Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
INCENSE
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: I27-INV
del.icio.us it!
|
INCENSE ,' the perfume (See also:fumigation) arising from certain resins and See also:gum-resins, barks, See also:woods, dried See also:flowers, fruits and seeds, when burnt, and also the substances so burnt. In its literal meaning the word " incense " is one with the word " perfume," the aroma given off with the See also:smoke (per fumum') of any odoriferous substance when burnt. But, in use, while the meaning of the word " perfume " has been extended so as to include everything sweet in See also:smell, from smoking incense to the invisible fresh fragrance of fruits and exquisite See also:scent of flowers, that of the word " incense," in all the See also:languages of See also:modern See also:Europe in which it occurs. has, by an opposite See also:process of See also:limitation, been gradually restricted almost exclusively to See also:frankincense (see FRANKINCENSE). Frankincense has always been obtainable in Europe in greater quantity than any other of the aromatics imported from the See also:East; it has therefore gradually come to be the only incense used in the religious See also:rites and domestic fumigations of many countries of the See also:West, and at last to be properly regarded as the only " true " or " genuine " (i.e." See also:franc") incense (see See also:Littre's Fr. Dict. and See also:Skeat's Etym. See also:Diet. of Engl. See also:Lang.).3 The following is probably an exhaustive See also:list of the substances available for incense or perfume mentioned in the See also:Hebrew Scriptures:—See also:Algum or almug See also:wood (almug in r See also:Kings x. 11, 12; algum Incensum (or Incensum thuris) from incendere; Ital. and See also:Port. incense; Span. incienso; Fr. encens. The substantive occurs in an inscription of the Arvalian brotherhood (See also:Marini, Gli Atti e Monumenti de' fratelli Arvali, p. 639),but is frequent only in ecclesiastical Latin. Compare the classical suffimentum and suffitus from suffio. For " incense " Ulfila (See also:Luke i. 10, t I) has retained the See also:Greek Ouµiap.a (thymiama) ; all the See also:Teutonic names (Ger. Weihrauch; Old Saxon Wiroc; Icel. Reykelsi; See also:Dan. Rogelse) seem to belong to the See also:Christian See also:period (See also:Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, i. 5o).
2 The etymological See also:affinities of OGw, Duos, thus, fuffio, funus, and the Sans. dhuma are well known. See Max See also: (1033). It may here be remarked that the name " See also:European frankincense " is applied to Pinus Taeda, and to the resinous exudation (" See also:Burgundy See also:pitch ") of the See also:Norwegian spruce firs (Abies excelsa). The " incense See also:tree " of See also:America is the Inca guianensis, and the " incense wood " of the same See also:continent I. heplaphylla. in 2 Chron. ii. 8, and ix. to, ri), generally identified with See also:sandal-wood (Santalum See also:album), a native of See also:Malabar and Malaya; aloes, or lign aloes (Heb. ahalim, ahalbth), produced by the Aloexylon Agallochum (Loureiro), a native of See also:Cochin-See also:China, and Aquilaria Agallocha (Roxburgh), a native of See also:India beyond the See also:Ganges; See also:balm (Heb. tsori), the oleo-See also:resin of Balsamodendron opobalsamum and B. gileadense; See also:bdellium (Heb. bdolah), the resin produced by Balsamodendron roxburghii, B. Mukul and B. pubescens, all natives of Upper India (See also:Lassen, however, identifies bdolah with See also:musk) ; calamus (Heb. kaneh; sweet calamus, keneh bosem, Ex. See also:xxx. 23; Ezek. See also:xxvii. 19; sweet See also:cane, kaneh hattob, Jer. vi. 20; Isa. xliii. 24), identified by See also:Royle with the Andropogon Calamus aromaticus or roosa grass of India; See also:cassia (Heb. kiddah) the Cinnamomum Cassia of China; See also:cinnamon (Heb. kinnamon), the Cinnamomum zeylanicum of the Somali See also:country, but cultivated largely in See also:Ceylon, where also it runs See also:wild, and in See also:Java; costus (Heb. ketzioth), the See also:root of the Aucklandia Costus (See also:Falconer), native of See also:Kashmir; frankincense (Heb. lebonah), the gum-resin of Boswellia Frereana and B. Bhau-Dajiana of the Somali country, and of B. Carterii of the Somali country and the opposite See also:coast of See also:Arabia (see " The Genus Boswellia " by See also:Sir See also:George See also:Birdwood, Transactions of the Linnean Society, xxi. 1871) See also:galbanum (Heb. helbenah), yielded by Opoidia galbanifera (Royle) of Khorassan, and Galbanum officinale (See also:Don) of See also:Syria and other Ferulas; ladanum (Heb. See also:lot, translated " See also:myrrh " in Gen. See also:xxxvii. 25, xliii. ii), the resinous exudation of Cistus creticus, C. ladaniferus and other See also:species of " See also:rock See also:rose " or " rose of See also:Sharon "; myrrh (Heb. mor), the gum-resin of the Balsamodendron Myrrha of the Somali country and opposite See also:shore of Arabia; onycha (Heb. sheheleth), the celebrated odoriferous See also:shell of the ancients, the operculum or " See also:nail " of a species of Strombus or " wing shell," formerly well known in Europe under the name of Blatta byzantina; it is still imported into Bombay to See also:burn with frankincense and other incense to bring out their odours more strongly; See also:saffron (Heb. karkom), the stigmata of See also:Crocus satiz.'us, a native originally of Kashmir; See also:spikenard (Heb. nerd), the root of the Nardostachys Jatamansi of See also:Nepal and See also:Bhutan; stacte (Heb. nataf), generally referred to the Styrax officinalis of the See also:Levant, but Hanbury has shown that no stacte or storax is now derived from S. officinalis, and that all that is found in modern commerce is the product of the See also:Liquidambar orientalis of See also:Cyprus and See also:Anatolia.
Besides these aromatic substances named in the See also:Bible, the following must also be enumerated on See also:account of their common use as incense in the East; See also:benzoin or gum See also:benjamin, first mentioned among Western writers by See also:Ibn Batuta (1325—1349) under the name of lubdn d' Jaz-i (i.e. olibanum of Java), corrupted in the parlance of Europe into benjamin and benzoin; camphor, produced by Cinnamomum Camphora, the " camphor See also:laurel " of China and See also:Japan, and by Dryobalanops aromatica, a native of the See also:Indian See also:Archipelago, and widely used as incense throughout the East, particularly in China; See also:elemi, the resin of an unknown tree of the Philippine Islands, the elemi of old writers being the resin of Boswellia Frereana; gum-See also:dragon or dragon's See also:blood, obtained from Calamus See also:Draco, one of the ratan palms of the Indian Archipelago, See also:Dracaena Draco, a liliaceous plant of the See also:Canary See also:Island, and Pterocarpus Draco, a leguminous tree of the island of Socotra; rose-malloes, a corruption of the Javanese rasamala, or liquid storax, the resinous exudation of Liquidambar Altingia, a native of the Indian Archipelago (an See also:American Liquidambar also produces a rose-malloes-like exudation) ; See also:star See also:anise, the starlike See also:fruit of the Illicum anisatum of Yunan and See also:south-western China, burnt as incense in the temples of Japan; sweet See also:flag, the root of Acorus Calamus, the See also:bath of the See also:Hindus, much used for incense in India. An aromatic See also:earth, found on the coast of See also:Cutch, is used as incense in the temples of western India. The See also:animal excreta, musk and See also:civet, also enter into the See also:composition of modern European pastils and clous fumants. See also:Balsam of Tolu, produced by Myroxylon toluiferum, a native of See also:Venezuela and New See also:Granada; balsam of See also:Peru, derived from Myroxylon Pereirae, a native of See also:San See also:Salvador in Central America; Mexican and Brazilian elemi, produced by various species of Icica or " incense trees," and the liquid exudation of an American species of Liquidambar, are all used as incense in America. Hanbury quotes a See also:faculty granted by Pope See also:Pius V. (See also:August 2, 1571) to the bishops of the West Indies permitting the substitution of balsam of Peru for the balsam of the East in the preparation of the See also:chrism to be used by the See also:Catholic See also: One of the best known of these representations is that carved on the memorial See also: It is pre-served in the vividly chiselled and richly coloured decorations portraying the history of the reign of this famous Pharaoh on the walls of the " See also:Stage See also:Temple " at See also:Thebes. The temple is now in ruins, but the entire See also:series of gorgeous pictures recording the expedition to " the balsam land of Punt," from its leaving to its returning to Thebes, still remains intact and undefaced.4 These are the only authenticated instances of the export of incense trees from the Somali country until See also:Colonel Playf See also:air, then See also:political See also:agent at See also:Aden, in 1862—1864, collected and sent to Bombay the specimens from which Sir George Birdwood pre-pared his descriptions of them for the Linnean Society in 1868.
See also: 49, 398-400, 414-416. Brugsch, Egypt under the Pharaohs. i. 303-312. Hindus, the Egyptians have maintained to the See also:present day; and, although they have changed their See also:religion, the use of incense among them continues to be as See also:familiar and formal as ever, The See also:kohl or See also:black See also:powder with which the modern, like the ancient, Egyptian ladies paint their languishing eyelids, is nothing but the smeeth of charred frankincense, or other odoriferous resin brought with frankincense, and phials of See also:water, from the well of Zem-zem, by the pilgrims returning from See also:Mecca. They also melt frankincense as a See also:depilatory, and smear their hands with a See also:paste into the composition of which frankincense enters, for the purpose of communicating to them an attractive perfume. See also:Herodotus (iv. 75) describes a similar artifice as practised by the See also:women of See also:Scythia (compare also See also:Judith x. 3, 4). In See also:cold See also:weather the Egyptians warm their rooms by placing in them a See also:brazier, " chafing-dish," or " See also:standing-dish," filled with See also:charcoal, whereon incense is burnt; and in hot weather they refresh them by occasionally swinging a hand censer by a See also:chain through them—frankincense, benzoin and See also:aloe wood being chiefly used for the purpose.' In the authorized version of the Bible, the word "incense " translates two wholly distinct Hebrew words. In various passages in the latter portion of See also:Isaiah (xl.–lxvi.), in See also:Jeremiah and in See also:Chronicles, it represents the Hebrew lebonah, more usually rendered " frankincense "; elsewhere the See also:original word is ketoreth (Ex. xxx. 8, 9; Lev. x. 1; Num. vii. 14, &c.), a derivative of the verb kilter (Pi.) or hiktir (Hiph.), which verb is used, not only in Ex. xxx. 7, but also in Lev. i. g, iii. 11, ix. 13, and many other passages, to denote the process by which the " savour of See also:satisfaction" in any burnt-offering, whether of flesh or of incense, is produced. Sometimes in the authorized version (as in 1 Kings iii. 3; 1 Sam. ii. 28) it is made to mean explicitly the burning of incense with only doubtful propriety. The expression " incense (ketoreth) of rains " in Ps. lxvi. 15 and the allusion in Ps. cxli. 2 ought both to be understood, most probably, of See also:ordinary burnt-offerings.2 The " incense " (ketoreth), or " incense of sweet scents " (ketoreth sammim), called, in Ex. xxx. 35, " a confection after the See also:art of the See also:apothecary," or rather " a perfume after the art of the perfumer," which was to be regarded as most holy, and the See also:imitation of which was prohibited under the severest penalties, was compounded of four " sweet scents " (sammim),3 namely stacte (nataph), onycha (sheheleth), galbanum (helbenah) and " pure " or " fine " frankincense (lebonah zaccah), pounded together in equal proportions, with (perhaps) an admixture of See also:salt (memullah).' It was then to be "put before the testimony" in the " See also:tent of See also:meeting." It was burnt on the See also:altar of incense by the See also:priest every See also:morning when the lamps were trimmed in the Holy See also:Place, and every evening when they were lighted or " set up " (Ex. xxx. 7, 8). A handful of it was also burnt once a See also:year in the Holy of Holies by the high priest on a See also:pan of burning coals taken from the altar of burnt-offering (Lev. xvi. 12, 13). Pure frankincense (lebonah) formed See also:part of the See also:meat-offering (Lev. ii. 16, vi. 15), and was also presented along with the shew bread (Lev. See also:xxiv. 7) every See also:Sabbath day (probably on two See also:golden saucers; see Jos. See also:Ant. iii. ro, 7). The religious significance of the use of incense, or at least of its use in the Holy of Holies, is distinctly set forth in Lev. xvi. 12, 13. The See also:Jews were also in the See also:habit of using odoriferous substances in connexion with the funeral See also:obsequies of distinguished persons (see 2 Chron. xvi. 14, XXI. 19; Jer. xxxiv. 5). In See also:Amos vi. ro " he that burneth him " probably means " he that See also:burns per-fumes in his See also:honour." References to the See also:dome§See also:tic use of incense occur in Cant. iii. 6; Prov. xxvii. 9; cf. vii. 17. The " See also:marbles " of See also:Nineveh furnish frequent examples of the offering of incense to the sun-See also:gad and his See also:consort (2 Kings ' See See also:Lane, Mod. Egyptians, pp. 34, 41, 139, 187, 438 (ed,.r86o). 2 See \Vellhausen, Gesch. Israels, i. 70 sqq., who from philological and other data infers the See also:late date of the introduction of incense into the Jewish See also:ritual. ' According to See also:Philo (See also:Opera, i. 504, ed. Mangey), they symbolized respectively water, earth, air and See also:fire. Other accounts of its composition, See also:drawn from Rabbinical See also:sources, will he found in various See also:works on Jewish antiquities; see, for example, See also:Roland, An1iq. Sacr. See also:vet. Hebr. pp. 39-41 (1712).See also:xxiii. 5). The kings of See also:Assyria See also:united in themselves the royal and priestly offices, and on the monuments they erected they are generally represented as offering incense and pouring out wine to the Tree of See also:Life. They probably carried the incense in the sacred bag so frequently seen in their hands and in those also of the common priests. According to Herodotus (i. 183), frankincense to the amount of l000 talents' See also:weight was offered every year, during the feast of See also:Bel, on the great altar of his temple in See also:Babylon. The monuments of See also:Persepolis and the coins of the Sassanians show that the religious use of incense was as common in ancient See also:Persia as in Babylonia and Assyria. Five times a day the priests of the Persians (Zoroastrians) burnt incense on their sacred fire altars. In the Avesta (Vendidad, Fargard xix. 24, 40), the incense they used is named vohu gaono. It has been identified with benzoin, but was probably frankincense. Herodotus (iii. 99) states that the See also:Arabs brought every year to See also:Darius as See also:tribute r000 talents of frankincense. The Parsecs still preserve in western India the. pure tradition of the ritual of incense as followed by their See also:race from probably the most ancient times. The Ramayana and Mahabharala afford See also:evidence of the employment of incense by the Hindus, in the worship of the gods and the burning of the dead, from the remotest antiquity. Its use was obviously continued by the Buddhists during the prevalence of their religion in India, for it is still used by them in Nepal, See also:Tibet, Ceylon, See also:Burma, China and Japan. These countries all received See also:Buddhism from India, and a large proportion of the See also:porcelain and earthenware articles imported from China and japan into Europe consists of innumerable forms of censers. The See also:Jains all over India burn sticks of incense before their Jina. The commonest incense in ancient India was probably frankincense. The Indian frankincense tree, Boswellia thurifera, See also:Colebrooke (which certainly includes B. glabra, Roxburgh), is a doubtful native of India. It is found chiefly where the Buddhist religion prevailed in ancient times, in Bihar and along the See also:foot of the Himalayas and in western India, where it particularly flourishes in the neighbourhood of the Buddhist caves at See also:Ajanta. It is quite possible therefore that, in the course of their widely extended commerce during the one thousand years of their ascendancy, the Buddhists imported the true frankincense trees from See also:Africa and Arabia into India, and that the accepted Indian species are merely varieties of them. Now, however, the incense in commonest use in India is benzoin. But the consumption of all manner of odoriferous resins, gum resins, roots, woods, dried leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds in India, in social as well as religious observances, is enormous. The grateful perfumed powder abir or randa is composed either of See also:rice, See also:flour, See also:mango bark or deodar wood, camphor and aniseed, or of See also:sandalwood or wood aloes, and zerumbet, zedoary, rose flowers, camphor and civet. The incense sticks and pastils known all over India under the names of ud-buti (" benzoin-light ") or aggar-ki-buti (" wood aloes light ") are composed of benzoin, wood aloes, sandal-wood, rock See also:lichen, patchouli, rose-malloes, talispat (the See also:leaf of Flacourtia Cataphracta of Roxburgh), See also:mastic and See also:sugar-candy or gum. The' abb. and aggir butis made at the See also:Mahommedan See also:city of See also:Bijapur in the Mahratta country are celebrated all over western India. The Indian Mussulmans indeed were rapidly degenerating into a See also:mere See also:sect of Hindus before the Wahabi revival, and the more See also:recent political propaganda in support of the false See also:caliphate of the sultans of See also:Turkey; and we therefore find the religious use of incense among them more See also:general than among the Mahommedans of any other country. They use it at the Ceremonies of See also:circumcision, See also:bismillah (teaching the See also:child " the name of God "1, virginity and See also:marriage. At marriage they burn benzoin with nim seeds (Melia Azadirachta, Roxburgh) to keep off evil See also:spirits, and prepare the See also:bride-cakes by putting a quantity of benzoin between layers of wheaten dough, closed all See also:round, and frying them in clarified See also:butter. For days the bride is fed on little else. In their funeral ceremonies, the moment the spirit has fled incense is burnt before the See also:corpse until it is carried out to be buried. The begging fakirs also go about with a lighted stick of incense in one hand, and holding out with the other an incense-holder (literally, "incense See also:chariot "), into which the coins of the pious are thrown. Large " incense trees " resembling our See also:Christmas trees, formed of incense-sticks and pastils and osselets, and alight all over, are See also:borne by the Shiah Mussulmans in the solennial procession of the Mohurrum, in See also:commemoration of the martyrdom of the sons of See also:Ali. The worship of the tulsi plant, or holy See also:basil (Ocymum sanctum, Don), by the Hindus is popularly explained by its See also:consecration to See also:Vishnu and See also:Krishna. It grows on the four-horned altar before the See also:house, or in a pot placed in one of the front windows, and is worshipped every morning by all the See also:female members of every See also:Hindu See also:household. It is possible that its See also:adoration has survived from the times when the Hindus buried their dead in their houses, beneath the See also:family See also:hearth. When they came into a hot See also:climate the fire of the sacrifices and domestic See also:cookery was removed out of the house; but the dead were probably still for a while buried in or near it, and the tulsi was planted over their See also:graves, at once for the salubrious fragrance it diffuses and to represent the burning of incense on the altar of the family See also:Lar. The rich land round about the holy city of See also:Pandharpur, sacred to Vithoba the See also:national Mahratta See also:form of (Krishna)-Vishnu, is wholly restricted to the cultivation of the tulsi plant. As to the Bvea mentioned in Homer (Il. ix. 499, and elsewhere) and in See also:Hesiod (Works and Days, 338), there is some uncertainty whether they were incense offerings at all, and if so, whether they were ever offered alone, and not always in See also:conjunction with animal sacrifices. That the domestic use, however, of the fragrant wood Biiov (the Arbor vitae or Callitris quadrivalvis of botanists, the source of the resin See also:sandarach) was known in the Homeric See also:age, is shown by the See also:case of See also:Calypso (Od. v. 6o), and the very similarity of the word Bbov to Biros may be taken as almost conclusively proving that by that time the same wood was also employed for religious purposes. It is not probable that the sweet-smelling gums and resins of the countries of the Indian Ocean began to be introduced into See also:Greece before the 8th or 7th See also:century s.e., and doubtless X0 See also:alias or Xi,8avar6s first became an See also:article of extensive commerce only after the Mediterranean See also:trade with the East had been opened up by the Egyptian king See also:Psammetichus (c. 664—610 B.C.). The new See also:Oriental word is frequently employed by Herodotus; and there are abundant references to the use of the thing among the writers of the golden age of See also:Attic literature (see, for example, See also:Aristophanes, Plat. 1114; Frogs, 871, 888; Clouds, 426; Wasps, 96. 861). Frankincense, however, though the most common, never became the only kind of incense offered to the gods among the Greeks. Thus the Orphic See also:hymns are careful to specify, in connexion with the several deities celebrated, a great variety of substances appropriate to the service of each; in the case of many of these the selection seems to have been determined not at all by their fragrance but by some occult considerations which it is now difficult to divine. Among the Romans the use of religious fumigations long preceded the introduction of See also:foreign substances for the purpose (see, for example, See also:Ovid, Fast. i. 337 seq., " Et non exiguo laurus adusta sono "). Latterly the use of frankincense (" mascula thura," Virg. See also:Eel. viii. 65) became very prevalent, not only in religious ceremonials, but also on various See also:state occasions, such as in triumphs (Ovid, Trist. iv. 2, 4), and also in connexion with certain occurrences of domestic life. In private it was daily offered by the devout to the Lar familiaris (Plaut. Aulul. prof. 23); and in public sacrifices it was not only sprinkled on the head of the victim by the See also:pontifex before its slaughter, and afterwards mingled with its blood, but was also thrown upon the flames over which it was roasted. No perfectly satisfactory traces can be found of the use of incense in the ritual of the Christian Church during the first four centuries.' It obviously was not contemplated by the ' This guarded statement still holds See also:good. Compare See also:Duchesne, Christian Worship (Eng. trans., 1904), ch. ii., " The See also:Mass in the East," v. " The Books of the Latin Rite," and xii. "The See also:Dedication of Churches."author of the See also:epistle to the See also:Hebrews; its use was foreign to the See also:synagogue services on which, and not on those of the temple, the worship of the primitive Christians is well known to have been originally modelled; and its associations with See also:heathen solemnities, and with the evil repute of those who were known as thurificati," would still further militate against its employment. Various authors of the ante-Nicene period have expressed them-selves as distinctly unfavourable to its religious, though not of course to its domestic, use. Thus TertulIian, while (De See also:Coe. Mil. ro) ready to acknowledge its utility in counteracting unpleasant smells ( " si me odor alicujus loci offenderit, Arabiae aliquid incendo "), is careful to say that he scorns to offer it as an See also:accompaniment to his heartfelt prayers (Apol. 30; cf. 42). See also:Athenagoras also (Legat. 13) gives distinct expression to his sense of the needlessness of any such ritual (" the Creator and See also:Father of the universe does not require blood, nor smoke, nor even the sweet smell of flowers and incense "); and See also:Arnobius (Adv. Gent. vii. 26) seeks to justify the Christian neglect of it by the fact, for which he vouches, that among the Romans them-selves incense was unknown in the time of Numa, while the Etruscans had always continued to be strangers to it. See also:Cyril of See also:Jerusalem, See also:Augustine and the Apostolic Constitutions make no reference to any such feature either in the public or private worship of the Christians of that time. The earliest mention, it would seem, occurs in the Apostolic Canons (can. 3), where the Bvµlapa is spoken of as one of the requisites of the eucharistic service. It is easy to perceive how it should inevitably have come in along with the whole circle of ideas involved in such words as " temple," " altar," " priest," which about this time came to be so generally applied in ecclesiastical connexions. See also:Evagrius (vi. 21) mentions the See also:gift of a Buµta-ri7pwv by the See also:con-temporary See also:Chosroes of Persia to the church of Jerusalem; and all the Oriental liturgies of this period provide See also:special prayers for the thurification of the eucharistic elements. The See also:oldest Ordo See also:Romanus, which perhaps takes us back to within a century of See also:Gregory the Great, enjoins that in. pontifical masses a sub-See also:deacon, with a golden censer, shall go before the See also:bishop as he leaves the secretarium for the See also:choir, and two, with censers; before the deacon gospeller as he proceeds with the See also:gospel to the See also:ambo. And less than two centuries afterwards we read an See also:order in one of the capitularies of See also:Hincmar of See also:Reims, to the effect that every priest ought to be provided with a censer and incense. That in this portion of their ritual, however, the Christians of that period were not universally conscious of its See also:direct descent from Mosaic institutions may be inferred perhaps from the " See also:benediction of the incense " used in the days of See also:Charlemagne, which runs as follows: " May the See also:Lord bless this incense to the extinction of every noxious smell, and kindle it to the odour of its sweetness." Even See also: It was the precursor of the See also:Prayer See also:Book, and supplemented the accustomed Latin service by additions in See also:English to provide for the communion of the See also:people in both kinds. But it was expressly stated in a See also:rubric that the old service of the mass was to proceed without variation of any rite or ceremony until after the priest had received the See also:sacrament, that is, until long after the last of the three occasions for the use of incense explained above. But on See also:Whitsunday 1549 the first Prayer Book of Edward VI. came into use under an See also:Act of See also:Parliament (2 and 3 Ed. VI. ch. 1, the first Act of Uniformity) which required its exclusive use in public worship so as to supersede all other forms of service. Another Act, 3 and 4 Ed. VI. ch. ro, required the old service books to be delivered up to be destroyed. The first Prayer Book does not contain any direction to use or any mention of incense. It has been and still is a keenly controverted question whether incense did or did not continue to be in ceremonial use under the first Prayer Book or during the See also:rest of Edward VI.'s reign. No evidence has hitherto been discovered which justifies us in answering this question in the affirmative. The second Prayer Book of Edward VI. (1552), published under the authority of the second Act of Uniformity (5 and 6 Ed. VI. ch. 1), contains no reference to incense. Edward VI. died on the 6th See also:July 1553. Queen See also:Mary by See also:statute (1 Mary, sess. 2, ch. 2) abolished the Prayer Book, repealed the Acts of Uniformity and restored " divine service and See also:administration of sacraments as were most commonly used in See also:England in the last year of See also: 2), as the exclusive service book for public service. There is no evidence of the ceremonial use of incense under See also: Mackonochie (2 A. and E. L.R. 116). The case was carried to the Privy See also:Council on See also:appeal, but there was no appeal on the question of incense. Again, in 187o, the ceremonial use of incense was condemned by Sir Robert Phillimore in the suit of See also:Sumner v. 1Vix (3 A. and E. L.R. 58). incense should be offered to God. See also:Gold, with myrrh and frank-incense were offered by the See also:Persian Magi to the See also:infant Jesus at his See also:birth; and in See also:Revelation viii. 3, 4, the See also:image of the offering of incense with the prayers of the See also:saints, before the See also:throne of God, is not without its significance. If also the passage in See also:Ambrose of See also:Milan (on Luke i. II), where he speaks of " us " as " adolentes altaria " is to be translated " incensing the altars," and taken literally, it is a testimony to the use of incense by the Christian Church in, at least, the 4th century. But the earliest See also:express mention of the censing of the altar by Christian priests is in " the works," first quoted in the 6th century, attributed to " See also:Dionysius the Areopagite," the contemporary of St See also:Paul (Acts xvii. 34). The See also:Missal of the See also:Roman Church now enjoins incensation before the introit, at the gospel and again at the See also:offertory, and at the See also:elevation, in every high mass; the use of incense also occurs at the exposition of the sacrament, at consecrations of churches and the like, in processions, in the See also:office for the burial of the dead and at the See also:exhibition of See also:relics. On high festivals the altar is censed at See also:vespers and lauds. In the Church of England the use of incense was gradually abandoned after the reign of Edward VI., until the ritualistic revival of the present day. Its use, however, has never been abolished by See also:law. A " Form for the Consecration of a Censer " occurs in See also:Sancroft's Form of Dedication and Consecration of a Church or See also:Chapel (1685). In various works of reference (as, for example, in Notes and Queries, 3rd See also:ser. vol. viii. p. II) numerous sporadic cases are mentioned in which incense appears to have been burnt in churches; the evidence, however, does not go so far as to show that it was used during divine service, least of all that it was used during the communion office. At the coronation of George III., one of the king's grooms appeared " in a See also:scarlet See also:dress, holding a perfuming pan, burning perfumes, as at previous coronations." In 1899, on the appeal of the Rev. H. See also:Westall, St See also:Cuthbert's, See also:London, and the Rev. E. See also:Ram, St See also: According to Sarum and Bangor, the See also:thurible, as well as the See also:lights, attended the Gospel to the See also:lectern. Perhaps the York rubric implies that this was done when it orders (which the others do not) the thurible to be carried round the choir with the Gospel while the Creed was being sung. In the Sarum and Bangor, the priest censed the oblations after offering them; then the space between himself and the altar. He was then, at Sarum, censed by the deacon, and an See also:acolyte censed the choir; at Bangor the Sinistrum See also:Cornu of the altar and the relics were censed instead. York and Hereford ordered no censing at the offertory. There is See also:reason to think that, notwithstanding the order for the use of incense at every celebration, it was in practice burnt only on high festivals, and then only in rich churches, down to the period of the Reformation. In most parishes its costliness alone would preclude its daily use, while the want of an assistant See also:minister would be a very common reason for omitting the rite almost every-where. Incense was not burnt in private masses, so that the See also:clergy were accustomed to celebrations without it,- and would naturally forego it on any plausible ground."
The ritual of the mass remained unchanged until the See also:death of Henry VIII. (See also:Jan. 28, 1547). In See also: Temple) and the archbishop of York (Dr. Maclagan), at See also:Lambeth See also:Palace. On the 31st of July 1899 the archbishops decided that the liturgical use of incense was illegal. The Lambeth "See also:opinion," as it was called, failed to convince the clergy against whom it was directed any better than the judgments of the ecclesiastical courts, but at first a considerable degree of obedience to the archbishops' view was shown. Various expedients were adopted, as, e.g., the use of incense just before the beginning of service, by which it was sought to retain incense without infringing the law as laid down by the archbishops. There remained, nevertheless, a tendency on the part of the clergy who used incense, or desired to do so, to revert to the position they occupied before the Lambeth See also:hearing—that is, to insist on the ceremonial use of incense as a part of the Catholic practice of the Church of England which it is the See also:duty of the clergy to maintain, notwithstanding the decisions of ecclesiastical See also:judges or the opinions or See also:arch-bishops to the contrary. (L. T. D.) Manufacture.—For the manufacture of the incense now used in the Christian churches of Europe there is no fixed See also:rule. The hooks of ritual are agreed that Ex. xxx. 34 should be taken as a See also:guide as much as possible. It is recommended that frank-incense should enter as largely as possible into its composition, and that if inferior materials be employed at all they should not be allowed to preponderate. In Rome olibanum alone is employed; in other places benzoin, storax, lign, aloes, cascarilla bark, cinnamon, See also:cloves and musk are all said to be occasionally used. In the See also:Russian Church, benzoin is chiefly employed. The Armenian See also:liturgy, in its benediction of the incense, speaks of " this perfume prepared from myrrh and cinnamon." The preparation of pastils of incense has probably come down in a continuous tradition from ancient Egypt, Babylonia and See also:Phoenicia. Cyprus was for centuries famous for their manufacture, and they were still known in the middle ages by the 'See also:ames of pastils or osselets of Cyprus. See also:Maimonides, in his More Nevochim, states that the use of incense in the worship of the Jews originated as a corrective ,t the disagreeable odours arising from the slaughter and burning of the animals offered in See also:sacrifice. There can be no doubt that its use throughout the East is based on sanitary considerations; and in Europe even, in the time when the dead were buried in the churches, it was recognized that the burning of incense served essentially to preserve their salubrity. But evidently the idea that the odour of a burnt-offering (cf. the K14,017s See also:Otis ai;rpi7 of Odyss. xii. 369) is grateful to the deity, being indeed the most essential part of the sacrifice, or at least the vehicle by which alone it can successfully be conveyed to its destination, is also a very early one, if not absolutely primitive; and survivals of it are possibly to be met with even among the most highly cultured peoples where the purely symbolical nature of all religious ritual is most clearly understood and maintained. Some such idea plainly underlies the familiar phrase " a sweet savour," more literally "a savour of satisfaction," whereby an acceptable offering by fire is so often denoted in the Bible (Gen. viii. 21 Lev. i. 9, et passim; cf. Eph. v. 2). It is easy to imagine how, as men See also:grew in sensuous appreciation of pleasant perfumes, and in empirical knowledge of the sources from which these could be derived, this advance would naturally express itself, not only in their domestic habits, but also in the details of their 'eligious ceremonial, so that the custom of adding some kind of incense to their animal sacrifices, and at length that of offering t pure and See also:simple, would inevitably arise. Ultimately, with the development of the spiritual discernment of men, the " offering of incense " became a mere symbolical phrase for prayer (see Rev. v. 8, viii. 3, 4). See also:Clement of See also:Alexandria expresses this in his well-known words: " The true altar of incense is the just soul, and the perfume from it is holy prayer." (So also See also:Origen, Cont. Cris. viii. 17, 20.) The ancients were familiar with XI V. 12the sanitary efficacy of fumigations. The See also:energy with which Ulysses, after the slaughter of the suitors, calls to Euryclea for " fire and See also:sulphur " to purge (literally " fumigate ") the dining-hall from the pollution of their blood (Od. xxii. 481, 482) would startle those who imagine that sanitation is a peculiarly modern See also:science. There is not the slightest doubt that the censing of things and persons was first practised as an act of See also:purification, and thus became symbolical of consecration, and finally of the sanctification of the soul. The Egyptians understood the use of incense as symbolical of the purification of the soul by prayer. Catholic writers generally treat it as typifying contrition, the See also:preaching of the Gospel, the prayers of the faithful and the virtues of the saints. (G. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] INCENDIARISM (Lat. incendere, to set on fire, burn)... |
[next] INCEST (Lat. incestus, unchaste) |