Curious Church Customs and Cognate Subjects Part 17

It was reserved for the architect-artist to perpetuate in stone the beauties of the floral world, and nothing speaks a stronger though mute language than the foliage sculptured on the arches, doorways, and nooks of our minsters, churches, and abbey ruins.

"Ivy, and vine, and many a sculptured rose, The tenderest image of mortality, Binding the slender columns, whose light shafts Cl.u.s.ter like stems in corn-sheaves."

Not only was symbolism embodied in these carvings, but as an exercise and offering of devotion to the Unseen, the best efforts were lavished on it by the skilled master-workmen of the time.

Thus the scribe, the illuminator, the architect were all striving in a kind of companion rivalry, each ill.u.s.trating by his efforts some phase of artistic labour, or reviving a long-forgotten custom.

However much we may dissociate legend with truth, we cannot always ignore it, mingled though it may be with monkish ignorance and superst.i.tion.

The tale of many a n.o.ble structure has been veiled under the guise of the chronicle or the monastic ledger book, and the foundation of Waltham Abbey is said to have originated from a 12th century MS., ent.i.tled, "De inventione Sancte Crucis." Around the grand church of Minister in Thanet, gathers a pretty story, in that Dompneva, wife of Penda, King of Mercia, asked Ethelbert to grant her land in Thanet, on which she might build a monastery. In answer to how much she required, "Only as much as my deer can run over at one course." The King gave her the wide tract of land run over by the deer, and she founded the cloister on the spot where now stands Minister church. Local names have sometimes been a.s.sociated with the story of the cloister. The Bell-rock with its lighthouse was so called from the bell which the monks tolled, to warn the mariner of his danger.

The smallest item on the parchment page can have an extended meaning; the sign of the cross was found in many old deeds, which often contained an invocation to the Trinity, and the famous story of St. Helena, and the finding of the cross, has its incidents oft repeated in the MS., the printed book, the panel or fresco painting, as well as in the marvellous pieces of the sacred wood, so greatly venerated by the faithful! Of St.

Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, there is a drawing, said to be by his own hand, in the illumination of a ma.n.u.script in the Bodleian Library, and of dedication of churches to saints, the name is legion. St. Barnabas Day is specially linked with English life and manners, it was the longest day according to the old style, and the old rhyme,

"Barnaby bright, Barnaby light, The longest day and the shortest night."

Every form of chronicled lore, be it register, fabric roll, charter, or brief, teems with some peculiar custom which is a moving history, an heirloom from the old world, helping to connect the past and the present.

Architectural items enter largely into the varied forms of church doc.u.ments; the Indulgence often gave full particulars as to the repairs of a building, a fact most valuable for supplying the date at which any portion was built or renewed. Cathedral archives of whatever cla.s.s, are sure to abound in allusions to the fabric or its annals, sometimes going so far as to sketch some portion in the marginal pages, of which an example is found in a drawing of old St. Paul's in the 14th century, occurring in a MS. called the "Flores historiarum." The statutes of our minsters are rich in ecclesiastical lore, the mediaeval fraternities or guilds are often mentioned in them, and in the statutes of St. Paul's a most curious custom is mentioned of waits parading the streets of London, to give notice of the feast of the Transfiguration, and carrying with them a picture or banners of that event.

The antiquarian enthusiast on these subjects cannot do better than consult the work on "English Guilds" published by the Early English Text Society, and that of the "Statutes of St. Paul's," by Dr. Sparrow Simpson, 1873.

Fabric rolls and inventories are an endless source of detailed information, in both of these, most minute descriptions are given; the painting and drawing of images, the materials, even to the pencils and brushes, being mentioned. Perhaps the most elaborate is that of the expense rolls for St. Stephen's chapel, in the old palace of Westminster, a bill of charges that helps to identify the kind of work done at that time, and the general artistic treatment in the reign of Edward III.

The following entries may be given as a typical ill.u.s.tration:--

William de Padryngton, mason, for making twenty angels to stand in the tabernacles, by task work at 6/8 per each image 6 13s. 4d.

For seven hundred leaves of gold, bought for the painting of the tabernacles in the Chapel 1 8s. 0d.

The following item shows that there were artists who designed the work afterwards carried out by inferior craftsmen.

Hugh de St. Alban's and John de Cotton, painters, working on the drawings of several images. 0 9s. 0d.

An examination of this expense roll, of which this is not a t.i.the of the entries, printed in Smith's history of Westminister, will well repay attention.

With those graceful chantries, which adorn most of our minsters, are closely connected the service books of the middle ages, for it was usual to insert in the blank s.p.a.ces of the collects the names of the founders of the chantry chapels.

Indeed, the subtle way in which our old doc.u.ments, of whatever cla.s.s, interweave themselves with the annals of our mediaeval buildings, whether as regards the general plan, the design of some sculptured porch, the pictured images on walls, or the many-coloured votive chapel, each and all ill.u.s.trating a quaint legend or significant custom, is too numerous to indicate.

"Nor was all this labour spent in vain; their homes for centuries were in the silence of the sanctuary; their authors have mingled with the dust of the convent cemetery; over them have pa.s.sed the rise and fall of the kingdoms of this world; but through them history has been transmitted with a continuity and fulness not to be found in any other form of art, or, it may be said in any form of literature."[22]

"Mid all the light a happier age has brought, We work not yet as our forefathers wrought."

Shorthand in Church.

BY WILLIAM E. A. AXON, F.R.S.L.

When Job Everardt published in the year 1658, his "Epitome of Stenographie," he had certainly no intention of minimising the value of his art, but, on the contrary, was quite ready to magnify the office of the shorthand writer. The engraved t.i.tle-page is ornamented by eleven emblematical pictures, and stenography is declared to be "Swifter than the swift of foot" (Amos ii. 15); "Swifter than a post" (Job ix. 25); "Swifter than a weaver's shuttle" (Job vii. 20); "Swifter than waters" (Job xxiv.

18); "Swifter than clouds" (Isaiah xix. 1); "Swifter than ships" (Job ix.

26); "Swifter than horses" (Jer. iv. 13); "Swifter than dromedaries" (Jer.

ii. 23); "Swifter than roes" (1 Chron. xii. 8); "Swifter than leopards"

(Heb. i. 8); "Swifter than eagles" (2 Sam. i. 23). It may be remarked in pa.s.sing that the worthy Everardt consistently spells than _then_ in the text to each of these emblems. We have left to the last the picture which holds the place of honour. Here we see a worthy divine, robed in a black gown, set off with white collars and cuffs, and with his head covered by a furred skull cap. He stands in a low pulpit, his hands rest on the comfortable cushion, which is unenc.u.mbered either by book or MS. Opposite to him, and occupying the whole of a comfortable form or very wide chair, is a stenographer. He wears his hat, as was often customary in church during the seventeenth century; he has impressive white hands; he has not taken off his cloak, but on a fold of it allows a book to rest, in which, with an impossible pen, he is taking down the sermon, and stares with fixed gaze as the divine a.s.serts "My tongue is as the pen of a swift writer," and seems almost inclined to dispute the a.s.sertion that any tongue could keep pace with his nimble stylus.

It must be confessed that the early stenographers--to confine our attention to them--were not at all in the habit of under-valuing their art. Here is what this same Everardt, "dropping into poetry" like Silas Wegg, has to say in a triple acrostic:--

Secret, short, swift this Writer iS, the Sun's course seemes but slow to hiS The Teacher's nimble tongue comes shorT this Writer waits his nexT reporT Eagles arE swift, his pen doth fleE his quill an Eagle's seems to bE Noe clouds can flee, Nor waters ruN swifter theN his quick strokes have doN One postin g Swiftly TO and frO his Oft-turn'd quill doth even SO Galley or ship with Sailes and FlagG the Weavers shuttle, Leopard, StagG Roe, Dromedary, Horse oR Ha'R: oR the swift swiming Dolphin ra'R And the quick Scribes, As ShemajA Baruch, EzrA, E L I S H A M A Paint forth, as Patterns in a maP this ARTS true Portrature and shaP Haste Haste to learn what it doth teacH Swiftness and Shortness botH to reacH Yea both in StenographyLY much more in this EPITOMY

After this ingenious torturing of the Queen's English, it is not surprising to find,

"In steed [sic] of Tenne command{ts.} Lords Pray'r, Creed: Heer's Three and Thirty Languages to Reade,"

that is to say, the sentence "But the just shall live by his faith," in that number of tongues, first in his stenographic characters, and then transliterated into longhand. His dedication is written in the style of a sermon, and in an introductory verse he does not fail to claim that by his art are

"... Sermons writ even from the lip, And sudden thoughts before they slip."

His good opinion of his own stenography, and powers of versification, sustains him to the end of his book, and he bids us adieu in this wise:--

"Herewith Farewell; If you can tell What yet more fair, short, swift maybee, Let the world know it, candedly [sic] show it Or if not, Follow this with mee."

William Hopkins "Flying Penman" (1695), has the following commendation signed by one whose surname has since become famous in divinity:--

"Virgil, who largely wrot about the Gnat That saveing Man's life his own ruine gat, Might have emploi'd his pen about this Fly With greater pleasure and Utility, A Fly this is, but of more n.o.ble kind Than in the winged crue you ere did find: A Flying Man; the Flying-Pen-man 'tis Whose wing the fleeing game doth never miss.

The Eagle strikes down and eats up his prey Destroying all that he doth bear away, But what this Pen-man takes he doth preserve, And makes it better to all uses serve, When fleeting words would vanish with their sound He doth them stay, and them deliver bound, By Lines of Characters wherein they rest As in a dwelling that doth please them best.

The Art of Spelling at first was thought Strange, and they deem'd immortal who it taught, Spelling by Characters excelleth all That under any other Art doth fall.

Some Charactors creep, some go, these do Fly Showing their authors great agility, And this ability he doth impart By certain rules of a defusive Art."

EDWARD BEECHER.

Hopkins gives a long list of theological words, and of abbreviations of such phrases as "the blood of the saints," "the breath of the Almighty,"

"the candle of the Lord," etc. In reporting the words of preachers, he advises the use of a book, with a margin ruled off, in which to "set down the numbers and names of all the heads contained in the sermon. All these heads," he says, "with parts of the Inlargements used upon them may be taken by such who hardly ever wrote before." This statement must be received _c.u.m grano salis_.

The system best known as that of Jeremiah Rich, who appears to have copied it from his uncle, William Cartwright, was one that seems to have been favoured by the divines of the seventeenth century. It was modified by Dr.

Doddridge, and taught in his academy for the training of Nonconformist ministers, and then came into use in most of the older dissenting colleges, so that twenty years ago there were many who had thus been trained and conned the dumpty little bibles and psalm books that were engraved in Rich's system. That system has had many names attached to it.

Let us take that which bears the impress of "Botley's learned hand." One of his eulogists tells us

"Sermons this art transfers, its oft known The countrey reaps what's in the City sowne; The sacred pulpit is not its confine The general good is this art's main designe."

Botley's "Maximum in Minimo," which appeared in 1659, is avowedly Jeremiah Rich's "Pen's dexterity compleated." The theological uses of the system are further a.s.serted by ingenious devices for indicating such phrases as "to be joyned in love to those that are not of the people of G.o.d," "to embrace the cross of Christ," etc. This character = [symbol] signifies "to be miserable as the world is miserable," whilst [symbol] meant "a saint is a 1000 times better than the world." So in Noah Bridge's "Stenographie,"

issued in the same year, there are phraseograms for "in the name of the Lord," "wherefore said the psalmist," etc.

The "New Method of Short and Swift Writing," which was given away to purchasers of Dr. Chamberlen's "anodyne necklace for children's teeth," is declared to be "necessary for all Ministers of State, Members of Parliament, Lawyers, Divines, Students, Tradesmen, Shopkeepers, Travellers, and in fine, all sorts of persons from the highest to the lowest quality, degree, rank, station, and condition whatsoever, and write down presently whatever they hear or see done." The theologian here is somewhat lost in an indiscriminate crowd.

That shorthand was used for the purpose of obtaining copies both of plays and of sermons in the seventeenth century is sufficiently well-known.

There is a curious tract which professes to be a shorthand report of a discourse, by no less a person than our "Cromwell, chief of men," and although it is but a satire, its curious t.i.tlepage is nevertheless evidence of the common belief,--founded doubtless on the common practice,--that stenography could secure verbatim reports of the exhortations of preachers, whether clerical or lay. The tract professes to be,--