Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/793

 EXPIATION

713

EXPOSITION

Briefs. In a restricted and specific sense expediters or expeditioners are lajTnen approved by the Dataria, after an examination, to act as agents for bishops or others before the Dataria or Apostolic Chancery. They are members of the Roman Coml. They differ from solicitors as well as from procurators or agents in general, who transact business with the Roman Congregations. A solicitor, strictly speaking, is an assistant to a procurator, doing the mechanical work of preparing documents. An expeditor is more con- cernetl with matters of favour, privileges, dispensa- tions and so on, than with cases in litigation. It has been the practice of the Dataria and Apostolic Chan- cery to carry on business only with authorized agents, or expediters, whose office it is to draw up and sign the necessary documents, receive and forward the answer given. They receive a certain fixed fee for each trans- action, while procurators and solicitors generally re- ceive a monthly stipend. The number of expeditors has varied. Cardinal Pacca, pro-datarius, decided, in 18.3.3, that the nmnber, which was then one himdred, should be regulated by the amount of business to be transacted. In late years there were about thirty. In reorganizing the Roman Court, Pius X deprived these expeditors of their exclusive right to appear be- fore the Dataria, and Apostolic Chancery.

Humphrey. Urbs el Orbu (London, 1899), 437-440; Moroni, Dizionario, s. v. Spedizioniere.

Andrew B. Meeh.\n. Expiation, Fe,\.st of. See Atonement, Day of.

Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament is a man- ner of honiiuring the Holy Eucharist, by exposing It, with proper .'Solemnity, to the view of the faithful in order that they may pay their devotions before It. We will speak later of the conditions which constitute proper solemnity, but something must first be said of the history of the practice.

Hlstorv. — There can be no reasonable doubt that the practice of exposition came in in the wake of that most epoch-making hturgical development, the Eleva- tion of the Host in the Mass. The Elevation itself (q. v.), of which we first hear in its present sense about the year 1200, was probably adopted as a practical protest against the teaching of Peter Comestor and Peter the Chanter, who held that the bread was not consecrated in the Mass until the words of institution had been spoken over both bread and wine. Those who beUeved that when the words "Hoc est enim cor- pus meum" had been pronounced, the bread was at once changed into the flesh of our Lord, supported their opinion by adoring the Sacrament, and holding It up for the adoration of the people, without waiting for the words to be spoken o\'er the chalice. At Paris, this elevation became a matter of sjmodal precept, probably before the year 1200. Before long it came to be regarded as a very meritorious act to look upon and salute the Body of the Lord. In this way, even before the middle of the thirteenth centurj', all kinds of fanciful promises were in circulation regarding the special privileges enjoyed by him, who, on any day, saw the Body of his Maker. He was believed to be protected from sudden death, or from loss of sight. Further, on that day he would be duly nourished by the food he took, and would grow no older, with many other extravagances. The development of these pop- ular beliefs was also probably much assisted by a legendary clement current in the romances of the Holy Grail, then at the height of their popularity. What is certain is, that among all classes the seeing the Host, at the moment It was lifted on high in the hands of the priest, became a primary object of devotion, and various devices — for example, the hanging of a black curtain at the back of the altar, or the lighting of torches held behind the priest by a deacon or server — were resorted to, to make the looking upon the Body of Christ more easy.

Whether the institution of the feast of Corpus Christi with its procession, an innovation due to the visions of the Flemish contemplative, St. Juliana Cor- nelion, is to be regarded as the cause, or rather the effect, of this great desire to behold the Body of Christ is somewhat doubtful. But the evidence points to it as an effect rather than as a cause, for, even before the close of the twelfth century, we find a well-authenti- cated stor)' of the last moments of Maurice de Sully, Bishop of Paris, according to which, being unable on account of sickness to receive Holy Viaticum, he satis- fied his devotion by having the Blessed Sacrament brought to him to gaze upon. An exactly similar incident is recorded of St. Juliana herself, when upon her death-bed. This also seems to show that the de- vout longing of the faithful to gaze upon the Sacred Host was not confined to the time of Mass. Moreover, we find it debated among scholastic theologians, as early as the thirteenth century, whether the looking upon the consecrated Host was permissible to those in the state of grievous sin, and it was commonly decided that far from being a new offence against God, such an act was praiseworthy, if it were done with a reverent intention, and was likely to obtain for the sinner the grace of true contrition.

In the fourteenth century, we find the practice of Exposition already established, especially in Germany. The " SeptiUlium " of Blessed Dorothea of Prussia who died a recluse, at an advanced age, in 1394, not only bears witness to the saint's extraordinary desire to see the Blessed Sacrament, a desire which was sometimes gratified as often as a hundred times in one day, but also incidentally mentions that in certain churches near Dantzig, the Blessed Sacrament was reserved all day long in a transparent monstrance, so that pious persons like Dorothea could come to pray before It. The practice undoubtedly spread very widely, espe- cially in Germany and the Netherlands. In the fif- teenth century, we find numerous sjmodal decrees passed, prohibiting this continuous and informal Ex- position, as wanting in proper reverence. The decree enacted at Cologne in 1452, imder the presidency of Cardinal Nicholas de Cusa, altogether forbids the re- serving, or carrying of the Blessed Sacrament in such monstrances, except during the octave of Corpus Christi. An earlier decree passed at Bre.slau, in 1416, speaks of permission having previously been given " for the Body of Jesus Christ, on some few days of the week, to be visibly exposed and shown to public view". But the bishop declares that he has per- ceived, that, "by this frequent exposition, the inde- votion of the multitude only becomes greater, and reverence is lessened ". It is clear that these prohibi- tions did not eradicate the custom, but they seem to have led to a curious compromise, by which the Blessed Sacrament, throughout a great part of central Europe, was reserved in "Sakramentshiiuschen" (Sacrament houses), often beautifully carved of stone, and erected in the most conspicuous part of the church, near the sanctuary. There the Sacred Host was kept in a transparent vessel, or monstrance, be- hind a locked metal door of lattice work, in such a way that the Host could still be dimly seen by those who prayed outside. In the convent of Vadstena in Sweden, the motherhouse of the Brigittines, we have record of the erection of such a Sacrament House, in 1454, in the following terms: "Circa festum Epipha- nia erectum est ciborium, sive columna, pro Corpora Christi, et monstrancia ibi posita cum lampade".

Another custom which seems to have been very prevalent in Germany and the Netherlands, before the close of the fifteenth century, was the practice of exposing the Blessed Sacrament during the time of Mass, apparently to add solemnity to the Holy Sacri- fice thus offered. Numerous papal permissions for ■such Exposition will be found in the "Regesta" of Pope Leo X. (See e. g. 3 Nov., 1514; 20 Nov., 1514,