position of the original parish one against the screen. At Westminster
Abbey the choir runs far into the nave (cutting off the five eastern
bays), and is separated from it by a high and deep screen of which the
inner stonework dates from the thirteenth century, but the fronting is
modern. One bay west was the rood-screen; below it, on the floor of the
nave, was the Jesus altar, at which mass was said in presence of the
people. Above, in the rood-loft, was a second Jesus altar, from which, on
certain days, the Epistles and Gospels were read.
Also, as everywhere in churches before the Reformation, there were
altars in connection with the rood-screens and rood-lofts. For instance,
in 1400, Lady Johanna, late wife of Sir Donald de Hesilrigg, bequeaths
“To the convent of the house of Gysburgh, in Clyveland, one vestment of
camaca to serve in the pulpit there, and one chalice of silver gilt.”
At _Grantham_ Parish Church, where there was a stone rood-screen, we
know, from a mention in the Patent Rolls, that there was an altar in the
rood-loft. In York Minster there was an altar in the loft before the
image of the Saviour, on the south side of the church, for two chaplains,
founded in 1475-6 by Richard Andrew, Dean of York.[101] In the same place
an inventory is given, of the date 1543, of the belongings of the “altar
of the name of Jhesu in the rudde loft.”
At Norwich Cathedral the pulpitum still exists as the organ loft (with
a staircase north and south from central passage to loft), between the
twelfth piers of the nave (from the west end), the space between these
and the eleventh is taken up by the Chapel of Our Lady of Pity—the
ante-choir. Between the eleventh piers is Bishop Le Hart’s screen, with
central door and an altar on either side, that on the north dedicated to
St. William, that on the south to St. Mary. Further west, between the
tenth piers, was probably a wooden screen, and either on this or above
Bishop Le Hart’s screen the rood would be placed.
An early screen at St. Albans, built by Abbot Richard, 1097-1119, is
described as a wall of stone finished with a wooden capping, the altar
being raised in the centre towards the nave. The present screen, called
St. Cuthbert’s, cuts off three bays of the nave westwards of the lantern.
In the centre is the altar of the Holy Cross, with a door on each side
opening into the choir eastwards. If the rood-beam and figures were not
supported by the screen, they must have been probably westwards of it
(_eastwards_ in Murray’s _Cathedrals_), and supported by their own screen
perhaps.
The only instance in _Lincolnshire_ of a screen of the kind just
described exists in _Crowland Abbey_. Here the north aisle of the nave
seems to have been used for the parish church (as it is now) from early
times, but the arrangement in the nave is the same as that mentioned
above, though I know of no remains of any eastern screen having been
discovered. The splendid western Norman arch of the central tower is
screened across below by a solid wall, pierced by two side doors, and
on the west side there is a space betwixt them for the altar. Also, on
this side, there is a band of panelling of sunk quatrefoils, extending
right across the screen a little above the doors (a wooden reredos and
panelling probably filling up the plain portions of this wall); while
the eastern face of the screen is ornamented with a panelled band of
quatrefoils alternating with shields, and the rest of the surface is
covered with panelled tracery of Perpendicular date. The doorways on this
side are four-centred, with square-headed mouldings above, the spandrils
being filled in with foliage. This screen most likely was built by
William de _Croyland_, who was master of the works from 1392 to 1417. In
1539, probably the whole arch was built up solid, with a square-headed
two-light window in the middle, so as to allow the nave to be used as the
parish church when the choir and the rest of the abbey was pulled down.
The roof of the nave fell in about 1688, after which the north aisle
would again be used as the parish church. It is interesting to recall
the fact that at Leominster a new north aisle was built to serve as the
parish church, and so also at Blyth.
This central position of the altar, with a doorway on either side, was
a general arrangement in the Jubés of Germany, of which Pugin’s plates
of those in Münster Cathedral, the Domkirche and the Hospital, Lübeck,
the Dom at Hildersheim, and that at Gelnhausen may serve as specimens.
G. E. Street gave a sketch of a choir-screen with central altar on its
western front, and a door in either side, at Zamora Cathedral (_Gothic
Architecture in Spain_, p. 92). And a rood-screen at Wechelburg, Saxony,
with crucifix, SS. Mary and John, central western altar, and side doors,
is figured in Fergusson’s _Handbook of Architecture_, vol. ii. p. 583.
[Illustration: CROWLAND ABBEY ROOD-SCREEN, FROM THE EAST.]
In all Norman cathedrals, probably, the choir extended westwards
across the transepts into the structural nave. Consequently in any
later erection of screens to mark the entrance into the choir, this
ancient line of demarcation would be followed. The late Professor Willis
remarks of the screen already alluded to at Canterbury, as described by
Gervase, “that it may have remained, though in an altered form, to the
Reformation. One of Winchelsey’s statutes (dated 1298) expressly commands
that the two small doors under the great loft between the body of the
church and the choir, which are near the altar under the Great Cross,
shall remain.” Thus also at Chichester, Bishop Arundel’s Oratory (which
was pulled down in 1859) stood across the western arch of the central
tower. At Winchester, the rood-screen was in the second bay of the nave.
At St. Albans, St. Cuthbert’s altar-screen is three bays down the nave,
and at Norwich Bishop Le Hart’s screen (when complete with a vaulted
extension westwards, and a screen still farther, whereon the rood-beam
would be placed) takes in three bays of the nave. At Westminster four
bays, at Gloucester one bay, were included in the choir: at Peterborough
the organ-screen enclosed the first bay of the nave, and there was a
second screen as at Norwich, one bay farther west. The choir of the monks
at Ely extended westwards beyond the central tower, and after that had
fallen, beyond the octagon to the second pier of the nave. At Furness
Abbey the pulpitum doubtless occupied a bay between the third pair of
piers in the nave. At _Crowland_, as has been stated above, the existing
stone screen is across the western side of the lantern. All these, except
Chichester, belonged to the Benedictine Order. At Kirkstall Abbey, a
Cistercian house, the plan, as it existed in the twelfth century, shows
the extension of the choir into two bays of the nave, and at Roche Abbey,
also Cistercian, there are traces of the rood-screen, three bays down the
nave (with central door and two side altars), no other screen being found
save a wooden one in the same line across the north aisle.
In several of the cathedrals on the “old foundation” there is only one
screen which—as abroad—has served for rood-screens, the rood either being
on or above it. _Lincoln_, York, Ripon, Wells, and Southwell are all
furnished with screens of this kind, which have no trace of altars on
their western front. I am rather doubtful whether there may not have been
altars on each side of the western doorway of the screen at Southwell.
At _Lincoln_ the solid stone screen stretches across the entrance to
the choir between the eastern piers of the central crossing, being
thus in length about 42 feet and in depth from east to west about 12
feet 6 inches. Its height from the floor of the nave to the top of
the parapet is 17 feet. The western front of the screen consists of a
central canopied archway having four recessed tabernacles with rich
ogee canopied arches, grained continuously on each side, separated by
detached buttressed piers. The wall behind is covered with diaper work,
and subdivided by a shelf enriched with leafage below. There are still
remains of colour and gilding. Three steps lead up to the doorway, from
which a passage, with flat ceiling and skeleton vaulting (reminding one
of similar work in the screen at Southwell) gives entrance into the
choir. On the left, _i.e._ on the north side of this passage, opening by
double doors, which have some excellent examples of original ironwork
upon them, is a broad staircase leading to the loft above. Just at the
entrance to the staircase is the door, on the west side, of a dark recess
with an aumbry. The staircase has also a flat ceiling and skeleton
rib-vaulting, and has, on emerging above, a corbel table charmingly
carved with rich foliage, forming a kind of edge to the hatchway, on
three sides. On the south, or right-hand side, of the central passage is
a small room, with solid vaulting, lighted by a square window looking
into the south choir aisle, guarded by the original iron bars.
On the south side also of the screen, there is a second stair leading to
the loft, formed in the thickness of the screen wall of the first bay of
the south choir aisle, lighted by a pierced quatrefoil, and approached
by a small ogee-headed archway, to be reached by a short step-ladder.
This, it has been stated, was for the use of the custodian of the choir,
and from its smallness could never have been used by priests arrayed
in canonicals. The eastern side of the screen is formed by the return
stalls, and over the entrance there is a projection of half polygonal
shape, and of much the same date as the choir-stalls themselves. It
is noteworthy that the eastern doorway in the stone screen has a deep
moulding running round the arch, with traces of colour as a finishing
touch, evidently intended to be seen, before the woodwork of the stalls
was placed in front of it. I may here mention that the date of the stone
screen has been generally considered to be about 1320, and that of John
of Welbourn’s choir-stalls about 1380. This projection is coved, and
some of the ribs run down to the doorway, but it is curiously and mainly
supported by horizontal beams running westward from the projection for
half their length over the floor of the loft, and being bolted through
that floor at their western ends. Four uprights pass downwards from the
floor of the projection, two of them to the floor of the choir, which two
are stopped by responds at each side of the stone archway. On reaching
the loft, there is a broad seat of stone extending the whole length
of the loft on the western side, above that a broad band of elegant
diaper-work, surmounted by a parapet pierced with trefoils alternately
erect and inverted, and finished with a battlemented cresting.
The eastern face of the screen is guarded by a coped wall of about the
same height as that just mentioned, _i.e._ about 4 feet. In the middle,
for about 8 feet, this wall is cut away down to the level of the floor of
the projection over the eastern doorway, in order to give access to that
floor. As already mentioned, the joists of this floor (the floor-boarding
probably only dates from 1826) lead backwards, _i.e._ westwards, over
a beam laid in the wall north and south, and in their completed state
would form a half octagonal platform. On each side of the break in the
parapet wall were found, in the course of the alterations in the organ
and organ case (in 1897-98), three stone steps. They are broken across,
and removed towards the middle of the space, but they have evidently
formed part of a half octagon, as the stone floor of the loft within
this mark, made by completing the figure, is of a different colour to
that outside. These steps, then, have obviously led up to the complete
polygon, half within the projection and half westwards of it, over the
floor of the loft. These fragmentary steps were noticed to have been much
worn with use. The interior of the projection, apparently, is original
work, and it is interesting to find in Wild’s plate, published in 1819
before the changes in the organ, that it is boarded round and finished
with a plain moulding. J. J. Smith, the late clerk of the works at the
Minster, was satisfied that there was a desk running round the inside of
this projection.
[Illustration: “PULPITUM” OF LINCOLN MINSTER, FROM THE EAST.]
Canon Christopher Wordsworth, in the Introduction to the second part
of the _Lincoln Cathedral Statutes_, says that there was a rood altar
(Sanctæ Crucis) under the lantern, either on the screen over the door,
or before the entrance of the choir. He also adds, “there was, _circa_
1520-1536, a ‘Jhesus Mass,’ but whether this involved a special Jesus
altar I cannot say.” And again, “Holy Rood or altar of St. Cross, which
may have stood on the choir-screen.” An altar with this title appears to
have existed in the time of Matthew Paris, _circa_ 1250, as he says that
Remigius was buried in front of it; “in prospectu altaris Sanctæ Crucis”
are Giraldus Cambrensis’ own words. Therefore, as the Minster was partly
used as the Parish Church of St. Mary Magdalene, on whose site it was
built, and a presbyter was deputed by the Dean and Chapter to minister
sacraments and sacramentals to the parishioners, “in certo loco ipsius
ecclesiæ Cathedralis,” till Oliver Sutton erected the church on its
present site in Exchequer Gate, it is probable that there was a Jesus
altar for parochial purposes and a rood-screen across the western piers
of the lantern, or even farther west in the nave. In this connection,
the description of the rood-screen at the entrance to the choir given in
the _Metrical Life of St. Hugh_, will be of much interest. It was almost
certainly written between the years 1220 and 1235:—
“_De crucifixo, et tabulâ aureâ in introitu chori._
Introitumque chori majestas aurea pingit;
Et proprie propriâ crucifixus imagine Christi
Exprimitur, vitæque suæ progressus ad unguem
Insinuatur ibi. Nec solum crux vel imago
Immo columnarum sex, lignorumque duorum
Ampla superficies, obrizo fulgurat auro.”
On which my friend, the late Precentor Venables, remarked, “The meaning
is not free from obscurity, but we see that the rood-screen consisted
of six pillars—three, we may suppose, either side the entrance to the
choir—supporting two beams, on which stood the crucifix, the whole being
gilt.”
This, then, may have been the screen on which the rood stood. Abroad,
as can be seen at the present day (_e.g._ at Louvain St. Pierre), it
frequently stands upon the screen itself. In other cases it may be
supported by a beam above the screen. At Canterbury Cathedral, in
Lanfranc’s time, we learn from Gervase that “above the loft, and placed
across the church, was the beam which sustained the great cross, two
cherubim, and the images of St. Mary and St. John the Apostle.” In later
times it probably stood on the existing arch (built by Prior Goldstone
II. about 1495 to 1517) inserted under the western arch of the central
tower. At Exeter Cathedral the rood stood on a separate bar of iron, high
above the screen, and was erected in 1324, after the screen was finished.
The rests for it, cut out of the narrow arches on either side, were
brought into view recently. At Nuremberg the same arrangement prevails,
or prevailed. At Winchester Cathedral the second easternmost bay of the
nave from the chancel-screen was occupied by a rood-loft, on which stood
the “magna crux cum duabus imaginibus sc. Mariæ et Johannis et illas cum
trabe vestitas auro et argento copiose,” &c., made and set up by Bishop
Stigand, who was buried at Winchester in 1069. At Glastonbury Abbey we
read of William de Taunton, Abbot (1322-1335), making the “front of the
choir, with the curious stone images, where the crucifix stood.” Also
at St. Edmondsbury, in the earliest part of the thirteenth century,
Hugh the Sacrist “pulpitum in ecclesiæ ædificavit, magna cruce erecta,”
showing the close connection between the rood and the loft. At Worcester
Cathedral there are stone brackets for the rood-beam on the western
pillars of the lantern, 28 feet from the floor of the nave. There seem to
be no traces of rood or rood-beam in _Lincoln Minster_.
In the Hereford Consuetudines, one of the duties of the Thesaurarius
was to keep three lamps burning day and night, one of which was “in
pulpito ante crucem.” The same officer was ordered in the Liber Niger
of _Lincoln_, “Minutam etiam candelam invenire in choro et in pulpito
et alibi in ecclesia quandocumque necesse fuerit,” the Eastern use
differing from the Western on the score of economy! There seems to be
no reasonable doubt that the pulpitum and platform already described
was the one from which the Gospel and Epistle were read or intoned,
and other portions of the pre-Reformation services sung or said. Dr.
Hopkins[102] says: “For the accommodation of the singing monks there was
a projecting gallery or pulpit, as it was sometimes termed, standing out
from the centre of the east front of the rood-loft, near to the organ.”
The author of The Rites of Durham speaks of “the pair of organs over the
Quire dore” in the eastern screen. No doubt there were variations in
what was read, sung, or chanted from the rood-loft in different dioceses
and different cathedrals. According to Wild, at High Mass, as soon as
the reading of the Epistle by the sub-deacon was ended (at the altar,
we may presume) the deacon, leaving the altar, preceded by the crucifix
and taper-bearers, and holding the book of the Gospels conspicuously
elevated in his hands, walked slowly and processionally along the south
side of the choir (while the choristers sang the _graduale_) to the steps
leading to the rood-loft, where, being arrived and kneeling under the
great crucifix usually erected there, he addressed the bishop or priest
in these words, “Jube, Domine, benedicere,” to which the officiating
clergyman answered, “Evangelium Domini Nostri Jesu Christi,” or some
other benediction. And then the deacon would read the Gospel from the
rood-loft and would return to the altar. From this custom, especially in
France, the gallery over the screen obtained the name of Jubé. The Liber
Niger, or Statutes of _Lincoln Cathedral_, have the following directions
for this use:—
“Vnde incepto _Jube domine benedicere_ none leccionis dabit
ille benediccionem qui propinquior fuerit dignitate. et iste
modus seruetur omni tempore nisi ita sit quod omnes canonici
sint absentes. tunc suus clericus incipiet _Jube_ et cetera et
ipsemet lector dicat benediccionem. Deinde leget” (p. 372).
Also we find the following references to the use of the rood-loft:—
“_Gloria_, ergo incepto; Eat principalis subdiaconus in
pulpitum per dexteram partem chori subdiacono (secundario)
librum portante precedente, Vnde si contingat leccionem aliquam
precedere sicut in natali Domini siue in septimana Pentecostes
iiijᵒʳ temporum; secundus subdiaconus leget, et sacerdos cum
suis ministris dicet _epistolam_. et _Gradale_ et _Alleluia_
et _Sequenciam_ et hijs dictis eat ad suum sedile et ibi dicet
oraciones. Lecta epistola in pulpito recedet subdiaconus
principalis ex sinistra parte chori socio suo prenotato
precedente et librum portante,” &c. (p. 377).
The following passage has against it in the margin:—
“_De modo eundi ad euangelium in magno pulpito._ Et preparent
se omnes ministri altaris ad eundum pro euangelio lecturo
scilicet iij diaconi et iij subdiaconi Principalibus diacono
et subdiacono textus portantibus et ij turiferarij et ij
ceroferarij et ij clerici pueri ferentes cruces et hij omnes
per chorum exeant Set in eundo ad euangelium diaconi ire
debent ex parte dextra chori precedentibus vno turiferario
et ceroferario et vna cruce et subdiaconi ex sinistra
precedentibus vno thuriferario et ceroferario cum cruce, Vnde
incepto evangelio stabunt coram diaconis subdiaconi omnes et
clerici cruces portantes principali subdiacono portante textum
ante pectus Lecto evangelio ibunt ad altare modo contrario quia
diaconi ibunt ex parte sinistra et subdiaconi ex parte dextra.
Vnde semper quando aliquis vel aliqui venient in pulpitum
magnum ad legendum euangelium siue epistolam siue exposicionem;
venient in dextra et recedant in sinistra et dabit sacerdoti
euangelium ad osculandum,” &c. (p. 379).
Again—
“Completorium pulsatur” in a given way. “Vnde sciendum quod
quando iij cantant ad lectrinam in choro siue in magno
pulpito.... Nota quod quandocumque canonicus leget siue cantet
in magno pulpito siue in choro sequetur eum ministrando
vicarius siue clericus in habitu nigro nisi chorus capis
induatur sericis” (p. 382).
Later, _i.e._ in 1236, there are directions for the choir to face the
altar whilst the Gospel is being read at the altar, we may presume, for
the next sentence runs thus: “Et dum legitur in pulpito debet chorus se
convertere ad lectorem euangelij donec euangelium perlegatur.”
There seems to be little doubt that the principal organ (if the church
possessed more than one) was frequently placed on the rood-loft, or
“pulpitum,” and the smaller one in the choir. There was an organ as
late as Hollar’s time over the “Den” in the fourth bay of the north
side of the choir at _Lincoln_. By the extracts already quoted from The
Rites of Durham, there was evidently one pair of organs (meaning one
complete organ) on the north side of the choir, and another pair on the
pulpitum there, and from Henry VI.’s “owne avyse” we learn that it was
expressly ordered that the Eton College rood-loft should likewise serve
as an organ-gallery. Among the many interesting items in the accounts of
_Louth_ steeple, dating from 1501-1518, is this:—
“For setting up the Flemish organ in the rood-loft by four days xx_d._”
So that the present position of several of our cathedral organs (which
is fully justified by convenience and æsthetic satisfaction as being
thoroughly Gothic) is only a survival of a very tolerably ancient
practice. Playing the organ (“cuilibet cantancium organum, trahenti
organa”) is mentioned in the Black Book, already quoted from, in 1322.
Canon Christopher Wordsworth[103] considers that the terms _organizacio_,
_organizare_, apply apparently to vocal music at the lectern in choir at
the end of evensong and lauds. Canon Maddison mentions that one of the
vicars received a fee as late as 1536 for playing the organ at the “Jesus
Mass.” On the 10th September 1442, an order for 5 marcs from the fabrick
chest was made for new organs in the great choir, to be constructed by
one Arnold, “organer,” of Norwich, in the best manner possible. On 14th
October (of the same year, I think), Robert Patryngton is commissioned
to find with all speed “a scientific man” who has skill to make the new
organs in Lincoln choir. The organ, which was remodelled and enlarged in
1897-8, was the work of Allen, the case being designed by the late E. J.
Willson in the year 1826.
A word or two must suffice to describe the side screens of the choir,
which separate it from the north and south choir aisles. Very probably,
in addition to other uses, these screen-walls were built to connect
together the piers of the choir arcades, at least in the three western
bays, and so help to take off some of the thrust produced by the central
tower, and were constructed after its fall. The north screen-wall has
an arcade or triple shafts, ornamented with dog-tooth, and with twisted
bosses like the rounded head of a drill or a coil of rope at the
springing of the arches. The fourth bay eastwards is of later date, the
capitals much under-cut, and the corbels at the apex of the string-course
having birds among natural foliage. The fourth bay on the south side is
very similar; the next has later work inserted again, for the shrine of
Little St. Hugh, the second bay being like the northern three, and the
first taken up with the staircase for the constable of the close, and
a square grated window lighting the room in the organ-loft, already
described. Only those who have seen the magnificent sculptured work on
the side screens of the choir of Chartres, Amiens, and Notre Dame can
appreciate what _can_ be done in decorating these screens.
The last stone screen to be described is in _Tattershall Collegiate
Church_, founded in 1439 by Ralph, Lord Cromwell, Lord Treasurer of
England.