This obedience was evidently an external sign of their acknowledging Victor as Pope in place of Alexander, the legitimate pontiff.  Anciently the Pope received the homage of the deacons in the sacristy; they afterwards went out of the sacristy to put on their dalmatics.  Cancellieri de Secretariis T.I.  In the sacristy the Pope gave the peace to the Bishops, Cardinals, Prefect, Senator, and other lay princes according to the canon Benedict, Cencius Camerarius and Cajetan.  The ordines Romani mention the bowing of the Subdeacon at the knees of the Pontiff, and the kissing of his hand by the priests, the archdeacon and secundarius De secretariis T. I, p. 409.]

[Footnote 33:  Many forms of benediction of persons and things taken from ancient Pontificals and manuscript rituals may be seen in Martene, De antiquis Ecclesiae Ritibus.  The church generally uses holy-water and incense when blessing God’s creatures, which are “sanctified by the word of God and prayer” 1 Tom.  IV, 5.  God had appointed water of expiation to be used by the Jews, Numbers XIX.  Lustral water used to be sprinkled also by the Pagans; Terque senem flamma, ter aqua, ter sulphure purget.  Ov.  Met. l. 7.  Anastasius says that Alexander I, who was Pope in 108 “appointed that water for sprinkling should be blessed with salt in private houses.”  It is mentioned also in the apostolic constitutions.  Boldetti in his Cemeterii de’ martiri notices the short columns supporting small vases, in corners of the chapels in the catacombs; and Bottari has published and illustrated in his Roma sotterranea an interesting fresco discovered in the catacombs of S. Agnese, and representing five figures carrying vessels closely resembling those still used for holy water; four of those figures carry branches supposed to be of the palm-tree:  the fifth holds an aspergillum with which holy water is still sprinkled.  A copy of this fresco may be seen also in Rock’s Hierurgia, p. 668.  Incense is a symbol of prayers.  “Let my prayer, O Lord” we say with the Psalmist “be directed as incense in thy sight”.  God had appointed it to be used in the Jewish worship, and St. John says, that an “angel came and stood before the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given to him much incense, that he should offer of the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which is before the throne of God:  and the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God, from the hand of the angel”.  Apoc.  VIII, 3, 5.  Of the apostolic antiquity of its use the Protestant bishop Beveridge adduces proofs in his Vindication of the apostolical canons.  The ancient liturgies of the east and west agree in prescribing the use of incense, and in particular at the beginning of mass, at the offertory etc.  See Renaudot, Assemani, Le Brun etc.  Constantine, according to Anastasius in his life of S. Silvester, gave two golden thuribles to the Lateran basilis, and a third adorned with jewels to the Baptistery.  See Card.  Bona, Rerum Liturgicarum lib.  I, c.  XXV, Sec. 9.]