The Church and its Furniture 3 middle. Unless the church has separate chapels, each with its own choir and sanctuary, this will be the High Altar of the church. All others are counted as side altars. There are two kinds of altar, the fixed (altare fixum) and portable altar (altare portatile). A fixed altar must be of stone and built into the church, so that it cannot be moved. The relics are buried in it. The whole top (the "mensa") of the altar is of stone and joined by stone to the ground ; it is all consecrated as one thing. In the case of the portable altar the only real altar is the altar stone. This is a stone in which relics are placed and sealed up. It is comparatively small, perhaps about one foot square or so, and an inch or two thick. Mass is said on this. 1 The altar stone may be placed on a table of any material. It is not fixed to the table. So in many churches there is what looks like a large wooden altar. Really this is only the framework or stand. In the middle (generally sunk into the wood) is the altar stone, which alone is consecrated. The framework may also be of stone. In this way an altar may be built of stone, used as a portable one, having on it the consecrated altar stone, till the whole can be conse- crated as a fixed altar. There is no difference in the ceremonies between a fixed and a portable altar. 2 There should be some kind of canopy over the altar. This may hang from the roof of the church or may stand on columns. It should cover not only the altar, but also the foot-pace, or at least the priest celebrating. The canopy stand- ing on columns is the ciborium. 3 It is better that the altar do not stand immediately against the wall of the church; indeed, at the consecration of an altar the rubrics require that the bishop go round it. The altar is raised above the floor of the sanctuary by steps. Every altar should be raised at least one step; the 1 During 1 Mass the chalice and bread stand on the altar stone. 2 The older principle was that, as no church may be consecrated unless a fixed altar be consecrated with it, so, on the other hand, an altar may not be consecrated except in a consecrated church. Thus consecrated church and consecrated altar always went together. But the S.C.R. 3059, ad XV (12 September 1857) allows an altar to be consecrated in a merely blessed church. This must mean a church which, although only blessed now, will be consecrated later for certain. Otherwise the altar would have to be desecrated inevitably when the church were adapted to another purpose. A consecrated ( = fixed) altar cannot be moved. 3 Not to be confused with " ciborium " in another sense, namely the little vessel that contains the consecrated Hosts in the tabernacle. The canopy over the altar, whether on columns or hanging, is "baldaquin '* in French, " baldacchino " in Italian. There seems no reason for using 1 these foreign words in English. The Caerimoniale Episcoporum, Lib. I, cap. xiv, § 1 requires a canopy over the High Altar. The S. Congregation of Rites (= S.C.R.) has frequently insisted on it for the altar where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved (27 April 1697, No. 1966; 23 May 1846, No. 2912; 23 November 1880, No. 3525). For the canopy at Benediction see p. 240.
