Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England

by Edward Lewes Cutts

First there were the altar lights. A law of Edmund directs that the priest shall not celebrate without a light; not for use, but as a symbol. At low mass one candle on the gospel side of the altar was sufficient, e.g. one was habitually used in Lincoln Cathedral at low mass. In poor churches, sometimes only one was used. Myrc, in his “Instructions to Parish Priests,” says—

Look that thy candle of wax it be,
And set it so that thou it see,
On the left half of thine altere,
And look always that it burn clere.

In pictures of the celebration of the Eucharist in illuminated MSS., we sometimes find only one candle on the altar, e.g. in Nero E. II. (fourteenth cent.) passim. More usually in later times two wax candles were placed on the altar, which were understood to symbolize the presence in the sacrament of Christ the Light of the World, and their number to allude to the two natures in our Lord.

It was required that an oil-lamp should hang before the high altar, always alight, in honour of the reserved sacrament in its Pyx. It was an ancient custom to have a great ornamented wax-light at Easter, called the Paschal Candle, in honour of the Resurrection of our Lord. Lights were placed on the rood-loft, and tapers were burned in front of the images of the saints, here and there in the church and its chapels. “The lighting of candles is not to dispel darkness, but to show that the saints are lightened by the light of heaven from God, as when they were alive, and the light of Faith, Grace, and Doctrine shone in them in this life.” “The Church Light before the rood, the relics, or images of saints burneth to the honour of God.”[327]

The number of these lights before saints was sometimes considerable. For example, the churchwardens’ accounts of All Saints’, Derby, for 1466-67, give entries with respect to the lights in that church, which tell us the number of images of saints, the number of tapers before each image, and the way in which they were provided:—

St. Catherine’s lights contained 20 serges, maintained by the collection of the Candle lighter.

St. Nicholas’ light contained 12 serges, maintained by the gathering of the Parish Clerk on St. Nicholas’ night.

Four other serges were burnt before St. Nicholas, which were provided by the Schoolmaster’s gathering from his scholars, St. Nicholas being the patron saint of School boys.

St. Eloy’s (Elgius) light had 6 serges, maintained by the Gild of the Farriers.

St. Clement’s light had 5 serges, maintained by the Gild of Bakers.