Lights (Catholic Encyclopedia article)
Herbert Thurston · 1913
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Description
Lights, in their liturgical use, have already been treated under Altar-Candles, Candles, Candlesticks, and Lamps. The present article deals only with the general aspect, above all the charge of wholesale pagan ceremonial. How far daytime lights can be traced to the second or third century is not easy to decide.
Tertullian speaks strongly of the uselessness of burning lamps as piety toward the emperors. About the year 303, Lactantius writes that pagans burn lights for one dwelling in darkness, and asks whether a sane man would offer candlelight to the author and giver of light. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, toward the end of the same century, observes that we should honour God not with blazing light and minstrelsy, but with purity of soul and divine contemplations. It may well be that the writers merely protest against the illuminations of the emperors' cultus.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Herbert Thurston |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 1913 |
| COLLECTION | REFERENCE |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 18 KB |
| LICENSE | PUBLIC_DOMAIN |
| RIGHTS | PUBLIC DOMAIN |
| SOURCE | New Advent — Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) |