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AND APPLIANCES OF SACKED LSE. 241 dwelling in remote places, when few churches as yet existed in Britain, or in their journey ings to extend the knowledge of the faith, and thus provided, so itxr as it was then practicable, for the solcnui performance of those rites by which they sought to impress the minds of their half barbarous converts with reverence. Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, in his Capitula, pronmlgated in 857, distinctly enjoined that no priest should celebrate mass upon an altar which had not received episcopal conse- cration. He instructed his clergy, in case of necessity, until churches and altars should be dedicated, or in chapels which might not l)e thought to require consecration, to provide a tablet of marble, or of black stone, or " de litio honestissimo," (slate of the best quality?) according to their ability, upon which, after it had been brought to receive consecration by himself, the sacred mysteries might be celebrated consistently witii the rites of the Chm*ch^. To the same effect are in- junctions found in the Capitularia of Charlemagne, in regard to the mass, and the use of portable altars duly consecrated by a bishop, whenever in time of war, or during a journey, celebration in a church might not be practicable. An altar of this kind, supposed to have been used by Charlemagne himself during his wars, was preserved in the monastery of St. Emmeran, at Ratisbon^ In subsequent ages the use of the portable altar appears to have become very prevalent, owing, probably, to the deficiency of churches, the increase of monastic establishments, the pre- scribed usage that required frequent celebration of mass by every priest, whilst it was never performed upon the same altar twice during the day, except on some extraordinary occasion. The crusades also, and other causes, of which the limits of the present notice will not permit a detailed investi- gation, occasioned the more frequent use of the tabula itine- raria, and the restrictions bv which the Church soua-ht to limit the concession of such a privilege by bishops, frequently sought by those who desii'ed, for mere personal convenience, the facility of celebration in their own dwellings. Various usages and regidations were observed in the for- mation of the super-altar, at different times. In om* own country, it would appear from the facts which have been stated, that in early ages it was formed of wood, cased and f Bona, rcruni lituig., lib. i. c. 20. ' Constit. Caroli Magni, ad fiiicm.