Stones of the Temple Part 24

_St. Margaret's Accounts._ _Dublin Review_, xiii.

121: So called, as some suppose, because it could be _folded_ and removed when necessary.

122: Joel ii. 17.

123: Injunctions of Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth.

124: See _Wheatly on the Common Prayer_, p. 161.

125: "The earliest examples remaining are of wood, many of them beautifully carved, as at Bury and Ramsay, Huntingdonshire; Swancombe, Debtling, and Lenham, Kent; Newport, Ess.e.x; Hawstead, Suffolk."--Parker's _Glossary_.

There are beautiful examples of bra.s.s lecterns at Magdalene and Merton Colleges, Oxford, in most of our cathedrals, and many parish churches.

126: Derived from the French _aile_, a wing. It is no uncommon thing to hear persons who ought to know better talk about _side_ aisles, as if there were any other than side aisles.

127: Derived from the Greek, ????? [hagios], holy, and s??p??

[skopeo], to view. There are very good specimens at St. Clement's, Sandwich, and at St. Mary's, Gloucester. The latter has three compartments.

128: In some few churches--as at Rottingdean, Suss.e.x--the chancel, by the deviation of its north or south wall from the line of the nave, represent the inclined head of our Lord upon the cross.

129: The German word for piscina is Wa.s.serhalter, _water-holder_.

130: Derived from the Italian _credenzare_, to test by tasting beforehand; which refers to an ancient custom for the governor of a feast to taste the wines before presenting them to his guests. The application of the word to this piece of Church furniture is supposed to have its origin in an attempt once made to mix poison with the eucharistic elements.

131: The rubric at the commencement of the Prayer Book concerning "the Ornaments of the Church, and of the ministers thereof," still directs a credence-table to be placed in every church.

132: In Flamborough Church, Yorkshire, a few years since, a white glove was hanging over the centre arch of the very beautiful chancel screen,--perhaps is hanging there still. Sometimes a bridal wreath was hung up with the glove.

133: When the rood screens were pulled down by the Puritans and the chancels were alienated from their proper use, it became necessary, in order to protect the immediate precinct of the altar from general intrusion, to erect around it some barrier; hence the origin of altar-rails, which were first ordered to be put up by Archbishop Laud.

There are a few instances of ancient screens of considerable height immediately surrounding the altar.

134: As in Bottisham Church, Cambridge; Westwell, Kent; and most of our cathedrals.

135: Such galleries existed in the parish churches of Whitby, Yorkshire, and of Sandon, Staffordshire, a few years ago, but these have probably been since removed.

136: Rood is a.n.a.logous to our common word _rod_. It is a Saxon word, and means a cross.

137: It is a question whether the order in the canons for placing the Commandments in churches was intended to be other than temporary. At the time few comparatively had Bibles or Prayer Books, so there was then a reason for the order, which no longer exists. One of many churches in which the Commandments were painted at an early date over the chancel arch, is Fordwich, Kent; the date is 1688. At Dimchurch, in Kent, there is an old painting of the Commandments over the chancel arch, and a modern one over the altar.

138: As at C.... Church, Kent.

139: "_Cancellae_ are lattice-work, by which the chancels being formerly parted from the body of the church they took their names from thence.

Hence, too, the Court of _Chancery_ and the Lord _Chancellor_ borrowed their names, that court being enclosed with open-work of that kind. And so to _cancel_ a writing is to cross it out with the pen, which naturally makes something like the figure of a lattice."--Pegge's _Anonymiana_.

140: Some of our chancels, however, were originally made considerably _lower_ than the nave. When the church has been built on a slope it has sometimes followed the fall of the ground from west to east.

141: So called from the Latin word _sedes_, a seat. This position, on the south side of the altar, is in all respects the most convenient for the clergy when not officiating. To sit _facing_ the people is a most painful position for the priest, as the eyes of all the congregation naturally rest upon him; it has, too, the _appearance_ of irreverence.

142: See p. 223.

143: See p. 223.

144: This word is tautological, derived from our common word _rere_, back, and the French _dos_, back, from its position at the back of the altar. Many of these altar-screens have in recent years been restored at immense cost, as at Ely Cathedral.

145: In Braburn Church, Kent, an altar-tomb, with armorial bearings around and above it, occupies the very place of the altar itself. In the church of Prendergast, South Wales, large marble slabs with elaborate epitaphs occupy the _entire_ east end of the chancel. The most prominent of these--immediately over the altar--records that the departed "had learned by heart the whole Book of Psalms, and all the Collects of the Book of Common Prayer, with twenty-four chapters of the Old and New Testaments, before she was thirteen years old, and several more after"

However praiseworthy and marvellous these accomplishments, this is surely no fitting place for proclaiming them!

146: It is probable that the prayers and the sermon were formerly read from the same lectern. The first authoritative doc.u.ment of which we have record in which mention is made of the _prayer desk_, is the Visitation Articles of the Bishop of Norwich (Parker), in A.D. 1569.

In the parish accounts of St. Mary's, Shrewsbury, is an item in 1577 for "colouring the Curate's desk." But prayer desks were used at a much earlier time.

147: So called from the Latin word _almarium_, a closet or locker. The almery had many uses, and is to be found in all parts of the church, but chiefly in the chancel. Sometimes it was used to hold the priest's vestments; and in conventual churches, to hold the gold and silver vessels belonging to the monastery.

148: Gen. viii. 20; xii 7; x.x.xv. 1.

149: Exod. xxvii. 1.

150: The Council of Epaone in France (A.D. 509) ordered that none but _altars of stone_ should be _consecrated with chrism_. The custom of consecrating the altar with chrism is supposed to symbolize the anointing of our Lord's Body for the burial.--See _The Stone Altar_, by Rev. J. Blackburn, p. 46.

151: Rev. vi. 9-11.

152: "A type both of the womb and of the tomb."--_The Stone Altar_, p.

41.

153: 1 Cor. x. 4.

154: See "Prayer for the Church Militant."

155: Queen Elizabeth's _Advertis.e.m.e.nts_, A.D. 1564, require "that the Parish provide a decent TABLE, _standing on a frame_, for the Communion Table." Hence it appears that by the word _table_ at the era of the English Reformation, the _slab_ only was meant.--Parker's _Glossary_.

156: Matt xxvii. 66.

157: "The seal of the altar--that is, the little stone by which the sepulchre or cavity in which the relics be deposited, is closed or sealed."--_Durandus_, p. 128.

158: As at St. Mary's Hospital, Ripon. These ancient stone altars may always be known by the _five crosses_ on the table, emblematic of the five wounds of Jesus. Not infrequently, alas! this slab is to be found as part of the church flooring. The altar table of Norwich Cathedral is (or was lately) to be seen in the floor of the nave.

159: "Have you a Communion Table with a handsome carpet or covering of silk stuff, or such like?"--_Visitation Articles_, Bishop Bridges, 1634.

"Have you a carpet of silk, satin, damask, or some more than ordinary stuff to cover the Table with at all times?"--_Visitation Articles_, Bishop Montague, 1639.

160: The pall is an archiepiscopal vestment, forming at the back a figure like the letter Y, as seen on the armorial bearings of our archbishops.

161: "All Deans, Archdeacons, Parsons, Vicars, and other Ecclesiastical persons shall suffer from henceforth no torches nor candles, tapers, or images of wax to be set before any image or picture. But only two lights upon the high altar (the only altar now retained in our Church) before the Sacrament, which, for the signification that Christ is the true Light of the World, they shall suffer to remain still."--_Injunctions of King Edward VI._

"And here it is to be noted, that such ornaments of the Church and of the ministers thereof, at all times of their ministration, shall be retained and be in use, as were in this Church of England by the authority of Parliament in the second year of the reign of _King Edward the Sixth_."--_Rubric before morning Prayer._

162: Durandus, who wrote about A.D. 1290, says, "At the horns of the altar _two_ candlesticks are placed to signify the joy of Jews and Gentiles at the Nativity of Christ."