Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance

by P. L. Jacob

Fig. 181.—Chandelier, called Chandelier of the Virgin; the branches are of bronze, and the figure is of carved wood. (Church in Kempen, Rhenish Prussia).—From Weerth’s “Monuments of Christian Art.”

Crucial churches, that is to say, churches in the shape of a cross, were, however, not uncommon, as well as round, pentagonal, hexagonal, and octagonal buildings. But whatever their shape, they differed essentially from the pagan temples, as much in their general internal arrangement as in their size, which continued to increase in proportion as Christianity waxed in magnitude and influence. The basilicas were divided into three principal parts: the vestibule, or portico (in Greek, pronaon), the central area (in Greek, naos—in Latin, navis, whence the term nave), and the apse or choir (in Greek, ieratrion), reserved for the officiating priests. The portico was supported by two, five, or seven columns, and projected from the front wall. An iron rod furnished with rings ran across the columns, and from it were suspended curtains of cloth or hanging tapestries which could be drawn or closed at will. Beneath this portico the penitents, termed strati (prostrated), were accustomed to kneel, and from that position they could hear the psalmody and the sermon without actually witnessing the ceremony. The larger basilicas had frequently three porticos instead of one (Fig. 179), the central one facing the west, and the two side ones the north and south. A large vessel (malluvium) full of water was placed in the centre of the portico, in which each member of the congregation before entering the church purified his face and hands. The clergy alone entered by the middle entrance (aula); the worshippers entered by the two side portals, the men by that to the right and the women by that to the left; this division of the sexes was maintained within the building also. The internal main area was subdivided into three or five naves. The central nave was always left open and free, but in the others, partitions six feet high completely divided off the catechumens, the penitents, the virgins consecrated to God, the monks, and the mass of the congregation. At the end of the nave was the choir (in Greek bêma), in front of which stood the solea (the cellar or wine-press, in allusion to what was called the vineyard of the Lord), surrounded by a chancel, an open-work partition, in the centre of which one or more gates opened into the interior. One or sometimes two stands (called pulpitum, pulpit), intended for the public reading of the epistles, the Scriptures, and the holy books, were erected in front of the gates of the choir. In Rome, and probably in Constantinople, Milan, Trèves, and in all the larger imperial cities, there was in front of the choir, between the stalls of the secular clergy and those of the holy virgins and monks, a space (senatorium) reserved for the dignitaries and the noble families of the place. The solea was occupied by the sub-deacons and the minor clerks, whose duty it was to intone the psalmody. One or two sacristies (secretaria) were placed at the sides of the solea. The sanctuary (Figs. 180 and 181), in which the holy sacrifice took place, was surrounded with iron or wooden railings, and communicated through one or three doors with the naves. The farther end of the choir was semicircular in shape, and is now called the apse (in Greek, kongche, a muscle or cockle-shell; in Latin, absida; in French, chevet); around it were placed seats, amongst them that of the bishop, which was raised above the altar, and was visible to the whole congregation. The altar, which was draped and surmounted with the ciborium (a canopy of a cupola shape—Italian, baldacchino), was always placed in the centre of the apse (Figs. 182 and 183). Such, was the material framework, the normal arrangement of the Greek and Latin liturgy towards the end of the sixth century.

Fig. 182.—Altar-piece at Mareuil-en-Brie.

Fig. 183.—Altar-piece of the Church of Mareuil-en-Brie (Marne).—Latter half of the Thirteenth Century.

No pope was more capable than Gregory the Great (590–604) of uniting the different and scattered elements of which the liturgy was composed. To him is due the merit of having been the first to put forth a revised issue of the books of religious service, and who impressed the stamp of his genius on the Roman Catholic ceremonial. Before him, however, Pope Gelasius had collected the prayers used in the administration of the sacraments, and had prepared the first missal or book of masses. The latter was remodelled and corrected by Gregory. The same pope gave a more orthodox and popular form to the Antiphonary (Antiphonarium), sometimes called Cantatorium and Graduale, a collection of anthems for every mass in the year; he amended and remodelled in the most skilful and learned manner the anthems that were badly selected and ill scored—endeavouring, after the example set by Solomon, to impart a harmonious and dignified character to sacred music which it did not previously possess. It is tolerably certain that the church chant dates from this period, and that notation by neumes, a method the present age does not understand, of marking the rhythm and the modulations of the voice, cannot be traced farther back than the pontificate of Gregory the Great. John Diacre, who has written the life of this illustrious pope, says that he has seen the school of choristers, founded at Rome by St. Gregory, officiating in full splendour. The founder of this famous school continued to give lessons to the pupils in spite of his old age, his attacks of gout, and his other infirmities, even when he was no longer able to stand or sit upright. Reclining on a narrow and very hard bed, he infused emulation into the minds of the idle and reproved the disobedient.

Since the fifth century, the holy duties and the canonical prayers to which the liturgy consecrated the different hours of the day have been known under the name of offices, or canonical hours (Fig. 184), and of breviaries. In Tertullian we already meet with the words Tierce, Sexte, and None. St. Cyprian, St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Jerome, and many other fathers of the Church, assigned certain hours at which to recite the different offices, in such a manner that before the close of the fourth century psalmody seems to have been already regulated in the principal churches of the East. The practice of the Western churches differed, it is true, from that of the churches of the East; many differences even were to be found in the dioceses of the same country. But, during the earlier centuries, it was everywhere customary to perform the principal offices at night, which was divided into four watches of three hours each: these hours were measured by a water-clock, termed clepsydra. The first watch commenced at sunset (ad vesperas), the second at midnight, the third at cockcrow, the fourth at dawn. Towards the fifth century the piety of the early Christians having somewhat abated, it soon became customary not to go to church till the fourth watch, when the whole psalmody, that is to say, the twelve psalms, as there were three psalms in each watch, was got through at one repetition. Hence the name of matins (matutinæ). It would seem that the monks themselves, who were more conservative of ancient rites than the secular priests, commenced about this period to chant the Nocturn and the Laud at the morning hours. Rome alone rigorously preserved the distinction between the offices of the day and those of night.