The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1885-12-12
ABOUT AFFAIRS.
A Few Words on a Subject About which
But Little Is Known.

buJ Lltlfe ~ hnoWns
However little people may understand
about matters architectural, arch@olog-
ical, and ecclesiastical, they usually
fancy that at any rate they know all
about affairs. The altar, they would say,
is an oblong table resting upon sub
structure of steps, and placed either
against or near wall. At the back it
should have retable or suitable or SUI
peraltar, which may or may not be sur
mounted by a reredos. Roman Catho-
lies, they would add, either make the
whole of the table of stone or let small
oblong slab into wooden table. This
would be an accurate description of
many, and probably most affairs, but it
would not applyto large number Of
ancient affairs, 'or 'auters," as they used
to be called.
To begin with, very large number
of old affairs were square. There were
many such in England, and there are
some still remaining in Italy. The altar
stone which used to be let into the large
wooden table of many of the affairs in
old English churches was also sometimes
oblong and sometimes square, and even
now in the Roman Catholic Church al
tar-stones are made either square or OBJ
long as convenience may suggest. Be-
sides square and oblong affairs, there is
at the present moment at least one
semicircular altar in use in Italy; but this
shape is very rare. The ancient British
affairs were probably small square slabs
resting upon two columns, or even upon
one. 1t is hard to assign an exact date
to the introduction of retables; but it
is probable that they were rare before
the reformation, and there are engrav-
ings of Roman Catholic affairs of later
date on which they are wanting. Arch
biologists have occasionally been misled
into supposing retables to be of ancient
use by finding the word superaltar in
early medieval documents, where it
means portable altar that might be
laid upon any table. Now, of course, it
is used in different sense. A shelf or
ledge was sometimes placed at the back
of high affairs in the sixteenth century,
when it used to be called a kalpas, but
on side affairs it was probably very I'M
usual in those days. Steps before the
altar were not only unused, but actually
prohibited in England in the early part
of the seventh century, although they
were introduced soon afterward. 1t is
certain that most of the affairs in this
country were formerly very small. The
side affairs were sometimes even fastened
with brackets to the pillars of the church,
and they were occasionally placed in the
gallery or the triforium that ran round
the church. The number of affairs in
some of the churches was very large in
British and Saxon times. A document
written about 725 mentions fourteen
affairs in one church, and another eighth
century document states that there were
in York Cathedral thirty affairs.
Portable altars--GltaTiG geStGtortd, or
SaperaltGrta--w used at any rate in
the days of st. AnselIn. Over these,
with the leave Of the ordinary, mass
could be said in private house or else
where. In some armies portable al
tar, a few inches square, used to be laid
upon a. large drum, covered with a flag,
and on this mass was said in camps. Al
one time it was not unusual to make
these small portable affairs of precious
stones, such as jasper or jet, and to sci
them in gold or silver On the other
hand, during times of prosecutions. both
in England and in France, they were
often made as plain and as unlike altar
stones as was compatible with their sa
cred purpose--some being not unlike
children's plates--lest their discovery
should lead to the conviction of theil
possessors; and although the Roman
Catholic Church requires that relics Of
saints should be placed in even the
smallest portable affairs, this rule wat
dispensed with in certain cases during
the French Revolution, not only for thu
} safety of their owners, but also as a
precaution against the sacrilege which
! would probably follow their discovery. Ii
, the Decretals portable altar is called'
viaticum. Ordinary affairs have borne {
good many names AS we have al
, ready said, they used until compare
/ lively late times, to be called GWterS
though they had the earlier Englisl
. name of aooefod, 10euede, or sOeUed
} Goods board" was a common name 70
an altar at one period before the refor
mation.-LondOW Saturday Revieso.