A SUBSCRIBER TO THE "ANGLO-CATHOLIC
LIBRARY."
Queries.
THE USE OF MISERERES.
I notice the following paragraph in Mr. Howitt's Visits to Remarkable Places, 1840, pp. 470, 471.:
"Perhaps the most curious things about the chapel [of Winchester College] are the ancient stall-seats now affixed to the wall of the ante-chapel. These have their seats so fixed upon hinges that those who sit in them can only maintain their position by balancing themselves with care, and resting their elbows on the seat-arms; so that if the monks who used them dropped asleep during divine service, the seats came forward and pitched them headlong upon the floor; nay, if they only dozed and nodded the least in the world, the hard oaken seat clapped against the hard oaken back, and made a noise loud enough to attract the attention of the whole audience. Nothing was ever more cleverly contrived to keep people awake at church or chapel; and, no doubt, most of us know where they would be especially useful now."
On the latter point there is little room for doubt; but allow me to ask whether this account of the use of the miserere can be supported by adequate authority, and is anything more than a joke? Mediæval monks were, doubtless, sometimes caught napping; since Dr. Maitland (Dark Ages, 2nd edit. pp. 336. and 337. n.) mentions an amusing expedient employed in the monastery of Clugni for the detection of drowsy brethren. What I doubt is, whether the miserere was intended for that useful purpose. In the Glossary of Architecture (4th edit. p. 242.) its use is thus described:—
"They [misereres] were allowed in the Roman Catholic church as a relief to the infirm during the long services that were required to be performed by the ecclesiastics in a standing posture."
In such matters, I should imagine Mr. Parker to be a better authority than his versatile contemporary; but if they were intended and permitted only for the infirm, it seems rather remarkable that they are so general in most cathedral or monastic churches that retain their ancient fittings. I would also ask when were they first introduced, and by whose authority?
QUIDAM.