Orientation. As Christians from an early period turned their faces eastward when praying, so Christian churches, especially in the Western countries, for the most part were placed east and west, in order that the worshippers, as they looked towards the altar, might also look towards the east. The Council of Milan gave approval to this custom, and pope Virgilius even order- ed the priests to celebrate towards the east. The cus- tom seems at first thought a very foolish one, for God is everj'where present. Yet the east is, as it were, his proper dwelling-place, and that quarter where heaven seems to rise. Then, too, the window in the ark is be- lieved to have faced the east. In the primitive Church praj'er was made to the east, according to Justin Mar- tyr, Tertullian, and Origen, Augustine and Basil; (1) in allusion to Psa. cxxxii, 7 ; Zech. xiv, 4, *• His feet shall stand in the Mount of Olives, which is before Je- rusalem on the east ;" (2) as the day-spring (Luke i, 78) ; (3) as the place of light; and (4) of Paradise (Gen. ii, 8) ; and (5) of the crucifixion and ascension, Pentecost, and second advent. Not only did churches, therefore, face the east, but the dead were laid with their faces to the east. The altar represents the Holy of Holies of the Temple; at it the death of Christ is commemorated, and from it the sacred food is administered to the faith- fuL Leo I (A.D. 443) condemned the custom of the people at Pome who used to stand on the upper steps in the court of St. Peter's and bow to the rising sun, partly out of ignorance, and partly from a lingering pa- ganism. In later times the custom continued of turn- ing eastward before entering St. Peter's, but with the intent of i)rayiiig to God. 'J'o avoid, however, any sus- picion of superstition, in the time of Boniface VIII a mosaic of the ship which is one of the symbols of the early Church for Christ [see Inscrii-tion.s] was erect- ed, towards which devotions were to be made. Urban VIII placed it over the outer great door. In some earlv churches (as those of the Holy Cross at Jerusalem, erected by Constantine, and Tyre, built by Paulinus at
the beginning of the 4th century) three great gates faced the east, the central being the loftiest, like a queen be- tween her attendants. The arrangement adopted was that of the Jewish Temple.
Modern investigation has determined that few church- es stand exactly east and west, the great majority in- clining a little either to the north or to the south. Thus, of three ancient churches in Edinburgh, it was ascer- tained that one (St. Margaret's Chapel in the Castle) pointed E.S.E. ; another (St. Giles's Cathedral), E. by S.i.S. ; a third (Trinity College Church, now destroyed), E.iS. The cause of this variation has not been satis- factorily explained. Some have supposed that the church was turned not to the true east, but to the point at which the sun rose on the morning of the feast of the patron saint. But, unfortunately for this theory, neighboring churches, dedicated in honor of the same saint, have different orientations. Thus, All-Saints' at West Beck- ham, in Norfolk, points due east; while All-Saints' at Thwaite, also in Norfolk, is 8° to the north of east. There are instances, too, in which different parts of the same church have different orientations ; that is to say, the chancel and the nave have not been built in exactly the same line. This is the case in York Minster and in Lichfield Cathedral. Another theory is that orien- tation " mystically represents the bowing of our Sav- iour's head in death, which Catholic tradition asserts to have been to the right [or north] side." But this theory is gainsaid by the fact that the orientation is as often to the south as to the north. Until some bet- ter explanation is offered, it may perhaps be safe to hold that orientation has had no graver origin than carelessness, ignorance, or indifference. In several early Roman churches, and in the western apses of Germany, the altars face westward, but the celebrant fronts the congregation. See Walcott, Saa-ed A rchceology, p. 416, 417 ; Chambers, Cyclop, s. v.
Oriflamme {Auri flamma, ox tanon. i.e. fume of gold) was a red flag of sendal, carried on a lance shaft- ed with gilt-copper. It was preserved in the abbey of St. Denis, to which it belonged ; and was taken b}' the kings of Erance, on occasions of great emergencj^, from the altar of that abbey, and on such occasions it was alwaj's consecrated and blessed. Louis VI received the oriflamme A.D. 1119 and 1125, and a writer of that period speaks of this as an ancient custom of the French kings. The consecration of a knight's pennon or gon- fanon was indeed an essential feature in the solemn re- ligious ceremonial by which he was elevated to the rank of knighthood in those ages. The consecration of standards for an army or a regiment is merely a dif- ferent form of the same general idea. See Knight- hood. The oriflamme is said to have been lost at Agincourt, in the Flemish wars, by Philip de Valois. It passed with the county of Vexin, the counts having been the protectors of the Church, and became the stand- ard of France in the time of Philip I. Other accounts state that it was last seen in the battle-field in the time of Charles I; and Fclibrin says that in 1535 it was still kept in an abbey, but ^vas almost devoured by moths. The oriflamme was charged with a saltire wavy, or with rays issuing from the centre crossways. In later times it became the ensign of the French infantrj'. The name seems also to have been given to other flags ; according to Sir N. H. Nicolas, the oriflamme borne at Agincourt was an oblong red flag, split into five parts. See Walcott, Sacred A rckaiolofpj, s. v. ; Student's History of France, p. 132. See also Joan of Arc.