THE JUBILEE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 106, 8 May 1875, Page 7

THE JUBILEE.

Former Ceremonial Adopted in Proclaiming Jubilbbs. The Jubilee or Anno Santo takes its date among the feasts of the Catholic Church, from the year 1300, when Pope Boniface VUL declared his intention of inaugurating the new century by a. religious celebration, which should partake of the character of those festivals -which, by a divine ordination, the Mosaic law had prescribed to be held by the ancient Jews on every forty-ninth, year. It derived its name of Jubilee from the Hebrew word " Yob.al," meaning " a joyful shout " or " a clangor of trumpets," a sense we find still preserved in the German word, "jubil." From the Hebrew root comes the Laein jvbilcewm, whence our Jubilee. The Jubilee of Boniface was a very great success, Eye witnesses describe the flocks of pilgrims who covered the roada leading to and from the Holy City as defying all attempt to calculate their numbers, and it is computed that at no time during the year were there less than two hundred thousand strangers actually within the walls of Home, exclusive of those who were coming and going. Pope Clement "VT. reduced the interval between these feasts to fifty years, and held one in 1350 which not only equalled but almost eclipsed the splendor of its predecesor. According to Matthew Villani, a writer deserving of credit, it was attended by over one million pilgrims, and this before the summer heats had commenced. (Several of the succeeding Popes altered the dates upon which the jubilees were to be held, a,nd it was not till the year 1470 that Paul 11. definitely fixed their recurrence at every twenty-fifth year, so that every man of average length of life might have an opportunity of being present at the celebration of at least one of them, and this term has been maintained up to the present day, and only two omissions have taken place, both in the present century — namely in the year 1800, when Rome was occupied by the troops of the French Republic and the Pope a* exile in. France ; and again, in 1850, when the present incumbent of the Pontificate, Pope Pius IX., did not deem it expedient, in view of the disturbed state of Italy, just emerging from the throes of the revolution of 1848, to attract a. large concourse of strangers to his capital. Extraordinary Jubilees have sometimes been held when any particular calamity has appeared ready to menace the Church, Speciel prayers referring to the occasion are then enjoined to be. used by the parties seeking for the benefits accruing from their observance. Formerly, while the Popes were still in full possession of the inheritance of St. Peter, the ceremonial observed in opening the" year of Jubilee wae impressive in the extreme. On Christmas Eve the Pontiff or his legate proceeded in full sarcerdotal robes, and, attended by all his clergy, in solemn procession to the Porte Sancta of the golden gate of St. Peter in the Basilica of the Vatican, which is always kept walled up. Here he ascended a throne prepared for the purpose, while a High Mass was said, at the_ couclusion of which he arose, and, taking a golden hammer in his hand, struck three blows upon the masonry, at the same time reciting the 118 th Psalm : — Open to me the gates of righteousness ; 1 will go into them, and I will praise the Lord. This gate of the Lord, Into which the righteous shall enter, I will praise Thee, for thou hast heard me, And art become my salvation. The wall was then torn down, and penitential monks wasaed the threshold with holy water, whereupon his Holiness entered, followed by his suite, and with his own hands opened the shrineß containing the relics of the saints and exposed their sacred contents to the eager gaze of the reverential crowd. Simultaneously with this ceremony the doors of the churches of St. John Latevn, Santa Maria Maggiore and St. Paul, which were declared by Pope Boniface IX. to be Jubilee churches, were opened by three Cardinals deputed by the Pope for that purpose, and the festival had begun. At its conclusion^ on the 24th of December following, the Pope proceeded again in state to the Porte Sancta. He blessed the stoneß and lime which were then provided, and sprinkled them with holy water ; then, taking up a gilded trowel, he spread the first layer of mortar and cast in some coins, after which the work was finished by masons in atten1 dance for that purpose. — ' New York Herald.'