[Sidenote:  Chant of Pange lingua etc.]

A procession, arranged like that of the preceding day, now goes to the Pauline chapel.  Assisted as usual by the first Card. priest, the Pope kneels and incenses the B. Sacrament three times. M.  Sagrista delivers the B. Sacrament to the Cardinal celebrant, who presents it to the Pope; His Holiness covers it with the end of the veil placed over his shoulders[97] and the procession returns to the Sixtine chapel [98].  In the mean time the choir sings the hymn “Vexilla Regis prodeunt”.  When the Pope arrives at the altar, he delivers the B. Sacrament to the Card.  Celebrant, who places it on the altar.  His Holiness then incenses it and returns to his throne.

During the procession the crucifix on the altar of the Sixtine chapel is removed, and a larger cross containing a considerable relic of the true cross is substituted for it.  This relic was sent to Pope Leo the Great in the 5th century by Juvenal Bishop of Jerusalem.  It was lost, but found again by Pope Sergius I in 687:  it was stolen at the sack of Rome in 1527, and removed from its case of silver:  however it was recovered by Clement VII, who ordered the rich cross, in which it is at present preserved, to be made:  in 1730 it was again stolen but recovered once more by Clement XII.  At the close of the last century, though the candlesticks, and the statues of the Apostles belonging to the papal chapel were lost, this cross was preserved.  In 1840 His present Holiness Gregory XVI ordered it to be again exposed to the public veneration in the Sixtine chapel:  He gave it to the charge of the chapter of S. Peter’s, who deliver it to M.  Sagrista on Good-friday morning:  and it remains in the Sixtine chapel till the end of Tenebrae on that day.  Moroni Cappelle Pontificie etc.

The Mass of the Presanctified, as it is called, is next celebrated; Card.  Tommasi, following S. Cesarius of Arles, calls it the office, and not the mass of good-Friday; for mass, strictly speaking, is not offered up on this day, since no consecration takes place, and the B. Sacrament is received by the celebrant under the form of bread alone, as it could not be preserved with safety under the form of wine[99].

[Sidenote:  Mass of the Pre-Sanctified.]

The Card.  Celebrant places the B. Sacrament on the paten[100] and thence on the corporal.  In the meantime the deacon puts wine into the chalice, and the subdeacon water, which however are neither blessed or consecrated[101] on this day.  The cardinal then places the chalice on the altar, and the deacon covers it with the palla or pall (a small square piece of linen, which serves to prevent flies etc. from falling into it).  The Cardinal incenses the offerings and the altar, washes his hands, and recites the Orate Fratres and Our Father.  All then kneel to adore the blessed Sacrament, which he raises over the paten.  He divides it as usual, but without saying any prayer [102], into three parts, putting one of them into the chalice.  Striking his breast, and acknowledging his own unworthiness, he receives communion, taking the sacred host, and afterwards the consecrated particle with the wine in the chalice [103].  He then receives the ablution, washes his hands, and returns to the sacristy with the sacred ministers.