1 religious encyclopedia ordeal

PARAKLETIKE, PARAKLETIKON: A liturgi­gical book of the Greek Church which contains hymns, arranged like those in the Oktoechos, ac­cording to the eight tones of Greek church music, but differing from the Oktoechos in including hymns

for week days as well as for Sundays. The Para­kletike is said to have been developed from the Oktoechm by Theodorus and Josephus of Studion. It was first printed by H. Geraldis at Venice in 1522, and has been edited under the title of Pam kldike etai oktoeehm a rnegale, by A. Idromenos and I. Zerbos (Venice, 1897). (PsrrrPP MEY2R.)

Bmrroa~urar: Brnmbacher, Gechichte, pp. 855 eqq.; W. Christ and M. Paranikas, AntWopta Grxa carminnn

Christianorim Ioeipsio, 1871; P. Meyer Die

Littawur der prieehiecle,~ gird, p. 149, ib. 180M

Paraments THE NEW SCHAFF HERZOG 360

PARAMENTA.

1. Early and Western Church. The General Structure (5 1). Separate Parts (¢ 2). Ambo and Chancel (¢ 3). II. Eastern Church.

II1. Protestant Churches. General Situation (¢ 1). Specific Pieces (¢ 2). Color Symbolism (§ 3).

1. Early and Western Church: By paramentum was meant in the Middle Ages the possessions of the churches in the shape of materials which served in the cultus, including the altar vessels and car­pets and hangings. But in the course of time the word became differentiated and carried only the idea of textiles other than vestments.

r. The In the larger and richer churches large General quantities of these materials accumu 

Structure. lated, as inventories prove. In archi­

tecture the models for the early Church

were found generally in classical antiquity, and

these forms governed the development of the pars,

menta; the entrance first demanded treatment,

then the intercolumnar spaces, then the choir, and

so on, hangings being applied. This was very early.

For the transition to the Middle Ages the Liber pon­

tificalis (q.v.) is a rich source, showing, as it does,

that, e.g., Adrian T. assigned to St. Peter's sixty­

seven, to St. Paul's seventy two, to S. Maria Mag­

giore's forty four altar cloths, carpets, and hang­

ings, and to other churches in proportion, the

material being silk, half silk, and linen. The orient

was the source whence these materials were drawn,

the ornamentation being of geometrical figures,

plants, Biblical illustrations, and figures from hagi­

ology, while the cross was especially affected. When

architecture emancipated itself from the old models,

adornment with these materials developed; the

choir and the side chapels especially came in for

ornamentation, though on festival occasions nave

and entrance afforded place for carpets and hang­

ings, while the Altar (q.v., III.) gave itself easily to

treatment. When these materials were made in the

West, the stuff used was wool or linen, fashioned

upon earlier models, the monastic institutions being

places of manufacture, while later the cities took it

up. In the manufacture embroidery took a large,

sometimes a luxurious part, at first upon oriental

models, but afterward in more independent style.

In the fourteenth century needlework on the Rhine,

in Burgundy, and in Flanders reached its highest

development. While naturally at first the models

used were those from the East, in which the ani­

mals employed in decorations (griffin, peacock,

eagle, lion) testified to the derivation, the tendency

to independence was strong; so ornamentation

based upon Scriptural stories, upon ecclesiastical

material, and even drawn from common life, because

usual. Some of the results are impressive, and

follow the lead of Painting (q.v.). The Renaissance,

too, had its influences both in weaving and in

embroidery.

While the decoration of the structure as such was being developed, the individual parts also received attention. Naturally, among these the altar was emphasized. By early custom the altar table

Parables o/ our l"d, L Vale., Mlaburgh, 1eSM lib; b. Goebel, Die Parabeln Jesu, Goths, 1880, Eng. trawl., Edinburgh, 1884; S. D. F. Salmond, Parables of our Lord, ib. 1893; W. H. Thomson, The Parables and their Homes, New York, 1895; B. W. Martin, Practical Studies on the Parables of our Lord, London, 1897; 1. Stoekmeyer, Exe­Detische and praktisehe Erkldrunp auspewdhlter Gleichnisse Jesu, ed. B. Stockmeyer, Basel, 1897; C. A. Bugge, Die Haupt Pambeln Jesu, mit edner Einleitunp aber die Me­thode der Parabeln Ausleyung, Giessen, 1903; C. Ricketts, Parables from the Gospels, New York, 1903; P. Fiebig, Alljftdischs Gleichnisse and die Gleichnisse Jesu, Tiibingen, 1904; G. C. Morgan The Parables of the Kingdom, New York, 1907; and literature on the Life of Christ, and the commentaries on the Gospels.

PARABOLANOI: A brotherhood at Alexandria in the fifth oenturv devntad to tha enm of tha %&L 

was covered with white linen, which fell with a greater or a lesser margin over the edge. This overhang easily lent itself to decoration either by embroidery or in the weaving. In the development of the cloth covering of the altar s. Separate there was by the Middle Ages the

Parts. greatest advance, in the larger struc­

tures the materials being very rich­

silks or cloth of gold, often richly figured. The gen­

eral development was away from the early simplicity,

and the structure itself of the altar and its appurte­

nances changed so that t6re were costly additions in

the way of shelves and suspended parts made of gold

or silver plate or leaf, adorned even with precious

stones. In connection with these the hangings took

on new importance and magnificence, were used

often to set off the other decorations, and were

hung between the pillars and at the sides. For the

holding of the hangings framework of wood or iron

was often employed. Present liturgical prescrip­

tions of the Roman Catholic Church, which have

their antecedents in the Middle Ages, require three

linen altar cloths, two cover the altar table, while

the third covers the entire altar and falls nearly to

the foot. Upon the stone lies the chrismal, serving

really as a protection for the other cloths. The

service of the altar further requires the palla cor­

Porcalis, a linen cloth about twenty three inches

square, used by the priest after the consecration of

the bread to spread the latter upon and after to

wrap it up. While it was formerly used also for the

cup, the latter has now its own covering, the palla

calicis, from which is to be distinguished the velum

calicis which conceals the cup till the beginning of

the offertory. Other pieces which have been em­

ployed were the Palls dominicalis and the purifica­

torium, the latter'a fine linen cloth for cleansing the

cup.

In the Ambo and Chancel (qq.v.) the reading­desk was adorned with a narrow piece of cloth which hung down in front, in festal seasons the ornamentation was more elaborate. But in early and medieval times ambo and chan 

3. Ambo eel were decorated rather with plas­

and Chancel. tic material. In the early Church, as

baptism was generally of adults and

by immersion, the baptismal font was naturally

enclosed by hangings; if the baptistery had col­

umns about it, the hangings were suspended be­

tween the columns. The episcopal chair lent itself

in festal seasons to this kind of adornment, espe­

cially after the thirteenth century when its position

was changed. In the Middle Ages there was in use

a large curtain shutting off the choir from the nave

during fasting seasons, often ornamented with

scenes from the passion. Carpets were a direct in­

heritance from early times and were used in the

choir, and these were until a late period brought

from the East or patterned after oriental models.

The Western Church lacked prescriptions regard­

ing all these adornments, and freedom in materials,

color, and design was therefore exercised. The free­

dom of the early Middle Ages in all these matters

has vanished before the growing restrictions of

liturgical directions, with the result that a certain

monotony has come in. This has in recent times,

creation and the Paradise, found much that was derogatory of God, Paradise was a picture of the human soul, in which flourish the seeds of Christian virtues; or a picture of heaven, wherein the " trees " represent the angels, and the " rivers " the outgoings of wisdom and other virtues. He did not, however, deny a literal Paradise; he only sought in allegory the harmonization of the Mosaic and New Testament conceptions. To Ambrose, the Pauline Paradise was the Christian soul. He also distinguished between the literal and the Pauline Paradise.

In the second place, Paradise was interpreted mystically. The Mosaic and the New Testament ,nn,nann*.o*.;nna of 'P. ,I;      n e;Ae..,.a ;.7....