Our Homeland Churches and How to Study Them Part 6

Although the interior of its dome and clerestory of the nave and choir are extremely gloomy when compared with those of S. Peter's, the church is generally acknowledged to be far superior to the latter in its architectural details, and few, if any, Italian churches can be said to surpa.s.s it, either in general composition or external effect, although it must be admitted that everything having been sacrificed to attain the latter quality, S. Paul's taken as a whole, is neither worthy of its fine situation nor of its great architect.

Other churches which are excellent examples of this style are S.

Stephen's, Walbrook, and S. Mary Abchurch, London. Both show remarkable skill. The former is divided into a nave and four aisles, transepts, and a shallow chancel, by four rows of Corinthian columns, with a small dome over the intersection. The interior is very beautiful, and this church is generally considered to be Wren's masterpiece. S. Mary Abchurch, is nearly square in plan, has no columns and is covered with a domical ceiling, but so skilfully treated that the effect is singularly pleasing.

[Side note: Hawkesmore.]

Of the Elizabethan and Jacobean buildings it is necessary to say little, as at best they are but clumsy imitations of the Flemish, French and Italian Renaissance, while the style which we now call Queen Anne came in towards the close of the XVIIth century, and belongs of right to the reign of Charles II. Hawkesmore, a pupil and follower of Wren, was a strong architect who has left us Christ Church, Spitalfields, and S.

Mary Woolnoth. He also designed the western towers of Westminster Abbey, often wrongly ascribed to Wren, and the second quadrangle of All Souls'

College, Oxford. This architect, like the majority of his contemporaries, misunderstood and despised the Gothic style, with which he had little real sympathy; he drew out designs, which still exist, for converting Westminster Abbey into an Italian church, just as Inigo Jones had done with the exterior of the nave of old S. Paul's, but we cannot be too thankful that this abominable suggestion was never carried out.

[Ill.u.s.tration: An English Renaissance Church.

S. Stephen's, Walbrook, London. Generally considered to be Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece. _From an Engraving dated 1806._]

With King George III. on the throne our ancestors contented themselves with dull, but substantial, buildings of which some hard things have been written, but they were at least respectable and free from sham, while the churches, although not elegant, were well-built and occasionally picturesque, as we see by the perfect little building of this date at Billesley, Warwickshire.

The eighteenth century pseudo-cla.s.sical abominations and sham Gothic, so favoured by Horace Walpole and his admirers, can be briefly dismissed.

A more rampant piece of absurdity than that of erecting imitations of portions of Greek temples and adapting them for Christian worship it is difficult to imagine, and in the Pavilion at Brighton, Marylebone Church, and the "Extinguisher" Church in Langham Place we even surpa.s.sed in bad taste and vulgarity all the absurdities of the Continental architecture produced by the French Revolution.

[Side note: Barry and Pugin.]

Two men now came on the scene who, united, were destined to bring some kind of order out of this chaos. Barry and Pugin were both scholars and architects, for while the former rather favoured the cla.s.sical style he thoroughly understood the Gothic, while Pugin was a thorough mediaevalist, a true artist, and a bold exponent in his "_Contrasts_" of a complete return to mediaeval architecture as the only possible cure for the evils which had crept into the art of building.

Barry's idea, which was perhaps the more practical, was to correct by careful study the errors into which the later exponents of both Cla.s.sic and Gothic architecture had fallen, and endeavour by well thought out modifications to evolve a style more suitable to modern requirements.

Pugin, however, would have none of the evil thing, and although he supplied his friend with designs for the details and woodwork of the Houses of Parliament which Barry was rebuilding, they did not collaborate in any further way, and both died before the Houses of Parliament were completed, in which, as a matter of fact, Barry's designs were completely ignored. The Reform Club is considered to be the best of Barry's cla.s.sical buildings.

Pugin's earlier works were mostly Roman Catholic churches, and they are acknowledged to be an immense advance on any Gothic work which had been seen for centuries. In the Roman Catholic Cathedral of S. Chad, at Birmingham, there is a dignity, loftiness and simplicity surpa.s.sed by few Gothic buildings when that style was at its zenith, and from the time Pugin designed this building, architecture--notwithstanding our exhaustive study of archaeology, our immense resources of capital and labour, our science and labour-saving appliances, and the comparative accessibility of the finest materials--has neither developed nor advanced.

The most erudite Gothic mason could have possessed but little art knowledge as compared with the modern architect, and yet with our learned societies, wonderful libraries, easily obtained photographs and plans of the best buildings in the world; with writers far superior in intellectual acquirements to those of the Middle Ages, our vast wealth, with our tools such as the mediaeval craftsman could never have dreamed of, and with the experience of twenty centuries to guide us we have made no advance during more than half a century. Our best architects acknowledge that until we get a new method of building, originality in architecture is an impossibility, mainly because all the existing styles of architecture have been worked out to their legitimate conclusion, and have been perfected under circ.u.mstances and conditions with which we have entirely broken; the originality in detail which pervades and permeates our Gothic buildings and gives them the greater part of their charm, must, of necessity, be out of our reach until we blend the spirit of what we are pleased to call our practical age, with a certain amount of that spirit of poetry and romance, religious fervour and devoutness, which animated the builders and craftsmen of the past.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Typical Cornish Font.

Probably of the late Norman period. Now at Maker, near Plymouth.]

CHAPTER VIII.

CHURCH FURNITURE AND ORNAMENTS.

The most important part of the internal furniture of a church is the altar, a name derived from the Latin _altare_, a high place. The altar is a raised structure on which propitiatory offerings are placed. In the Christian church the altar is a table or slab on which the instruments of the Eucharist are displayed.

[Side note: The Altar.]

The early Christian altars were portable structures of wood, and the Church of Rome still allows the use of an altar of this description, although a consecrated stone, containing an authentic relic and regarded as the true altar, must be placed upon the wooden table. The slab forming the altar was sometimes supported on pillars, but more frequently on solid masonry, and previous to the Reformation it was marked with five crosses cut into the top, in allusion to the five wounds of Christ. From the period that stone altars were introduced it was usual to enclose within them the relics of saints, so that in some cases they were the actual tombs of saints. In England the altars were generally taken down about the year 1550, set up again in the beginning of the reign of Queen Mary, and again removed in the second year of Queen Elizabeth. In the church of Porlock, Somerset, the original high altar has been preserved, though not in use, being placed against the north wall of the chancel. In Dunster Church, in the same county, there is a solid stone altar, said to have been the original high altar, and in the ruined church of S. Mary Magdalene at Ripon, the high altar has escaped destruction. Of chantry altars we have several left, including those at Abbey Dore, Herefordshire; Grosmont, Monmouthshire; Chipping Norton, Oxon.; Warmington, Warwick; S. Giles's, Oxford; Lincoln Cathedral, and many others; and it is rare to find a Gothic church without some traces of altars in their various chapels, oratories or chantries.

The altar is, of course, an adoption by the Christian church of a pagan aid to worship, and at S. Mary's church, Wareham, which is thought to stand on the site of a Roman temple, are some pieces of stone considered by antiquaries to be portions of a pagan altar, on which burnt offerings were placed.

Above many Christian altars was placed a piece of sculpture or a painting representing some religious subject. These altar pieces sometimes consist of two pictures, when they are called "diptyches," and sometimes of three pictures, when they are called "triptyches," and both forms usually fold up or are provided with shutters. They are often rare examples of the Flemish and other schools of painting, and of great value.

At the Reformation the stone altar was displaced by the communion table, which at first occupied the position vacated by the altar. This gave umbrage to the Puritan mind, and the communion table was then usually placed in the centre of the chancel, with seats all round for the communicants; which arrangement is still in vogue in some of our English churches and in Jersey, although at the Restoration the communion table was, as a general rule, replaced at the eastern wall of the Chancel.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Durham Sanctuary Knocker._]

Long before the Christian era the altar was regarded as a place of refuge for those fleeing from justice or oppression, and this custom or privilege of sanctuary was sanctioned by the English bishops and was retained for many centuries by the Christian Church. Many of our parish churches claim to possess old sanctuary rings or knockers, but it is doubtful if any of these were ever used by fugitives, for the reason that although in early days every parish church had the right to grant sanctuary, few possessed the means of feeding and housing a refugee, save in the church itself, which was expressly forbidden. This is why we find records of fugitives travelling many miles at the risk of their lives and pa.s.sing hundreds of parish churches in their endeavour to reach Bury St. Edmunds, Hexham, Durham or some other of the well-recognised sanctuaries. The only sanctuary knocker remaining to-day, which is above suspicion, is that at Durham Cathedral. It is made of bronze and represents the grotesque head of a dragon, the ring coming from the mouth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Baptistery in Luton Church.

_Photograph Fredk. Thurston, F.R.P.S._]

Above the door is a small room in which attendants watched by day and night, and when a fugitive was admitted a bell was rung to announce that someone had taken sanctuary.

[Side note: The Font.]

The font, as we have seen, was originally placed in a separate building called the baptistery. The only known example of anything of the kind in England is that in S. Mary's Church, Luton, fully described in The Homeland Handbook, No. 47. It is in the Decorated style, dates from the time of Edward III., and is said to have been designed by William of Wykeham for Queen Philippa. It is composed of white stone with open panels, pierced by cinquefoils and quatrefoils, while the apex of each panel terminates in a foliated finial. The font inside is octagonal in form and of 13th century date, but it has been somewhat restored.

Ancient fonts were always large enough to allow for total immersion, and our present custom of baptism by affusion, or sprinkling, is only permitted, not enjoined by the rubric. In early days the sacrament of baptism was only administered by the bishops at the great festivals of Pentecost and Easter, for the reason that this afforded the greater convenience for immediate confirmation, but with the increase in the number of churches the rite was administered by the priests in every village. The font was required by the canon to be of stone, but there are a few Norman fonts made of lead, among them those at S. Mary's Church, Wareham, Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey, and at Edburton, Parham, and Pyecombe, Suss.e.x. A remarkable font is that at Dolton Church, Devon, made up of fragments of the churchyard cross, and there is also a somewhat similar one at Melbury Bubb, Dorset. By a const.i.tution of Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury (1236), fonts were required to be covered and locked, and at first these covers were little more than plain lids, but they afterwards became highly ornamental and were enriched with b.u.t.tresses, pinnacles, crockets, etc. It is doubtful if any fonts exist which can reasonably be supposed to be Saxon, although a few, like that at Little Billing, Northants, may possibly be of that era. Of Norman fonts we have large numbers. They are sometimes plain hollow cylinders; others are ma.s.sive squares with a large pillar in the centre, and small shafts at the corners. These fonts are generally ornamented with rudely executed carvings, consisting of foliage and grotesque animals.

[Ill.u.s.tration: An Example of a Leaden Font of the late Norman period.

Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey.]

The one in Winchester Cathedral is a good example, and there are three other very similar ones in Hampshire. Early English fonts are very often circular, and sometimes square, and they are often supported in much the same way as the Norman ones. In the Decorated and Perpendicular styles they are, with few exceptions, octagonal, and the details generally partake of the character of those used in the other architectural features of the period. There are hexagonal fonts of Decorated date at Rolvenden, Kent, and Heckington, Lincs. The font is usually placed close to a pillar near the entrance, generally that nearest but one to the tower in the south arcade, or, in larger buildings, in the middle of the nave.

[Side note: Stoups.]

The holy-water stoups sometimes found in our old churches are generally small niches with stone basins formed in the wall either in or just outside the porch, or within the church close to the door, or in one of the pillars nearest to the door. These niches resemble piscinas, except that they differ in situation, are smaller and plainer, and rarely have a drain. A good example of an outside stoup is that at Broadmayne, Dorset, where there is also one inside the church. They are rarely found unmutilated, but there is one in perfect condition in the north porch of Thornham Church, Kent; and a rather elaborate example at Pylle Church, near Glas...o...b..ry.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Reputed Saxon Font. Shaldon, Devon.]

The piscina is a water-drain formerly placed near the altar and consisting of a shallow stone basin, or sink, with a drain to carry off whatever is poured into it.

[Side note: Piscinas.]

It was used to receive the water in which the priest washed his hands, as well as for that with which the chalice was rinsed at the celebration of the ma.s.s. It was usually placed within a niche, although the basin often projects from the face of the wall, and is sometimes supported on a shaft rising from the floor. In the Early English and Decorated periods there are often two basins and two drains, and occasionally three. Within the niche a wooden or stone shelf is often found, called a credence-table, on which the sacred vessels were placed previous to their being required at the altar.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Detached Holy-water Stoup of unusual design.

Wooton Courtenay, Som.]

Piscinas are unknown in England of earlier date than the middle of the 12th century, and of that date they are extremely rare. Of thirteenth and succeeding centuries we have many examples, more or less mutilated.

Their forms and decorations are very various, but the character of their architectural features will always decide their approximate date.

[Side note: Sedilia.]

The Sedilia, from the Latin _sedile_, a seat, has come to be applied in modern times to the seats used by the celebrants during the pauses in the ma.s.s. They were sometimes moveable, but more usually in this country were formed of masonry and recessed in the wall. They are generally three in number, for the priest, deacon and sub-deacon, while in a few rare instances they number four seats, as at Rothwell Church, Northants, and Furness Abbey; or even five, as at Southwell Minster. Sometimes a long single seat under one arch is found, and when three seats are used the two western ones are often on the same level and the eastern one raised above them. Numerous examples remain in our churches, some being as early as the latter part of the 12th century, but they are mostly later and extend to the end of the Perpendicular style. Some of them are separated by shafts, and profusely ornamented with panelling, niches, statues, pinnacles, tabernacle work, and crowned with canopies all more or less elaborately enriched.

[Side note: Stalls.]

Stalls are fixed seats in the choir, either wholly or partially enclosed and used by the clergy. Previous to the Reformation all large and many small churches had a range of wooden stalls on each side and at the west end of the choir. In cathedrals they were enclosed at the back with panelling, and surmounted by overhanging canopies of tabernacle work, generally of oak, of which those at Winchester, Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster, and Manchester Cathedral are possibly our finest examples.

When the stalls occupied both sides of the choir, return seats were placed at the ends for the prior, dean, precentor, and other of the officiating clergy.