Bell's Cathedrals: Southwark Cathedral Part 10

"Item a vestment of blewe velvyt with a crosse of redde velvyt sprenged with gold with all thinges perteyninge to the same."

"All thinges perteyninge to the same" here includes the vestments for the a.s.sistants, and the stoles, maniples, and apparels.

"Item a vestment of white bustyan, with a redde cross and all thinges perteyninge to the same."

Evidently vestments of coa.r.s.e white stuff such as were universal in England during the first four weeks of Lent, cf. the "ash-coloured,"

or white vestments still worn on weekdays in Lent in the South of France.

"Item an altar cloth hanginge afore the altare of redde silke with a crucyfix."

This was probably the frontal used in Pa.s.siontide, _i.e._, from Pa.s.sion Sunday until Easter. Other Lenten ornaments were the following:

"Item iiij paynted clothes for altar clothes in Lent."

"Item iij paynted clothes to hange upon saynt Katerynes and saynt Margarettes in Lent."

The following is an interesting description of a panelled or striped frontal and frontlet:

"Item an altar cloth for the frontur of thalter of redde velvyt and yelowe & redde damask in paynes with Kateryn wheles in the bordour above."

The sales are quoted as realising in all 165 17_s._ 8_d._, but an addition of the separate items does not result in this total.

The difficulties in the way of an exact calculation are (1) lax or ambiguous entries, _e.g._:

"Item iiij chalyces wayng liiij onz. wherof ij communyon cuppis were made by the said Calton (purchaser of a previous lot) waynge but lij onz.... xvijs viii.d"

(2) The omission of prices, and (3) the disappearance of articles quoted as "myssinge at the prays.e.m.e.nt of the vestry stuff," or (4) "myssinge and not delyveryd to the now Churche wardens neither sold or accompted for to thuse of the Churche."

The conclusion arrived at by the representatives of the parish is thus stated: "And where yt is a parcell of our othe to present howe and to what use the moneye c.u.mmynge of the sale of our ornamentes and plate is employd and in what place of our church it is bestowed, to that we saye yt is not in our wyttes to tell ... and surly yf there be not moche more reparacyons done upon the said churche shortly yt will utterly dekay."

The list of "plate and other things" left in the church is as follows:

Two communion cups with a cover all gilt.

Nineteen albes and six amices, lacking all their apparel, "whereof the wardens have made sixteen surplices for the choir, which was all that could be made of them."

Towels and tablecloths, good and bad, diaper and plain xij.

A cushion of green silk.

Three hea.r.s.e-cloths, one of Our Lady, another of Saynt Katheryne, and one of blue and red velvet.

Six "bells of accorde" and one small bell.

Which bells the parish bought of the late king of famous memory king Henry the eight at the purchesing of the hole church.

A bible and a paraphrases.

Three communion books and four psalters printed.

Two pair of good organs furnished.

A chest with two locks for the alms for the poor.

Five "great pieces of leed squayr lyeinge upon the bellowes."

This is followed by a _Memorandum_, which is not without a touch of humour under the circ.u.mstances, pointing out that "it appears in the accounts of Nycholas s...o...b..ige and his companions (Wardens of the first and second year) that they have not charged themselves in their book a good carpet and a chapel bell."

(_Signed by_) THOMAS DYSON, ROGER PYLFOLD, and THOMAS DOWMAN.

The Inventories are given _in extenso_ among the "Inventories of the Goods and Ornaments of the Churches in the County of Surrey in the reign of Edward VI," carefully edited by J.R. Daniel Tyssen, Esq., F.S.A., for the "Surrey Archaeological Collections," from the original doc.u.ments in the Public Record Office.

FOOTNOTES:

[33] The explanations in the footnotes have been kindly furnished by Mr. F.C. Eeles, Secretary to the Alcuin Club.

[34] The term "vestment" was often used to include not merely the chasuble, but also the other vestments of the celebrant and his a.s.sistant ministers; sometimes it also included the vestments of the altar, the frontal and upper frontal; it nearly always included the apparels, sometimes also the albe and amice, but at other times these were reckoned separately among the linen.

Sometimes the vestments for the celebrant, the gospeller, and the epistoler, were called "priest, deacon, and subdeacon," instead of chasuble, dalmatic, and tunicle. Sometimes the last two vestments (often identical in appearance) were both called dalmatics, or "deacons," or were both called tunicles.

Apparels were pieces of coloured or embroidered material sewn on to the albe and amice; they were on the skirt and sleeves of the former, and the amice apparel was like a large embroidered collar. These additions to the albe and amice were always used in England, and of course lace was unknown in old times.

[35] The amices are here called "head-pieces," as they were properly little hoods which could be turned up so as to cover the head, and were actually so worn out of doors. The Dominican Friars still wear the amice on the head when approaching the altar at ma.s.s.

Sets of vestments often had copes belonging to them. The cope was required not only for use when censing altars at choir services, but also for the celebrant in the procession which (like our Litany) preceded the princ.i.p.al celebration of the Eucharist on Sundays.

[36] Fannelles = fanons or maniples.

[37] Cloth of gold.

[38] Hangings for lecterns.

[39] Probably the last Prior, alias Linstede.

[40] "Work-day vestments" means vestments for use on weekdays at low ma.s.ses.

[41] A vestment with a Latin cross on the back of the chasuble; these were common in England in the sixteenth century.

[42] _Vide_ the design on the coffin-lid now preserved in the North Transept (p. 89).

[43] A small banner which was hung on the processional cross.

[44] Probably curtains for hanging behind the rood.

[45] Canopies for hanging above the pyx, which contained the reserved Sacrament, and was, as usual in England, suspended over the high altar.

N.B.--The Roman form of altar-tabernacle seldom if ever seems to have been used in England.

[46] Burses, to keep the corporals in.