Incense

Incense ("that which is burnt," Lat. incensum), the perfume which arises from burning certain resins and gum-resins. Etymologically the word should denote the substance which is burnt, and this meaning survives in frankincense (q.v.) - i.e. "the true incense," from Old French franc. Frankincense was so called because, being the aromatic most easily obtainable from the East, it came to be the only one used for purposes of ritual and fumigation. In the preparation of incense it is now usually mingled with styrax, benzoin, and powdered cascarilla bark. The use of incense is frequently mentioned in the Old Testament, and many existing monuments show that this rite was included in the worship of the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians. From the fourth of the Apostolic Canons it is evident that incense was burnt in the services of the Primitive Church. It is used in the Roman Catholic Church at the Introit, the reading of the Gospel, the offertory, and the Elevation at High Mass, also at the Magnificat and at funerals. Its use, which was discontinued in Protestant countries at the time of the Reformation, has been revived in a few cases by the so-called "Ritualist" party in the Church of England, but its ceremonial use during the Communion Office has been declared illegal.

Incense, though specially applied to frankincense (q.v.) as the only genuine or "franc" incense, is a general name for aromatic substances, mostly vegetable resins and gum-resins, which are burnt for their fragrance, generally as a religious ceremonial. Though largely sanitary in origin, especially when used at funerals or in conjunction with the slaughter and burning of animal sacrifices, its use may have been from very early times connected with the general notion that smoke ascended spontaneously heavenward and that "a sweet savour" was pleasing to the Deity. Among the Jews apparently sometimes frankincense was used alone, and at others a compound known as "ketoreth." This consisted of equal parts of frankincense, stacte, onycha, and galbanum (Exodus xxx. 34). Stacte was probably the gum or storax (q.v.) of Styrax officinale, native to the Levant; onycha was the operculum or small shell on the foot of a species of wing-shell (Strombus); and galbanum (q.v.) the gum of the Syrian Galbanum officinale.