In Norman windows the wheel window is conspicuous. This, whether formed with the radii like those of Barfreston, or of the Temple church, represent (as we shall presently observe that Norman symbolism usually does represent) an historical fact: namely, the martyrdom of S. Catherine. The celebrity of this Virgin Martyr may tend to explain why she should be so far honoured: a celebrity which has descended to our own day in the common sign of the Cat and Wheel: as well as the firework so denominated.
Of Norman triplets there are not many to which we can refer. The tower of Winchester, however, presenting one on each face, is a noble example. The southeastern transept of Rochester, though later, is equally in point: it contains two triplets, far apart, and one disposed above the other. The west front of S. Etienne at Caen is a well-known instance.
The earliest symbolism of Early English triplets represented the Trinity alone; the Trinity in Unity was reserved for a somewhat later period. And this was typified by the hood moulding thrown across the three lights. At other times a quatre-foiled, or cinque-foiled, circle was placed at some little distance above the triplet: thus typifying the Crown which befits the Majesty of the King of Kings. And the same Crown is often exhibited above the western couplet. But, for as much as we are 'compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every person by Himself to be God and Lord,' a crown is sometimes represented over each light of the triplet, as in Wimborne minster.
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Another method of representing the same doctrine was by a simple equilateral triangle for a window: whether plain, of which there are many examples, or with the toothed ornament, as in the famous example at York minster.
S. Giles's at Oxford has windows, the tracery of which will serve as an example of many: it has three tre-foiled lights, with three quatre-foiled circles, arranged triangle-wise in the head.
This type is a little varied in S. Mary Magdalene's church, in the same city, by the introduction of the ogee form.
Berkeley church has a wheel window containing three quatre-foils: the three spaces left between them and the line being tre-foiled.
The east windows of Dunchurch and Fen Stanton have been explained in the publications of the Cambridge Camden Society: the former in their 'Few Words to Church-Builders,' the latter in their illustrations of monumental brasses. Part iv.
The south transept of Chichester cathedral is a glorious specimen of decorated symbolism. In the gable is a Marygold, containing two intersecting equilateral tri-angles: the six apices of these are sex-foiled; the interior hex-agon is beautifully worked in six leaves. The lower window seven lights: in the head is an equilateral spherical tri-angle, containing a large trefoil, intersected by a smaller tre-foil. Here we have the Holy Trinity, the Divine Attributes, the perfection of the Deity.