The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture Part 11

In the choirs of cathedral and conventual churches, and in the chancels of some other churches, a movable desk, at which the epistle and gospel were read, was placed: this was often called the eagle desk, from its being frequently sustained on a brazen eagle with expanded wings, elevated on a stand, emblematic of St. John the evangelist. Eagle desks are generally found either of the fifteenth or seventeenth century; notices of them occur, however, much earlier. In the Louterell Psalter, written circa A. D.

1300, an eagle desk supported on a cylindrical shaft, banded midway down by an annulated moulding in the style of the thirteenth century, is represented; and in an account of ornaments belonging to Salisbury Cathedral, A. D. 1214, we find mentioned _Tuellia una ad Lectric.u.m Aquilae_.

Besides the bra.s.s eagle desks which still remain in use in several of our cathedrals, and in the chapels of some of the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, fine specimens are preserved in Redcliffe Church, Bristol, of the date 1638; in Croydon Church, Surrey; and in the church of the Holy Trinity at Coventry; other instances might also be enumerated. Sometimes we meet with ancient bra.s.s reading-desks which have not the eagle in front, but both the sides are sloped so as to form a double desk: of these, examples of the fifteenth century may be found in Yeovil Church, Somersetshire, and in the chapel of Merton College, Oxford. Ancient wooden reading-desks, either single or double, are also occasionally found; some of these are richly carved, others are comparatively plain, but all partake more or less of the architectonic style of the age in which they were severally constructed, and from which their probable dates may be ascertained. In Bury Church, Huntingdonshire, is a wooden desk with a single slope, and the vertical face presented in front is covered with arches and other carved ornaments: this perhaps may be referable to the latter part of the fourteenth century. A rich double desk, of somewhat later date, with the shaft supported by b.u.t.tresses of open-work tracery, is preserved in Ramsey Church, Huntingdonshire. In Aldbury Church, Hertfordshire, is an ancient double lecturn or reading desk, of wood, of the fifteenth century, much plainer in design than those at Bury and Ramsey; the shaft is angular, with small b.u.t.tresses at the angles, and with a plain angular-shaped moulded capital and base, which latter is set on a cross-tree. In Hawstead Church, Suffolk, is a wooden desk with little ornament, supported on an angular shaft with an embattled capital, and moulded base with leaves carved in relief: this is apparently of the latter part of the fourteenth century. The ancient wooden desks found in some of our churches must not, however, be confounded with a more numerous cla.s.s constructed and used subsequent to the Reformation.

Proceeding up the chancel or choir, we ascend by three steps to the platform, on which the high altar anciently stood: this was so called to distinguish it from other altars, of which there were often several, in the same church; high ma.s.s was celebrated at it, whereas the other altars were chiefly used for the performance of low or private ma.s.ses. The most ancient altars were of wood, afterwards they were constructed of stone; those of the primitive British churches are spoken of by St. Chrysostom.

By a decree of the council of Paris, held A. D. 509, no altar was to be built but of stone. Amongst the excerptions of Ecgbert, archbishop of York A. D. 750, was one that no altars should be consecrated with chrism but such as were made of stone; and by the council of Winchester, held under Lanfranc A. D. 1076, altars were enjoined to be of stone. The customary form of such was a ma.s.s of stone supporting an altar table or slab, and resembling the tombs of the martyrs, at which the primitive Christians held their meetings; from which circ.u.mstance it became customary to enclose in every altar relics of some saint, and without such relics an altar was esteemed incomplete.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ancient Pix, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.]

Pertaining to the high altar, which was covered with a frontal and cloths, and anciently enclosed at the sides with curtains suspended on rods of iron projecting from the wall, was a crucifix, which succeeded to the simple cross placed on the altars of the Anglo-Saxon churches; a pair[180-*] of candlesticks, generally with spikes instead of sockets, on which lights or tapers were fixed; a pix, in which the host was kept reserved for the sick; a pair of cruets, of metal, in which were contained the wine and water preparatory to their admixture in the eucharistic cup; a sacring bell; a pax table, of silver or other metal, for the kiss of peace, which took place shortly before the host was received in communion; a stoup or stok, of metal, with a sprinkle for holy water; a censer or thurible[181-*], and a ship, (a vessel so called,) to hold frankincense; a chrismatory[181-], an offering basin, a basin which was used when the priest washed his hands, and a chalice and paten. Costly specimens of the ancient pix, containing small patens for the reception of the host, are preserved amongst the plate belonging to New College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. A pix of a much plainer description, but without its cover, of the metal called latten, was until recently preserved in the church of Enstone, Oxfordshire: the body of this was of a semi-globular form, supported on an angular stem, with a k.n.o.b in the midst, and in appearance not unlike a chalice. The monstrance, in which the host was exhibited to the people, and which has been sometimes confounded with the pix[182-*], does not appear to have been introduced into our churches before the fifteenth century; on the suppression of the monasteries and chantries we find it noticed in the inventories then taken of church furniture, as in that of the Priory of Ely, where it is called "a stonding monstral for the sacrament;" and in that of St. Augustine's Monastery, Canterbury, where it is described as "one monstrance, silver gilt, with four gla.s.ses."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sedilia, Crick Church, Northamptonshire.]

Near the high altar we frequently find, in the south wall of the chancel, a series of stone seats, sometimes without but generally beneath plain or enriched arched canopies, often supported by slender piers which serve to divide the seats. In most instances these seats are three in number, but they vary from one to five, and are the _sedilia_ or seats formerly appropriated during high ma.s.s to the use of the officiating priest and his attendant ministers, the deacon and sub-deacon, who retired thither during the chanting of the _Gloria in excelsis_, and some other parts of the service[183-*]. The sedilia sometimes preserve the same level, but generally they graduate or rise one above another, and that nearest the altar, being the highest, was occupied by the priest; the other two by the deacon and sub-deacon in succession[183-]. We do not often meet with sedilia of so early an era as the twelfth century; there are, however, instances of such, as in the church of St. Mary, at Leicester, where is a fine Norman triple sedile, divided into graduating seats by double cylindrical piers with sculptured capitals, and the recessed arches they support are enriched on the face with a profusion of the zigzag moulding.

In the south wall of the choir of Broadwater Church, Suss.e.x, is a stone bench beneath a large semicircular Norman arch, the face of which is enriched with the chevron or zigzag moulding. In Avington Church, Berkshire, is a stone beneath a plain segmental arch. Norman sedilia also occur in the churches of Earls Barton, Northamptonshire, and of Wellingore, Lincolnshire. From the commencement of the thirteenth century up to the Reformation sedilia became a common appendage to a church, and the styles are easily distinguished by their peculiar architectonic features. Some are without canopies, and are excessively plain. On the south side of the chancel of Minster Lovel Church, Oxfordshire, is a stone bench without a canopy or division, and plain stone benches thus disposed are found in the chancel of Bloxham Church, Oxfordshire, and of Rowington Church, Warwickshire. In Sedgeberrow Church, Gloucestershire, are two sedilia without canopies; and in Standlake Church, Oxfordshire, the sedilia, three in number, are without canopies or ornament. In Spratten Church, Northamptonshire, is a stone bench for three persons under a plain recessed pointed arch. In Priors Hardwick Church, Warwickshire, is a sedile for the priest, and below that one double the size for the deacon and sub-deacon; both are under recessed arched canopies. Quadruple sedilia occur in the churches of Turvey and Luton, Bedfordshire; in the Mayor's Chapel, Bristol; in Gloucester Cathedral; in the church of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire; and in Rothwell Church, Northamptonshire: these are beneath canopies, and most of them are highly enriched. Quintuple sedilia sometimes occur, but are very rare; in the conventual church of Southwell, Nottinghamshire, are, however, five sedilia beneath ogee-headed canopies richly ornamented. A single sedile for one person only is occasionally met with, but not often.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Double Piscina, Salisbury Cathedral.]

Eastward of the sedilia, in the same wall, is a _fenestella_ or niche, sometimes plain, but often enriched with a crocketed ogee or pedimental hood moulding in front, over the arch, which is trefoiled or cinquefoiled in the head. This niche contains a hollow perforated basin or stone drain, called the _piscina_ or _lavacrum_[186-*], into which it appears that after the priest had washed his hands, which he was accustomed to do before the consecration of the elements and again after the communion, the water was poured, as also that with which the chalice was rinsed. The usage of washing the hands before the communion is one of very high antiquity, and is expressly noticed in the Clementine Liturgy, and by St.

Cyril in his mystical Catechesis[187-*]; we do not, however, find the piscina in our churches of an era earlier than the twelfth century, and even then it was of uncommon occurrence; but in the thirteenth century the general introduction is observable. In Romsey Church, Hampshire, is the shaft and basin (the latter cushion-shaped) of a curious Norman piscina: this is now lying loose, in a dilapidated state. In the south apsis of the same church is another Norman piscina, consisting of a quadrangular-shaped basin projecting from the south wall; and on the south side of the chancel of Avington Church, Berkshire, is a plain Norman piscina within a simple semicircular arched recess. The churches of Kilpeck, Herefordshire, Keelby, Lincolnshire, and Bapchild, Kent, also contain Norman piscinae.

Those of all the various styles of later date are common; they exhibit, however, an interesting variety in design and ornamental detail. The drain of the piscina communicated with a perforated stone shaft, commonly enclosed in the wall, through which the water was lost in the earth; as in the case of the piscina with its shaft taken out of the south wall of the chancel of the now destroyed church of Newnham Regis, Warwickshire.

Sometimes a piscina was a subsequent addition to a structure of early date, as in the old and now demolished church of Stretton-upon-Dunsmore, Warwickshire, in the south wall of the Norman chancel of which a piscina of the latter part of the thirteenth century had been inserted.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Piscina, Newnham Regis, Warwickshire.]

The piscina is very common in churches even where the sedilia or stone seats are wanting, and not only in the chancel, but also in the south walls at the east end of the north and south aisles, and in mortuary chapels, as will be presently noticed; it appears, in short, to have been an indispensable appendage to an altar.

Sometimes the piscina is double, and contains two basins with drains, the one for receiving the water in which the hands had been washed, the other for the reception of the water with which the chalice was rinsed after the communion[189-*]. In Rothwell Church, Northamptonshire, on the south side of the chancel, are the vestiges of a triple piscina; the fenestella has been destroyed, but the three basins with their drains remain.

Across the _fenestella_, or niche which contains the piscina, a shelf of stone or wood may be frequently found: this was the _credence_[190-*], or table on which the chalice, paten, ampullae, and other things necessary for the celebration of ma.s.s were, before consecration, placed in a state of readiness on a clean linen cloth; and this originated from the p???es??, or side table of preparation, used in the early church; a recurrence to which ancient and primitive custom by some of the divines of the Anglican church, after the Reformation, occasioned great offence to be taken by the Puritan seceders. In some instances a side table of stone or wood was used for this purpose; and a fine credence table of stone, the sides of which are covered with panelled compartments, is still remaining on the south side of the choir, St. Cross Church, near Winchester[190-].

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ambrie or Locker, Chaddesden Church, Derbyshire.]

The credence table, or shelf above the piscina, must not be confounded with the _ambrie_ or _locker_, a small square and plain recess usually contained in the east or north wall, near the altar. In this the chalice, paten, and other articles pertaining to the altar were kept when not in use. The wooden doors formerly affixed to these ambries have for the most part either fallen into decay or been removed, but traces of the hinges may be frequently perceived; and a locker in the north wall of the chancel of Aston Church, Northamptonshire, still retains the two-leaved wooden door. Sometimes shelves are set across the lockers. In the east wall of Earls Barton Church, Northamptonshire, is a large locker divided into two unequal parts by a stone shelf inserted in it; and in the north aisle of Salisbury Cathedral are two large triangular-headed lockers or ambries, each which[TN-6] contains two shelves.

Within the north wall of the chancel, near the altar, a large arch, like that of a tomb, may often be perceived; within this the _holy sepulchre_, generally a wooden and movable structure, was set up at Easter, when certain rites commemorative of the burial and resurrection of our Lord were anciently performed with great solemnity; for on Good Friday the crucifix and host were here deposited, and watched the following day and nights; and early on Easter morning they were removed from thence with great ceremony, and replaced on the altar by the priest. In the accounts of churchwardens of the fifteenth and early part of the sixteenth century we meet with frequent notices of payments made for watching the sepulchre at Easter[192-*]. Sometimes the sepulchre was altogether of stone, and a fixture, and enriched with architectural and sculptured detail, as in the well-known specimen at Heckington, Lincolnshire, and the fine specimen of tabernacle-work in Stanton Harcourt Church, Oxfordshire.

At the back of the high altar was affixed a reredos, or screen of tabernacle-work, costly specimens of which contained small images set on brackets under projecting canopies; an alabaster table or sculptured bas relief, placed just over the altar, was also common. The high altar reredos is still remaining, though in a mutilated condition, in the Abbey Church, St. Alban's; it was erected A. D. 1480, and is perhaps the most splendid specimen we have; and in Bristol Cathedral a portion of the high altar reredos is also left. The chantry altar reredos is more frequently remaining, even where the altar and alabaster table[193-*] above have been destroyed; rarely, however, in a perfect state. In the seventeenth century the rich tabernacle-work was sometimes plastered over, probably to preserve it from iconoclastic violence. In many of our cathedrals, as at Gloucester, Bristol, Wells, and Worcester, and in some of the chantries attached to Henry the Seventh's Chapel, Westminster, specimens of the chantry reredos screen, which appear to have abounded more or less with sculptured and architectural detail, are to be met with; and remains of the painting and gilding with which they were anciently covered may in some instances be traced. In a Survey of the Priory Church, Bridlington, taken at the suppression, we find noticed, "The Reredose at the highe alter representyng Criste at the a.s.sumpcyon of our Lady and the XII.

appostells, w^t. dyvers other great imagys, beyng of a great heyght, ys excellently well wrought, and as well gylted." Five small chapels are also mentioned, "w^t. fyve alters and small tables of alleblaster and imag's."

Sometimes, however, the s.p.a.ce behind the altar was occupied by a painted altar-piece, on wood or panel; a curious but mutilated specimen of which, of the latter part of the fifteenth century, is still preserved in the conventual church, Romsey.

Over the high altar was the great east window of the church, glazed with painted gla.s.s; other windows in the church were also thus filled. The subjects pourtrayed on the gla.s.s were sometimes scriptural, sometimes legendary. Single figures of saints, distinguished by their peculiar symbols, are common; figures of crowned heads, prelates, and warriors also frequently occur; and on some windows are depicted the arms and sometimes even the portraits of different benefactors to the church, with scrolls bearing inscriptions. We have, perhaps, few remains of ancient stained gla.s.s in our churches of a period antecedent to the thirteenth century: of this era, probably, are those curious circular designs which fill the greater portion of the lights at the back of the sedilia in Dorchester Church, Oxfordshire: one representing St. Augustine and St. Birinus, the first bishop of that ancient see; another, a priest and deacon, the former with the host, the latter bearing the ampullae. Of this period also is some ancient stained gla.s.s in Chetwood Church, Bucks, the ground of which is covered with a kind of mosaic pattern, a usual feature in the more ancient stained gla.s.s, and the borders partake of a tendril foliage; whilst in pointed oval-shaped compartments, forming the well-known symbol _vesica piscis_, are single figures of saints and crowned heads, each clad in a vest and mantle of two different colours. In the fourteenth century single figures under rich canopies are common, but we begin to lose sight of the mosaic pattern as a back-ground. The stained gla.s.s in the windows of the choir of Merton College Chapel, Oxford, is either very early in this, or of a late period in the preceding century, and exhibits single figures under rich canopies: over the head of one of these, (the kneeling figure of a monk in his cowl,) is a scroll inscribed "_Magister Henricus de Mammesfeld me fecit_." In the windows of Tewkesbury Abbey Church are several single figures of this period, some of knights in armour. In the chancel of Stanford Church, Northamptonshire, are single figures of the apostles in painted gla.s.s, each appearing within an ogee-headed canopy, cinquefoiled within the head and crocketed externally, and the sides of the canopy are flanked by pinnacled b.u.t.tresses in stages. Specimens of stained gla.s.s of the fifteenth century are numerous in comparison with those of an earlier period; we find such in the east window of Langport Church, Somersetshire, where single figures occur of St. Clemens, St.

Catherine, St. Elizabeth, and of many other saints. Some splendid remains of painted gla.s.s of the fifteenth century are likewise preserved in the windows of the choir of Ludlow Church, Salop, mostly in single figures; amongst them is the representation of St. George in armour, of the reign of Henry the Seventh; the figures of the Virgin and infant Christ may also be noticed. Towards the close of this century kneeling figures, not merely disposed single, but also in groups, formally arranged, may be observed. As a composition, wherein a better display of grouping and aerial perspective is evinced, the splendid window in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, of the crucifixion between the two thieves, and numerous figures in the foreground, not grouped formally but with artistical feeling, with the figures of St. George and St. Catherine on each side of the princ.i.p.al design, and the portraits of Henry the Seventh and his consort Elizabeth in separate compartments beneath, each kneeling before a faldstool, may be noticed. This window, which in some of the details exhibits an approach to the renaissance style, was presented to Henry the Seventh by the magistrates of Dort in Holland, to adorn his chapel at Westminster. The era of the various specimens of ancient stained gla.s.s we meet with in our churches may generally be ascertained by the costume and disposition of the figures, the form of the shields, the mosaic pattern or other back-ground, and architectural designs of the canopies.

The pavement beneath the high altar was frequently composed of small square encaustic bricks or tiles, whereon the arms of founders and benefactors, interspersed with figures, flowers, and emblematic devices, were impressed, painted, and glazed; other parts of the church were also paved with these tiles.

The walls of the church were covered with fresco paintings of the day of judgment, legendary stories, portraits of saints, and scriptural, allegorical, and historical subjects, in the conventional styles of the different ages in which such were executed, the costume and details being according to the fashion then prevailing. These paintings have in most churches been obliterated by repeated coats of whitewash, so that few perfect specimens now remain; traces of such are, however, occasionally brought to light in the alteration and reparation of our ancient churches.

The subject of the judgment-day was commonly represented on the west wall of the nave, or over the chancel arch; and in the contract for the erection of the Lady Chapel, St. Mary's Church, Warwick, A. D. 1454, is a covenant "to paint fine and curiously, to make on the west wall the dome of our Lord G.o.d Jesus, and all manner of devises and imagery thereto belonging." The west front of the wall over the chancel arch, Trinity Chapel, Stratford-upon-Avon, was some years back found to be thus covered; but this painting, with others in the same chapel, was afterwards again obliterated[199-*]. A curious fresco painting of the last judgment, discovered a few years ago on the west face of the wall over the chancel arch, Trinity Church, Coventry, has, however, been very carefully preserved, and the coat of whitewash which tended to conceal it probably ever since the Reformation has been judiciously removed. The legend of St.

Christopher, represented by a colossal figure with a beam-like walking-staff, carrying the infant Christ on his shoulders through the water, was generally painted on the north wall of the nave or body of the church. A fresco painting of this subject, half obliterated, is still apparent on the north wall of the nave of Burford Church, Oxfordshire; and other instances might be adduced. The murder of Archbishop Becket was also a very favourite subject: an early pictorial representation of the thirteenth century, of this event, is still visible on one of the walls of Preston Church, Suss.e.x; it formed, likewise, one of the subjects represented on the walls of Trinity Chapel, Stratford-upon-Avon; and a painting of the same subject on panel, executed in the middle of the fifteenth century, was formerly suspended over or near the tomb of Henry the Fourth in Canterbury Cathedral[200-*]. Several vestiges of ancient fresco wall-paintings, more or less obliterated, are still preserved in Winchester Cathedral. The walls of our churches were even in the Anglo-Saxon era embellished with paintings; and such are described as decorating the walls of the church of Hexham in the seventh century. By the synod of Calcuith, held A. D. 816, a representation of the saint to whom a church was dedicated was required to be painted either on the wall of the church or on a tablet suspended in the church.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ancient Stone Reliquary or Shrine, Brixworth Church, Northamptonshire.]

In most of the large conventual churches, and also in some of the smaller parochial churches, shrines containing relics of the patron or other saints were exhibited; these were either fixed and immovable, of tabernacle-work, of stone or wood, or partly of both, or were small movable feretories, which could be carried on festivals in procession. Of the fixed shrines, that in Hereford Cathedral of Bishop Cantelupe, of the date A. D. 1287, is a fine and early specimen, in very fair preservation.

In the north aisle of the abbey church, Shrewsbury, are some remains of a stone shrine, which from the workmanship may be considered as a production of the early part of the fifteenth century: this is much mutilated: but the shrine of St. Frideswide, in Oxford Cathedral, the lower part of which is composed of a stone tomb, the upper part of rich tabernacle-work of wood, is still tolerably perfect: this is also of the fifteenth century.

Of the small movable feretories, one apparently of the workmanship of the twelfth century, seven inches long and six high, formed of wood, enamelled and gilt, with figures on the sides representing the crucifixion, is still preserved in Shipley Church, Suss.e.x; and a small stone reliquary or shrine of the fourteenth century was discovered a few years ago, and is now preserved in the church of Brixworth, Northamptonshire.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ancient Organ.]

The organ, as a solemn musical instrument, may claim a very early origin, and has been in use in our churches from the Anglo-Saxon era. The ancient organs were small, and all the pipes were exposed. The phrase "_a pair of organs_," so frequently met with in old inventories and church accounts, may probably have answered to the great and choir organ of a subsequent period--one instrument in two divisions. The mechanism of the old organs was rude and simple, compared with the improvements of modern times, and the cost was small; they were generally placed in the rood-loft.

The church chest is often an ancient and interesting object: sometimes we find it rudely formed, or hollowed out of the solid trunk of a tree, with a plain or barrel-shaped lid of considerable thickness. The churches of Bradford Abbas, Dorsetshire; Long Sutton, Somersetshire; and Ensham, Oxfordshire; contain chests thus rudely constructed. Sometimes they are strongly banded about with iron. The fronts and sides of these chests are not unfrequently embellished more or less richly with carved tracery, panel-work, and other detail in the style prevalent at the period of their construction. In Clemping Church, Suss.e.x, is an early chest of the thirteenth century, the front of which exhibits a series of plain pointed arches trefoiled in the head, and other carved work. In Haconby Church, Lincolnshire, and in Chevington Church, Suffolk, are very rich chests covered with tracery and detail in the decorated style of the fourteenth century. In Brailes Church, Warwickshire, is an ancient chest of the fifteenth century covered with panel-work compartments, with plain pointed arches foliated in the heads. Panelled chests of this century are numerous. In Shanklin Church, Isle of Wight, is a chest bearing the date of 1519, on which no architectural ornament is displayed, but the initials T. S. (Thomas Selkstead) are fancifully designed, and are separated by the lock, and a coat of arms beneath.

In the south wall of each aisle, near the east end, and also in other parts of the church, we frequently find the same kind of fenestella or niche containing a piscina, and sometimes a credence shelf, as that before described as being in the chancel: this is a plain indication that an altar has been erected in this part of the church; and this end of the aisle was generally separated from the rest of the church by a screen, the lower part of panel, the upper part of open-work tracery, of stone or wood, similar to that forming the division between the chancel and nave; and the s.p.a.ce thus enclosed was converted into or became a private chapel or chantry; for it was anciently the custom, especially during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, for lords of manors and persons of wealth and local importance to build or annex small chapels or side aisles to their parish churches, and these were endowed by license from the crown with land sufficient for the maintenance, either wholly or in part, of one or more priests, who were to celebrate private ma.s.ses daily or otherwise, as the endowment expressed, at the altar erected therein, and dedicated to some saint, for the souls of the founder, his ancestors and posterity, for whose remains these chantry chapels frequently served as burial-places. At this service, however, no congregation was required to be present, but merely the priest, and an acolyte to a.s.sist him; and it was in allusion to the low or private ma.s.ses thus performed, that Bishop Jewell, whilst condemning the practice as untenable, observes, "And even suche be their private ma.s.ses, for the most part sayde in side iles, alone, without companye of people, onely with one boye to make answer."

The screens by which these chapels were enclosed have in numerous instances been destroyed; still many have been preserved, and chantry chapels parted off the church by screen-work of stone may be found in the churches of Bradford Abbas, Dorsetshire; and Aldbury, Hertfordshire; in which latter church is a very perfect specimen of a mortuary chapel, with a monument and rec.u.mbent effigies in the midst of it. Chantry chapels enclosed on two of the sides by wooden screen-work are more common.

Although no ancient high altar of stone is known to exist, some of the ancient chantry altars have been preserved: these are composed either of a solid ma.s.s of masonry, covered with a thick slab or table of stone, as in the north aisle of Bengeworth Church, near Evesham, and in the south aisle of Enstone Church, Oxfordshire; or of a thick stone slab or table, with a cross at each angle and in the centre, supported merely on brackets or trusses built into and projecting from the wall, as in a chantry chapel in Warmington Church, Warwickshire; or partly on brackets and partly sustained on shafts or slender piers, as in a chantry chapel, Chipping-Norton Church, Oxfordshire. Sometimes a chamber containing a fire-place was constructed over a chantry, apparently for the residence, either occasional or permanent, of a priest: such a chamber occurs over the chantry chapel containing the altar in Chipping-Norton Church; and such also, with the exception of the flooring, which has decayed or been removed, may be seen in the chantry chapel which contains the altar in Warmington Church. In both of these chambers are windows or apertures in the walls which divide them from the church, through which the priest was enabled to observe unseen any thing pa.s.sing within the church.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Chantry Altar, Warmington Church, Warwickshire]

We often find an opening or aperture obliquely disposed, carried through the thickness of the wall at the north-east angle of the south, and the south-east angle of the north aisle: this was the _hagioscope_, through which at high ma.s.s the elevation of the host at the high altar, and other ceremonies, might be viewed from the chantry chapel situate at the east end of each aisle. In general, these apertures are mere narrow oblong slits; sometimes, however, they partake of a more ornamental character, as in a chantry chapel on the south side of Irthlingborough Church, Northamptonshire, where the head of an aperture of this kind is arched, cinquefoiled within, and finished above with an embattled moulding. In the north and south transepts of Minster Lovel Church, Oxfordshire, are oblique openings, arched-headed and foliated; and in the north aisle of Chipping-Norton Church, in the same county, is a singular hagioscope, obliquely disposed, not unlike a square-headed window of three foliated arched lights, with a quatrefoil beneath each light.

We sometimes meet with one or more brackets, with plain mouldings or sculptured, projecting from the east wall of a chancel aisle or chantry chapel; and on these, lamps or lights were formerly set, and kept continually burning in honour of the Virgin or of some other saint; and we also meet with rich projecting canopies or recessed niches, with brackets beneath, on which images of saints were formerly placed.

The use of the low side window, common in some districts, near the south-west angle of the chancel, and sometimes, but not so frequently, near the north-west angle, and occasionally even in the aisle, has not been correctly ascertained; it has, however, been conjectured to have served for the purpose of a confessional; and on minute examination indications of its formerly having had a wooden shutter, which opened on the inside, are sometimes visible; and on the south side of Kenilworth Church, Warwickshire, is an iron-barred window of this description, on which the wooden shutter is still retained.[209-*]

The sedilia or stone seats, so frequently found in the south wall of the chancel, are occasionally, though not often, to be met with in the south walls of side aisles or chantry chapels: when this is the case it is presumed the endowment was for more priests than one.

Such, not to digress into more minute particulars, may suffice to convey a general idea of the manner in which our churches were internally decorated, and how they were fitted up, with reference to the ceremonial rites of the church of Rome, in and before the year 1535. The walls were covered with fresco paintings, the windows were glazed with stained gla.s.s; the rood-loft and the pulpit, where the latter existed, were richly carved, painted, and gilt; and the altars were garnished with plate and sumptuous hangings. Altar-tombs with c.u.mbent effigies were painted so as to correspond in tone with the colours displayed on the walls; the pavement of encaustic tiles, of different devices, was interspersed with sepulchral slabs and inlaid bra.s.ses; and screen-work, niches for statuary, mouldings, and sculpture of different degrees of excellence, abounded.

Suspended from aloft hung the funeral achievement; at a later period, even more common, the banner, helme, crest, gauntlets, spurs, sword, targe, and cote armour.[210-*] In addition to these were, in some churches, shrines and reliquaries, enriched by the lavish donations of devotees, and wooden images excessively decked out and appareled[211-*]--objects of superst.i.tion, to which pilgrimages and offerings were made. And if in the review of the conceptions of a prior age, viz. of the fourteenth century, we find a higher rank of art to be evinced, and the style and combination of architectural and sculptured detail to be more severe and pure, at no period were our churches adorned to greater excess than on the eve of that in which all were about to undergo spoliation, and many of them wanton destruction.

For on the suppression of the monasteries and colleges, to the number of 700 and upwards, and of the chantries, in number more than 2300, effected between the years 1535 and 1540, the abbey churches were not only despoiled of their costly vestments, altar plate and furniture, and shrines enriched with silver, gold, and jewels, but many of them were entirely dismantled, and the sites with the materials granted to individuals by whom they were soon reduced to a state of ruin. Some were even, either then or in after-times, converted into dwelling-houses; and others, or some portion of such, were allowed to be preserved as parochial churches; but the private chantry altars, though left bare and forsaken, were not as yet ordered to be destroyed.

By the royal injunctions exhibited A. D. 1538, such feigned images as were known to be abused of pilgrimages, or offerings of any kind made thereunto, were, for the avoiding of idolatry, to be forthwith taken down without delay, and no candles, tapers, or images of wax were from thenceforth to be set before any image or picture, "but onelie the light that commonlie goeth about the crosse of the church by the rood-loft, the light afore the sacrament of the altar, and the light about the sepulchre;" which, for the adorning of the church and divine service, were for the present suffered to remain. By the same injunctions a Bible of the largest volume, in English, was directed to be set up in some convenient place in every church, that the parishioners might resort to the same and read it; and a register-book was ordered to be kept, for the recording of christenings, marriages, and burials.

But beyond the suppression of the monasteries and chantries, an act the effect of secular rather than religious motives, little alteration was made during the reign of Henry the Eighth in the ceremonies and services of the church, although the minds of many were becoming prepared for the change which afterwards ensued. And in the reign of his successor, Edward the Sixth, a striking difference was effected in the internal appearance of our churches; for many appendages were, not all at once, but by degrees, and under the authority of successive injunctions, discarded.

Thus, by the king's injunctions published in 1547, all images which had been abused with pilgrimage, or offering of any thing made thereunto, were, for the avoiding of the detestable offence of idolatry, by ecclesiastical authority, but not by that of private persons, to be taken down and destroyed; and no torches or candles, tapers or images of wax, were to be thenceforth suffered to be set before any image or picture, "but only two lights upon the high altar before the sacrament, which, for the signification that Christ is the very true light of the world, they shall suffer to remain still." And as to such images which had not been abused, and which as yet were suffered to remain, the parishioners were to be admonished by the clergy that they served for no other purpose but to be a remembrance. The Bible in English, and the Paraphrases of Erasmus upon the Gospels, also in English, were ordered to be provided and set up in every church for the use of the parishioners. It was also enjoined that at every high ma.s.s the gospel and epistle should be read in English, and not in Latin, in the pulpit or in some other convenient place, so that the people might hear the same. Processions about the church and churchyard were now ordered to be disused, and the priests and clerks were to kneel in the midst of the church immediately before high ma.s.s, and there sing or read the Litany in English set forth by the authority of King Henry the Eighth. By the same injunctions all shrines, covering of shrines, all tables, candlesticks, trindles or rolls of wax, pictures, paintings, and all other monuments of feigned miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry, and superst.i.tion, were directed to be utterly taken away and destroyed; so that there should remain no memory of the same in walls, gla.s.s windows, or elsewhere within churches; and in every church "a comely and honest pulpit" was to be provided at the cost of the parishioners, to be set in a convenient place for the preaching of G.o.d's word; and a strong chest, having three keys, with a hole in the upper part thereof, was to be set and fastened near unto the high altar, to the intent the parishioners should put into it their oblation and alms for their poor neighbours[215-*].

Hence the primary introduction of desks with divinity books, the litany stool, and the charity box, yet retained in some of our churches. But as much contention arose respecting the taking down of images, also as to whether they had been idolatrously abused or not, all images without exception were shortly afterwards, by royal authority, ordered to be removed and taken away.

In the ritual the first formal change appears to have been the order of the communion set forth in 1547 as a temporary measure only, until other order should be provided for the true and right manner of administering the sacrament according to the rule of the scriptures of G.o.d, and first usage of the primitive church. In this the term _altar_ is alone made use of; but in the first Liturgy of King Edward the Sixth, published in 1549, the altar or table whereupon the Lord's Supper was ministered is indifferently called _the altar_, _the Lord's table_, _G.o.d's board_.

Ridley, bishop of London, by his diocesan injunctions issued in 1550, after noticing that in divers places some used the Lord's board after the form of a table, and some as an altar, exhorted the curates, churchwardens, and questmen to erect and set up the Lord's board after the form of an honest table, decently covered, in such place of the quire or chancel as should be thought most meet, so that the ministers with the communicants might have their place separated from the rest of the people; and to take down and abolish all other by-altars or tables. Soon after this, orders of council were sent to the bishops, in which, after noticing that the altars in most churches of the realm had been taken down, but that there yet remained altars standing in divers other churches, by occasion whereof much variance and contention arose, they were commanded, for the avoiding of all matters of further contention and strife about the standing or taking away of the said altars[216-*], to give substantial order that all the altars in every church should be taken down, and instead of them that a table should be set up in some convenient part of the chancel, to serve for the ministration of the blessed communion; and reasons were at the same time published why the Lord's board should rather be after the form of a table than of an altar, expressing however in what sense it might be called an altar. In the second Liturgy of King Edward the Sixth, amongst other important changes both of doctrine and discipline, the word _altar_, as denoting the communion-table, was purposely omitted.

The peculiar formation, frequently observable, of the old communion-tables, seems to have originated from the diversity of opinion held by many in the Anglican church, as to whether or not there was in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper a memorative sacrifice; for by those who held the negative they were so constructed, not merely that they might be moved from one part of the church to another, but the slab, board, or table, properly so called, was purposely not fastened or fixed to the frame-work or stand on which it was supported, but left loose, so as to be set on or taken off; and in 1555, on the accession of Queen Mary, when the stone altars were restored and the communion-tables taken down, we find it recorded of one John Austen, at Adesham Church, Kent, that "he with other tooke up the table, and laid it on a chest in the chancel, and set the tressels by it[218-*]."

It appears that texts of scripture were painted on the walls of some churches in the reign of Edward the Sixth; for Bonner, bishop of London, by a mandate issued to his diocese in 1554, after noticing that some had procured certain scriptures wrongly applied to be painted on church walls, charged that such scriptures should be razed, abolished, and extinguished, so that in no means they could be either read or heard.

In the articles set forth by Cardinal Pole in 1557, to be inquired of in his diocese of Canterbury, were the following: "Whether the churches be sufficiently garnished and adorned with all ornaments and books necessary; and whether they have a rood in their church of a decent stature, with Mary and John, and an image of the patron of the same church?" Also, "Whether the altars of the church be consecrated or no?"