Note (return) — CHAP. IV.

There still remains another remarkable ceremony customary in S. Peter's on holy-Thursday. After the office of Tenebræ, the chapter of that basilica proceeds in procession from the chapel of the choir to the high altar. The black stoles which six of the canons wear, and the yellow and extinguished tapers of the acolythes, are signs of mourning for the sufferings of Christ. They all carry elegant aspergilli80 of box or other wood, and having prayed for a short time in silence, they chant the anthem "They divided my garments etc." and the psalm "O God, my God, why hast thou abandoned me?" A fine cloth, which covered the altar, is then removed from it, and the Cardinal-priest of the church and the six canons pour whine upon the altar, and wash it with their aspergilli or brushes. After the other canons, beneficed clergymen, etc. have in turn washed it in like manner: the Cardinal and the six canons begin to dry it with sponges and towels: all then kneel down, and the ceremony concludes with the verse "Christ became obedient unto death etc." the Our Father, and the prayer of the day "Look down, we beseech thee etc."81 The chapter then venerates the relics shewn as usual from the gallery above S. Veronica's statue.