of relics, the consecration of churches, and esj)ecially in times of public calam- ity. The two chief classes are thanksgiving and penitential pro- cessions. The latter were fflso called cross-processiojis, litanies.' The processions moved from church to church, and con- sisted of the clergy, the monks, and the people, alternately saying or singing prayers, psalms, and litanies. In the middle of the line commonly walked the bishop as leader, in surplice, stole, and pluvial, with tlie mitre on his head, the crozier in his left hand, and with his right hand blessing the people. A copy of the Bible, crucifixes, banners, images and relics, burn- ing tapers or torches, added solemn state to the procession.* Regular annual processions occurred on Candlemas, and on Palm Sunday. To these was added, after the thirteenth cen- tury, the procession on Corpus Christi, in which the sacrament of the altar is carried about and worshipped. Pilgrimages are founded in the natural desire to see with one's own eyes sacred or celebrated places, for the gratification of curiosity, the increase of devotion, and the proving of grati- tude.^ These also were in use before the Christian era. The ' As in the siege of Jericho, Jos. vi. 3 ff. ; at the dedication of Solomon's tem- ple, 1 Kings viii. Iff.; on the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, Matt. xxi. 8 ff. '^ The Arians, for. example. Comp. Sozom., H. E. viii. 8, where weekly singing processions of the Arians are spoken of. ^ Litaniaj {Xirwelai), supplicationes, rogationcs, i^oiu-oXoynffen, stationes, col- Icctaj. * The antiquity of all these accessory ceremonies cannot be exactly fixed. * " Die Statte, die ein guter Mensch bctrat, 1st eingeweiht ; nach hundert Jahrcu klingt Sein Wort und seine That dem Enkel wiedcr." § 89. PROCESSIONS AND TILGKIMAGES. 467 Jews went up annually to Jerusalem at their high festivals as afterward the Mohatnmedans went to Mecca. Tlie heathen also built altars over the graves of their heroes and made pil- grimages thither.' To the Christians those places were most interesting and holy of all, where the Redeemer was born, suffered, died, and rose again for the salvation of the world. Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land appear in isolated cases even in the second century, and received a mighty impulse from the example of the superstitiously pious empress Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great. In 326, at the age of seventy-nine, she made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, was bap- tized in the Jordan, discovered the holy cross, removed the pagan abominations and built Christian churches on Calvary and Olivet, and at Bethany.^ In this she was liberally sup- ported by her son, in whose arms she died at Nicomedia in 327. The influence of these famous pilgrims' churches extended through the whole middle age, to the crusades, and reaches even to most recent times.' The example of Helena was followed by innumerable pil- grims who thought that by such journeys they made the salva- tion of their souls more