n they return to their places, their shoes
are put on by their respective _camerieri_, who afterwards leave the
chapel. The patriarchs and bishops assistant and non-assistant and the
generals of religious orders without shoes, and all the other prelates
etc. wearing their shoes, _adore_ and kiss the cross in like manner,
observing the same order as in going to receive palms on the preceding
sunday; and they also make their offerings before the cross. When
the sacred college has finished the _adoration_, the choir having
ended the _improperii_ sings the anthem _Crucem tuam_, the psalm
_Deus misereatur nostri_, the hymn _Pange lingua gloriosi lauream
certaminis_[95] etc. Towards the end of this beautiful ceremony the
candles are lighted, the deacon spreads out the corporal[96] as usual,
placing the purificator near it. He then respectfully takes the cross,
and places it on the altar amid the candlesticks.

[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 ven