Our Homeland Churches and How to Study Them

by Sidney Heath

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.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. 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.

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 passing 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. 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.

The Baptistery in Luton Church. Photograph Fredk. Thurston, F.R.P.S. Click to [ENLARGE]

The font, as we have seen, was originally placed in a separate building called the baptistery.The Font. 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, Sussex. 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 constitution 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 buttresses, 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 massive 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.

An Example of a Leaden Font of the late Norman period. Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey Click to [ENLARGE]

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.

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 Glastonbury.

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. 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 mass. 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.

Piscinas.

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.

A Detached Holy-water Stoup
of unusual design.
Wooton Courtenay, Som.

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 mass. Sedilia.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.

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.

Sedilia and Chantry. Luton, Beds. Photograph Fredk. Thurston, F.R.P.S. Click to [ENLARGE]

Mr. Parker, in his "Glossary of Architecture," gives the following definition of the miserere, patience or pretella. "The projecting bracket on the underside of the seats of stalls in churches; these, when perfect, are fixed with hinges so they may be turned up, and when this is done the projection of the miserere is sufficient, without actually forming a seat, to afford very considerable rest to anyone leaning upon it. They were allowed as a relief to the infirm during the long services that were required to be performed by ecclesiastics in a standing posture." It is in the carving of these that one is frequently struck by the curious mixture of the sacred and the profane, the refined and the vulgar, for which it is difficult to find any adequate explanation. Of so coarse a nature are some of these carvings that it has been necessary to entirely remove them from the stalls. They are usually attributed to the mendicant and wandering monks, and they undoubtedly reflect the licentiousness which at one time pervaded the monastic and conventual establishments. Among our best examples are those at Christchurch Priory, Hants, and in Henry VII.'s Chapel. There is a remarkably complete set in Exeter Cathedral.

A Typical Somerset Bench-End,
Showing a Fuller at work with the
implements of his trade.
Spaxton.
Photograph Mr. Page.

Of modern pews it is not necessary to say anything here, but previous to the Reformation the nave of a church was usually fitted with fixed seats, parted from each other by wainscoting, and partially enclosed at the ends by framed panelling, but more often by solid pieces of wood, either panelled or carved on the front. These bench-ends are very common in the West of England, in Somerset and Devon, and they are often very beautiful pieces of work and were in all probability executed by local craftsmen. They embrace a variety of subjects: figures, scrolls, dragons, serpents, etc., and frequently bear the arms of the family who owned the pew. Sometimes they terminate at the top with finials either in the form of heads, bunches of foliage, a chamfered fleur-de-lys and a variety of other ornaments called Poppy-heads, from the French Poupée. No examples are known to exist earlier than the Decorated style, but of Perpendicular date specimens are very numerous, especially in our cathedrals and old abbey churches.

Pulpits.

Pulpits were formerly placed, not only in churches, but in the refectories and occasionally in the cloisters of monasteries, and there is one in the outer court of Magdalen College, Oxford, and another at Shrewsbury. In former times pulpits were placed in the nave attached to a wall, pillar or screen, usually against the second pier from the chancel arch. Some are of wood, others of stone; the former are mostly polygonal, with the panels enriched with foliation or tracery. Few exist of earlier date than the Perpendicular style, but stone pulpits of Decorated date are sometimes met with as at Beaulieu, Hants, a very early specimen. Wooden pulpits are usually hexagonal or octagonal; some stand on slender wooden stems, others on stone bases. A few have canopies or sounding boards, and their dates can be fixed by the character of their ornamentation. At Kenton, Devon, there is an early pulpit which has retained its original paintings. Jacobean pulpits are very numerous, and are frequently gilded and painted; the one at S. Saviour's Church, Dartmouth, being a most elaborate example.

Open-air preaching is anything but a modern invention, for long before the erection of parish churches it was the recognised method of addressing the people. There is a print of some popular bishop preaching in a pulpit at Paul's Cross in S. Paul's Churchyard, and in mediæval days open-air pulpits were erected near the roads, on bridges and often on the steps of the market crosses, which are often still known as preaching crosses.

Squints.

In some of our churches is to be seen a squint, an opening in an oblique direction through a wall or pier for the purpose of enabling persons in the aisles or transepts to see the elevation of the Host at the high altar. They are of frequent occurrence in our churches and are very numerous in the neighbourhood of Tenby, South Wales, also in Devon and the West generally.

A Richly Carved Pulpit and Canopy.
Edlesborough, Bucks.
Photograph H. A. Strange.

They are usually without any ornament, but are sometimes arched and enriched with tracery. They are mostly found on one or both sides of the chancel arch, but they sometimes occur in rooms above porches, in side-chapels and the like; in every instance they were so situated that the altar could be seen. When they occur in porches or the rooms above they are thought to have been for the use of the acolyte appointed to ring the sanctus bell, who, viewing the performance of mass, would be thus able to sound the bell at the proper time. The name hagioscope has been used to describe these oblique openings.

Cruciform marks are sometimes found on our churches, often on a stone in the porch; they are usually incised crosses or five dots in the form of a cross. They were, presumably, cut by the bishop when the building was consecrated, and are called consecration crosses.

Screens.

The rood-screens, separating the chancel or choir of a church from the nave, usually supported the great Rood or Crucifix, not actually on the screen itself, but on a beam called the rood-beam, or by a gallery called the rood-loft, which last was approached from the inside of the church, by a small stone staircase in the wall, as can be seen in many of our churches to-day. Although rood-lofts have been generally destroyed in England, some beautiful examples remain at Long Sutton, Barnwell, Dunster and Minehead, Somerset; Kemsing, Kent; Newark, Nottingham; Uffendon, Collumpton, Dartmouth, Kenton, Plymtree and Hartland, Devon. The general construction of wooden screens is close panelling below, from which rise tall slender balusters, or wooden mullions supporting tracery rich with cornices and crestings, frequently painted and gilded. The lower panels often depict saints and martyrs. From the top of the screen certain parts of the services and the lessons were read. They were occasionally close together and glazed, as we see by a most beautiful example at Charlton-on-Otmoor, in Oxfordshire. These screens, many of which have been over-restored, are very common, and in addition to those above mentioned, are found at S. Mary's, Stamford, Ottery S. Mary, Chudleigh, Bovey, and in nearly all the Devon parish churches. At Dunstable a screen of Queen Mary's time separates the vestry from the chancel.

Screen with Rood Loft. Kenton, Devon. Photograph by Chapman. Click to [ENLARGE]

Of stone screens space will permit of only the briefest mention. They were used in various situations, to enclose tombs and to separate chapels, and occasionally the rood-screen was of stone. The oldest piece of screen work in this country is that at Compton Church, Surrey; it is of wood and shows the transition from the Norman to the Early English styles.

The Carved Oak Balustrade in
Compton Church.
Held to be the oldest existing piece
of carved woodwork in England.

Stone screens are often massive structures enriched with niches, statues, tabernacles, pinnacles, crestings, etc., as those at Canterbury, York and Gloucester.

The Reredos.

The reredos forms no part of the altar, and is often highly enriched with niches, buttresses, pinnacles, and other ornaments. Not infrequently it extends across the whole breadth of the church, and is sometimes carried nearly up to the roof, as at S. Alban's Abbey, Durham and Gloucester Cathedrals, S. Saviour's, Southwark and in that remarkably fine example at Christchurch, Hants. In village churches they are mostly very simple, and generally have no ornaments formed in the wall, though niches and corbels are sometimes provided to carry images, and that part of the wall immediately over the altar is panelled, as at S. Michael's, Oxford; Solihull, Warwickshire; Euston and Hanwell, Oxfordshire, etc.

It is interesting to note that the open fire-hearth, once used in domestic halls, was also called a "reredos."

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CHAPTER IX.