone (v.). Also in use are altars that present characteristics of stability, without being fixed, that is, constituted in a form similar to the fixed ones, but with masonry or wood material, and into their table the sacred stone is wedged. Liturgically these do not form an intermediate species, but are true movable altars. In the immovable one the table and the upright must be of natural stone, not friable and not in any way artificial, as would be cement or another composition; the same should be said of the slab of the portable altar, since in both the one and the other it must be all of one piece and not formed of different pieces, even if perfectly joined. The immovable altar is not to be considered such as though it must be immovable from the floor or from the place where it was built; but it takes its name from the inseparability of the table from the upright or base that supports it, with which it forms a single whole: therefore it can be transported from one place to another, but on condition that the base does not detach from the table, and both are transported together united. Every altar must have a cavity, in which are placed three grains of incense, the relics and a parchment signed by the bishop and sealed, in which the consecration of the altar is attested. The relics must be of saints and not of blesseds, and at least one must be of a martyr. The burial cavity may be hollowed out in the middle of the slab, in its front or rear part, or in the top of the upright. Its cover must always be of stone, even if different from that of the altar. Therefore the tomb cannot be filled with cement, nor closed with a metal slab; moreover the seal cannot be fixed with plaster or other material, but with cement.

The number of altars in each church is not determined. The one that is found in the principal place, and is usually larger and higher, is called the high altar. It should be isolated, so that it can be walked around. Since the altar represents the mount of Jesus' sacrifice, it should be placed on high, and this is provided for by steps. At least one is indispensable; the others, keeping the number odd where possible, are left to the judgment of local adaptation. The steps may also be of artificial stone or of wood. The topmost one will be as long as the altar and will have a platform (predella or footpace) beneath the celebrant's feet. The altar properly so called is erected to God, because it is destined for sacrifice; however, a fixed altar must be dedicated to some mystery or to some saint, not to a blessed without a special indult, from which it takes its title. The high altar will always have that of the church. The title of a consecrated altar cannot be changed without a special permission of the Holy See. Two altars of the same title in the same church are forbidden.

All profane use being excluded, the altar must serve only for worship, and particularly for the celebration of Mass; therefore neither beneath it, unless there is a cavity, nor near it, at a distance of less than one meter from the side of the table, nor in front of it may corpses be buried, and until these are removed the celebration of Mass is forbidden there (can. 1201, § 2). The immovable altar must be consecrated entirely, table and support, according to the rite of the Pontificale Romano; for the movable one, only the altar stone (can. 1199). The minister of such consecration is the bishop: by privilege also cardinals not invested with the episcopal character (can. 239). A church cannot be consecrated without also consecrating an altar: however, these can be consecrated independently of the consecration of the church (can. 1165, § 5). No fixed altar may be erected outside places specifically destined for worship. Notable breaks in the matter or in the place of anointing, the removal of the relics, the breaking or removal of their cover (unless this is done by the bishop or by a delegate of his to secure it, repair it, or visit it), the separation of the table from the support, desecrate the altar, so that the celebration of Mass is forbidden there until the consecration has been renewed (can. 1200).

The simple majesty of the altar of the earliest times gradually gave way to the various ornaments that came to enrich it over the course of the centuries. The ceremonial of bishops prescribes a baldachin above the altar, and decrees 2912 and 3525 of the Sacred Congregation of Rites say that "ommino apponatur" on the altar where the Most Holy Sacrament is kept. But today the baldachin has fallen almost generally into disuse, giving place to the picture or altarpiece. Immediately above the altar, in the place of honor, is placed the cross with the image of the Crucified, which must rise above the candlesticks, but it may be omitted when in the picture or on the wall behind the altar there is a painted or sculpted image of the cross with the Crucified, clearly visible to the celebrant and the faithful. On the two sides of the cross are placed the candlesticks: six on the high altar, at least two on the others, and they cannot be replaced by multi-branched candelabra. The candlesticks must be surmounted by candles. Other lights, such as gas or electricity, are permitted: only as illumination and ornament, but not on the altar, nor before the saints or in their niches, nor inside the tabernacle (decrees 1086, 1097, 4206, 4327). The ceremonial of bishops (c. XII, 12) recommends as ornaments of the altar on feast days the relics of the saints and flowers to be placed among the candlesticks. The flowers must be fresh and natural, not artificial. On the altar three cloths of linen or hemp are required, and the uppermost must reach down to the ground on both sides. The general rubrics of the missal and the ceremonial of bishops (XII, 11) require for the a. the antependium of the color, if possible, of the office of the day. It may be omitted when the outer face of the a. is of marble, painted or sculpted, or is formed of small columns, or if it encloses some reliquary.

PAPAL ALTAR

It is the high altar of the patriarchal basilicas of St. John, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Mary Major and St. Lawrence outside the Walls in Rome, St. Francis (Benedict XIV) and St. Mary of the Angels (Pius X) in Assisi, at which only the Pope has the right to celebrate. Rarely, and only in extraordinary circumstances, the Pope has some high prelate celebrate there (cf. can. 823, § 3).

PRIVILEGED ALTAR

This is the altar that enjoys the indult of a plenary indulgence, to be applied to the deceased for whom the Mass is celebrated. This privilege is granted only to a fixed altar, and it may be perpetual or temporary, daily or not (can. 918). The privilege revives if the altar is destroyed and is rebuilt within 50 years under the same title (Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, 18 July 1712 and 24 Apr. 1843). On the day of the commemoration of the dead all altars are privileged (can. 917), as are those of the church where the Forty Hours' Devotion is celebrated. Cardinals enjoy the privileged altar (can. 239), as do those to whom it has been granted by the Pope, in which case the privilege is not real but personal. To gain this plenary indulgence it is necessary that it be applied to the deceased for whom the Mass is celebrated (Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, 19 Dec. 1885). There are also privileged altars in which the plenary indulgence is applied for the living and for the dead.

Agostino Tesio

4. ART

Because of the very great importance it has in the development of the liturgy, the attention of artists has at every period been concentrated on the altar, so as to make its forms ever richer. Consequently the archaeological division into the four types — table, chest, block and sarcophagus — founded solely on the form of the support that holds the marble slab, proves insufficient in the infinite variety of forms. The oldest altars, such as the fragmentary ones found at Baccano and at Aix (5th century), had four slender corner supports or one thicker central one, and the table was adorned on its thickness with doves or crossed clipei. Such a type was quite widespread, to judge from the mosaic representations of the Baptistery of the Orthodox and of St. Vitale. Those constituted by a block are also of very ancient origin; in them the fenestella confessionis (v.) allows the placing against the tomb of cloths that were afterwards considered and used as relics (brandea): while in the altar of the cemetery of Pamphilus the motif does not yet assume artistic value, in those of St. John the Evangelist at Ravenna and of the basilica of Parenzo (6th century) the framing and the ornaments reveal a refined decorative balance. Sometimes the block between the columns has a decorated front, as in St. Vitale at Ravenna, where the cross among lambs recalls the flattened relief of contemporary sarcophagi. The altar of Ratchis at Cividale (8th century), even in its barbaric treatment of common iconographic themes, attests the growth of an ornamental system directed toward ever greater adornment of the altar. With the first ciboria (v. CIBORIO) that have come down to us and that go back to the 8th-9th century (Perugia, Ravenna, Valpollicella), the altar assumes an architectural framing that scenographically underlines its importance against the background of the apse conch. The altar of St. Ambrose in Milan, in gold with chiselling, enamels and inlays, a choice work of a master Vuolvinius (v.), frames within the balanced arrangement of its relief panels the medieval taste for colour and precious materials. The small altar of St. Mary of the Priory in Rome recalls, with its closed door with small pillars and pediment, the classical cippi.

In the Romanesque age there is no lack of some table altars on slender supports, such as that of the crypt of the cathedral of Modena, but the full block type prevails, very simple, with mouldings or small pillars. In Rome the front is sometimes adorned with mosaics of the Cosmatesque type (v. COSMATI), which in the example of St. Caesarius assume a particular architectural significance; the fenestella is sometimes replaced by a pierced transenna. There is also no lack of some example in which the table is supported by a classical basin. In the cathedral of Salerno the antependium is instead constituted by a series of ivory reliefs. In the Gothic age the mass of the altar tends to alto become lighter and hollowed out with real or blind arcading, in keeping with the taste that dominated architecture. Meanwhile, the custom that prevailed in the fourteenth century of placing altarpieces and anconas (v. ANCONA; PALA) permanently on the altar, together with the multiplication of altars and the consequent need to lean them against the wall, brought about the formation of an architectural frame that, together with the picture, constitutes a retable. Hence in the early Renaissance, alongside altars that with exquisite elegance take up the simplest schemes, others of very complex form are found.

Brunelleschi in the Pazzi Chapel composed the front of the altar with two panels between fluted pilasters; Michelozzo at the Annunziata in Florence has the mensa supported by amphorae; Agostino di Duccio in St. Dominic's in Perugia frames the altar in an arcade with niches and statues; Matteo Cividali in that of S. Regolo in Lucca Cathedral binds into a single decorative whole the mensa, the ark and that ancona with figures within niches which other Tuscan sculptors still conceived as a separate part; Giuliano da Sangallo in the Gondi Chapel at S. Croce gave the mensa, supported by small balusters, a monumental framing with pairs of pilasters joined by an attic, and at S. Maria delle Carceri in Prato he established the type of the aedicula altar with columns and pediment, to which so much fortune was reserved in the following centuries. Particularly worthy of mention is the altar in the Basilica of the Saint in Padua, adorned with Donatello's bronze reliefs; this juxtaposition of different materials recalls the Venetian pictorialism that manifests itself in other forms in the altar of P. Lombardo in S. Francesco della Vigna in Venice or in others of the kind, where the mensa and the marble altarpiece are conceived as a unity.

While in the early sixteenth century the aedicula type with columns and pediment prevails, and later the altars of Orvieto Cathedral and of Milan Cathedral are covered with sculptures; furthermore, it is then enriched with the tabernacle following the prohibition against keeping the Sacrament in a separate receptacle, and the support of the mensa takes the form of an urn. The taste for polychromy then begins to establish itself, manifesting in the use and juxtaposition of marbles of various colors; already at the close of the sixteenth century, the columns are doubled and are often placed on different levels. Precious hardstones and bronze are juxtaposed in the altar of the Paolina Chapel in S. Maria Maggiore in Rome, where a group of angels supports the image within the architectural frame. Bernini then protects the altar that rises over the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles with a bronze baldachin inspired by the apparatus of solemn festivities, sumptuous and weightless, made of stucco and draperies. And at S. Maria della Vittoria he hollows out between the columns an elliptical niche where, in the light pouring from above, the angel transverberates St. Teresa, while the patrons look on from their boxes as at a sacred representation. Reliefs or sculptural groups thus replace painted altarpieces, or these are framed or supported by garlands of flowers and putti (Rome, S. Andrea). In the altar of the Chair in St. Peter's it seems that all means are summoned together in a triumphal affirmation; the marbles of the mensa, the bronze of the statues of the doctors who support the chair, the stucco of the angelic glory and the radiant painted glass with the Holy Spirit offer the utmost possibility that the Baroque can reach in its fervent lyricism. Heavier and more grave for lack of inspiration is the altar of S. Ignazio at the Gesù in Rome, where the rich material gains the upper hand. In the eighteenth century the taste for polychromy continues, but it abandons warm tones for more muted and delicate ones; the architectural frame recomposes itself in measured rhythms as in the altar of the Annunciation in S. Ignazio in Rome.

Throughout the entire Baroque age statues and tabernacle also rise in isolation above the mensa in Padua, Milan, Venice and every part of Italy; the antependia, especially in the Lombard region, are often complex bas-reliefs. Neoclassicism brings to the altar a cold simplicity of lines, and nineteenth-century eclecticism draws inspiration now from Romanesque, now from Renaissance or Baroque models according to the inclination of the various architects. An interesting addition in the complexity of the major altars in the Roman basilicas is the confessio, clad in marble and placed at a level lower than the floor. The forms of the modern altar are very simple, almost a geometric simplification of the most elementary schemes of antiquity; their artistic interest is entrusted especially to proportions and to environmental values.

Of very ancient origin are also portable altars; one of the oldest is that found in the tomb of St. Cuthbert, consisting of a simple wooden table with metal covering. In the Romanesque age they are found in the form of a casket, like that of the Museum of Paderborn; sometimes they are also valuable works of goldsmithing, like the portable altar of Stanelot, now in Brussels. An example of a carved wooden altar is that of the church of the Vulturella near Tivoli, also from the twelfth century. - See Plates LXVII-LXXI.

Guglielmo Matthiae