HOLY
423
HOLY
shape, being of wood, metal, ivory, and even more
frequently of earthenware. Sometimes the vessel was
flat-shaped, resembling the bulla, or again it took the
form of a thimble or little flagon. Those most numer-
ous at present are the " ampullie of St. Menas ". There
was scarcely a place of pilgrimage that did not have
its beneficial or miraculous oil, which would be carried
great distances to satisfy the pious or to relieve the
sick. On this point there is abundant ancient testi-
mony. To the oil was attributed a participation in
the virtues of the saints with whom it had in some
way been in contact. Hence, not alone the oil from
lamps that had burned before their tombs but that
also which was supposed to have issued from the
tombs themselves or from the images of the saints was
prized. The most celebrated document on this sub-
ject is the "Index oleorum " or" List of the holy oils ",
sent to Queen Theodelinde by Gregory the Great.
This list was accompanied by ampullae, a certain
number of which have been preserved in the treasury
of the Basilica of Monza.
Towards the close of the sixth centuiy the custom of reserving to the bishop the blessing of the holy oils on Holy Thursday had been established and gradually propagated, and the priests of each diocese were obliged to provide themselves with oil sufficient for their needs throughout the year. If, at the time of receiving the new oil, any of the old was still imused, it had to be destroyed, that is, either burned or thrown into the
Eiscina of the church. Each church, therefore, had ut a limited number of vessels destined to hold the oils. The councils of the ninth and succeeding cen- turies frequently warned the priests and bishops to take precautions against the stealing of the holy oils. Indeed, in those days malefactors entertained the superstitious belief that they would not be dis- covered if they would but rub their bodies with the holy oils. In order to prevent such desecration, the holy oils were kept in some secure place, either in a closet or in the sacristy.
The material of the vessels has varied greatly. In the fourth century St. Optatus of Mileve relates that the Donatist heretics seized and profaned a glass ves- sel filled with holy chrism (Migne, P. L., vol. XI, col. 972). In the Middle Ages crystal, gold, silver, and less precious metals were used. A thirteenth-century rock crystal vase from the Abliey of Saint-Evroult (Orne) is three and one-half inches in height and is surmounted by a lid of silver gilt encrusted with coloured stones (de Caumont, "AWc^daire d'arch. re- ligieuse", p. 567) ; an inventory of Old St. Paul's, Lon- don, mentions three silver ampullie containing oil and chrism (Dugdale, "Monast. anglic. ", III, 310) and an inventory of the Laon cathedral, in 1.523, mentions three large phial-shaped silver vessels used for keeping the holy chrism, holy oil, and oil for the sick. In the interior of each receptacle was a long silver rod that served as a spoon. Inventories of Jumieges and Rouen, York and Lincoln speak of vessels of gold and of silver gilt enclosed in a small caliinet and fiu-nished with spoons for the extraction of the liquid. These vases are designated as flagons, ampulla>, estuy, and phialiE, and the cabinet containing them is known as the chrismatorium, chrismate, cresmeau, and coresmicr. St. Charles Borromeo drew up minute instructions con- cerning the vessels for the holy oils. He declared that each individual church should have two, either of silver or pewter, for each kind of oil, each vessel bearing the name of the oil contained therein. Almost the same rules are observed to-day. The vessels are usually cylindrical in form and fitted with screw tops marked with the letters: S. C. (sanchim ckrisma) ; O. S. {oleum sanctum, oil of catechumens) : 0. I. (oleum infirmorum).
Barraud, Notice sur les sainies huiles et les lenses qui aervent h lea contenir in Bulletin monumental, 4th series, VII (1871), 451—505; Helleputte, Matcriaux dout at^^r ii I'histoire des
vasea aur saintes huiles in Revue de Vart Chretien, 3rd series, II
{1SS4). 140-53; Schnutgex, Matvriaux pour servir it I'his-
toire des vases it saintes huiles, ibid., 455-62; ScACCHi, Sacrorum
elfBochrismatum vtyrothecia tria (Rome, 1625).
H. Lbclercq.
Holy Orders. See Orders, Holy.
Holy Roman Empire. See Germany.
Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, Scotland, founded in 112S by King David I for the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, probably brought from St. Andrews. The foundation is saitl to have been an act of thanks- giving for the king's miraculous escape from the horns of a hart, whilst hunting near Edinburgh on Holy Cross day. In the church was preserved, in a golden reliquary, the fragment of the True Cross brought by David's mother, St. Margaret, from Waltham Abbey, and known thereafter as the Black Rood of Scotland. kX, the battle of Neville's Cross, in 1346, this precious relic fell into the hands of the English, and was placed in Durham Cathedral, whence it disappeared at the Reformation. The first -\bliot of Holyrood was Al- wyn, the king's confessor, who resigned the abbacy about 1150. A seal of his, dated 11-11, and repre- senting a cruciform church, is preserved among the Newbottle Charters. The twenty-ninth and last Cath- olic abbot was Robert, a natural son of James V, who turned Protestant in 1559, married, and exchanged his abbacy with Adam, Bishop of Orkney, for the temporalities of that diocese. Adam resigned the abbacy in 15S1 to his son John (afterwards created Lord Holyroodhouse), the last wlio bore the title of abbot. Among the chief benefactors of Holyrood during the four centuries of its existence as a religious house were Kings David I and II; Robert, Bi.shop of St. Andrews; and Fergus, Lord of Galloway. Twice during the fourteenth century the abbey suffered from the invasion of English kmgs: the army of Ed- ward II plundered it in 1322, and it was burnt in 13S5 by Richard II, but soon restored.
King James I's twin sons, of whom the younger succeeded his father as James II, were born within the abbey in 1430, and Mary of Gueldres, queen of James II, was crowned in the abbey church in 1449. Twenty years later James III was married there to Margaret of Denmark. From the middle of the fif- teenth century the abbey was the usual residence of the Scottish kings, and James V spent consitierable sums on its repair and enlargement. In 1547 the con- ventual buildings, as well as the choir, lady chapel, and transepts of the church were destroyed by the commissioners of the English Protector Somerset, and twenty years later Knox's "rascal multitude" sacked the interior of the church. Queen Mary's second and third marriages took place at Holyrood, as well as other tragic events of her reign. From the Reformation to the Restoration little was done to Holyrood, but about 1670 the adjoining palace was practically rebuilt by Charles II. His Catholic suc- cessor, James II. ordered the nave of the chinch to be restored for Catholic worship, and as a chapel for the Knights of the Thistle; but he had to abandon his kingdom a year later. The nave roof was vaulted in stone in 175S, but fell in shortly afterwards, and all that remains of the once famous abbey church is now the ruined and roofless nave, of the purest Early English architecture, with some remains of the earlier Xorman work.
Liber Carfnrum Sanctw Cruris, containing foundation charter and documents relating to the eariy history of the abbey (Edin- burgh, Bannatyne Club, 1840); Historical Description of the monastery or chapel royal of Holyroodhouse (Edinburgh, 1818); Chronicon Sanctce Crucis to 1163 (Edinburgh, 1828); Chron. de Mailroa (Edinburgh, 1835); Bannatyne Miscellany, II, 27; Hay, Diplomatum Collertio in Advocates Library, Edinburgh; Walcott, The Ancient Church of Scotland (London, 1874), 301-^ .3'iS; Gordon, Monnslicon, I (flLisgow, 1868), 137-192; WlL- er,.-l, Memorials of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1846-8); Boetius Hist. Scotorum, tr. Bellenden (Edinburgh, 1536), bk. XII, c." xvi.
D. O. Hunter-Blair.
