A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

It is observable, that anciently no more than one sponsor was required, namely, a man for a man, and a woman for a woman. In the case of infants, no regard was had to the difference of sex: for a virgin might be sponsor for a male child, and a father for his children, whether male or female. This practice was confirmed by the Council of Mentz, upon a reason which is something peculiar: for they concluded, that, because there is but one God, one faith, and one baptism, therefore an infant ought to have but one sponsor.—Bingham.

SQUINCH. More properly Pendentive. A small arch thrown across the angle of a square tower, to receive one of the sides of an octagonal spire or lantern. In broach spires the external slant over this arch is also called a squinch.

STALLS. In a cathedral or collegiate church, and often in parish churches, certain seats constructed for the clergy and other members of the Church, and intended for their exclusive use. These stalls are placed in that portion of the building called the choir, or the part in which Divine service is usually performed.

In ancient times, all members of the cathedral, including lay clerks or vicars, had their stalls: though the inferior members had not always fixed stalls appropriated to each individual. Unless when the community was very small, there was an upper and lower range of stalls, called the prima et secunda forma, (or gradus,) the upper appropriated to the canons or prebendaries, (and sometimes the priest vicars or minor canons,) the lower to the other members. The designation of the respective dignitaries and canons were written on their stalls; in some few instances, those of the minor canons or priest vicars also. The destruction of the ancient stalls, as at Canterbury, and of the lower range of stalls, as in many places, is a barbarism much to be lamented.

The same word is also used to signify any benefice, which gives the person holding it a seat, or stall, with the chapter, in a cathedral or collegiate church.

STANDING. The posture enjoined by the Church at several parts of Divine service, as, for instance, at the exhortation with which the service of morning and evening commences, and at the ecclesiastical hymns. In the primitive Church the sermon was listened to standing; and in some churches the people stood praying on the Lord’s day, and during the fifty days after Easter, because it was not then so fitting to look downwards to the earth, as upwards to their risen and ascended Lord.

STATIONS. The weekly fasts of Wednesday and Friday. Not long after Justin Martyr’s time, the Church observed the custom of meeting solemnly for Divine worship on Wednesdays and Fridays, which days are commonly called the stationary days, because they continued their assemblies on those days to a great length, till three o’clock in the afternoon: for which reason they had also the name of semi-jejunia, or half fasts, in opposition to the Lent fasts, which always held till evening.—Bingham. Station, in the Romish Church, denotes certain churches in which indulgences are granted on certain days. It is also a ceremony wherein the clergy go out of the choir and sing before an image.

STEEPLE. The tower of a church with all its appendages, as turret, octagon, and spire. It is often incorrectly confounded with the spire.

STEPHEN’S, ST., DAY. A festival of the Christian Church, observed on the 26th of December, in honour of the protomartyr, St. Stephen.

STIPENDIARIES. Members of collegiate choirs, who do not possess an independent estate, but are paid stipends. At Christ Church in Dublin there are both vicars choral and stipendiaries, the latter generally succeeding to vacant vicarages. There were also formerly five stipendiaries at Tuam; and four at the now ruined cathedral of Enachdune.—Harris’s Ware. Cotton’s Facti Eccl. Hib.