The Classic Revival.
So far we have been considering Gothic churches, but we now come to the time when, from a variety of causes, the Italian architects, among them Palladio and Vitruvius, began to revive classical architecture, a movement which gradually spread over other parts of Europe. The various causes which led to this apparently retrograde movement are still involved in considerable obscurity. The commercial prosperity of the age produced a class who travelled abroad and cultivated the fine arts, with the result that they desired to see erected in England buildings such as they had seen in Rome, Florence, Genoa and Padua. It is generally admitted that the ramifications of Gothic architecture had reached their utmost limit, and the style was getting out of hand, as is seen by the flamboyant buildings on the continent. The revival of classical literature in western Europe gave an impetus to the movement which was largely intended to enfold art within the shelter of an enlightened taste, and protect it from the licence of unordered enthusiasm. How far it succeeded is not a question that can be discussed at length here, but, however good their intentions may have been, the architects used little discrimination in the selection of buildings which were to serve as models for Christian churches, and although subsequently considerable improvements were made, yet, most of the defects in thepagan buildings of the ancients were retained in such as were intended to be utilized for Christian worship, and even considered purely as exercises in architecture it was not until the more chaste remains of antiquity began to be studied that the spirit and harmony of the good examples were attained. A greater contrast than the methods employed by the Gothic mason and the Renaissance architect could not well be imagined. The former shaped his material with his own hands; the foster mother of his art was tradition and its cradle the craftsman's bench; whereas the latter, with no builder's training, worked out his flawless and precise plans in the exotic atmosphere of the office and the study. The practice of making working drawings for every detail of the building was the cause of the decline of ornamental sculpture, with the result that all life and growth in the building ceased. Some authorities are very severe on the Renaissance movement. Dr. Fergusson, in his "Modern Styles of Architecture," says: "During the Gothic era the art of building was evolved by the simple exercise of man's reason, with the result that the work of this period is the instinctive natural growth of man's mind. The buildings, on the other hand, which were designed in the imitative styles, and produced on a totally different principle, present us with an entirely different result, and one which frequently degrades architecture from its high position of a quasi-natural production to that of a mere imitative art."
Inigo Jonesand Wren.
Be this as it may, the severe classical style introduced into England by Inigo Jones (who studied in Italy under Palladio), and continued by Sir Christopher Wren, soon swept everything before it.
Our most remarkable church in this style is S. Paul's Cathedral, which in style has two very adverse circumstances to struggle against. In the first place, it bears so great a similarity to the great church of S. Peter, at Rome, that one cannot help comparing it with that fine example, and secondly, it is the only English cathedral which is not in the Gothic style. It must, ofcourse, be acknowledged that S. Paul's falls far short of S. Peter's, especially in its lighting, but it does not deserve the condemnation of a great German critic, who said, "It is a building marked neither by elegance of form nor vigour of style." Although the interior of its dome and clerestory of the nave and choir are extremely gloomy when compared with those of S. Peter's, the church is generally acknowledged to be far superior to the latter in its architectural details, and few, if any, Italian churches can be said to surpass it, either in general composition or external effect, although it must be admitted that everything having been sacrificed to attain the latter quality, S. Paul's taken as a whole, is neither worthy of its fine situation nor of its great architect.
Other churches which are excellent examples of this style are S. Stephen's, Walbrook, and S. Mary Abchurch, London. Both show remarkable skill. The former is divided into a nave and four aisles, transepts, and a shallow chancel, by four rows of Corinthian columns, with a small dome over the intersection. The interior is very beautiful, and this church is generally considered to be Wren's masterpiece. S. Mary Abchurch, is nearly square in plan, has no columns and is covered with a domical ceiling, but so skilfully treated that the effect is singularly pleasing.
Hawkesmore.
Of the Elizabethan and Jacobean buildings it is necessary to say little, as at best they are but clumsy imitations of the Flemish, French and Italian Renaissance, while the style which we now call Queen Anne came in towards the close of the XVIIth century, and belongs of right to the reign of Charles II.
Hawkesmore, a pupil and follower of Wren, was a strong architect who has left us Christ Church, Spitalfields, and S. Mary Woolnoth. He also designed the western towers of Westminster Abbey, often wrongly ascribed to Wren, and the second quadrangle of All Saints' College, Oxford. This architect, like the majority of his contemporaries, misunderstood and despised the Gothic style, with which he had little real sympathy; he drew out designs, which still exist, for convertingWestminster Abbey into an Italian church, just as Inigo Jones had done with the exterior of the nave of old S. Paul's, but we cannot be too thankful that this abominable suggestion was never carried out.
An English Renaissance Church.An English Renaissance Church.S. Stephen's, Walbrook, London.Generally considered to be Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece.From an Engraving dated 1806.Click toENLARGE
With King George III. on the throne our ancestors contented themselves with dull, but substantial, buildings of which some hard things have been written, but they were at least respectable and free from sham, while the churches, although not elegant, were well-built and occasionally picturesque, as we see by the perfect little building of this date at Billesley, Warwickshire.
The eighteenth century pseudo-classical abominations and sham Gothic, so favoured by Horace Walpole and his admirers, can be briefly dismissed. A more rampant piece of absurdity than that of erecting imitations of portions of Greek temples and adapting them for Christian worship it is difficult to imagine, and in the Pavilion at Brighton, Marylebone Church, and the "Extinguisher" Church in Langham Place we even surpassed in bad taste and vulgarity all the absurdities of the Continental architecture produced by the French Revolution.
Barry andPugin.
Two men now came on the scene who, united, were destined to bring some kind of order out of this chaos. Barry and Pugin were both scholars and architects, for while the former rather favoured the classical style he thoroughly understood the Gothic, while Pugin was a thorough mediævalist, a true artist, and a bold exponent in his "Contrasts" of a complete return to mediæval architecture as the only possible cure for the evils which had crept into the art of building.
Barry's idea, which was perhaps the more practical, was to correct by careful study the errors into which the later exponents of both Classic and Gothic architecture had fallen, and endeavour by well thought out modifications to evolve a style more suitable to modern requirements. Pugin, however, would have none of the evil thing, and although he supplied his friend with designs for the details and woodwork of the Houses of Parliament which Barry was rebuilding, they did not collaboratein any further way, and both died before the Houses of Parliament were completed, in which, as a matter of fact, Barry's designs were completely ignored. The Reform Club is considered to be the best of Barry's classical buildings.
Pugin's earlier works were mostly Roman Catholic churches, and they are acknowledged to be an immense advance on any Gothic work which had been seen for centuries. In the Roman Catholic Cathedral of S. Chad, at Birmingham, there is a dignity, loftiness and simplicity surpassed by few Gothic buildings when that style was at its zenith, and from the time Pugin designed this building, architecture—notwithstanding our exhaustive study of archæology, our immense resources of capital and labour, our science and labour-saving appliances, and the comparative accessibility of the finest materials—has neither developed nor advanced. The most erudite Gothic mason could have possessed but little art knowledge as compared with the modern architect, and yet with our learned societies, wonderful libraries, easily obtained photographs and plans of the best buildings in the world; with writers far superior in intellectual acquirements to those of the Middle Ages, our vast wealth, with our tools such as the mediæval craftsman could never have dreamed of, and with the experience of twenty centuries to guide us we have made no advance during more than half a century. Our best architects acknowledge that until we get a new method of building, originality in architecture is an impossibility, mainly because all the existing styles of architecture have been worked out to their legitimate conclusion, and have been perfected under circumstances and conditions with which we have entirely broken; the originality in detail which pervades and permeates our Gothic buildings and gives them the greater part of their charm, must, of necessity, be out of our reach until we blend the spirit of what we are pleased to call our practical age, with a certain amount of that spirit of poetry and romance, religious fervour and devoutness, which animated the builders and craftsmen of the past.
A Typical Cornish Font.A Typical Cornish Font.Probably of the late Norman period. Now at Maker, near Plymouth.Click toENLARGE
The most important part of the internal furniture of a church is the altar, a name derived from the Latinaltare, a high place.The Altar.The altar is a raised structure on which propitiatory offerings are placed. In the Christian church the altar is a table or slab on which the instruments of the Eucharist are displayed. The earlyChristian altars were portable structures of wood, and the Church of Rome still allows the use of an altar of this description, although a consecrated stone, containing an authentic relic and regarded as the true altar, must be placed upon the wooden table. The slab forming the altar was sometimes supported on pillars, but more frequently on solid masonry, and previous to the Reformation it was marked with five crosses cut into the top, in allusion to the five wounds of Christ. From the period that stone altars were introduced it was usual to enclose within them the relics of saints, so that in some cases they were the actual tombs of saints. In England the altars were generally taken down about the year 1550, set up again in the beginning of the reign of Queen Mary, and again removed in the second year of Queen Elizabeth. In the church of Porlock, Somerset, the original high altar has been preserved, though not in use, being placed against the north wall of the chancel. In Dunster Church, in the same county, there is a solid stone altar, said to have been the original high altar, and in the ruined church of S. Mary Magdalene at Ripon, the high altar has escaped destruction. Of chantry altars we have several left, including those at Abbey Dore, Herefordshire; Grosmont, Monmouthshire; Chipping Norton, Oxon.; Warmington, Warwick; S. Giles's, Oxford; Lincoln Cathedral, and many others; and it is rare to find a Gothic church without some traces of altars in their various chapels, oratories or chantries.
The altar is, of course, an adoption by the Christian church of a pagan aid to worship, and at S. Mary's church, Wareham, which is thought to stand on the site of a Roman temple, are some pieces of stone considered by antiquaries to be portions of a pagan altar, on which burnt offerings were placed.
Above many Christian altars was placed a piece of sculpture or a painting representing some religious subject. These altar pieces sometimes consist of two pictures, when they are called "diptyches," and sometimes of three pictures, when they are called "triptyches,"and both forms usually fold up or are provided with shutters. They are often rare examples of the Flemish and other schools of painting, and of great value.
At the Reformation the stone altar was displaced by the communion table, which at first occupied the position vacated by the altar. This gave umbrage to the Puritan mind, and the communion table was then usually placed in the centre of the chancel, with seats all round for the communicants; which arrangement is still in vogue in some of our English churches and in Jersey, although at the Restoration the communion table was, as a general rule, replaced at the eastern wall of the Chancel.
Durham Sanctuary Knocker.Durham Sanctuary Knocker
Long before the Christian era the altar was regarded as a place of refuge for those fleeing from justice or oppression, and this custom or privilege of sanctuary was sanctioned by the English bishops and was retained for many centuries by the Christian Church. Many of our parish churches claim to possess old sanctuary rings or knockers, but it is doubtful if any of these were ever used by fugitives, for the reason that although in early days every parish church had the right to grant sanctuary, few possessed the means of feeding and housing a refugee, save in the church itself, which was expressly forbidden. This is why we find records of fugitives travelling many miles at the risk of their lives and passing hundreds of parish churches in their endeavour to reach Bury St. Edmunds, Hexham, Durham or some other of the well-recognised sanctuaries. The only sanctuary knocker remaining to-day, which is above suspicion, is that at Durham Cathedral. It is made of bronze and represents the grotesque head of a dragon, the ring coming from the mouth. Above the door is a small room in whichattendants watched by day and night, and when a fugitive was admitted a bell was rung to announce that someone had taken sanctuary.
The Baptistery in Luton Church.The Baptistery in Luton Church.Photograph Fredk. Thurston, F.R.P.S.Click toENLARGE
The font, as we have seen, was originally placed in a separate building called the baptistery.The Font.The only known example of anything of the kind in England is that in S. Mary's Church, Luton, fully described in The Homeland Handbook, No. 47. It is in the Decorated style, dates from the time of Edward III., and is said to have been designed by William of Wykeham for Queen Philippa. It is composed of white stone with open panels, pierced by cinquefoils and quatrefoils, while the apex of each panel terminates in a foliated finial. The font inside is octagonal in form and of 13th century date, but it has been somewhat restored. Ancient fonts were always large enough to allow for total immersion, and our present custom of baptism by affusion, or sprinkling, is only permitted, not enjoined by the rubric. In early days the sacrament of baptism was only administered by the bishops at the great festivals of Pentecost and Easter, for the reason that this afforded the greater convenience for immediate confirmation, but with the increase in the number of churches the rite was administered by the priests in every village.
The font was required by the canon to be of stone, but there are a few Norman fonts made of lead, among them those at S. Mary's Church, Wareham, Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey, and at Edburton, Parham, and Pyecombe, Sussex. A remarkable font is that at Dolton Church, Devon, made up of fragments of the churchyard cross, and there is also a somewhat similar one at Melbury Bubb, Dorset. By a constitution of Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury (1236), fonts were required to be covered and locked, and at first these covers were little more than plain lids, but they afterwards became highly ornamental and were enriched with buttresses, pinnacles, crockets, etc. It is doubtful if any fonts exist which can reasonably be supposed to be Saxon, although a few, like that at Little Billing, Northants, may possibly be of that era. Of Normanfonts we have large numbers. They are sometimes plain hollow cylinders; others are massive squares with a large pillar in the centre, and small shafts at the corners. These fonts are generally ornamented with rudely executed carvings, consisting of foliage and grotesque animals.
An Example of a late Norman Leaden Font.An Example of a Leaden Font of the late Norman period.Walton-on-the-Hill, SurreyClick toENLARGE
The one in Winchester Cathedral is a good example, and there are three other very similar ones in Hampshire. Early English fonts are very often circular, and sometimes square, and they are often supported in much the same way as the Norman ones. In the Decorated and Perpendicular styles theyare, with few exceptions, octagonal, and the details generally partake of the character of those used in the other architectural features of the period. There are hexagonal fonts of Decorated date at Rolvenden, Kent, and Heckington, Lincs. The font is usually placed close to a pillar near the entrance, generally that nearest but one to the tower in the south arcade, or, in larger buildings, in the middle of the nave.
Stoups.
The holy-water stoups sometimes found in our old churches are generally small niches with stone basins formed in the wall either in or just outside the porch, or within the church close to the door, or in one of the pillars nearest to the door. These niches resemble piscinas, except that they differ in situation, are smaller and plainer, and rarely have a drain. A good example of an outside stoup is that at Broadmayne, Dorset, where there is also one inside the church. They are rarely found unmutilated, but there is one in perfect condition in the north porch of Thornham Church, Kent; and a rather elaborate example at Pylle Church, near Glastonbury.
A Reputed Saxon Font.A Reputed Saxon Font.Shaldon, Devon.
The piscina is a water-drain formerly placed near the altar and consisting of a shallow stone basin, or sink, with a drain to carry off whatever is poured into it. It was used to receive the water inwhich the priest washed his hands, as well as for that with which the chalice was rinsed at the celebration of the mass. It was usually placed within a niche, although the basin often projects from the face of the wall, and is sometimes supported on a shaft rising from the floor. In the Early English and Decorated periods there are often two basins and two drains, and occasionally three. Within the niche a wooden or stone shelf is often found, called a credence-table, on which the sacred vessels were placed previous to their being required at the altar.
Piscinas.
Piscinas are unknown in England of earlier date than the middle of the 12th century, and of that date they are extremely rare. Of thirteenth and succeeding centuries we have many examples, more or less mutilated. Their forms and decorations are very various, but the character of their architectural features will always decide their approximate date.
A Detached Holy-water Stoup.A Detached Holy-water Stoupof unusual design.Wooton Courtenay, Som.
The Sedilia, from the Latinsedile, a seat, has come to be applied in modern times to the seats used by the celebrants during the pauses in the mass.Sedilia.They were sometimes moveable, but more usually in this country were formed of masonry and recessed in the wall. They are generally three in number, for the priest, deacon and sub-deacon, while in a few rare instances they number four seats, as at Rothwell Church, Northants, and Furness Abbey; or even five, as at Southwell Minster. Sometimes a long single seat under one arch is found, and when three seats are used the two western ones are often on the same level and the eastern one raised above them. Numerous examples remain in our churches,some being as early as the latter part of the 12th century, but they are mostly later and extend to the end of the Perpendicular style. Some of them are separated by shafts, and profusely ornamented with panelling, niches, statues, pinnacles, tabernacle work, and crowned with canopies all more or less elaborately enriched.
Stalls.
Stalls are fixed seats in the choir, either wholly or partially enclosed and used by the clergy. Previous to the Reformation all large and many small churches had a range of wooden stalls on each side and at the west end of the choir. In cathedrals they were enclosed at the back with panelling, and surmounted by overhanging canopies of tabernacle work, generally of oak, of which those at Winchester, Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster, and Manchester Cathedral are possibly our finest examples. When the stalls occupied both sides of the choir, return seats were placed at the ends for the prior, dean, precentor, and other of the officiating clergy.
Sedilia and Chantry.Sedilia and Chantry.Luton, Beds.Photograph Fredk. Thurston, F.R.P.S.Click toENLARGE
Mr. Parker, in his "Glossary of Architecture," gives the following definition of the miserere, patience or pretella. "The projecting bracket on the underside of the seats of stalls in churches; these, when perfect, are fixed with hinges so they may be turned up, and when this is done the projection of the miserere is sufficient, without actually forming a seat, to afford very considerable rest to anyone leaning upon it. They were allowed as a relief to the infirm during the long services that were required to be performed by ecclesiastics in a standing posture." It is in the carving of these that one is frequently struck by the curious mixture of the sacred and the profane, the refined and the vulgar, for which it is difficult to find any adequate explanation. Of so coarse a nature are some of these carvings that it has been necessary to entirely remove them from the stalls. They are usually attributed to the mendicant and wandering monks, and they undoubtedly reflect the licentiousness which at one time pervaded the monastic and conventual establishments. Among our best examples are those at Christchurch Priory, Hants, andin Henry VII.'s Chapel. There is a remarkably complete set in Exeter Cathedral.
Typical Somerset Bench-End.A Typical Somerset Bench-End,Showing a Fuller at work with theimplements of his trade.Spaxton.Photograph Mr. Page.
Of modern pews it is not necessary to say anything here, but previous to the Reformation the nave of a church was usually fitted with fixed seats, parted from each other by wainscoting, and partially enclosed at the ends by framed panelling, but more often by solid pieces of wood, either panelled or carved on the front. These bench-ends are very common in the West of England, in Somerset and Devon, and they are often very beautiful pieces of work and were in all probability executed by local craftsmen. They embrace a variety of subjects: figures, scrolls, dragons, serpents, etc., and frequently bear the arms of the family who owned the pew. Sometimes they terminate at the top with finials either in the form of heads, bunches of foliage, a chamferedfleur-de-lysand a variety of other ornaments called Poppy-heads, from the FrenchPoupée. No examplesare known to exist earlier than the Decorated style, but of Perpendicular date specimens are very numerous, especially in our cathedrals and old abbey churches.
Pulpits.
Pulpits were formerly placed, not only in churches, but in the refectories and occasionally in the cloisters of monasteries, and there is one in the outer court of Magdalen College, Oxford, and another at Shrewsbury. In former times pulpits were placed in the nave attached to a wall, pillar or screen, usually against the second pier from the chancel arch. Some are of wood, others of stone; the former are mostly polygonal, with the panels enriched with foliation or tracery. Few exist of earlier date than the Perpendicular style, but stone pulpits of Decorated date are sometimes met with as at Beaulieu, Hants, a very early specimen. Wooden pulpits are usually hexagonal or octagonal; some stand on slender wooden stems, others on stone bases. A few have canopies or sounding boards, and their dates can be fixed by the character of their ornamentation. At Kenton, Devon, there is an early pulpit which has retained its original paintings. Jacobean pulpits are very numerous, and are frequently gilded and painted; the one at S. Saviour's Church, Dartmouth, being a most elaborate example.
Open-air preaching is anything but a modern invention, for long before the erection of parish churches it was the recognised method of addressing the people. There is a print of some popular bishop preaching in a pulpit at Paul's Cross in S. Paul's Churchyard, and in mediæval days open-air pulpits were erected near the roads, on bridges and often on the steps of the market crosses, which are often still known as preaching crosses.
Squints.
In some of our churches is to be seen a squint, an opening in an oblique direction through a wall or pier for the purpose of enabling persons in the aisles or transepts to see the elevation of the Host at the high altar. They are of frequent occurrence in our churches and are very numerous in the neighbourhood of Tenby, South Wales, alsoin Devon and the West generally.
A Richly Carved Pulpit and Canopy.A Richly Carved Pulpit and Canopy.Edlesborough, Bucks.Photograph H. A. Strange.
They are usually without any ornament, but are sometimes arched and enriched with tracery. They are mostly found on one or both sides of the chancel arch, but they sometimes occur in rooms above porches, in side-chapels and the like; in every instance they were so situated that the altar could be seen. When they occur in porches or the rooms above they are thought to have been for the useof the acolyte appointed to ring the sanctus bell, who, viewing the performance of mass, would be thus able to sound the bell at the proper time. The name hagioscope has been used to describe these oblique openings.
Cruciform marks are sometimes found on our churches, often on a stone in the porch; they are usually incised crosses or five dots in the form of a cross. They were, presumably, cut by the bishop when the building was consecrated, and are called consecration crosses.
Screens.
The rood-screens, separating the chancel or choir of a church from the nave, usually supported the great Rood or Crucifix, not actually on the screen itself, but on a beam called the rood-beam, or by a gallery called the rood-loft, which last was approached from the inside of the church, by a small stone staircase in the wall, as can be seen in many of our churches to-day. Although rood-lofts have been generally destroyed in England, some beautiful examples remain at Long Sutton, Barnwell, Dunster and Minehead, Somerset; Kemsing, Kent; Newark, Nottingham; Uffendon, Collumpton, Dartmouth, Kenton, Plymtree and Hartland, Devon. The general construction of wooden screens is close panelling below, from which rise tall slender balusters, or wooden mullions supporting tracery rich with cornices and crestings, frequently painted and gilded. The lower panels often depict saints and martyrs. From the top of the screen certain parts of the services and the lessons were read. They were occasionally close together and glazed, as we see by a most beautiful example at Charlton-on-Otmoor, in Oxfordshire. These screens, many of which have been over-restored, are very common, and in addition to those above mentioned, are found at S. Mary's, Stamford, Ottery S. Mary, Chudleigh, Bovey, and in nearly all the Devon parish churches. At Dunstable a screen of Queen Mary's time separates the vestry from the chancel.
Screen with Rood Loft.Screen with Rood Loft.Kenton, Devon.Photograph by Chapman.Click toENLARGE
Of stone screens space will permit of only the briefest mention. They were used in various situations, to enclose tombs and to separate chapels, and occasionally therood-screen was of stone. The oldest piece of screen work in this country is that at Compton Church, Surrey; it is of wood and shows the transition from the Norman to the Early English styles.
Carved Oak BalustradeThe Carved Oak Balustrade inCompton Church.Held to be the oldest existing pieceof carved woodwork in England.
Stone screens are often massive structures enriched with niches, statues, tabernacles, pinnacles, crestings, etc., as those at Canterbury, York and Gloucester.
The Reredos.
The reredos forms no part of the altar, and is often highly enriched with niches, buttresses, pinnacles, and other ornaments. Not infrequently it extends across the whole breadth of the church, and is sometimes carried nearly up to the roof, as at S. Alban's Abbey, Durham and Gloucester Cathedrals, S. Saviour's, Southwark and in that remarkably fine example at Christchurch, Hants. In village churches they are mostly very simple, and generally have no ornaments formed in the wall, though niches and corbels are sometimes provided to carry images, and that part of the wall immediately over the altar is panelled, as at S. Michael's, Oxford; Solihull, Warwickshire; Euston and Hanwell, Oxfordshire, etc.
It is interesting to note that the open fire-hearth, once used in domestic halls, was also called a "reredos."
The history of bells is lost in antiquity, and little is known about them previous to the XVth century. It is probable, however, that they were used in India and China centuries before they reached Europe.
Bells were used by the Romans for many secular purposes, and although their use was sanctioned by the Christian Church about 400 A.D., they were not in general use in England until 650 A.D.
The earliest bells were hand bells, quadrangular in shape, and made of thin plates of copper or iron riveted together, and their abominable sound when struck must have been one of their chief merits, as the early bells were much used for the purpose of frightening the devil and other evil spirits.
Our oldest bells are hand bells, S. Patrick's bell at Belfast (1091) and S. Ninian's bell at Edinburgh, which is probably of even earlier date. From 1550 to 1750 was the golden age of production for bells, more especially so in Belgium and the Low Countries, where the bells of the towers and belfries were rung to arouse the country in times of danger and invasion. It is quite possible that the bells used for secular and religious purposes were kept distinct. Bells played a very important part in mediæval life, and next to cannon were regarded as the chief city guardians, for he who held the bells held the town, andthe first thing done by the invader on taking a town was to melt the bells and thus destroy the means of communicating an alarm.
In England our old towns, being almost entirely constructed of wood, were liable to periodic and devastating conflagrations, which fact suggested to that genius, William the Conqueror, the institution of Couvre-feu, or in its more popular form, Curfew, which rang at eight o'clock in the evening, when all lights were to be extinguished. The ringing of curfew has survived in many of our towns and villages to this day, but it is doubtful if the custom has been continuous from its first institution.
The secular use of the bell is, however, only incidental, and it is in its connection with religious life that we are now concerned, for all church history, church doctrine and church custom and observances are set to bell music. Bells in fact may be said to sum up the short span of our mortal life, for the birthday, the wedding and the funeral, are all welded to religion by the church bell.
Bells were used for ecclesiastical purposes in England long before the erection of our parish churches, for Bede, speaking of the death of S. Hilda, A.D. 680, says that "one of the sisters in the distant monastery of Hackness, thought she heard as she slept, the sound of the bell which called them to prayers," and Turketul gave to Croyland Abbey a great bell called Guthlac, and afterwards six others which he called Bartholomew and Betelin, Turketul and Tatwin, and Pega and Bega.
S. Dunstan gave bells to many of the churches in Somerset, and he also seems to have introduced bell ringing into the monasteries.
A few words may be of interest concerning the number and purposes of these monastic bells, with which the life of the monks must have been completely bound up. TheSignumwoke up the whole community at day-break. TheSquillaannounced the frugal meal in the refectory; but for those working in the gardens, the cloister-bell, orCampanella, was rung. The abbot'sCordon, or handbell, summoned the brothers and novicesto their Superior; whilst thePetasiuswas used to call in those working at a distance from the main building. At bed-time theTiniolumwas sounded, and theNoctulawas rung at intervals throughout the night to call the monks to watch and pray. TheCorrigiumculawas the scourging bell, while the sweet-tonedNota, a choir bell, was rung at the consecration of the elements.
The use of the bell-tower was recognised in the ancient Saxon law, which gave the title of thane to anyone who had a church with a bell-tower on his estate, and two of our most interesting Saxon churches, Brixworth and Brigstock, both in Northamptonshire, have each a semi-circular tower rising together with the bell-tower, and forming a staircase to it.
One of the most beautiful campaniles or bell-towers still standing is that at Evesham, in Worcestershire, which is a good specimen of Perpendicular architecture. It was built by Abbot Lichfield, the last abbot but one of the abbey, and took six years in building, and was not quite completed when the famous abbey, of which it was a final ornament, was pulled down.
In addition to this example at Evesham, detached bell-towers exist, or once existed, at Chichester, East Dereham, Glastonbury Abbey, Bruton, in Somerset, and in several other places.
Markland, in hisRemarks on Churches, says: "The great bell-tower which once formed part of the abbey church of S. Edmundsbury was commenced about 1436. From the year 1441 to 1500 legacies were still being given towards the building. In 1461 an individual, probably a benefactor, desired to be buriedin magno ostio novi campanilis."
Bell Turret for 3 Bells.Bell Turret for 3 Bells.Radipole, Dorset.
In Protestant use church bells have been stripped of much of the former superstition and symbolism. They are no longer rung to announce the miracle of transubstantiation; neither are they called upon as of old for the purpose of scaring devils, demons, and other evil spirits which formed so prominent a feature in the faith of the early Christian communities. Closely connected with the subject of bells and belfries are thebell-gables or bell-turrets, so frequently found at the west ends of our smaller churches which have no towers.
They usually contain but one bell, but are sometimes found with two, and at Radipole Church, near Weymouth, the bell-turret was originally designed to carry three bells. They are generally most picturesque little features of which a few may be of Norman date, but by far the greater number of them are Early English, a style in which they are frequently found. In addition to these bell-turrets at the western ends of our churches one sometimes finds a similar, but smaller, erection at the eastern end of the roof of the nave, but used for a very different purpose, for while the bell at the western end was rung to summon the parishioners to service, that at the eastern end, known as the Sanctus or Mass-bell, was rung on the elevation of the Host during the celebration of mass; although usually placed on the apex of the roof, this bell sometimes occupied a position in the lantern or tower, or in a turret of larger dimensions. In churches where no turret existed it was carried in the hand, and such is now the prevailing practice on the continent. The turret for the Sanctus bell still exists at Barnstaple, Devon, and St. Peter Port, Guernsey. The Sanctus bell was generally made of silver, and occasionally a number of little bells were hung in the middle of the church, and by means of a wheel they were all made to ring at once.
Probably the most beautiful feature of a Gothic church is the spire, raising its tapering form far above the town or village and forming a prominent landmark, denoting the location of the House of God. Although found occasionally in other styles, the spire is essentially Gothic, and one of the most marked characteristics of this period. Spires are generally of two kinds, those constructed of timber and covered with slates, lead, tiles or shingles, and those built of stone or brick. Examples of both kinds are very numerous on the continent and in England, while shingle spires are especially common in Sussex.
The spire is generally acknowledged to have originated from the small pyramidal roof so frequently found on Saxon and Norman towers. This gradually became elongated, and the towers were sometimes gabled on each side, as is the case with the remarkable Saxon church at Sompting, Sussex. This shows us very clearly the angles of the spire resting upon the apex of each gable, so that the spire itself is set obliquely to the square of the tower.
Saxon Spire or Pyramidal Roof.The best example of a Saxon Spire or Pyramidal Roof.Sompting, Sussex.Drawn by George Pearl.Click toENLARGE
Saxon and Norman spires are very rare in England, Sompting being our best example of the former and thoseon the eastern transepts of Canterbury Cathedral of the latter.
Of Early English spires we have, fortunately, some good examples, among which are those at Oxford Cathedral, Wilford and Wansted, in the same county, and a very graceful one at Leighton Buzzard. These 13th century spires are very common in France, as at Chartres and S. Pierre, Caen.
Of fourteenth century, or Decorated, spires, we have many examples, of which perhaps the best is the beautiful spire of Salisbury Cathedral, although the equally fine one at S. Mary's, Oxford, runs it close for premier position. The triple group at Lichfield Cathedral belong to this period, as do the spires of Ross, Heckington, Grantham, S. Mary's, Newark, King's Sutton, Bloxham and Snettisham, Norfolk. A peculiarity of the Salisbury spire is that it never formed part of the original design of the cathedral, being added seventy years later. It is the loftiest spire in England—404 feet—about 40 ft. higher than the cross of S. Paul's. It speaks well for the Gothic builders that such a vast superstructure as this tower and spire could be imposed upon walls and piers never intended to bear it. At an early period it was found to have deflected twenty-three inches from the perpendicular, but there has been no sign of any further movement. Barnack Church, in Northamptonshire, has a curious spire showing the transition from Norman to Early English.
It will be noticed that the sides of a church spire are slightly curved, so that they swell out a little in the centre. This is called the entasis of the spire, and belongs to the study of optics in architecture. Where the spire has no entasis the same effect is produced by the introduction of small projecting gables, bands of carving, or a little coronal of pinnacles.
One of the most clearly marked differences between English and continental spires is that the latter are much shorter than the towers which support them, the towers, as a rule, being twice as high as the spires.