WlLHBLM GOTZ.
Bibliography: R. G. B. C. Graham, A Vanished Arcadia. Some Account of the Jesuits in Paraguay, 1607-1767, London, 1901; A. de Alcedo, Diccionario . . . de las Indias occidentalis, iv. 73 sqq., 5 vols., Madrid, 1786-89, Eng. transl., The Geographical and Historical Dictionary of America, 5 vols., London, 1812-15; E. Gothein, Der ckristlich-sociale Staat der Jesuiten in Paraguay, Leipsic, 1883; E. J. M. Clemens, La Plata Countries, Philadelphia, 1886; J. S. Bazan, El Dictador Francia, Madrid, 1887; D. Pfotenhauer, Die Missionen der Jesuiten in Paraguay, 2 parts, Gutersloh, 1891; Kurze Nachricht von der Republique von der Gesellschaft Jesu der Portugiessisch- und Spanischen-Provinzen, ed. H. Baumgarten, Wiener- Neustadt, 1892; C. A. Washburn, Historia del Paraguay, Buenos Ayres, 1892; R. von Fischer-Treuenfeld, Paraguay in Wort und Bild, Berlin, 1903; W. Vallentin, Paraguay, das Land der Guaranis, Berlin, 1907.
PARAKLETIKE, PAR AKLETIKON : A liturgigical book of the Greek Church which contains hymns, arranged like those in the Oktoechos, according to the eight tones of Greek church music, but differing from the Oktoechos in including hymns for week-days as well as for Sundays. The Parakletike is said to have been developed from the Oktoechos by Theodorus and Josephus of Studion. It was first printed by H. Geraldis at Venice in 1522, and has been edited under the title of Parakletike etoi oktoechos e megale, by A. Idromenos and I. Zerbos (Venice, 1897). (Philipp Mbyeh.)
Bibliography: Krumbacher, Geschichte, pp. 655 sqq.; W. Christ and M. Paranikas, Anthologia Grrnca carminum Christiano'rum, Leipsic, 1871; P. Meyer, Die theologische Litteratur der griechischen Kirche, p. 146, ib. 1899,
Paramenia
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
PARAMENIA.
I. Early and Western Church. The General Structure (§ 1). Separate Parts (§2). Ambo and Chancel (§ 3). II. Eastern Church. III. Protestant Churches. General Situation (§ 1). Specific Pieces (§ 2). Color Symbolism (§ 3).
I. Early and "Western Church: By paramentum was meant in the Middle Ages the possessions of the churches in the shape of materials which served in the cultus, including the altar vessels and carpets and hangings. But in the course of time the word became differentiated and carried only the idea of textiles other than vestments.
i. The In the larger and richer churches large
General quantities of these materials accumu- Structure. lated, as inventories prove. In architecture the models for the early Church were found generally in classical antiquity, and these forms governed the development of the paramen ta; the entrance first demanded treatment, then the intercolumnar spaces, then the choir, and so on, hangings being applied. This was very early. For the transition to the Middle Ages the Liber pontificalis (q.v.) is a rich source, showing, as it does, that, e.j., Adrian I. assigned to St. Peter's sixtyseven, to St. Paul's seventy-two, to S. Maria Maggiore's forty-four altar cloths, carpets, and hangings, and to other churches in proportion, the material being silk, half-silk, and linen. The orient was the source whence these materials were drawn, the ornamentation being of geometrical figures, plants, Biblical illustrations, and figures from hagiology, while the cross was especially affected. When architecture emancipated itself from the old models, adornment with these materials developed; the choir and the side chapels especially came in for ornamentation, though on festival occasions nave and entrance afforded place for carpets and hangings, while the Altar (q.v., III.) gave itself easily to treatment. When these materials were made in the West, the stuff used was wool or linen, fashioned upon earlier models, the monastic institutions being places of manufacture, while later the cities took it up. In the manufacture embroidery took a large, sometimes a luxurious part, at first upon oriental models, but afterward in more independent style. In the fourteenth century needlework on the Rhine, in Burgundy, and in Flanders reached its highest development. While naturally at first the models used were those from the East, in which the animals employed in decorations (griffin, peacock, eagle, lion) testified to the derivation, the tendency to independence was strong; so ornamentation based upon Scriptural stories, upon ecclesiastical material, and even drawn from common life, became usual. Some of the results are impressive, and follow the lead of Painting (q.v.). The Renaissance, too, had its influences both in weaving and in embroidery.
While the decoration of the structure as such was being developed, the individual parts also received attention. Naturally, among these the altar was emphasized. By early custom the altar table
was covered with white linen, which fell with a greater or a lesser margin over the edge. This overhang easily lent itself to decoration either by embroidery or in the weaving. In the development of the cloth covering of the altar 2. Separate there was by the Middle Ages the Parts. greatest advance, in the larger structures the materials being very rich — silks or cloth of gold, often richly figured. The general development was away from the early simplicity, and the structure itself of the altar and its appurtenances changed so that there were costly additions in the way of shelves and suspended parts made of gold or silver plate or leaf, adorned even with precious stones. In connection with these the hangings took on new importance and magnificence, were used often to set off the other decorations, and were hung between the pillars and at the sides. For the holding of the hangings framework of wood or iron was often employed. Present liturgical prescriptions of the Roman Catholic Church, which have their antecedents in the Middle Ages, require three linen altar cloths, two cover the altar table, while the third covers the entire altar and falls nearly to the foot. Upon the stone lies the chrismal, serving really as a protection for the other cloths. The service of the altar further requires the palla corporalis, a linen cloth about twenty-three inches square, used by the priest after the consecration of the bread to spread the latter upon and after to wrap it up. While it was formerly used also for the cup, the latter has now its own covering, the palla calicis, from which is to be distinguished the velum calicis which conceals the cup till the beginning of the offertory. Other pieces which have been employed were the palla dominicalis and the purificatorium, the latter a fine linen cloth for cleansing the cup.
In the Ambo and Chancel (qq.v.) the readingdesk was adorned with a narrow piece of cloth which hung down in front, in festal seasons the ornamentation was more elaborate. But in early and medieval times ambo and chan- 3. Ambo eel were decorated rather with plasand Chancel, tic material. In the early Church, as baptism was generally of adults and by immersion, the baptismal font was naturally enclosed by hangings; if the baptistery had columns about it, the hangings were suspended between the columns. The episcopal chair lent itself in festal seasons to this kind of adornment, especially after the thirteenth century when its position was changed. In the Middle Ages there was in use a large curtain shutting off the choir from the nave during fasting seasons, often ornamented with scenes from the passion. Carpets were a direct inheritance from early times and were used in the choir, and these were until a late period brought from the East or patterned after oriental models. The Western Church lacked prescriptions regarding all these adornments, and freedom in materials, color, and design was therefore exercised. The freedom of the early Middle Ages in all these matters has vanished before the growing restrictions of liturgical directions, with the result that a certain monotony has come in. This has in recent times,