A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

St. Peter, afterwards, preached at Antioch, and was the first bishop of that place. He likewise preached the gospel to the Jews dispersed in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Asia. Towards the latter end of his life, he went to Rome, about the second year of the emperor Claudius, where he laboured in establishing Christianity, chiefly among the Jews, being the apostle of the circumcision. Here he set himself to expose the impostures of Simon Magus, which he did successfully, by working himself those wonders that Simon falsely boasted of. Particularly, he raised to life a kinsman of the emperor, which the magician had attempted in vain. And, when Simon Magus, to recover his reputation, pretended to fly up to heaven from the hill of the Capitol, by the prayers of St. Peter his artificial wings failed him, and falling he was so bruised, that in a short time he died.

St. Peter suffered martyrdom about the year of Christ 69, under the emperor Nero, whom he had provoked by his success against Simon Magus, and by his reducing many dissolute women to a sober and virtuous life; and it was probably in that persecution when the emperor burnt Rome, and charged the Christians with the guilt and punishment of it. He was crucified with his head downwards. It is said, his body was embalmed by Marcellinus the presbyter, and buried in the Vatican, near the Triumphal Way, where there was a church erected to his memory, now the famous cathedral of St. Peter’s at Rome.

PEWS. These are enclosed seats in churches. Pews, according to modern use and idea, were not known till long after the Reformation. Enclosed pews were not in general use before the middle of the seventeenth century: they were for a long time confined to the family of the patron.

There were, however, long before there were enclosed pews, appropriated seats: and as concerning seats many disputes arise, we will mention what the law is as to these particulars. As to seats in the body of the church, the freehold of the soil is in the incumbent, and the seats are fixed to the freehold; yet, because the church itself is dedicated to the service of God, and the seats are built that the people may more conveniently attend Divine service, therefore, where there is any contention about a seat in the body of the church, upon complaint made to the ordinary, he may decide the controversy by placing that person in it whom he thinks fit: and this power is conferred upon him by law, because he who has the general cure of souls within his diocese, is presumed to have a due regard to the qualities of the contending parties, and to give precedence to him who ought to have it. And though the seats are built and repaired at the charge of the parish; and the churchwardens should prescribe, that, by reason thereof, they have used to dispose them to such persons as they thought fit, yet since of common right the ordinary has the disposal thereof, and by the same right the parishioners ought to repair them, therefore such prescription shall not be allowed against his jurisdiction. But this jurisdiction extends only to placing or displacing the inhabitants of the parish; for the ordinary cannot grant a seat to a man and his heirs, because a seat in the church properly belongs to some house in the parish, and not to the person, but as owner of the house; and if such grant should be good to a man and his heirs, they would have the seat, though they lived in another parish, which is very unreasonable, and contrary to the original intention of building seats in churches, which was for the inhabitants of that parish, that they might more conveniently attend the service of the church; and certainly if the bishop cannot make such a grant, no private person can do it, for the reasons before mentioned.

But where there is no contention, and the ordinary does not interpose, because there is no complaint, there the parson and churchwardens have power to place the parishioners in seats; and in some places the churchwardens alone have that power by custom, as in London. If a seat is built in the body of the church, without the consent of the bishop, the churchwardens may pull it down, because it was set up by a private person without the licence of the ordinary; but it hath been held, that if in removing such seat they cut the timber, or break it, an action of trespass lies against them. This, like many other cases reported by Mr. Noy, is not law: for the freehold of the church being in the incumbent, when the person has fixed a seat to it, it is then become parcel of his freehold, and consequently the right is in him, so that the breaking the timber could not be prejudicial to the other, because he had no legal right to the materials after they were fixed to the freehold. And because seats in the body of the church are to be disposed by the parson and churchwardens, therefore it was formerly held that a man cannot prescribe for a seat there; and yet he might prescribe for the upper part of a seat there. But now the law is settled as to this matter, viz. that one may prescribe for a seat in the body of the church, setting forth that he is seised of an ancient house, &c., and that he and all those whose estate he hath therein, have, time out of mind, used and had a seat in the body of the church for themselves and their families, as belonging to the said house, and that they repaired the said seat; and the reason why he must allege that he repaired it is, because the freehold being in the parson, there must be some special cause shown for such a prescription; but as to this matter the court distinguished between an action on the case brought against a disturber and a suggestion for a prohibition: for in the first case you need not allege that you repair, because the action is brought against a wrong-doer; but upon a suggestion for a prohibition it must be alleged that you repair, because otherwise you shall not divest the ordinary of that right which properly belongs to him. Tenants in common cannot make a joint prescription to a seat in a church, but they may prescribe severally; and if they should bring an action jointly for a disturbance, and upon the evidence it should appear they are tenants in common, they must be nonsuited, because such evidence will not maintain the title upon which the action is founded, for though it is a possessory action, yet since that possession must be maintained by a title derived out of a prescription, they must prescribe severally. And in these prescriptions there is not much exactness required; for if an action on the case is brought for disturbing the plaintiff, &c., it is not sufficient for him to allege, that he is seised in fee of a messuage, &c., (without saying it is an ancient messuage,) and that he, and all those whose estate he hath in the said messuage, had (without saying time out of mind) a seat in the church, which they used to repair as often as there was occasion, &c., this is well enough, because the action is founded on a wrong done by one who disturbed him in his possession; in which action the plaintiff will recover damages, if the verdict is found for him. It is true he may libel in the spiritual court, and prescribe there for a seat, &c.; but if the prescription is denied, a prohibition will be granted; if it is not denied, then that court may proceed to sentence, which, if it happen to be against the prescription, in such case also a prohibition will lie, because the suit being upon a prescription, the proceedings in it were coram non judice in that court; but this seems unreasonable, for it can be only to discharge the person of the costs which he ought to pay. As to seats in aisles of churches, the law is, that if a man has a house in a parish, and a seat in the aisle of the church which he has repaired at his own charge, he shall not be dispossessed by a bishop: if he should, he may have a prohibition, because it shall be intended to be built by his ancestors, with the consent of parson, patron, and ordinary, and appropriated by them to his and their use; and if he is disturbed by any other person in sitting there, he may have an action on the case against him, but then he must prove that he repaired it: and so it was adjudged between Dawtree and Dee, for seats in a little chapel in the north part of the chancel of Petworth, in Sussex; for though no man can tell the true reason of prescriptions, yet some probable reason must be alleged to gain such a peculiar right, and none is more probable than repairing it. And this will entitle a man to a seat in an aisle, though he lives in another parish; and therefore, where the plaintiff set forth that he had an ancient messuage in the parish of H., and that he and all those whose estate he had in the said house, had a seat in the aisle in the parish church of B.; this is a good prescription for a seat in the aisle, because he or they might build or repair it, though it is not a good prescription to have a seat in nave ecclesiæ of another parish. As to the chancel, the ordinary hath no authority to place any one there, for that is the freehold of the rector; and so is the church; but he repairs the one, but not the other, and it is for this reason that an impropriator hath the chief seat in the chancel. But yet a man may prescribe to have a seat here, as belonging to ancient messuage.

So much for the laws of pews: the history of their gradual introduction into churches seems to be as follows:—

The first mention that we find made of a reading pew is in Bishop Parkhurst’s Articles of Visitation for his diocese of Norwich, (1596,) where it is ordered, “That in great churches, where all the people cannot conveniently hear the minister, the churchwardens and others, to whom the charge doth belong, shall provide and support a decent and convenient seat in the body of the church, where the said minister may sit or stand, and say the whole of the Divine service, that all the congregation may hear and be edified therewith; and that in smaller churches there be some convenient seat outside the chancel door, for that purpose.”

Before this time, the appointed place for the priest was in the choir, or, as appointed in the Second Book of King Edward, in such place of the church, chapel, or chancel, as the people may best hear, without any note of the provision of a pew, or any mention of “a little tabernacle of wainscot, provided for the purpose.” The first authority for the setting up of reading desks in all our churches, is the canon of 1603.

The earliest pew for the use of the congregation remaining, whose age is determined by the appearance of a date, is in the north aisle of Geddington St. Mary, Northamptonshire, and has the following inscription:

Churchwardens, William Thorn,