[Rationale divinorum officiorum]

but upon a candlestick, because if we have a good intention, we ought not to hide it, but manifest the good work to others for light and example. He must also have an ark, which is named from 'arcendo' to keep away/restrain. An ark, therefore, can be called discipline or the regular life through which crimes are kept away from us. In the ark, however, are the rod of correction so that the flesh may be chastised, and the tablet of love so that God may be loved. For in the tablets are written the commands which pertain to love. There also ought to be the manna of divine placation, so that we may taste that God is sweet and see that His negotiation is good, according to that word, "You have tasted mercy and seen that it is good." So that we may be the temple of God, let us have in us an altar for oblation, lest we appear empty in the sight of God, according to that Ecclesiasticus: "You shall not appear in the sight of your God empty." A table for refreshment, lest we fail on the way as if fasting, according to that of the Gospel: "If we send them away fasting, they will fail on the way." A candlestick for good action, lest we be idle, according to Ecclesiasticus: "Idleness has taught much malice." An ark, lest we be like the sons of Belial, that is, without a yoke, undisciplined; for discipline is necessary, according to that Psalm: "Learn discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry." Concerning these and other ornaments, it will be said in the second book. That altar is built by the one who adorns his heart with true humility and other virtues. Whence Gregory: "He who gathers virtues without humility is like one who carries dust into the wind." Through the altar, indeed, our heart is understood, as will be stated where the dedication of the altar is treated, because it is in the middle of the body, as the altar is in the middle of the church. Concerning the altar, it is commanded by the Lord in Leviticus: "The fire upon my altar shall always burn." Fire is charity, the altar is the pure heart. The fire shall always burn upon the altar because charity shall always burn in our heart. Whence Solomon in the Song of Songs: "Many waters cannot extinguish charity." Because it burns always, it cannot be extinguished. You, therefore, according to the prophet, perform the day of gladness and in your offerings even to the horn of the altar, because the remains of your thoughts will celebrate a feast for you. Concerning this, the Apostle says: "I show you a more excellent way." He called charity the more excellent way because it is above all virtues, and whoever has it, has all virtues. This is the abbreviated word that the Lord makes upon the earth, because it is brief for Him to say, "Have charity and do whatever you wish." Upon these two commandments depends the whole law and the prophets. Or, by the altar of each soul, we understand that which is built to the Lord from living stones, namely, from various and diverse virtues. Furthermore, the white linens with which the altar is covered designate the flesh or the humanity of the Savior, which was made white by much labor and Christ's flesh, rising from the earth, that is, from Mary, arrived through many tribulations to the resurrection and the whiteness and joy of immortality; concerning which the Son exults to the Father, saying, "You have rent my sackcloth and surrounded me with gladness." To clothe the altar, therefore, is to have the soul joined to an immortal and incorruptible body. Again, the altar is covered with white and clean bread when he adorns his whole world with good works. Whence in the Apocalypse: "Be clothed with white garments, lest the shame of your nakedness appear." And Solomon: "At all times your garments should be white, that is, your works should be clean." For it would benefit little for one approaching the altar to have the highest dignity and the lowest life. Whence Terence: "It is a monstrous thing to have first-rate faith and first-rate life, the highest rank and the lowest status, great authority and instability of mind, etc." The silk palls, however, placed upon the altar are the ornaments of diverse virtues with which the soul is adorned. The vestments also with which the altar is adorned are the saints, as will be stated in the following title. First part and end of the mass, or on the right side of the altar, the middle on the left, as in the fourth part under the title concerning the change of the face, it will be stated. The ancients made altars hollow, on account of that which is read in Ezekiel 43, that there was a trench in the altar of God, and this according to Gregory, lest the wind disperse the burnt offerings placed upon it. He also says in chapter 40 that the altar was turned inward through the circuit. Furthermore, the steps by which one ascends to the altar spiritually demonstrate the apostles and martyrs of Christ who poured out their blood for His love. The bride in the Song of Songs calls the ascent purple. They are also expressed by the fifteen virtues which are signified by the fifteen steps by which one ascended into the temple of Solomon and as is continuously demonstrated by the prophet in the fifteen Psalms, which the blessed man disposed as ascents in his heart. Jacob sees this ladder, its top touching the heavens. Through these steps, the competent degrees of virtues are understood by which one ascends to the altar, that is, to Christ, according to that Psalm: "And they will walk from virtue to virtue." And Job: "I will announce my steps one by one." It is read, however, in Exodus: "You shall not ascend to my altar by steps, lest your nakedness be revealed." For the ancients perhaps did not yet use drawers. In the Council of Toledo, it is cautioned that a cleric who, by reason of grief for the destruction of another, strips the altar or image of its vestments, or girds himself with mournful clothing or thorns, or extinguishes the lamps of the church, should be deposed. But in his own church, by his own right, it is forbidden to strip it, doing this for the sake of memory, so that, according to some, just as on the day of the Lord's passion, the altars are denuded as a sign of sadness, a practice which even today the Church of Lyon rejects. Finally, altars which are constructed through dreams and the manes of people, as if by revelation, are completely rejected.

Concerning the pictures, curtains, and ornaments of the church.

A decorative drop cap 'P' is illustrated, featuring elaborate scrolling vine patterns that intertwine both within and outside the letter.
Pictures and ornaments in the church are reading and scripture for the laity. Whence Gregory: "It is one thing to adore pictures, another to learn through the history of the picture what ought to be adored." For that which writing provides for those who read, the picture provides for the illiterate, because in it the ignorant see what they ought to follow; in it, they read who do not know letters. Truly, the heathen adore fire and force others to do the same, drawing other idols along with them. The pagans, however, adored images or portraits and idols, which the Saracens do not do, who neither have nor wish to have images, moved by that word: "You shall not make to yourself any likeness of those things which are in heaven, or in the earth, or in the waters, or under the earth" (Exodus 20). And from other authorities which immediately follow, they chide us greatly regarding this, but we do not adore them, nor do we call them gods, nor do we place our hope of salvation in them, because this would be to commit idolatry. But we venerate them for the memory and record of things done of old. Whence Jesus: "Honor the effigy of Christ which you pass by. Do not adore the effigy, but adore what it designates." To be God lacks reason, to which the material stone has contributed being; the shaped hand is neither God nor a man, the image that you see. But it is God and man whom the sacred image portrays. The Greeks also use images, painting them as it is said only from the navel upwards and not below, so that every occasion for foolish thought might be removed. They also do not make any sculpted image, because it is read in Exodus 20: "You shall not make a graven thing, nor images." Likewise Leviticus 26: "You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor a graven thing." Likewise Deuteronomy 4: "Lest perhaps deceived you make for yourselves a graven likeness." Likewise, "You shall not make for yourselves gods of gold and silver." Likewise the Psalmist: "The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold, the works of the hands of men. Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them. Let all be confounded who adore graven things and who glory in their idols." Note Likewise Moses says to the people of Israel: "Lest perhaps deceived by error you adore those things which the Lord your God has created." Hence it is that King Hezekiah broke the bronze serpent which Moses had erected, because the people were offering incense to it against the precept of the law. From these and similar authorities, the excessive use of images is rejected. For the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians: "We know that an idol is nothing in the world and there is no God but one." For the simple and the infirm could easily be drawn to idolatry through excessive and indiscreet use. Whence Wisdom chapter 14: "The idols of the nations are not to be regarded, because they were made in hatred of God's creatures and are a temptation to the souls of men and a snare to the feet of the unwise." Note To use pictures moderately to represent evils to be avoided and good to be imitated is not reprehensible. Whence the Lord to Ezekiel: "Enter and see the wicked abominations which they are doing here." And having entered, he saw all the likenesses of reptiles and animals and abominations and all the idols of the house of Israel painted on the wall. Indeed, Gregory, explaining this in Pastoral Rule book 2, chapter 20, says: "While the hope of external things attracts one inwardly, whatever is delighted in through faked images is, as it were, painted in the heart." Again, it is said to the same Ezekiel: "Take a brick and place it before you and describe on it the city of Jerusalem." And to the one who said that images are the literature of the laity, that word of the Gospel objects: "They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to them." And this will also be stated in the fourth part under the dangers of the canon. Above, the Council of Agde inhibited the making of pictures in churches, and that what is worshipped and adored should not be painted on the walls. But Gregory says that pictures are not to be broken on the occasion that they ought not to be adored. For a picture more moves the mind than writing; for through a picture, the deed is placed before the eyes as if it were being done in the present; but through writing, the past deed is recalled to memory as if through hearing, which moves the mind less. Hence it is that in the church we do not show as much reverence to books as we do to images and pictures. Some pictures or images are above the church, like the cock or the eagle; others outside the church, that is, outside on the front of the church, like the ox and the lion; others inside, like icons, statues, and diverse kinds of pictures and sculptures which are painted either on vestments or on walls or on visceral parts, concerning some of which it was stated under the treatise on the church, that it was written concerning the tabernacle of Moses and the temple of Solomon. For Moses sculpted, and Solomon sculpted and painted, and he adorned the walls with carvings and pictures. It should be known, however, that the image of the Savior is more fittingly painted in the church in three ways: either as sitting on a throne, or as hanging on the gibbet of the cross, or as sitting in the mother's lap. Because John the Baptist pointed to Christ with his finger, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God," therefore some painted Christ under the form of a lamb. Which, however, is a shadow that has passed, and Christ is true man; Pope Adrian says that we ought to paint Him in human form. Whence, indeed, the Lamb of God should primarily be painted on the cross. But it does not harm if the lamb is painted in the lower or posterior part when he himself is the true Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. In these and other diverse ways, the image of the Savior is painted on account of diverse significations. For painted in a manger, it commemorates the nativity; painted in the mother's lap, the childish age; painted or sculpted on the cross, the passion; and sometimes in the sun and moon themselves, they are painted as if suffering an eclipse. Painted, indeed, in the ascent of stairs, it indicates the ascension; painted as sitting on a throne or on an exalted seat, it indicates power and authority, as if saying, "All power is given to Him in heaven and in earth," according to that: "I saw the Lord sitting, etc." indicating the Son reigning over the angels, according to that: "Who sits upon the cherubim." Sometimes, however, it is painted as Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu saw Him, namely, upon the mountain and under His feet as a work of sapphire and as a serene heaven. And because, as Luke says, "Then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty," therefore sometimes angels are painted around Him who always serve and assist Him. They are painted with wings according to Isaiah 6: "Seraphim were standing, having six wings and six wings to another; with two they covered His face, with two His feet, and with two they flew." Angels are also painted as if flourishing in youthful age, for they never grow old. Sometimes the archangel Michael is also painted around, overcoming the dragon, according to that: "There was a battle in heaven; Michael was fighting with the dragon," which battle is the discord of the angels, the confirmation of the good, and the ruin of the evil, or in the present church, the persecution of the faithful. Sometimes also, twenty-four elders are painted around, according to the vision of John himself, in white garments and golden crowns, by whom are signified the doctors of the old and new law, who are twelve because of the faith of the Trinity which they announce through the four corners of the world.