HOLY WATER STOUP, WOOTTON COURTNEY, SOMERSET
Leading into the church very generally there was a covered approach, greater or less in size, called the porch, from the Latin porta, “a door or gate.” This was usually at the south side of the church, and sometimes it was built in two stories, the upper one being used as a priest’s chamber, with a window looking into the church. In some cases this chamber was used as a safe repository for the parish property and muniments. In the lower porch, at the side of the church door, was the stoup, usually in a stone niche, with a basin to contain the Holy Water. With this people were taught to cross themselves before entering God’s house, the water being a symbol of the purity of soul with which they ought to approach the place where His Majesty dwelt. The mutilated remains of those niches, destroyed when the practice was forbidden in the sixteenth century, may still frequently be seen in the porches of pre-Reformation churches. Sometimes it would seem that there was attached to the water stoup a sprinkler to be used for the Blessed Water—as, for example, at Wigtoft, a village church near Boston, in Lincolnshire, where the churchwardens purchased “a chain of iron with a Holy Water stick at the south door.”
The land round about the church was also in the custody of the people’s wardens. It was called the Cemetery, from the word cœmeterium, “a dormitory,” it being in the Christian sense the sleeping-place of the dead who had died in the Lord. It was likewise spoken of as the “church-yard,” or under the still more happy appellation of “God’s acre.” From an early period attempts were made from time to time to put a stop to the practice of holding fairs in the cemetery, or to prevent anything being sold in the porches of churches or in the precincts. Bishops prohibited the practice by Constitutions, and imposed all manner of spiritual penalties for disobedience. By the Synod of Exeter, in 1267, Bishop Quevil ordered that all the cemeteries in his diocese should be enclosed securely, and that no animal was to be allowed pasturage on the grass that grew in them, and even the clergy were warned of the impropriety of permitting their cattle to graze in “the holy places, which both civil and canon law ordered to be respected.” For this reason, the bishop continues, “all church cemeteries must be guarded from all defilement, both because they are holy (in themselves) and because they are made holy by the relics of the Saints.”
The reason for this belief in the holy character of cemeteries is set out clearly in a letter of Bishop Edyndon, in 1348, where he says that
“the Catholic Church spread over the world believes in the resurrection of the bodies of the dead. These have been sanctified by the reception of the Sacraments, and are consequently buried, not in profane places, but in specially enclosed and consecrated cemeteries, or in churches, where with due reverence they are kept, like the relics of the Saints, till the day of the resurrection.”
The trees that grew within the precincts of the cemetery were at times a fertile cause of dispute between the priest and his people. Were they the property of the parson or of the parish? And could they be cut down at the will of either? In the thirteenth century, when the charge of looking after the churchyards was regarded as weighing chiefly on the clergy, it was considered that to repair the church—either chancel or nave—the trees growing in them might be cut. Otherwise, as they had been planted for the purpose of protecting the churches from damage by gales, they were to be left to grow and carry out the end for which they had been placed there. Archbishop Peckham had previously laid down the law that, although the duty of keeping the enclosure of the cemetery rested upon the parishioners, what grew upon holy ground being holy, the clergy had the right to regard the grass and trees and all that grew in the cemetery as rightly belonging to them. In cutting anything, however, the archbishop warned the clergy to remember that these things were intended to ornament and protect God’s house, and that nothing should be cut without reason. However the question of the ownership of the trees growing in churchyards may have been regarded by the parishioners, there are evidences to show that they did not hesitate to adorn their burial-places with trees and shrubs when needed. At St. Mary’s, Stutterton, for instance, in 1487, the churchwardens purchased seven score of plants from one John Folle, of Kyrton, and paid for “expenses of settyng of ye plants, 16d.”
The sacred character of consecrated cemeteries was recognized by the law. Bracton says that “they are free and absolute from all subjection, as a sacred thing, which is only amongst the goods of God—whatever is dedicated and consecrated to God with rites and by the pontiffs, never to return afterward to any private uses.” And amongst these he names “cemeteries dedicated, whether the dead are buried therein or not, because if those places have once been dedicated and consecrated to God, they ought not to be converted again to human uses.” Indeed, “even if the dead are buried there without the place having been dedicated or consecrated, it will still be a sacred place.”
The ceremony by which the mediæval churchyard was consecrated was performed by the bishop of the diocese, or some other bishop, by his authority and in his name. The fees were to be paid by the parish; and the parochial accounts give examples of this expense having been borne by the wardens. Thus at Yatton, in 1486, the churchyard was greatly enlarged, and, when the new wall had been constructed, the bishop came over and consecrated the ground. The parish entertained him and his ministers at dinner, and paid the episcopal fee, which was 33s. 4d. One of the expenses of this ceremony, noted down by the churchwardens, was, “We paid the old friar that was come to sing for the parish, 8d.”
In the churchyards thus dedicated to God were set up stone crosses or crucifixes, as a testimony to the faith and the hope in the merits of Christ’s death, of those who lay there waiting for the resurrection. The utmost reverence for these sacred places was ever enjoined upon all. Children, according to Myrc, were to be well instructed on this point—