church for safety—quite startling, being formerly on the west face of the
tower, forty feet from the ground. It is of an archbishop, and when the
Lincolnshire Architectural Society went to Edenham in 1888, and the brass
was there described by Bishop Trollope, I remember that much amusement
was caused by the episcopal figure looking so much like a rough portrait
of the good bishop himself. It may, however, be taken as certain that
this is not a sepulchral brass, but part of a representation of the giver
of the tower, _c._ 1500, since the rivets of another brass, the donor
kneeling, can be detected on the other side of the west window lower
down. It must then be of a saint, and so may be assumed to be St. Thomas
of Canterbury. It is, however, well worth mention here.
Lastly, I turn to the inscriptions. There are many rather curious ones
dotted about the county, but they are mostly too long to be worth
transcribing in full. I will give, therefore, two only, from Wrangle and
Lusby.
At Wrangle, on the tomb of John Reed, a merchant of the Staple of Calais,
and his wife, is a marginal inscription running round a large slab, which
has been broken in parts, but was copied by Marratt. The introduction of
the verse part is curiously abrupt, and seems to need some link. It runs:
“_They for man when yᵉ [winde blows make the mill grin]de. and ev. on thy
own soule have thou [a minde. that thou givest w]yth thy hande that shalt
thou finde. and yᵗ thou levys thy executors comys far behinde. do for
your slefe whill yᵉ have space. to pray ihu of m̅cy and grace i̅ heuen to
haue a place._”
[Illustration: JOHN LYNDEWODE AND HIS WIFE ALICE (1419) IN LYNWOOD
CHURCH.]
In the tiny church of Lusby, close to the battlefield of Winceby, there
is a small brass plate on a slab which bears, as far as I can make it
out, the date 1555. It has a pretty little inscription in verse as a
dialogue between a wife and a husband. It runs:
“_My flesh in hope doth rest and slepe_
_In earth here to remayne._
_My spirit to Christ I gyve to kepe_
_Till I do rise agayne._”
“_And I wyth you in hope agre,_
_Though I yet here abyde._
_In full purpose if Goddes will be_
_To ly down by your syde._”
I hope now that I have sufficiently proved my point as to the great
value and interest of the Lincolnshire brasses. Mr. Macklin in his small
work, _Monumental Brasses_, made a kind of tripos for the counties, in
which Lincolnshire, though taking honours, only won a third class. In
his larger and greatly improved book, _The Brasses of England_, in “The
Antiquary’s Library,” this list disappears, and I should be surprised
if he would not now raise the county to his second class. At any rate,
some twenty brasses of great importance or fine workmanship, together
with many rare or even unique instances of particular types, are amply
sufficient to establish a claim to considerable distinction.
ON MEDIÆVAL ROOD-SCREENS AND ROOD-LOFTS IN LINCOLNSHIRE CHURCHES
BY THE EDITOR
In many times and in many places religious men have loved to veil or
screen off those parts of their House of God which they considered more
particularly sacred, from the “profanum vulgus.” The veil of the Jewish
Temple, the veil which stretched across the Saxon chancel arch, the
chancel-screens from the earliest days of Gothic to our own in the Church
of England, the “Jubé” in France, Belgium, and Germany, the “screens and
ambones” of Italy, and the “Iconostasis” of the Greek Church (different
in position though it be), all testify to the widespread character of
this custom. The very word “chancel” itself is derived from the Latin
_cancelli_—a lattice-work or screen.
In the decrees of the Second Council of Tours, A.D. 557, “lay persons
were not to enter the chancel, which is divided off by screens, except to
partake of the sacrament of the altar.” A complete screen extended all
round the choir later on. Eusebius describes the choir of the Church of
the Apostles, erected by Constantine at Constantinople, as enclosed by
screens or trellis work, marvellously wrought: “Interiorem ædis partem
undique in ambitum circumductam, reticulato opere ex aere et auro affabre
facto convestivit.”[97] Professor Willis describes the screen of old
St. Peter’s at Rome as follows (and an engraving of it is also given by
Pugin): “In front of the steps (to the altar) were placed twelve columns
of Parian marble, arranged in two rows; these were of spiral form and
decorated with sculpture of vine leaves: the bases were connected by
lattice-work of metal or by walls of marble breast-high. The entrance was
between the central pillars, where the _cancelli_ or lattices were formed
into doors. Above these columns were laid beams or entablatures upon
which were placed images, candelabra, and other decorations; and indeed
the successive Popes seem to have lavished every species of decoration in
gold, silver, and marble work upon this enclosure and the crypt below.
The entire height, measured to the top of the entablature, was about 30
feet; the columns, with the connecting lattices and entablatures, formed,
in fact, the screen of the chancel.”[98] At San Clemente, at Rome, the
chancel is divided off by a screen wall all round, being 4 feet 6 inches
high; each ambo, or reading-desk for Epistle or Gospel, is in the middle
of the north and south walls and faces east. Between this choir and the
sanctuary is a cross wall of marble, 6 feet high, with an opening in
the centre. These existing screens are probably due to Adrian I., and
date from the year 790, but they are almost certainly on the original
lines.[99] At Giotto’s Chapel of the Arena, Padua, the chancel is formed
by marble screens on each side of the nave, leaving a broad entrance-way
between them, and enclosing about one-third of its length. Against the
west sides of these screens are altars, each with a small carved marble
reredos; whilst on the east are steps leading to the two ambones: that on
the north being a book-rest, carved in marble, and fixed with its face to
the east; that on the south of iron, and turning upon a pivot.
Thus even in Saxon times the choir of Canterbury, which extended into
the nave, was enclosed by a breast-high wall. And Gervase tells us of
the choir of Conrad (A.D. 1130), “that at the bases of the pillars there
was a wall built of marble slabs, which, surrounding the choir and
presbytery, divided the body of the church from its sides called aisles.”
The same choir of Canterbury is now enclosed by the very beautiful screen
built by Prior d’Estria. Rochester again has a solid stone wall round its
choir, and the same is the case at _Lincoln_ (though never a monastery).
“The choir, as a rule, was occupied,” says Dr. Jessopp, “exclusively by
the monks or nuns of the monastery. The servants, work-people, and casual
visitors who came to worship were not admitted into the choir; _they_
were supposed to be present only on sufferance. The church was built for
the use of the monks: it was their private place of worship.” And, as
we shall see presently, the screens were still more solid where there
happened to be a parish church in the nave.
Pugin, in his well-known work on the subject of rood-screens, points
out another reason for these walled-in choirs (besides the one just
mentioned), _i.e._ that they shut off in some degree the cold draughts
of air from the monks during their frequent and lengthy services in
buildings which at that time (and for many a century to come) were
not warmed at all. Later still the cathedrals, other than monastic,
like _Lincoln_, and collegiate churches like Southwell, followed suit
in separating off the choir from the nave. In all these cases, as a
rule, the screen was solid, but when the same movement spread to parish
churches, the chancel was divided off by a screen of open work, there
being no need for the N. and S. screens, as a rule (though Newark has
them), so that the congregation—here regarded as an integral part of the
worshippers—might see the altar and all the ceremonial. In such Saxon
churches as have retained their Saxon chancel arches, these are very
narrow, and originally in all probability were closed by a veil, more
or less completely. This is alluded to in an Anglo-Saxon Pontifical,
“extenso velo inter eos (_i.e._ clericos) et populum,” and by Durandus
(who was Bishop of Mende, a small city in the Lozère district of France
from 1286 to 1296), “interponatur velum aut murus inter clerum et
populum.” Later, when the use of the veil ceased, and these chancel
arches were felt to be, through their narrowness, a great obstruction to
the view from the nave into the choir, openings were made on each side to
partially circumvent this difficulty. At _Bracebridge_, near Lincoln, for
example, the chancel arch, exceedingly narrow (being only 5 feet wide),
is of Saxon date and has a round-headed opening—a hagioscope—on either
side.
The Lenten veil (a remnant of former use), which was hung across the
chancel between the screen and the altar, is alluded to in _Lincoln
Cathedral Statutes_, “velum pendere ante altare,” and at _Leverton_, as
“the veil of the temple hanging between the choir and the altar in Lent.”
At _Heckington_ and _Claypole_ still remain the hooks used for this
purpose.
But besides separating the clergy and laity, the western portion of the
screens, where they were solid, or the upper part where they were open,
served to support, or was in close relation to, a horizontal beam—the
rood-beam—which stretched across the chancel arch, and itself supported
the rood. This, of course, was a crucifix, and, as Fuller says, “when
perfectly made and with all the appurtenances thereof, had not only the
image of Our Saviour extended upon it, but the figures of the Virgin Mary
and St. John” (the former on the north at Our Saviour’s right hand, the
latter on the south side and so at His left).
It may be mentioned here that roods carved in stone have been found on
the outside of Saxon churches. Thus, on the west side of the porch at
_Branston_, near Lincoln, are the remains of such a sculpture under a
three-headed arch; also at _Marton by Stow_ a Saxon crucifix rudely
carved in stone was found during the restoration in 1892, and another
existed at Headbourn Worthy, Hants.
A Saxon or Runic cross was found in the north aisle in restoring
_Colsterworth Church_; and at _Barton on Humber_ (St. Peter’s), over the
inside of the eastern arch of the tower, is a stone slab with a face
carved in the upper part of it.
These roods of wood or metal were apparently early introduced into
churches, with or without the screens as mentioned before: “A.D. MXXIII.
Kanutus Rex dedit ecclesiæ Christi in Doroberniæ” (vel Duroverniæ =
Canterbury), “portum de Sandwico cum corona sua aurea quæ adhuc servatur
in capite crucis majoris in navi ejusdem ecclesiæ.”
Stigand again, who was buried at Winchester in 1069, according to
John of Exeter: “Magnam crucem ex argento cum ymaginibus argenteis in
pulpito ecclesiæ contulit.” Aldred, the last Saxon Archbishop of York
(1060-1069), erected “Supra ostium chori pulpitum aere, aere auro,
argento auro, mirabili opere Teutonico exornavit,” in Beverley Minster.
Mention is made of a black marble crucifix at Waltham in the time of
Canute, and the rood at Battle Abbey is spoken of as existing in 1095.
Gervase, in describing Lanfranc’s cathedral at Canterbury (1174), says:
“A screen with a loft (_pulpitum_) separated in a manner the aforesaid
tower” (the central one) “from the nave, and had in the middle and on the
side towards the nave the altar of the Holy Cross. Above the loft, and
placed across the church, was the beam, which sustained a great cross” (a
crucifix almost certainly), “two cherubim, and the images of St. Mary and
St. John the Apostle.”
Occasionally, as at Chipping Ongar, we find indications of a rood-beam
having been placed across the _east_ end of the chancel, immediately
above the altar, and, of course, carrying on it the rood. At _Stow_, in
the chancel, in the jambs of the side windows north and south of the
altar space, there was a fracture and displacement of the mouldings
exactly in the same place in each, no doubt to support a beam for the
crucifix.
In some cases these altar-screens were double walled, with a kind of
platform or gallery on the top, whereon the sacred relics could be
displayed, while the space between the walls served as a sacristy or
feretory. At _Lincoln Minster_, for instance, the original reredos-screen
was double, with a long narrow space, serving as a sacristy, between
the two screens lighted by the quatrefoils, still open in the back
screen wall, with aumbries, &c., in the walls, and a newel-stair at the
north-west corner leading to the tabernacle above. A similar arrangement,
according to the late Precentor Venables, of a narrow slip sacristy
behind the reredos may be seen at St. Nicholas’, Great Yarmouth, and at
Llantwit in South Wales. A somewhat similar example exists at Beverley
Minster; at the back (_i.e._ eastwards) of the altar-screen is a
platform, reached by a stair at the north end, and supported by three
elegant arches on shafts, with a vaulted roof, an excellent specimen of
Decorated work. At York Minster, again, there was a double screen—
“The wooden screen behind the high altar of the same work as
the rest of the quire, surmounted with triangular coats-of-arms
containing each a rose, &c., of the common form, supported
behind by angels. It was handsomely painted and gilt. It had a
door at each end which opened into a place behind the altar,
where antiently the archbishops used to robe themselves at the
time of their enthronization, and thence proceeded to the high
altar, where they were invested with the pall. On the top of
this screen was a gallery for musick.... By the taking away
of this the altar was carried back one arch to a stone screen
behind it of excellent Gothick architecture.”
Professor Willis believed that this was the place where the portable
feretrum or shrine of St. William was kept. At Winchester Cathedral,
behind the high altar (the beautiful altar-screen of which will be
mentioned presently), is a raised platform in the feretory, cut off from
the choir by the reredos-screen, with originally an arcade in front of
it, making a platform of about 10 feet broad. This probably sustained
the shrine of St. Swithun, and also those of SS. Birinus, Edda, and
Ethelwold. The eastern face is ornamented with tabernacles of Decorated
work, and the floor under the platform is carried by a small vault, to
which entrance is gained below the range of tabernacles. This vault is
supposed to be the “Holy Hole” of the records.
An altar-screen with rood, &c., is to be seen in an illustration of the
hearse of Abbot Islip in Westminster Abbey. At St. Cross, Nuremberg, a
rood with St. Mary and St. John and several angels, contained in very
fine and lofty tabernacle work, surmounts a carving of the Deposition
by Veit Stoss, which is protected by triple doors, with paintings by
Wohlgemuth, over the high altar. This may also have been the case at
Chichester, as in the years 1276 tapers are mentioned: “Supra trabem
pictam supportantem crucifixi imaginem viii ejusdem ponderis.” In the
Laudable Customs of Hereford, in the twelfth century, there is an
allusion to the beam in “Missa accenduntur xiii cerei supra trabem”; and,
on great feasts, “iv ante majus altare quinque in basinis xiij super
trabem et vij super candelabra.” Joceline de Brakelond tells us that
at Bury St. Edmunds, in the Abbey Church, there was a “Crux que erat
super magnum altare, et Mariola et Johannes, quas imagines Stigandus
archiepiscopus magno pondere auri et argenti ornaverat, et Sancto Ædmundo
dederat.” The following quotations from the Liber Niger of _Lincoln
Minster_ (about the year 1236) refer to this in all probability: “Item
in eisdem festis invenire, xvi cereos supra trabem secus altare,” &c.
“Omnes prescripti cerei exceptis cereis super candelabrum ereum et trabem
secus altare,” &c. “Item in principalibus festis debent ponere xvj cereos
parvos super trabem secus altare et illuminare et extinguere et in
depositione habere unum illorum quem voluerint.”
Then on the choir-screen top, whether of wood or stone, there was
a gallery—the rood-loft which came into general existence in the
fourteenth, although as we have seen it was mentioned in the eleventh
century, and in parish churches often the only evidence left of this
rood-loft’s existence is the stone staircase of approach.
The _names_ of the rood-loft are various: Holy Loft, Candlebeam, Pulpitum
(Englished as poulpete, &c.), Rood Soller or Soler (the latter a word
used by Chaucer, who speaks of the “Soler Hall at Cantebrige”; it is
interesting to note that there is still a _Garret_ Hostel Lane and
Bridge there). In Norfolk it was called the Perk or Perch; in France,
the Jubé; in Germany, the Letter; and in Wales, Lloft y Grog. The screen
itself has been termed the trelyse, as in Mr. Gibbon’s _Early Lincoln
Wills_ we find one R. Bradley bequeathing 3s. 4d. for “gilding of the
trelyse.” Also it was termed spur or spere, as J. H. Parker gives us in
a contract for a rood-loft at Merton College Chapel, _c._ 1486, “with
speres and lynterns for two awters.”
As there is a great difference between the solid stone screens of
cathedral, monastic, and collegiate churches, and the light wood ones of
parish churches, both in material, design, and uses, it will be well to
describe each class separately.
The solid chancel-screens of cathedrals, abbeys, and collegiate churches
have first to be considered. They may conveniently and naturally be
divided into two classes, of both of which _Lincolnshire_, in spite of
much ambonoclastic energy, can still show examples.
_Those cathedrals which were originally monastic, and those monastic
churches which had parochial naves._—In these (and it will be seen
later, more especially in the Cistercian foundations), there were two
solid stone screens, of which one was at the east end of the nave, with
an altar, the Jesus altar, or Holy Cross altar, or parish altar, in the
midst of its western front, and a door on either side. This was the
rood-screen, and would have the rood with its belongings on its loft or
on a transverse beam a little above it. (Mention will be made presently
of the parish rood-screen and loft which was still further westwards.)
Between the two screens was an interval, generally of one bay, which,
among the Cistercians, was allotted to the inmates of the infirmary, the
sick, old, and infirm. At Norwich Cathedral this interspace is the Chapel
of Our Lady of Pity; the same was probably the case at Peterborough,
where an altar is named, “of Our Ladies Lamentation,” and at Durham.
Passing through the interval we should come to the second screen, also
of stone, and with a loft. On this would be the organ, and there would
be a projecting feature eastwards from which the Gospels, Epistles,
and Lessons might be read, or portions of the service chanted. A brief
extract from The Rites of Durham,[100] followed by a citation of
examples, some of which are destroyed and some fortunately extant, will
make this arrangement, I hope, quite clear. After speaking of “the pair
of organs over the quire dore” in the eastern screen, the writer says:—
“There” (_i.e._ in the same loft) “was also a Lanterne of
wood, like unto a Pulpit, standing and adjoyning to the Wood
Organs over the Quire door, where they had wont to sing the
nine Lessons in the old time on principal dayes, standinge with
their faces towards the high Altar” (pp. 27-28).
Then, with regard to the western screen, his account runs as follows:—
“In the Body of the Church, betwixt two of the highest Pillars
supporting, and holding up the West side of the Lantern,
over against the Quire door, there was an Altar, called
_Jesus_-Altar,” &c. “And on the backside of that saide Altar
there was a fair high stone Wall: and at either end of the
Wall there was a door, which was lock’d every night, called
the two Rood-doors, for the Procession to go and come in at;
and betwixt those two doors was _Jesus_-Altar placed, as is
aforesaid” (p. 54).
This altar was protected by a screen “of wainscot,” and had a “table” or
triptych over it:—
“There was also, in the height of the said Wall, from pillar
to pillar, the whole story and Passion of our Lord wrought in
stone, most curiously and most finely gilt. And also above
the said Story and Passion, was all the whole story and the
Pictures of the twelve Apostles,” &c. “And on the height above
all the foresaid story from Pillar to Pillar, was set up a
border very artificially wrought in stone with mervellous
fine colours, very curiously and excellent finely gilt, with
branches and flowers,” &c. “And also above the height of all,
upon the Wall, did stand the goodliest and most famous Rood
that was in all this land, with the Picture of _Mary_ on the
one side of our Saviour and the Picture of _John_ on the other,
with two splendent and glistering Arch-angels, one on the one
side of _Mary_ and the other on the other side of _John_,” &c.
“Also on the backside of the said Rood before the quire door
there was a loft,” &c. (pp. 56-57).
This arrangement is scarcely mentioned by writers on foreign
rood-screens, though Pugin gives a hint of it in his description of the
Domkirche—the Cathedral—of Lübeck, which has a central altar and side
doors, whereof he has given a plate, and two bays to the westward of this
screen there is a rood-beam supporting the rood. There is an iron screen
also, with central altar and side doors, in Freiburg, Switzerland.
In England this double screen seems to have been most characteristic
of Cistercian churches. Thus, at _Louth Park Abbey_ there was a stone
screen, called the pulpitum, at the west end of the choir, extending
across the nave, whereon stood the organs, &c. In the middle of the
screen was the choir door or lower entrance (_inferior introitus_). The
bay west of the pulpitum (which was sometimes of considerable thickness,
with an altar on either side the quire door, as at Jervaulx) was open,
and formed the retro-quire, where those who were extra-chorum for a time
(_e.g._ the _minuti_, _i.e._ those who had been let blood), and such of
the infirm as could attend, might hear the services.
West of this bay was a second screen pierced with doors at either end,
and having an altar in the middle against its western side. On top of
this screen was the rood-loft, with the great rood and its attendant
images. A bay westward was a low fence screen (the wainscot screen
alluded to in the above quotation from The Rites of Durham), and the
remainder of the nave was fitted up for the conversi or working brothers.
At Fountains, J. T. Micklethwaite noted the same arrangement. At Bolton,
in Yorkshire, where the nave is in actual use as the parish church, the
altar stands precisely in the position of this Jesus or parish altar;
the piscina may be seen close at hand in the south wall, and the Late
Perpendicular oak screen, once in front of the altar, is now at the west
end.
Where there was a parish service in the nave of a conventual church, the
nave was more or less completely shut off from the choir. The parish
altar then would stand, as first mentioned in the case of Bolton, against
the east wall of the nave, and consequently there would be a parish
rood-screen and rood-loft still farther down the nave, so as to cut off
a chancel, so to speak, for the parish service. At _Freiston Priory_
(although this eastern separating wall of the nave is modern, the choir
having perished), the altar is approximately in the position of the
people’s altar, and the staircase to the rood-loft, and the traces of
the rood-screen (which exists in a neighbouring parish church—that of
_Fishtoft_), show that three bays of the nave were cut off by it. Almost
exactly the same arrangement exists at Dunster, where the choir was
ordered, in 1499, to be used exclusively by the monks, and the nave to be
appropriated to the parishioners. A coëval rood-screen extends across the
nave, cutting off two eastern bays, with a rood-stair in the south aisle,
showing its present position to be the original one.