Sometimes the piscina is double, and contains two basins with drains, the one for receiving the water in which the hands had been washed, the other for the reception of the water with which the chalice was rinsed after the communion[189-*]. In Rothwell Church, Northamptonshire, on the south side of the chancel, are the vestiges of a triple piscina; the fenestella has been destroyed, but the three basins with their drains remain.
Across the fenestella, or niche which contains the piscina, a shelf of stone or wood may be frequently found: this was the credence[190-*], or table on which the chalice, paten, ampullæ, and other things necessary for the celebration of mass were, before consecration, placed in a state of readiness on a clean linen cloth; and this originated from the πρόθεσις, or side table of preparation, used in the early church; a recurrence to which ancient and primitive custom by some of the divines of the Anglican church, after the Reformation, occasioned great offence to be taken by the Puritan seceders. In some instances a side table of stone or wood was used for this purpose; and a fine credence table of stone, the sides of which are covered with panelled compartments, is still remaining on the south side of the choir, St. Cross Church, near Winchester[190-†].
The credence table, or shelf above the piscina, must not be confounded with the ambrie or locker, a small square and plain recess usually contained in the east or north wall, near the altar. In this the chalice, paten, and other articles pertaining to the altar were kept when not in use. The wooden doors formerly affixed to these ambries have for the most part either fallen into decay or been removed, but traces of the hinges may be frequently perceived; and a locker in the north wall of the chancel of Aston Church, Northamptonshire, still retains the two-leaved wooden door. Sometimes shelves are set across the lockers. In the east wall of Earls Barton Church, Northamptonshire, is a large locker divided into two unequal parts by a stone shelf inserted in it; and in the north aisle of Salisbury Cathedral are two large triangular-headed lockers or ambries, each which contains two shelves.
Within the north wall of the chancel, near the altar, a large arch, like that of a tomb, may often be perceived; within this the holy sepulchre, generally a wooden and movable structure, was set up at Easter, when certain rites commemorative of the burial and resurrection of our Lord were anciently performed with great solemnity; for on Good Friday the crucifix and host were here deposited, and watched the following day and nights; and early on Easter morning they were removed from thence with great ceremony, and replaced on the altar by the priest. In the accounts of churchwardens of the fifteenth and early part of the sixteenth century we meet with frequent notices of payments made for watching the sepulchre at Easter[192-*]. Sometimes the sepulchre was altogether of stone, and a fixture, and enriched with architectural and sculptured detail, as in the well-known specimen at Heckington, Lincolnshire, and the fine specimen of tabernacle-work in Stanton Harcourt Church, Oxfordshire.
At the back of the high altar was affixed a reredos, or screen of tabernacle-work, costly specimens of which contained small images set on brackets under projecting canopies; an alabaster table or sculptured bas relief, placed just over the altar, was also common. The high altar reredos is still remaining, though in a mutilated condition, in the Abbey Church, St. Alban’s; it was erected A. D. 1480, and is perhaps the most splendid specimen we have; and in Bristol Cathedral a portion of the high altar reredos is also left. The chantry altar reredos is more frequently remaining, even where the altar and alabaster table[193-*] above have been destroyed; rarely, however, in a perfect state. In the seventeenth century the rich tabernacle-work was sometimes plastered over, probably to preserve it from iconoclastic violence. In many of our cathedrals, as at Gloucester, Bristol, Wells, and Worcester, and in some of the chantries attached to Henry the Seventh’s Chapel, Westminster, specimens of the chantry reredos screen, which appear to have abounded more or less with sculptured and architectural detail, are to be met with; and remains of the painting and gilding with which they were anciently covered may in some instances be traced. In a Survey of the Priory Church, Bridlington, taken at the suppression, we find noticed, “The Reredose at the highe alter representyng Criste at the assumpcyon of our Lady and the XII. appostells, wt. dyvers other great imagys, beyng of a great heyght, ys excellently well wrought, and as well gylted.” Five small chapels are also mentioned, “wt. fyve alters and small tables of alleblaster and imag’s.” Sometimes, however, the space behind the altar was occupied by a painted altar-piece, on wood or panel; a curious but mutilated specimen of which, of the latter part of the fifteenth century, is still preserved in the conventual church, Romsey.
Over the high altar was the great east window of the church, glazed with painted glass; other windows in the church were also thus filled. The subjects pourtrayed on the glass were sometimes scriptural, sometimes legendary. Single figures of saints, distinguished by their peculiar symbols, are common; figures of crowned heads, prelates, and warriors also frequently occur; and on some windows are depicted the arms and sometimes even the portraits of different benefactors to the church, with scrolls bearing inscriptions. We have, perhaps, few remains of ancient stained glass in our churches of a period antecedent to the thirteenth century: of this era, probably, are those curious circular designs which fill the greater portion of the lights at the back of the sedilia in Dorchester Church, Oxfordshire: one representing St. Augustine and St. Birinus, the first bishop of that ancient see; another, a priest and deacon, the former with the host, the latter bearing the ampullæ. Of this period also is some ancient stained glass in Chetwood Church, Bucks, the ground of which is covered with a kind of mosaic pattern, a usual feature in the more ancient stained glass, and the borders partake of a tendril foliage; whilst in pointed oval-shaped compartments, forming the well-known symbol vesica piscis, are single figures of saints and crowned heads, each clad in a vest and mantle of two different colours. In the fourteenth century single figures under rich canopies are common, but we begin to lose sight of the mosaic pattern as a back-ground. The stained glass in the windows of the choir of Merton College Chapel, Oxford, is either very early in this, or of a late period in the preceding century, and exhibits single figures under rich canopies: over the head of one of these, (the kneeling figure of a monk in his cowl,) is a scroll inscribed “Magister Henricus de Mammesfeld me fecit.” In the windows of Tewkesbury Abbey Church are several single figures of this period, some of knights in armour. In the chancel of Stanford Church, Northamptonshire, are single figures of the apostles in painted glass, each appearing within an ogee-headed canopy, cinquefoiled within the head and crocketed externally, and the sides of the canopy are flanked by pinnacled buttresses in stages. Specimens of stained glass of the fifteenth century are numerous in comparison with those of an earlier period; we find such in the east window of Langport Church, Somersetshire, where single figures occur of St. Clemens, St. Catherine, St. Elizabeth, and of many other saints. Some splendid remains of painted glass of the fifteenth century are likewise preserved in the windows of the choir of Ludlow Church, Salop, mostly in single figures; amongst them is the representation of St. George in armour, of the reign of Henry the Seventh; the figures of the Virgin and infant Christ may also be noticed. Towards the close of this century kneeling figures, not merely disposed single, but also in groups, formally arranged, may be observed. As a composition, wherein a better display of grouping and aerial perspective is evinced, the splendid window in St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster, of the crucifixion between the two thieves, and numerous figures in the foreground, not grouped formally but with artistical feeling, with the figures of St. George and St. Catherine on each side of the principal design, and the portraits of Henry the Seventh and his consort Elizabeth in separate compartments beneath, each kneeling before a faldstool, may be noticed. This window, which in some of the details exhibits an approach to the renaissance style, was presented to Henry the Seventh by the magistrates of Dort in Holland, to adorn his chapel at Westminster. The era of the various specimens of ancient stained glass we meet with in our churches may generally be ascertained by the costume and disposition of the figures, the form of the shields, the mosaic pattern or other back-ground, and architectural designs of the canopies.
The pavement beneath the high altar was frequently composed of small square encaustic bricks or tiles, whereon the arms of founders and benefactors, interspersed with figures, flowers, and emblematic devices, were impressed, painted, and glazed; other parts of the church were also paved with these tiles.
The walls of the church were covered with fresco paintings of the day of judgment, legendary stories, portraits of saints, and scriptural, allegorical, and historical subjects, in the conventional styles of the different ages in which such were executed, the costume and details being according to the fashion then prevailing. These paintings have in most churches been obliterated by repeated coats of whitewash, so that few perfect specimens now remain; traces of such are, however, occasionally brought to light in the alteration and reparation of our ancient churches. The subject of the judgment-day was commonly represented on the west wall of the nave, or over the chancel arch; and in the contract for the erection of the Lady Chapel, St. Mary’s Church, Warwick, A. D. 1454, is a covenant “to paint fine and curiously, to make on the west wall the dome of our Lord God Jesus, and all manner of devises and imagery thereto belonging.” The west front of the wall over the chancel arch, Trinity Chapel, Stratford-upon-Avon, was some years back found to be thus covered; but this painting, with others in the same chapel, was afterwards again obliterated[199-*]. A curious fresco painting of the last judgment, discovered a few years ago on the west face of the wall over the chancel arch, Trinity Church, Coventry, has, however, been very carefully preserved, and the coat of whitewash which tended to conceal it probably ever since the Reformation has been judiciously removed. The legend of St. Christopher, represented by a colossal figure with a beam-like walking-staff, carrying the infant Christ on his shoulders through the water, was generally painted on the north wall of the nave or body of the church. A fresco painting of this subject, half obliterated, is still apparent on the north wall of the nave of Burford Church, Oxfordshire; and other instances might be adduced. The murder of Archbishop Becket was also a very favourite subject: an early pictorial representation of the thirteenth century, of this event, is still visible on one of the walls of Preston Church, Sussex; it formed, likewise, one of the subjects represented on the walls of Trinity Chapel, Stratford-upon-Avon; and a painting of the same subject on panel, executed in the middle of the fifteenth century, was formerly suspended over or near the tomb of Henry the Fourth in Canterbury Cathedral[200-*]. Several vestiges of ancient fresco wall-paintings, more or less obliterated, are still preserved in Winchester Cathedral. The walls of our churches were even in the Anglo-Saxon era embellished with paintings; and such are described as decorating the walls of the church of Hexham in the seventh century. By the synod of Calcuith, held A. D. 816, a representation of the saint to whom a church was dedicated was required to be painted either on the wall of the church or on a tablet suspended in the church.