Section V.—Liturgy.

Fora sight of some liturgical appliances which, though once so common and everywhere employed have become rare from having one by one dropped into disuse, ritualists, foreign ones among the rest, will have to come hither. A few more of such articles, though still in common use, are remarkable for the antiquity or the costliness of those stuffs out of which they happen to be made.

For its age, and the beauty of its needlework, the Syon cope is in itself a remarkable treasure, while its emblazoned orphreys, like thevestments on the person of a Percy in Beverley minster, make it, at least according to present custom, singular. Several chasubles here so noteworthy for their gorgeousness, have their fellows equal in splendour, elsewhere; but in this museum are a few articles which till now we might have sought for in vain throughout Christendom in any other private or public collection.

Such liturgical boxes as those two—No.5958, p. 112, and No.8327, p. 193—are of the kind known of old as the “capsella cum serico decenter ornata”—a little box beseemingly fitted up with silk—of the mediæval writers; or the “capsula corporalium”—the box in which are kept the corporals or square pieces of fine linen, a fine mediæval specimen of which is here,No. 8329, p. 195, of the rubrics which, to this day, require its employment for a particular service, during holy week. Like its use the name of this appliance is very old, and both are spoken of in those ancient “Ordines Romani,” in the first of which, drawn up now more than a thousand years ago, it is directed: “tunc duo acolythi tenentes capsas cum Sanctis apertas, &c.;”[381]and again, in another “Ordo,” written out some little time beforeA.D.1143, a part of the rubric for Good Friday requires the Pope to go barefoot during the procession in which a cardinal carries the Host consecrated the day before, and preserved in the corporals’ chest or box: “discalceatus (papa) pergit cum processione.... Quidam cardinalis honorifice portat corpus Domini præteriti diei conservatum, in capsula corporalium.”[382]About the mass of the presanctified, before the beginning of which this procession took as it yet takes place, we have said a few words at pp.112,113. What is meant by the word “corporal,” we have explained, p.194. Here in England, such small wooden boxes covered with silks and velvets richly embroidered, were once employed for the same liturgical uses. The Exeter inventories specify them thus: “unum repositorium ligneum pro corporalibus co-opertum cum saccis de serico;”[383]“tria corporalia in casa lignea co-operta cum panno serico, operata cum diversis armis.”[384]

[381]Ed. Mabillon, Museum Italicum, t. ii. p. 8.

[382]Ib. p. 137.

[383]Oliver’s Exeter Cathedral, p. 314.

[384]Ib. p. 327.

Good Friday brings to mind a religious practice followed wherever the Greek ritual is observed, and the appliance for which,No. 8278, p. 170, we have there spoken of at such length as to save us here any further notice of this interesting kind of frontal, upon which is shown our dead Lord lying stretched out upon the sindon or winding-sheet. Of the Cyrillian character in which the Greek sentences upon it are written, weshall have a more fitting opportunity for speaking a little further on. At Rome, in the Pope’s chapel, the frontal set before the altar for the function of Maundy Thursday, is of gold cloth figured, amid other subjects suitable to the time, with our Lord lying dead between two angels who are upholding His head, as we learn from the industrious Cancellieri’s description, in his “Settimana Santa nella cappella pontificia.”[385]

In Greece may be still found several churches built with a dome, all around which is figured, in painting or in mosaics, what is there known as and called the “Divine Liturgy,” after this manner. On the eastern side, and before an altar, but facing the west, stands our Lord, robed as a patriarch, about to offer up the mass. The rest of the round in the cupola is filled with a crowd of angels,—some arrayed in chasubles like priests, some as deacons, but each bearing in his hands either one of the several vestments or some liturgical vessel or appliance needed at the celebration of the sacred mysteries,—all walking, as it were, to the spot where stands the divine pontiff. But amid this angel-throng may be seen six of these winged ministers who are carrying between them a sindon exactly figured as is the one of which we are now speaking. How, according to the Greek ritual, this subject ought to be done, is given in the Painter’s Guide, edited by Didron.[386]Though of yore as now a somewhat similar ceremonial was always observed according to the Latin rite, in carrying his vestments to a bishop when he pontificated, never in such a procession here, in the west, was any frontal or sindon borne, as in the east.

With regard to “red” as the mourning colour, in the sindon, our own old English use joined it with “black” upon vestments especially intended to be worn in services for the dead. For especial use on Good Friday Bishop Grandison gave to his cathedral (Exeter) a black silk chasuble, the red orphrey at the back of which had embroidered on it our Lord hanging upon a green cross: “j casula de nigro serico, pro Die Paraschive, cum j orfrey quasi rubii coloris, cum crucifixo pendente in viridi cruce, ex dono Johannis Grandissono;”[387]and in the same document, among the black copes and chasubles, we find that they had their orphreys made of red: “cape nigre cum casulis—j casula de nigro velvete cum rubeo velvete in le orfrey. ij tuniculi ejusdem panni et secte. iij cape ejusdem panni et secte.”[388]

[385]P. 58.

[386]Manuel d’Iconographie Chretienne, pp. xxxvi. 229.

[387]Oliver, p. 344.

[388]Ib. p. 349.

At Lincoln cathedral there were “a chesable of black cloth of gold of bawdkin with a red orphrey, &c.; a black cope of cloth of silver withan orphrey of red velvet broidered with flowers, &c.; a black cope of camlet broidered with flowers of woodbine with an orphrey of red cloth of gold,” &c.; two copes of black satin with orphreys of red damask, broidered with flowers of gold, having, in the back, souls rising to their doom, &c., besides other vestments of the same kind.[389]Green, sometimes along with red, sometimes taking the latter’s place in the orphreys, may be seen on some of our old vestments.

Those two pyx-cloths atNo. 8342, p. 202, andNo. 8691, p. 260, will have an interest for the student of mediæval liturgy as we have already pointed out, p.202. While in Italy the custom, during the middle ages at least, never prevailed, here in England as well as all over France, and several countries on the Continent, it did, of keeping the Eucharist under one form, hung up over the high altar beneath a beautiful canopy within a pyx of gold, silver, ivory, or enamel, and mantled with a fine linen embroidered cloth or veil. At present this “velum pyidis” overspreading the ciborium or pyx in the tabernacle, is of silk.

In olden days the veil for the pyx was, here in England, beautifully embroidered with golden thread and coloured silks, and usually carried three crowns of gold or silver, as is shown in the woodcut, “Church of our Fathers,”[390]and often mentioned in many of our national documents which, without some such notice as this, could not be rightly understood. Among the things once belonging to Richard II. in Haverford castle and sent by the sheriff of Hereford to the exchequer, at the beginning of Henry IV.’s reign, are three crowns of gold, a gold cup, and one of the pyx-veils like these: “iij corones d’or pour le Corps Ihu Cryst. i coupe d’or pour le Corps Ihu Cryst. i towayll ove (avec) i longe parure de mesure la suyte.”[391]

[389]Monasticon Anglicanum, t. viii. p. 1285, ed. Caley.

[390]T. iv. p. 206.

[391]The Ancient Kalendars and Inventories of His Majesty’s Exchequer, t. iii. p. 361. ed. Palgrave.

By different people, and at various periods, a variety of names was given to this fine linen covering. Describing in his will, one made in this country and so valuable for its English needlework, a bishop of Tournay (see before p.xcix) calls it a corporal: in the inventory of things taken from Dr. Caius, and in the college of his own founding at Cambridge, are: “corporas clothes, with the pix and ‘sindon’ and canopie,” &c.[392]This variety in nomenclature doubtless led writers unacquainted with ritual matters to state that before Mary Queen of Scots bent her head upon the block, she had a “corporal,” properly socalled, bound over her eyes. What to our seeming this bandage really was, must have been a large piece of fine linen embroidered by her own hands—Mary wrought much with her needle, as specimens of her doing yet remain at Chatsworth, and at Greystock show—meant for, perhaps too once used as a pyx-cloth, and not an altar corporal.

[392]Munk’s Roll of the Royal College of Physicians, t. i. p. 37.

Whilst these pages were going through the press, one of these old English pyx, or Corpus Christi cloths, was found at the bottom of a chest in Hessett church, Suffolk. As it is a remarkable and unique specimen of the ingenious handicraft done by our mediæval countrywomen, we notice it. To make this pyx-cloth, a piece of thick linen, about two feet square, was chosen, and being marked off into small equal widths on all its four edges, the threads at every other space were, both in the warp and woof, pulled out. The checquers or squares so produced all over it were then drawn in by threads tied on the under side, so as to have the shape of stars, so well and nicely given that, till this piece had been narrowly looked into, it was thought to be guipure lace. Of a textile so admirably wrought, it is to be regretted that there is, as yet, no sample in this collection. This curious liturgical appliance is figured in the April number, for the year 1868, of the “Ecclesiologist,” page 86.

For the several very curious sorts of ornamental needlework about it, and the somewhat intricate manner after which it is cut out, the old alb, No.8710, p. 268, as well as the amice,No. 8307, p. 185, having both of them the apparels yet remaining sewed on to these church garments, must draw the attention of every inquirer after such rare existing samples of the kind.

Some very fine threaden cloths—now become rare—for liturgical purposes, deserve attention. In the old inventories of church furniture in England, they are known under the name of “filatoria,” about which we have spoken just now, p.cix. At No.4457, p. 99, is a towel which, it is likely, was spread under the tapers for Candlemass-day, and the twigs of the sallow, or willow (our so-called palm), and slips of the box-tree, for Palm-Sunday, while they were being hallowed before distribution. For several lectern veils, we shall have to go toNo. 7029, p. 120; No.8358, p. 210; andNo. 8693, p. 261.

Those two linen napkins, formerly kept hanging down from just below the crook on a pastoral staff or crozier are become so excessively rare, that we unhesitatingly believe that none of our countrymen have ever been able to find, either in England or abroad, a single other sample; they are to be seen, No.8279A, p. 174, andNo. 8662, p. 250.

Those who have ever witnessed on a Sunday morning in any of thegreat churches at Paris, the blessing of the French “pain beni”—our old English “holy loaf”—the “eulogia” of antiquity—will call to mind how a fair white linen cloth, like the one here,No. 8698, p. 263, overspread, and fell in graceful folds down from two sides of the board upon which, borne on the shoulders of four youthful acolytes, a large round cake garnished with flowers and wax-tapers was carried through the chancel, and halting at the altar’s foot got its blessing from the celebrant.

The rich crimson velvet cope,No. 79, p. 2, has a fine hood figured with the coming down, after the usual manner, of the Holy Ghost upon the infant church.No. 8595, p. 226, presents us with a shred merely of what must have been once a large hanging for the chancel walls, or perhaps one of the two curtains at the altar’s sides, having such fragments of some Latin sentences as these:—“et tui amoris in eis ... tus. Re ... le tuoru.” The subject on the cope’s hood tells of Pentecost Sunday; so too does the second article, for those broken sentences are parts of particular words: “Veni Sancte Spiritus, reple tuorum corda fidelium: et tui amoris in eis ignem accende,” to be found both in our own old English Salisbury missal, and breviary, but in every like service-book in use during the mediæval period throughout western Christendom. Be it kept in mind that both these liturgical appliances are red or crimson; and as now, so heretofore, as well in old England, as elsewhere this very colour has been employed for the church’s vestments, thus to remind us of those parted tongues, as it were, of fire that sat upon every one of the Apostles.[393]We mention all this with a view to correct an error in lexicography. In our dictionaries we are told that “Whitsuntide” is a contracted form of White Sunday tide, so called from the white vestments worn on that day by the candidates for baptism. Nothing of the sort; but the word “wits,” our intellect or understanding, is the root of the term, for a curious and valuable old English book of sermons called “The Festival,” tells us:—“This day is called Wytsonday by cause the Holy Ghoost brought wytte and wysdom in to Cristis dyscyples; and so by her preachyng after in to all Cristendom.”[394]

[393]Acts ii. 1-11.

[394]In die Penthecostes, fol. xlvi. verso.

Somewhat akin to this subject, are those several christening cloaks here, pp.8,9,10,11. Not long ago the custom was to carry to church for baptism the baby wrapped up in some such a silken covering which was called a bearing-cloth. Of old, that used to be a conspicuous article in all royal christenings; and amongst our gentry was looked upon asworthy enough of being made a testamentary bequest. At the christening of Arthur Prince of Wales, eldest son of Henry VII. “my Lady Cecill, the Queen’s eldest sister, bare the prince wrapped in a Mantell of Cremesyn Clothe of Golde furred with Ermyn,” &c.[395]Such ceremonial garments varied, according to the owner’s position of life, in costliness; hence Shakespeare makes the shepherd, in the “Winter’s Tale,” cry out, “Here’s a sight for thee; look thee, a bearing cloth for a squire’s child!”[396]A well-to-do tradesman bequeathed,A.D.1648, to his daughter Rose his “beareing cloath such ... linnen as is belonginge to infants at their tyme of baptisme.”[397]

Very often in our old country houses are found, thrown aside in some antique chest, certain small square pieces of nice embroidery, the former use for which nobody now knows, and about which one is asked. If their owners would look at those several cradle-quilts here—pp.4,13,66,67,100,103,104,110—they might find out such ancient household stuff was wrought for their forefathers’ comfort and adornment, when mere babies. The evangelists’ emblems figured on several among these coverlets: such asNo. 1344, p. 67,No. 4459, p. 100,No. 4644, p. 103, will call to mind those old nursery-rhymes we referred to at p.103. Of yore, not only little children, but grown-up, ay, aged men too loved to think about those verses, when they went to sleep, for the inventory of furniture taken,A.D.1446, in the Priory of Durham, tells us that in the upper chamber there was a bed-quilt embroidered with the four Evangelists—one in each corner: “j culcitrum cum iiij or Evangelistis in corneriis.”[398]

The bag or purse,No. 8313, p. 188, is of a kind which not only were used for those liturgical purposes which we have already enumerated, but served for private devotional practices. In that very interesting will made by Henry, Lord de Scrope,A.D.1415, among other pious bequests, is the following one, of the little bag having in it a piece of our Lord’s cross, which he always wore about his neck;—“j bursa parva quæ semper pendet circa collum meum cum cruce Domini.”[399]

[395]Leland’s Collectanea, t. iv. pp. 205, 180, 181, 183.

[396]Act iii. scene iii.

[397]Bury Wills, &c. p. 186.

[398]Hist. Dunelm. Scriptores Tres, ed. Surtees Society, p. cclxxxvii.

[399]Rymer’s Fœdera, t. ix. p. 278.

The crimson velvet mitre,—No.4015, p. 85,—for the boy-bishop, bairn-bishop, or Nicholas-tide bishop, as the little boy was severally called in England, is a liturgical curiosity, as the ceremonies in which it was formerly worn are everywhere laid aside. Among the things given for the use of the chapel in the college—All Souls—of his founding atOxford by Archbishop Chicheley, are a cope and mitre for this boy, there named the Nicholas-tide bishope:—“i cap. et mitre pro episcopo Nicholao.”[400]To make good his election to such a dignity, at Eton College, a boy had to study hard and show at the examination for it, that he was the ablest there at his books: his success almost ennobled him among his schoolfellows:—“In die Sti Hugonis pontificis” (17 Nov.) “solebat Ætonæ fieri electio Episcopi Nihilensis, sed consuetudo obsolevit. Olim episcopus ille puerorum habebatur nobilis, in cujus electione, et literata et laudatissima exercitatio, ad ingeniorum vires et motos exercendos, Ætonæ celebris erat.”[401]The colour, crimson, in this boy’s mitre, was to distinguish it from that of bishops.

Of the episcopal bairn-cloth—the Gremiale of foreign liturgists—we have two specimens here,—Nos.1031,1032, pp. 19, 20. The rich one of crimson cloth of gold, once belonging to Bowet, Archbishop of York, who diedA.D.1423, brought more money than even a chasuble of the same stuff:—“Et de xxvjs.viijd.receptis pro j. bairnecloth de rubeo panno auri. Et de xxs.receptis pro j casula de rubeo beaudkyn, &c. Inventorium,” &c.[402]

Old episcopal shoes are now become great liturgical rarities, but there is one here,—No.1290, p. 46. At one time they were called “sandals;” and among the episcopal ornaments that went by usage to Durham cathedral at the death of any of its bishops, were “mitra et baculum et sandalia et cætera episcopalia,” of Hugh Pudsey,A.D.1195.[403]Later was given them the name of “sabatines;” and Archbishop Bowet’s inventory mentions two pairs:—“pro j pare de sabbatones, brouddird, et couch’ cum perell’; pro j pare de sabbatones de albo panno auri,” &c.[404]

[400]Collectanea Curiosa, ed. Gutch, t. ii. p 265.

[401]King’s College, Cambridge, and Eton College Statutes, ed. Wright, p. 632.

[402]Test. Ebor. t. iii. p. 76, ed. Surtees Society.

[403]Wills of the Northern Counties, ed. Surtees Society, t. i. p. 3.

[404]Ib. p. 76.

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