Ambrie or Locker, Chaddesden Church, Derbyshire.Ambrie or Locker, Chaddesden Church, Derbyshire.
The credence table, or shelf above the piscina, must not be confounded with theambrieorlocker, a small square and plain recess usually contained in the east or north wall, near the altar. In this the chalice, paten, and other articles pertaining to the altar were kept when not in use. The wooden doors formerly affixed to these ambries have for the most part either fallen into decay or been removed, but traces of the hinges may be frequently perceived; and a locker in the north wall of the chancel of Aston Church, Northamptonshire, still retains the two-leaved wooden door. Sometimes shelves are set across the lockers.In the east wall of Earls Barton Church, Northamptonshire, is a large locker divided into two unequal parts by a stone shelf inserted in it; and in the north aisle of Salisbury Cathedral are two large triangular-headed lockers or ambries,each whichcontains two shelves.
Within the north wall of the chancel, near the altar, a large arch, like that of a tomb, may often be perceived; within this theholy sepulchre, generally a wooden and movable structure, was set up at Easter, when certain rites commemorative of the burial and resurrection of our Lord were anciently performed with great solemnity; for on Good Friday the crucifix and host were here deposited, and watched the following day and nights; and early on Easter morning they were removed from thence with great ceremony, and replaced on the altar by the priest. In the accounts of churchwardens of the fifteenth and early part of the sixteenth century we meet with frequent notices of payments made for watching the sepulchre atEaster192-*.Sometimes the sepulchre was altogether of stone, and a fixture, and enriched with architectural and sculptured detail,as in the well-known specimen at Heckington, Lincolnshire, and the fine specimen of tabernacle-work in Stanton Harcourt Church, Oxfordshire.
At the back of the high altar was affixed a reredos, or screen of tabernacle-work, costly specimens of which contained small images set on brackets under projecting canopies; an alabaster table or sculptured bas relief, placed just over the altar, was also common. The high altar reredos is still remaining, though in a mutilated condition, in the Abbey Church, St. Alban’s; it was erected A. D. 1480, and is perhaps the most splendid specimen we have; and in Bristol Cathedral a portion of the high altar reredos is also left. The chantry altar reredos is more frequently remaining, even where the altar and alabastertable193-*above have been destroyed; rarely, however, in a perfect state. In the seventeenth century the rich tabernacle-work was sometimes plastered over, probably to preserve it from iconoclastic violence. In many of our cathedrals, as at Gloucester, Bristol, Wells, and Worcester, and in some of the chantries attached to Henry the Seventh’s Chapel, Westminster, specimens of thechantry reredos screen, which appear to have abounded more or less with sculptured and architectural detail, are to be met with; and remains of the painting and gilding with which they were anciently covered may in some instances be traced. In a Survey of the Priory Church, Bridlington, taken at the suppression, we find noticed, “The Reredose at the highe alter representyng Criste at the assumpcyon of our Lady and the XII. appostells, wt. dyvers other great imagys, beyng of a great heyght, ys excellently well wrought, and as well gylted.” Five small chapels are also mentioned, “wt. fyve alters and small tables of alleblaster and imag’s.” Sometimes, however, the space behind the altar was occupied by a painted altar-piece, on wood or panel; a curious but mutilated specimen of which, of the latter part of the fifteenth century, is still preserved in the conventual church, Romsey.
Over the high altar was the great east window of the church, glazed with painted glass; other windows in the church were also thus filled. The subjects pourtrayed on the glass were sometimes scriptural, sometimes legendary. Single figures of saints, distinguished by their peculiar symbols, are common; figures of crowned heads, prelates, and warriors also frequently occur; and on somewindows are depicted the arms and sometimes even the portraits of different benefactors to the church, with scrolls bearing inscriptions. We have, perhaps, few remains of ancient stained glass in our churches of a period antecedent to the thirteenth century: of this era, probably, are those curious circular designs which fill the greater portion of the lights at the back of the sedilia in Dorchester Church, Oxfordshire: one representing St. Augustine and St. Birinus, the first bishop of that ancient see; another, a priest and deacon, the former with the host, the latter bearing the ampullæ. Of this period also is some ancient stained glass in Chetwood Church, Bucks, the ground of which is covered with a kind of mosaic pattern, a usual feature in the more ancient stained glass, and the borders partake of a tendril foliage; whilst in pointed oval-shaped compartments, forming the well-known symbolvesica piscis, are single figures of saints and crowned heads, each clad in a vest and mantle of two different colours. In the fourteenth century single figures under rich canopies are common, but we begin to lose sight of the mosaic pattern as a back-ground. The stained glass in the windows of the choir of Merton College Chapel, Oxford, is either very early in this, or ofa late period in the preceding century, and exhibits single figures under rich canopies: over the head of one of these, (the kneeling figure of a monk in his cowl,) is a scroll inscribed “Magister Henricus de Mammesfeld me fecit.” In the windows of Tewkesbury Abbey Church are several single figures of this period, some of knights in armour. In the chancel of Stanford Church, Northamptonshire, are single figures of the apostles in painted glass, each appearing within an ogee-headed canopy, cinquefoiled within the head and crocketed externally, and the sides of the canopy are flanked by pinnacled buttresses in stages. Specimens of stained glass of the fifteenth century are numerous in comparison with those of an earlier period; we find such in the east window of Langport Church, Somersetshire, where single figures occur of St. Clemens, St. Catherine, St. Elizabeth, and of many other saints. Some splendid remains of painted glass of the fifteenth century are likewise preserved in the windows of the choir of Ludlow Church, Salop, mostly in single figures; amongst them is the representation of St. George in armour, of the reign of Henry the Seventh; the figures of the Virgin and infant Christ may also be noticed. Towards the close of this century kneeling figures, notmerely disposed single, but also in groups, formally arranged, may be observed. As a composition, wherein a better display of grouping and aerial perspective is evinced, the splendid window in St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster, of the crucifixion between the two thieves, and numerous figures in the foreground, not grouped formally but with artistical feeling, with the figures of St. George and St. Catherine on each side of the principal design, and the portraits of Henry the Seventh and his consort Elizabeth in separate compartments beneath, each kneeling before a faldstool, may be noticed. This window, which in some of the details exhibits an approach to the renaissance style, was presented to Henry the Seventh by the magistrates of Dort in Holland, to adorn his chapel at Westminster. The era of the various specimens of ancient stained glass we meet with in our churches may generally be ascertained by the costume and disposition of the figures, the form of the shields, the mosaic pattern or other back-ground, and architectural designs of the canopies.
The pavement beneath the high altar was frequently composed of small square encaustic bricks or tiles, whereon the arms of founders and benefactors, interspersed with figures, flowers, andemblematic devices, were impressed, painted, and glazed; other parts of the church were also paved with these tiles.
The walls of the church were covered with fresco paintings of the day of judgment, legendary stories, portraits of saints, and scriptural, allegorical, and historical subjects, in the conventional styles of the different ages in which such were executed, the costume and details being according to the fashion then prevailing. These paintings have in most churches been obliterated by repeated coats of whitewash, so that few perfect specimens now remain; traces of such are, however, occasionally brought to light in the alteration and reparation of our ancient churches. The subject of the judgment-day was commonly represented on the west wall of the nave, or over the chancel arch; and in the contract for the erection of the Lady Chapel, St. Mary’s Church, Warwick, A. D. 1454, is a covenant “to paint fine and curiously, to make on the west wall the dome of our Lord God Jesus, and all manner of devises and imagery thereto belonging.” The west front of the wall over the chancel arch, Trinity Chapel, Stratford-upon-Avon, was some years back found to be thus covered; but this painting, with others in the same chapel, wasafterwards againobliterated199-*.A curious fresco painting of the last judgment, discovered a few years ago on the west face of the wall over the chancel arch, Trinity Church, Coventry, has, however, been very carefully preserved, and the coat of whitewash which tended to conceal it probably ever since the Reformation has been judiciously removed. The legend of St. Christopher, represented by a colossal figure with a beam-like walking-staff, carrying the infant Christ on his shoulders through the water, was generally painted on the north wall of the nave or body of the church. A fresco painting of this subject, half obliterated, is still apparent on the north wall of the nave of Burford Church, Oxfordshire; and other instances might be adduced. The murder of Archbishop Becket was also a very favourite subject: an early pictorial representation of the thirteenth century, of this event, is still visible on one of the walls of Preston Church, Sussex; it formed, likewise, one of the subjects represented on the walls of Trinity Chapel, Stratford-upon-Avon; and a painting ofthe same subject on panel, executed in the middle of the fifteenth century, was formerly suspended over or near the tomb of Henry the Fourth in CanterburyCathedral200-*.Several vestiges of ancient fresco wall-paintings, more or less obliterated, are still preserved in Winchester Cathedral. The walls of our churches were even in the Anglo-Saxon era embellished with paintings; and such are described as decorating the walls of the church of Hexham in the seventh century. By the synod of Calcuith, held A. D. 816, a representation of the saint to whom a church was dedicated was required to be painted either on the wall of the church or on a tablet suspended in the church.
Ancient Stone Reliquary or Shrine, Brixworth Church, Northamptonshire.Ancient Stone Reliquary or Shrine, Brixworth Church, Northamptonshire.
In most of the large conventual churches, and also in some of the smaller parochial churches, shrines containing relics of the patron or other saints were exhibited; these were either fixed and immovable, of tabernacle-work, of stone or wood, or partly of both, or were small movable feretories, which could be carried on festivals inprocession. Of the fixed shrines, that in Hereford Cathedral of Bishop Cantelupe, of the date A. D. 1287, is a fine and early specimen, in very fair preservation. In the north aisle of the abbey church, Shrewsbury, are some remains of a stone shrine, which from the workmanship may be considered as a production of the early part of the fifteenth century: this is much mutilated: but the shrine of St. Frideswide, in Oxford Cathedral, the lower part of which is composed of a stone tomb, the upper part of rich tabernacle-work of wood, is still tolerably perfect: this is also of the fifteenth century. Of the small movable feretories, one apparently of the workmanship of the twelfth century, seven inches long and six high, formed of wood, enamelled and gilt, with figures on the sides representing the crucifixion, is still preserved in Shipley Church, Sussex; and a small stone reliquary or shrine of the fourteenth century was discovered a few years ago, and is now preserved in the church of Brixworth, Northamptonshire.
Ancient Organ.Ancient Organ.
The organ, as a solemn musical instrument, may claim a very early origin, and has been in use in our churches from the Anglo-Saxon era. The ancient organs were small, and all the pipes were exposed. The phrase “a pair of organs,” so frequently met with in old inventories andchurch accounts, may probably have answered to the great and choir organ of a subsequent period—one instrument in two divisions. The mechanism of the old organs was rude and simple, compared with the improvements of modern times, and the cost was small; they were generally placed in the rood-loft.
The church chest is often an ancient and interesting object: sometimes we find it rudely formed, or hollowed out of the solid trunk of a tree, with a plain or barrel-shaped lid of considerable thickness. The churches of Bradford Abbas, Dorsetshire; Long Sutton, Somersetshire; and Ensham, Oxfordshire; contain chests thus rudely constructed. Sometimes they are strongly banded about with iron. The fronts and sides of these chests are not unfrequently embellished more or less richly with carved tracery, panel-work, and other detail in the style prevalent at the period of their construction. In Clemping Church, Sussex, is an early chest of the thirteenth century, the front of which exhibits a series of plain pointed arches trefoiled in the head, and other carved work. In Haconby Church, Lincolnshire, and in Chevington Church, Suffolk, are very rich chests covered with tracery and detail in the decorated style of the fourteenth century.In Brailes Church, Warwickshire, is an ancient chest of the fifteenth century covered with panel-work compartments, with plain pointed arches foliated in the heads. Panelled chests of this century are numerous. In Shanklin Church, Isle of Wight, is a chest bearing the date of 1519, on which no architectural ornament is displayed, but the initials T. S. (Thomas Selkstead) are fancifully designed, and are separated by the lock, and a coat of arms beneath.
In the south wall of each aisle, near the east end, and also in other parts of the church, we frequently find the same kind of fenestella or niche containing a piscina, and sometimes a credence shelf, as that before described as being in the chancel: this is a plain indication that an altar has been erected in this part of the church; and this end of the aisle was generally separated from the rest of the church by a screen, the lower part of panel, the upper part of open-work tracery, of stone or wood, similar to that forming the division between the chancel and nave; and the space thus enclosed was converted into or became a private chapel or chantry; for it was anciently the custom, especially during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, for lords of manors and persons of wealth and local importance tobuild or annex small chapels or side aisles to their parish churches, and these were endowed by license from the crown with land sufficient for the maintenance, either wholly or in part, of one or more priests, who were to celebrate private masses daily or otherwise, as the endowment expressed, at the altar erected therein, and dedicated to some saint, for the souls of the founder, his ancestors and posterity, for whose remains these chantry chapels frequently served as burial-places. At this service, however, no congregation was required to be present, but merely the priest, and an acolyte to assist him; and it was in allusion to the low or private masses thus performed, that Bishop Jewell, whilst condemning the practice as untenable, observes, “And even suche be their private masses, for the most part sayde in side iles, alone, without companye of people, onely with one boye to make answer.”
The screens by which these chapels were enclosed have in numerous instances been destroyed; still many have been preserved, and chantry chapels parted off the church by screen-work of stone may be found in the churches of Bradford Abbas, Dorsetshire; and Aldbury, Hertfordshire; in which latter church is a very perfect specimen of a mortuary chapel, with a monument and recumbenteffigies in the midst of it. Chantry chapels enclosed on two of the sides by wooden screen-work are more common.
Although no ancient high altar of stone is known to exist, some of the ancient chantry altars have been preserved: these are composed either of a solid mass of masonry, covered with a thick slab or table of stone, as in the north aisle of Bengeworth Church, near Evesham, and in the south aisle of Enstone Church, Oxfordshire; or of a thick stone slab or table, with a cross at each angle and in the centre, supported merely on brackets or trusses built into and projecting from the wall, as in a chantry chapel in Warmington Church, Warwickshire; or partly on brackets and partly sustained on shafts or slender piers, as in a chantry chapel, Chipping-Norton Church, Oxfordshire. Sometimes a chamber containing a fire-place was constructed over a chantry, apparently for the residence, either occasional or permanent, of a priest: such a chamber occurs over the chantry chapel containing the altar in Chipping-Norton Church; and such also, with the exception of the flooring, which has decayed or been removed, may be seen in the chantry chapel which contains the altar in Warmington Church. In both of these chambers arewindows or apertures in the walls which divide them from the church, through which the priest was enabled to observe unseen any thing passing within the church.
Chantry Altar, Warmington Church, WarwickshireChantry Altar, Warmington Church, Warwickshire
We often find an opening or aperture obliquely disposed, carried through the thickness of the wall at the north-east angle of the south, andthe south-east angle of the north aisle: this was thehagioscope, through which at high mass the elevation of the host at the high altar, and other ceremonies, might be viewed from the chantry chapel situate at the east end of each aisle. In general, these apertures are mere narrow oblong slits; sometimes, however, they partake of a more ornamental character, as in a chantry chapel on the south side of Irthlingborough Church, Northamptonshire, where the head of an aperture of this kind is arched, cinquefoiled within, and finished above with an embattled moulding. In the north and south transepts of Minster Lovel Church, Oxfordshire, are oblique openings, arched-headed and foliated; and in the north aisle of Chipping-Norton Church, in the same county, is a singular hagioscope, obliquely disposed, not unlike a square-headed window of three foliated arched lights, with a quatrefoil beneath each light.
We sometimes meet with one or more brackets, with plain mouldings or sculptured, projecting from the east wall of a chancel aisle or chantry chapel; and on these, lamps or lights were formerly set, and kept continually burning in honour of the Virgin or of some other saint; and we also meetwith rich projecting canopies or recessed niches, with brackets beneath, on which images of saints were formerly placed.
The use of the low side window, common in some districts, near the south-west angle of the chancel, and sometimes, but not so frequently, near the north-west angle, and occasionally even in the aisle, has not been correctly ascertained; it has, however, been conjectured to have served for the purpose of a confessional; and on minute examination indications of its formerly having had a wooden shutter, which opened on the inside, are sometimes visible; and on the south side of Kenilworth Church, Warwickshire, is an iron-barred window of this description, on which the wooden shutter is stillretained.209-*
The sedilia or stone seats, so frequently found in the south wall of the chancel, are occasionally, though not often, to be met with in the southwalls of side aisles or chantry chapels: when this is the case it is presumed the endowment was for more priests than one.
Such, not to digress into more minute particulars, may suffice to convey a general idea of the manner in which our churches were internally decorated, and how they were fitted up, with reference to the ceremonial rites of the church of Rome, in and before the year 1535. The walls were covered with fresco paintings, the windows were glazed with stained glass; the rood-loft and the pulpit, where the latter existed, were richly carved, painted, and gilt; and the altars were garnished with plate and sumptuous hangings. Altar-tombs with cumbent effigies were painted so as to correspond in tone with the colours displayed on the walls; the pavement of encaustic tiles, of different devices, was interspersed with sepulchral slabs and inlaid brasses; and screen-work, niches for statuary, mouldings, and sculpture of different degrees of excellence, abounded. Suspended from aloft hung the funeral achievement; at a later period, even more common, the banner, helme, crest, gauntlets, spurs, sword, targe, and cotearmour.210-*In addition to thesewere, in some churches, shrines and reliquaries, enriched by the lavish donations of devotees, and wooden images excessively decked out andappareled211-*—objects of superstition, to which pilgrimages and offerings were made. And if in the review of the conceptions of a prior age, viz. of the fourteenth century, we find a higher rank of art to be evinced, and the style and combination of architectural and sculptured detail to be more severe and pure, at no period were our churches adorned to greater excess than on the eve of that in which all were about to undergo spoliation, and many of them wanton destruction.
For on the suppression of the monasteries and colleges, to the number of 700 and upwards, and of the chantries, in number more than 2300, effected between the years 1535 and 1540, the abbey churches were not only despoiled of their costly vestments, altar plate and furniture, and shrines enriched with silver, gold, and jewels, but many of them were entirely dismantled, and the sites with the materials granted to individuals bywhom they were soon reduced to a state of ruin. Some were even, either then or in after-times, converted into dwelling-houses; and others, or some portion of such, were allowed to be preserved as parochial churches; but the private chantry altars, though left bare and forsaken, were not as yet ordered to be destroyed.
By the royal injunctions exhibited A. D. 1538, such feigned images as were known to be abused of pilgrimages, or offerings of any kind made thereunto, were, for the avoiding of idolatry, to be forthwith taken down without delay, and no candles, tapers, or images of wax were from thenceforth to be set before any image or picture, “but onelie the light that commonlie goeth about the crosse of the church by the rood-loft, the light afore the sacrament of the altar, and the light about the sepulchre;” which, for the adorning of the church and divine service, were for the present suffered to remain. By the same injunctions a Bible of the largest volume, in English, was directed to be set up in some convenient place in every church, that the parishioners might resort to the same and read it; and a register-book was ordered to be kept, for the recording of christenings, marriages, and burials.
But beyond the suppression of the monasteriesand chantries, an act the effect of secular rather than religious motives, little alteration was made during the reign of Henry the Eighth in the ceremonies and services of the church, although the minds of many were becoming prepared for the change which afterwards ensued. And in the reign of his successor, Edward the Sixth, a striking difference was effected in the internal appearance of our churches; for many appendages were, not all at once, but by degrees, and under the authority of successive injunctions, discarded. Thus, by the king’s injunctions published in 1547, all images which had been abused with pilgrimage, or offering of any thing made thereunto, were, for the avoiding of the detestable offence of idolatry, by ecclesiastical authority, but not by that of private persons, to be taken down and destroyed; and no torches or candles, tapers or images of wax, were to be thenceforth suffered to be set before any image or picture, “but only two lights upon the high altar before the sacrament, which, for the signification that Christ is the very true light of the world, they shall suffer to remain still.” And as to such images which had not been abused, and which as yet were suffered to remain, the parishioners were to be admonished by the clergy thatthey served for no other purpose but to be a remembrance. The Bible in English, and the Paraphrases of Erasmus upon the Gospels, also in English, were ordered to be provided and set up in every church for the use of the parishioners. It was also enjoined that at every high mass the gospel and epistle should be read in English, and not in Latin, in the pulpit or in some other convenient place, so that the people might hear the same. Processions about the church and churchyard were now ordered to be disused, and the priests and clerks were to kneel in the midst of the church immediately before high mass, and there sing or read the Litany in English set forth by the authority of King Henry the Eighth. By the same injunctions all shrines, covering of shrines, all tables, candlesticks, trindles or rolls of wax, pictures, paintings, and all other monuments of feigned miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry, and superstition, were directed to be utterly taken away and destroyed; so that there should remain no memory of the same in walls, glass windows, or elsewhere within churches; and in every church “a comely and honest pulpit” was to be provided at the cost of the parishioners, to be set in a convenient place for the preaching of God’s word; and a strong chest, having three keys,with a hole in the upper part thereof, was to be set and fastened near unto the high altar, to the intent the parishioners should put into it their oblation and alms for their poorneighbours215-*.
Hence the primary introduction of desks with divinity books, the litany stool, and the charity box, yet retained in some of our churches. But as much contention arose respecting the taking down of images, also as to whether they had been idolatrously abused or not, all images without exception were shortly afterwards, by royal authority, ordered to be removed and taken away.
In the ritual the first formal change appears to have been the order of the communion set forth in 1547 as a temporary measure only, until other order should be provided for the true and right manner of administering the sacrament according to the rule of the scriptures of God, and first usage of the primitive church. In this the termaltaris alone made use of; but in the first Liturgy of King Edward the Sixth, published in 1549, the altar or table whereupon the Lord’sSupper was ministered is indifferently calledthe altar,the Lord’s table,God’s board. Ridley, bishop of London, by his diocesan injunctions issued in 1550, after noticing that in divers places some used the Lord’s board after the form of a table, and some as an altar, exhorted the curates, churchwardens, and questmen to erect and set up the Lord’s board after the form of an honest table, decently covered, in such place of the quire or chancel as should be thought most meet, so that the ministers with the communicants might have their place separated from the rest of the people; and to take down and abolish all other by-altars or tables. Soon after this, orders of council were sent to the bishops, in which, after noticing that the altars in most churches of the realm had been taken down, but that there yet remained altars standing in divers other churches, by occasion whereof much variance and contention arose, they were commanded, for the avoiding of all matters of further contention and strife about the standing or taking away of the saidaltars216-*,to give substantial order that all thealtars in every church should be taken down, and instead of them that a table should be set up in some convenient part of the chancel, to serve for the ministration of the blessed communion; and reasons were at the same time published why the Lord’s board should rather be after the form of a table than of an altar, expressing however in what sense it might be called an altar. In the second Liturgy of King Edward the Sixth, amongst other important changes both of doctrine and discipline, the wordaltar, as denoting the communion-table, was purposely omitted.
The peculiar formation, frequently observable, of the old communion-tables, seems to have originated from the diversity of opinion held by many in the Anglican church, as to whether or not there was in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper a memorative sacrifice; for by those who held the negative they were so constructed, notmerely that they might be moved from one part of the church to another, but the slab, board, or table, properly so called, was purposely not fastened or fixed to the frame-work or stand on which it was supported, but left loose, so as to be set on or taken off; and in 1555, on the accession of Queen Mary, when the stone altars were restored and the communion-tables taken down, we find it recorded of one John Austen, at Adesham Church, Kent, that “he with other tooke up the table, and laid it on a chest in the chancel, and set the tressels byit218-*.”
It appears that texts of scripture were painted on the walls of some churches in the reign of Edward the Sixth; for Bonner, bishop of London, by a mandate issued to his diocese in 1554, after noticing that some had procured certain scriptures wrongly applied to be painted on church walls, charged that such scriptures should be razed, abolished, and extinguished, so that in no means they could be either read or heard.
In the articles set forth by Cardinal Pole in 1557, to be inquired of in his diocese of Canterbury, were the following: “Whether the churches be sufficiently garnished and adornedwith all ornaments and books necessary; and whether they have a rood in their church of a decent stature, with Mary and John, and an image of the patron of the same church?” Also, “Whether the altars of the church be consecrated or no?”
But in 1559, the first year of the reign of Elizabeth, many of the injunctions set forth in the reign of Edward the Sixth, as to the mode of saying the Litany without procession, the removal and destruction of shrines and monuments of superstition, the setting up of a pulpit, and of the poor-box or chest, which latter was however “to be set and fastened in a most convenient place,” were re-established. By these injunctions it appears that in many parts of the realm the altars of the churches had been removed, and tables placed for the administration of the holy sacrament; that in some other places the altars had not yet been removed: in the order whereof, as the injunctions express, save for an uniformity, there seemed to be no matter of great moment, so that the sacrament was duly and reverently ministered; and it was so ordered that no altar should be taken down but by oversight of the curate and churchwardens, or one of them, andthat the holy table in every church should be decently made and set in the place where the altar stood, and there commonly covered, and so to stand, saving when the communion of the sacrament was to be distributed; at which time the same was to be so placed within the chancel in such manner that the minister might be the more conveniently heard of the communicants in his prayer and ministration.
Ancient Communion Table, Sunningwell Church, Berkshire.Ancient Communion Table, Sunningwell Church, Berkshire.
Many of the old communion-tables set up in the reign of Elizabeth are yet remainingin our churches, and are sustained by a stand or frame, the bulging pillar-legs of which are often fantastically carved, with arabesque scroll-work and other detail according to the taste of the age. The communion-table in Sunningwell Church, Berkshire, probably set up during the time Bishop Jewell was pastor of that church, is a rich and interesting specimen. Communion-tables of the same era, designed in the same general style, with carved bulging legs, are preserved in the churches of Lapworth, Rowington, and Knowle, Warwickshire; in St. Thomas’s Church, Oxford; and in many other churches. Sometimes the bulging pillar-legs are turned plain, and are not covered with carving: such occur in Broadwas Church, Worcestershire; in the churches of St. Nicholas and St. Helen, at Abingdon; and in the north aisle of Dorchester Church, Oxfordshire. The table or slab of the communion-table in Knowle Church is not fixed or fastened to the frame or stand on which it is placed, but lies loose; and this is also the case with an old communion-table of the sixteenth century, now disused, in Northleigh Church, Oxfordshire. In an inventory of church goods, taken in 1646, occurs the following: “Item, oneshort table and frame, commonly called the communion-table.” On examining theold communion-tables, the movability of the slab from the frame-work is of such frequent occurrence as to corroborate the supposition that some esoteric meaning was attached to its unfixed state, which meaning has been attempted to be explained.
Under the colour of removing monuments of idolatry and false feigned images in the churches, much wanton spoliation and needless injury was effected; and this to such excess that in 1560 a royal proclamation was issued, commanding all persons to forbear the breaking or defacing of any monument or tomb, or any image of kings, princes, or nobles, or the breaking down and defacing of any image in glass windows, in any churches, without consent of the ordinary. And in the same year, in a letter from the queen to the commissioners for causes ecclesiastical, occasion is taken to remark that “in sundry churches and chappells where divine service, as prayer, preaching, and ministration of the sacraments be used, there is such negligence and lacke of convenient reverence used towardes the comelye keeping and order of the said churches, and especially of the upper parte called the chauncels, that it breedeth no small offence and slaunder to see and consider on the one part the curiositieand costes bestowed by all sortes of men upon there private houses, and the other part, the unclean or negligent order or sparekeeping of the house of prayer, by permitting open decaies, and ruines of coveringes, walls, and wyndowes, and by appointing unmeet and unseemly tables, with fowle clothes, for the communion of the sacraments, and generally leavynge the place of prayers desolate of all cleanlynes, and of meet ornaments for such a place, whereby it might be known a place provided for divine service.” And the commissioners were required to consider the same, and in their discretion to determine upon some good and speedy means of reformation; and, amongst other things, to order that the tables of the commandments might be comely set or hung up in the east end of the chancel, to be not only read for edification, but also to give some comely ornament and demonstration that the same was a place of religion andprayer223-*.
An ancient table, apparently of this period, of the commandments painted on panel, but in language somewhat abbreviated, is still hung up against the east wall of the south transept of Ludlow Church,Salop224-*.
By the articles issued by royal authority in 1564, for administration of prayer and sacraments, each parish was to provide a decent table, standing on a frame, for the communion-table; this was to be decently covered with carpet, silk, or other decent covering, and with a fair linen cloth (at the time of the ministration); the ten commandments were to be set upon the east wall, over the table; the font was not to be removed, nor was the curate to baptize in parish churches in any basins.
In the Visitation Articles of Archbishop Parker, A. D. 1569, we find inquiries were to be made whether there was in each parish church a convenient pulpit well placed, a comely and decent table for the holy communion, covered decently and set in the place prescribed; and whether the altars had been taken down; also whether images and all other monuments of idolatry and superstition were destroyed and abolished; whether the rood-loft was pulled down, according to the order prescribed; and if the partition between the chancel and church was kept.
The latter inquiry is explanatory of the fact why, when the rood-lofts in many churches were taken down, the screens beneath them, separating the chancel from the nave, were left undisturbed.
By the injunctions of Grindal, archbishop of York, A. D. 1571, all altars were ordered to be pulled down to the ground, and the altar stones to be defaced and bestowed to some common use.
Pulpits of the reign of Edward the Sixth are rare, nor are those of the reign of Elizabeth very common. The pulpit in Fordington Church, Dorsetshire, of the latter period, is of stone, the upper part worked in plain oblong panels; and a kind of escutcheon within one of these bears the date1592; the lower part or basement of this pulpit is circular in form.
The richly embroidered and costly vestments and antependia or frontals, of a period antecedent to the Reformation, were in some instances converted into coverings for the altar or communion table, or into hangings for the pulpit and reading desk. In Little Dean Church, Gloucestershire, the covering for the reading desk is formed out of an ancient sacerdotal vestment, probably a cope, of velvet, embroidered with portraits of saints. The cushion of the pulpit of East Langdon Church, near Dover, is made out of either an ancient antependium or vestment; the material consists of very thick crimson silk, embroidered with sprigs, and in the centre of the hanging are two figures supposed to represent the salutation of the Virgin, who is kneeling before a faldstool.
We occasionally, though rarely, meet with ancient charity-boxes of a date anterior to the Reformation: the churches of Wickmere, Loddon, and Causton, in Norfolk, still retainsuch226-*.At the Reformation, however, they were first required to be set up in churches. The ancient poor-boxin Trinity Church, Coventry, is an excellent specimen of the Elizabethan era, and the shaft which supports it is of stone, covered with arabesque scroll-work and other detail peculiar to that age; but most of the old charity-boxes are of the seventeenth century.
Ancient Charity-box, Trinity Church, Coventry.Ancient Charity-box, Trinity Church, Coventry.
Towards the close of the sixteenth century the practice of preaching by an hour-glass, set in an iron frame affixed to the pulpit or projecting from the wall near it, began to prevail; and in the succeeding century this practice became quite common. In the churchwardens’ accounts for St. Mary’s Church, Lambeth, occurs the following: “A. 1579, Payde to Yorke for the frame on which the hower standeth,—..1..4;” and in the churchwardens' accounts of St. Helen’s Church, Abingdon, is an item, “AnnoMDXCI.payde for an houre glass for the pilpit, 4d.” In the parochial accounts for St. Mary’s, Shrewsbury, A. D. 1597, is a charge “for removing the desk and other necessaries about the pulpit, and for makeinge a thing for the hower glasse, 9d.” In Shawell Church, Isle of Wight, the old iron stand for the hour-glass still remains affixed to a pier adjoining the pulpit; it is composed of two flat circular hoops or rings, one at some distance above the other, annexed or attached and kept in position by four vertical bars of iron, and the lower ring has cross-bars to sustain the glass. In Cassington Church, Oxfordshire, projecting from the wall by the side of the pulpit, is an iron stand for the hour-glass, consisting of two circular hoops or rings of iron, connected by four wrought ironbars, worked in the middle; and across the lower ring or hoop is an iron bar or stay. In High Laver Church, Essex, the iron stand for the glass still remains, and is in fashion not unlike a cresset, having only one hoop or ring encircling the top, and supported on four iron bars, which cross in curves at the bottom. Many other churches might be enumerated in which the stand for the hour-glass is still preserved; and the hour-glass itself, together with its frame, is said to be retained in South Burlingham Church, Norfolk. An hour-glass within a rich and peculiar frame, supported on a spiral column, and apparently of the latter part of the seventeenthcentury, is yet preserved in St. Alban’s Church, Wood Street, London.