[Footnote 71: As in Watton, Herts, and Cottingham, Yorkshire.]
[Footnote 72: Habaccuc III. v, Et egredietur diabolus ante pedes ejus.]
[Footnote 73: Psalm xc. Qui habitat.]
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Whether those knights who are represented with crossed legs are to be considered as crusaders, or at least as having taken the vow, is a question which has been much discussed. The general belief seems now to be in the negative:—and Mr. Bloxam in his work on Monumental Architecture gives it as his opinion that this posture was chosen by the artist, for the more graceful arrangement of the surcoat. And it is to be remarked that some illuminations, as in the Life of S. Edward the Confessor, in the Cambridge University Library, represent the knights as sitting cross legged. For our own part we must confess that we incline to the old belief:—as better supported by tradition, and more in accordance with the general principles of Catholic artists. The knight's hand is sometimes represented as resting on the hilt of his sword:—or as it is called drawing it. We are astonished that a writer in the Quarterly Review should fall into this popular error: especially when the idea was completely opposed to the whole course of his argument. There can be no doubt that this typifies the accomplishment of the vow, the taking which was set forth by the crossed legs. The contrary—an act of war in the House of Peace—is not for a moment to be thought of. As emblematical of deep humility, some effigies are represented naked: some in shrouds: some, as emaciated corpse: and sometimes, still more strikingly, the tomb will be divided into two partitions: and while the departed appears in rich vests, and with a gorgeous canopy above—below there is a skeleton, or a worm eaten figure. There is a remarkable instance at Tewkesbury, in the cenotaph of the last Lord Abbot: and we may refer to the monument of William Ashton, in S. John's College chapel, Cambridge.
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The symbolism of ecclesiastics, lying principally in their vestments, does not so much fall within the scope of this essay. The same may be said of the allusion to the Holy Trinity in the benedictory attitude of the bishop: and the distinction between the mitred abbot and the bishop in the former holding his pastoral staff with the crook inwards, as signifying his dominion to be internal, i.e. within his own house;—the latter outwards, to set forth his external dominion over his diocese.
The reception of the soul of the departed into Abraham's bosom is often represented. Sometimes angels are bearing it, in the likeness of a newborn child, (a figure symbolical of its having now returned into its baptismal state of purity) and presenting it before the throne. The founders or rebuilders of churches are known by the building which they hold in their hands.
The carving of the open seats is one of those parts of ecclesiastical symbolism, which it is very hard to explain. The monsters which constantly occur on them may be perhaps regarded as typical of the evil thoughts and bad passions which a life of ease and rest encourages, and it will be observed, that in the choir, a gentler class of ideas often is suggested: we have here flowers and fruit, and birds making their nests, and flocks feeding. There, are however, certain other types to be found here, and also in string courses, and corbel heads, of which we shall presently speak in terms of disapprobation.
Nothing, with this exception, shows the exuberance and beauty of ideas which distinguished the architects of the ages of Faith—and the depth and variety of the scriptural knowledge we are pleased to deny them—than their wood carvings. [Footnote 74]
[Footnote 74: The astonishing scriptural knowledge of Durandus may be judged of from the Index at the end of the volume of texts quoted by him. ]
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