THE THURIBLE

The vessel in which the Incense is burned is called the Thurible, a word of Greek origin, meaning the same as our word censer, by which it is more generally designated. Accompanying the Thurible is a little vessel, shaped like a boat, in which the Incense is kept, and from which it is taken by a small spoon.

In ancient times the material of the Thurible was sometimes very precious. Constantine the Great, as we read in Anastasius (Vita S. Silvestri, i. 31), presented, among other things, to the basilica of St. John Lateran at Rome a number of Thuribles of the purest gold, set with a profusion of gems and precious stones.

In the ancient Anglo-Saxon Church particular attention was paid to the material as well as to the form of the Thurible. Nor was the use of Incense wholly confined to the sanctuary, for we have it recorded that in many churches large Thuribles used to hang down from the roof; or, as was often the case, from a specially-constructed framework supported by columns. On the greater festivals Incense was placed in these and allowed to burn throughout the entire service (Dr. Rock, Church of Our Fathers, i. 206). That these hanging Thuribles were also in vogue at Rome we read in the life of Pope Sergius, A.D. 690. Around the altar, too, it was customary in many places to have curiously-wrought vessels for the same purpose. Some of them used to be made so as to resemble various kinds of birds. In these an aperture with a lid to it was formed in the back, so that when fire was put in and Incense cast upon it the fumes would issue through the bird’s beak. Conrade, a writer of the twelfth century, describes the hollow-formed silver cranes that he saw in the church of Mentz, and how the Incense issued from them when fire was applied (ibid. p. 208, note).