Church, but as there are scarcely any remains of screen-work of earlier
date than the fourteenth century, it could not have been long before that
time. There are, it is true, a few solitary specimens of thirteenth
century work, but most of that which still exists is of fifteenth century
date. Looking at examples of this period we generally find the rood loft
projected a little forward over the screen, the angle thus formed being
filled with groined work, springing from the protruding supports of the
screen beneath. The upper part of the screen was filled with open work
carving, which sometimes partook of the character of an elaborate
symbolical design. The lower part was nearly always plain, but in
conjunction with the upper surface was often elaborately painted and
gilded.
When the Reformation came, the roods were all swept away by order, but the
rood lofts in some cases became utilised as galleries for the singers. In
the churchwardens' account books, belonging to the parish of Stratton,
Cornwall, under date 1549, occurs an entry of a sum of money "payd for
takyng downe y{e} Rode and y{e} pagents y{n} y{e} rode lofte." It does not
appear that any of the roods escaped destruction, but representations of
the rood, and its attendant images of St. John and the Virgin Mary, were
sometimes carved in stone and inserted in the walls of churches, and of
these a few still remain. It is therefore possible to obtain from these
stone carvings a very good idea of how the rood looked when it was set up
in the rood loft. Mr. Bloxam mentions examples at Romsey, Hants;
Sherborne, Dorset; Burford, Oxon, and Evesham, Worcester; and the writer
may add that a fine specimen is to be seen over the south doorway of
Stepney Church, Middlesex.
It it presumed that an altar sometimes stood in the loft in front of the
rood. The fact that at Maxey Church, Northamptonshire, a piscina is to be
found in the south wall of the clerestory would seem to enforce such a
theory. On special occasions lights and other decorations occupied a place
in the loft near the rood. It has also been stated that the Gospel and
Epistle, and various other parts of the service, were read from the rood
loft.
Very good examples of a late Perpendicular rood screen and loft exist at
Bugbrook Church, Northamptonshire. The screen consists of three
compartments, of which the central one is the widest. It is ten feet seven
inches high, and at the base of the loft, measures nineteen feet three
inches across. The lower part of the central compartment, which went to
form the doors, is missing. The upper part is arched, and down the centre
of the arch runs a mullion. This description of the upper portion
corresponds with the two side compartments, where, however, the mullions
are continued down to the ground. The lower parts on each side are filled
with plain panels, which have apparently been inserted in later times. A
series of elaborate vaulting springs from the main supports of the
structure, and upholds to the rood loft, which projects over the top of
the screen. The vaulting is covered with fan tracery, the spaces between
the ribs being filled in with a rich design. The loft is between three and
four feet in width, and the cross beam on which it rests is seven inches
wide. Admission to the loft is gained from the south side, through a
narrow arched opening in the wall. The steps originally descended into the
south aisle, but there are only five of them now remaining.
The counties of Devon and Somerset probably contain some of the finest
examples of rood screens and rood lofts. On one at least of these the rood
has lately been replaced, for in a recent number of _Notes and
Queries_,[15] Mr. Harry Hems, of Exeter, writes as follows:--"The only
rood screen I recollect for the moment having the three figures upon it,
is at St. Andrew's, Kenn. I placed them there some seven or eight years
ago."
There seems now to be a general inclination towards a revival of the rood
screen. Even in our most recently built churches, a temporary screen,
festooned with flowers or other decorations, may often be seen erected on
the occasion of harvest festivals, and such-like celebrations. Whether or
no the setting up of the rood in the rood loft will ever again become
customary in the English Church, is a question time alone can solve.
Armour in Churches.
BY J. CHARLES COX, LL.D., F.S.A.
The memorial brasses, the incised slabs, and especially the effigies of
knights and men-at-arms, which abound in our churches, tell us far more of
the successive stages and development of English arms and armour, both of
an offensive and defensive character, than all the manuscript inventories
or actual collections of weapons that are yet extant. And not only do our
churches thus yield the most valuable and trustworthy evidence as to the
armour of our forefathers, by its faithful pourtrayal on the memorials of
the departed, but they also afford a sanctuary in numerous cases for
actual armour.
It was for many centuries a custom of Christendom--apparently more
particularly in England than elsewhere--to suspend over the tomb the
principal arms of the departed warrior, which had previously been carried
in the funeral procession. Hearne, the well-known antiquary of last
century, says that the custom originated with Canute placing his crown
upon the head of the crucifix at Winchester, when he found that the waves
refused to obey him; but it is somewhat difficult to follow the reasoning
which makes this a precedent for the hanging up of the dead man's armour.
The custom is twice noted by Shakespeare. In "Hamlet," Laertes says:--
"His means of death, his obscure burial--
No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones,
No noble rite, nor formal ostentation."
Iden, in "Henry VI.," remarks:--
"Is't Cade that I have slain, that monstrous traitor,
Sword, I will hallow thee for this thy deed,
And hang thee o'er my tomb, when I am dead."
The armour in our churches may be divided into two classes; firstly, that
which had actually been worn by the person commemorated, and secondly,
that which was specially constructed for funeral purposes.
The most deeply interesting and the oldest of genuine armour still
preserved within English churches, is that which pertained to the Black
Prince, and which hangs above his well-known tomb in the cathedral church
of Canterbury. In June, 1894, this armour was exhibited at Burlington
House, in the rooms of the Society of Antiquaries, when we had special
opportunities of examining it. The great tilting helm of iron weighs seven
pounds. The leathern cap inside it is almost worn away. The gilded
long-tailed lion which forms the crest is of leather. The great shield of
France and England quarterly is also of embossed leather. The gauntlets
are of latten, and still retain the inner leather gloves. The
sword-scabbard and buckle are of the same material; the sword itself is
unfortunately missing, and is said to have been appropriated by Oliver
Cromwell when visiting Canterbury.
The surcoat, which laced up the back, is of velvet, and well padded. It is
not a little remarkable that the arms of neither shield nor surcoat bear
any label or mark of cadency, but are simply royal arms. Mr. St. John Hope
ingeniously conjectures that this singular omission can only be accounted
for on the supposition that the relics were really those of Edward III.,
and not of his son, the Black Prince, and that they were hung up over the
son's tomb by the king's order as a mark of his deep affection.
At the same exhibition the actual shield of Henry V., from Westminster
Abbey, was also shown.
Sir David Owen, by his will, dated February 20th, 1529, desires that "my
body be buried in the priory of Esseborne, after the degree of a banneret,
that is with helmet and sword, my war armour, my banner, my standard, and
my pendant."
Sir Godfrey Foljambe, of Walton, by his will, in 1532, left his "carcase
to be buried in the chappell of St. George besides my lady wife in
Chesterfield ... my sword, helmet, with the crest upon the head, and my
coat-of-arms to be hanged over my tomb, and there to remain for ever."
Several of our parish churches still retain arms or armour or other
accoutrements that had actually been worn by the person commemorated.
Among them, to our own knowledge, may be mentioned Bonsall, Derbyshire;
Brington, Northamptonshire; Addington, Surrey; Sheriff Hutton, Yorkshire;
Broadwater, Sussex; St. Michael Carhayes, Cornwall; St. Mary Redcliffe,
Bristol; Brabourne, Kent; and Longbridge Deverill, Wilts.
Occasionally, however, and particularly in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, the armour carried in the funeral procession, and subsequently
suspended over the tomb, was merely supplied by the undertaker or heraldic
official, and was of a cheap and imitative character, not intended to
last. Sir William Dugdale states (in 1667) the actual price of such sham
armour. A knight's helmet, gilt with silver and gold, was L1; the crest,
carved and coloured, 13s.; the sword, with velvet scabbard, 10s.;
gauntlets, 10s.; and gilt spurs, 5s. Light helmets and breastplates of
this funeral-trophy description, from which all gilt and beauty has long
since disappeared, are still to be found in some of our churches, and
occasionally may be seen among discarded lumber in parvises, as at Raunds,
Northamptonshire.
There is, however, a yet more important aspect of armour in churches to be
considered. Every parish in England, from the time of Edward I. downwards,
was bound to keep ready for use a certain amount of armour, and a man or
men, according to the population of the township, properly trained to the
use of this armour. This armour had to be viewed twice a year by the
constables, and a report as to its condition made to the justices. Not
infrequently, when a suitable "church-house" was wanting, the "townes
armour" of our English villages, and even of country towns, was kept in
the church itself, particularly in the parvise or room over the porch.
When the parish armour was carefully viewed throughout England at the time
of the expected Spanish invasion in the reign of Elizabeth, returns show
that much of it was in safe quarters within the consecrated walls of our
churches. We have met with various instances of inventories or mention of
"townes armour" in old constable accounts. One of the fullest of these is
in the parish books of Repton, Derbyshire. In 1590 is this entry:--
"A Note of the armoure of Repton receaved into the handes of Rycharde
Weatte, berjinge Constable.
Imprimis ij corsletts w{th} all that belongeth unto them.
It. ij platt' cotts (coats of plate armour).
It. ij swordes and iij daigers and ij gyrgells.
It. ij calevers w{th} flaxes and tuch boxe.
It. ij pyckes and ij halberds.
It. for the Tr'band Souldiar a cote and bowe and a shiffe of arrowes
and a quiver."
In 1616, the inventory is as follows:--
"Receaved by Christopher Ward Constable from John Couttrell the Townes
Armore.
2 Corsletts with 2 pickes.
2 Culivers.
One flask and tuch boxe.
V headpeeces; towe of them ould ones.
2 howlboardes.
One payre of Banddelrowes.
2 oulde girdles.
3 new girdles; towe of them with ye sowldiers.
3 payre of hanggers in the sowldiers keepinge.
3 swordes with towe daggers.
Allsoe the swordes in sowldiers keepinge.
Allsoe 2 platte coottes y{t} Clocksmith not delivered."
This armour was kept in the parish church at Repton; up to the year 1840
some of it still remained in the parvise or room over the south porch.
In the first year of Elizabeth, it is recorded that there was in the
parish church of Darley, Derbyshire, "within ye steepul both harnes and
weapons in redynes for one billman and for one archer."
In Cussans' county history of Hertfordshire, it is recorded that some
"twenty years ago," the south porch of Baldock church was enlarged by
removing the floor of the parvise. This chamber, which had remained closed
for many years, was found to be nearly filled with armour, helmets, pikes,
and other weapons. It was assumed by Cussans that this was a collection
of armour, heaped together from tombs over which they had been suspended,
but there can be no doubt it was merely the old store of town's armour.
Beating the Bounds.
BY JOHN T. PAGE.
In those early days, when deities were called into existence at the sweet
will of every potentate, we note the fact that somewhere between the years
715-672 B.C., King Numa Pompilius introduced to the Roman citizens, the
worship of the god Terminus. He originated a plan, by which the fields of
the citizens were separated from each other by means of boundary stones,
which stones were dedicated, and made sacred to the god Terminus. The
Terminalia, as the festival of Terminus was called, was celebrated
annually on the 23rd of February. On this day the people turned out in
force, and visiting the different boundary stones, decked them with
flowers, and performed sacrificial rites amid great rejoicings.
From the seventh century B.C., to the end of the nineteenth century of the
Christian era is a long stride, but it is pretty generally considered that
in this annual Terminalia of the ancient Romans, we have the germ of the
custom known as "Beating the Bounds," which in many parishes throughout
England is still carried out annually.[16]
The early Christians readily adapted some of the best heathen customs to
their own requirements, and thus we soon find them making a perambulation
round their fields, accompanied by their bishops and clergy. They repeated
litanies, and implored God to avert plague and pestilence, and to enable
them in due season to reap the fruits of the earth. "The Litanies or
Rogations then used gave the name of Rogation Week to this time. They
occur as early as the 550th year of the Christian era, when they were
first observed by Mamertius, Bishop of Vienna, on account of the frequent
earthquakes that happened, and the incursions of wild beasts, which laid
in ruins and depopulated the city."[17]
Some idea of the importance which eventually came to be attached to this
Rogation time, may be gathered from an old sermon, still extant, in which
the preacher, after animadverting upon a growing misuse of the festival by
certain people, tells them that for this cause "it is merveyle God
destroye us not in one daye,"--and then proceeds as follows:--"In these
Rogation Days, it is to be asked of God, and prayed for, that God of his
goodness wyll defende and save the corne in the felde, and that he wyll
vouchsave to pourge the ayer. For this cause be certaine Gospels red in
the wide felde amonges the corne and grasse, that by the vertue and
operation of God's word, the power of the wicked spirites, which kepe in
the air and infecte the same (whence come pestilences and the other kyndes
of diseases and syknesses) may be layde downe, and the aier made pure and
cleane, to th' intent the corne may remaine unharmed, and not infected of
the sayd hurteful spirites, but serve us for our use and bodely
sustenaunce."
In order that we may now get a better idea of what these processions were
like, we cannot do better than turn to Shaw's _History of
Staffordshire_.[18] We there learn that "Among the local customs which
have prevailed (at Wolverhampton), may be noticed that which was popularly
called 'Processioning.' Many of the older inhabitants can well remember
when the sacrist, resident prebendaries, and members of the choir,
assembled at Morning Prayers on Monday and Tuesday in Rogation Week, with
the charity children, bearing long poles clothed with all kinds of flowers
then in season, and which were afterwards carried through the streets of
the town with much solemnity, the clergy, singing men and boys, dressed in
their sacred vestments, closing the procession, and chanting in a grave
and appropriate melody, the Canticle, Benedicite Omnia Opera, etc.... It
was discontinued about 1765."
In the seventeenth century mention is often made of the Rogation week
processions in the Articles of Enquiry in the different Archdeaconries. As
an example we may cite the following from the Archdeaconry of Middlesex,
under date 1662. "Doth your minister or curate, in Rogation Dayes, go in
Perambulation about your Parish, saying and using the Psalms and Suffrages
by Law appointed, as _viz._, Psalm 103 and 104, the Letany and Suffrages,
together with the Homily, set out for that end and purpose? Doth he
admonish people to give thanks to God, if they see any likely hopes of
plenty, and to call upon him for mercy, if there be any fear of scarcity:
and do you, the Churchwardens, assist him in it?"
The judicious Hooker "would by no means omit the customary time of
Procession, persuading all, both rich and poor, if they desired the
preservation of love and their parish rights and liberties, to accompany
him in his Perambulation: and most did so: in which Perambulation he would
usually express more pleasant discourse than at other times, and would
then always drop some loving and facetious observations, to be remembered
against the next year, especially by the boys and young people."[19]
As might have been expected, some very curious entries appear in the
churchwardens' books of different parishes relative to expenses incurred
on the occasion of the annual procession. From the parish books of St.
Margaret, Westminster, the following have been culled:--
"1555. Item, paid for spiced bread on the Ascension-Even, and on the
Ascension Day, 1s."
"1556. Item, paid for bread, wine, ale, and beer, upon the
Ascension-Even and Day, against my Lord Abbott and his Covent cam in
Procession, and for strewing herbs the samme day, 7s. 1d."
"1559. Item, for bread, ale, and beer, on Tewisday in the Rogacion
Weeke, for the parishioners that went in Procession, 1s."
"1560. Item, for bread and drink for the parishioners that went the
Circuit the Tuesday in the Rogation Week, 3s. 4d."
"Item, for bread and drink the Wednesday in the Rogation Week, for Mr.
Archdeacon and the Quire of the Minster, 3s. 4d."
"1585. Item, paid for going the Perambulacion, for fish, butter,
cream, milk, conger, bread and drink, and other necessaries, 4s.
8-1/2d."
"1597. Item, for the charges of diet at Kensington for the
Perambulation of the Parish, being a yeare of great scarcity and
deerness, L6 8s. 8d."
"1605. Item, paid for bread, drink, cheese, fish, cream, and other
necessaries, when the worshipfull and others of the parish went the
Perambulation to Kensington, L15."
By way of accessories, the customs of "whipping" and "bumping" gradually
came to form part of the perambulation ceremony. In order that the
boundaries of the parishes might be indelibly impressed on the minds of
the younger portion of the community, it was deemed advisable to bump some
promising boy painfully against the boundary stones; or better still, to
publicly whip him while he strove to impress on his memory the exact
position of the same land-marks.
As a set off against this public humiliation, the boys had a present of
money given to them, and accordingly there appears an entry in the
Chelsea parish books, in 1670, as follows:--
"Given to the boys that were whipt, 4s."[20]
The process of "bumping" has been carried on until quite recently, for on
June 8th, 1881, the _Guardian_ reported a case in which three men who were
engaged in "Beating the Bounds" were fined L5 each for forcibly "bumping"
the senior curate of Hanwell. They met the curate and "asked him to go and
be 'bumped.' Upon his declining, two of the defendants took hold of his
arms and dragged him to the stone, one of the party taking him by the leg
and lifting him bodily from the ground. On reaching the stone, they
'bumped' him against a man."
It would take too long to mention all the numerous observances which still
linger on in various places in connection with this ancient and
interesting custom. In most parishes where it is still kept up, the
ceremony is performed annually on Ascension Day. A friend of the writer
thus describes the way in which it is carried out in one of the outlying
districts of London:--
"We assembled, by invitation, at the Vestry Hall, about 10 o'clock a.m. I
should think there were thirty or forty gentlemen present, including the
rector, churchwardens, and various officers of the parish, and about the
same number of schoolboys. The gentlemen wore rosettes, and carried rods,
and the boys were provided with long willow wands decked with blue
ribbons. The parish beadle, carrying the mace, marched in front. When we
came to any of the boundary stones of the parish, they were duly examined
to see if they were in their proper position, and then the boys gave three
cheers, and beat them with their wands. We marched through private houses
and warehouses, over walls, ditches, canals, etc., and were taken down the
river in a barge, until at last we came to our starting-point again about
4-30 in the afternoon. The churchwardens then presented each of the boys
with a new shilling and dismissed them."
In these days of ordnance maps, there may be very little practical utility
in "Beating the Bounds," but as Wordsworth says:--
"Many precious relics
And customs of our rural ancestry
Are gone or stealing from us."
Time is ever busy blotting out the land-marks which our ancestors reared
with so much patience for our behoof. It is well, therefore, if
occasionally, with reverential spirit, we try to set in order the
fragments of those that still remain. In so doing, we may perchance cull
some useful lesson, and ere they pass away for ever, haply profit by the
experiences which they record.
The Story of the Crosier.
BY THE REV. GEO. S. TYACK, B.A.
The staff of authority, which we have in so many forms, as sceptre,
crosier, mace, wand, or otherwise, has its origin in each case in one of
two ideas. Sometimes it is an instrument of correction; thus the
churchwarden's staff, the wand or rod of a royal usher, and of a beadle,
and probably also the mace of a mayor, were all, like the fasces of a
Roman governor, intended to correct the unruly, or to forcibly clear a
way, when necessary, for the progress of the dignitary before whom they
were borne. In other cases this symbol of authority, as it has now become,
was originally nothing more or less than the trusty staff on which the
aged ruler leaned, as on a modern walking stick. All language points to
the fact that age was at first considered an essential condition of
dignity and authority, for almost all terms of respect imply the seniority
of the person addressed. Sir, sieur or monsieur, signor, senor, are of
course but varied forms of the word _senior_; and we have more particular
instances in the terms sire, senator, and alderman, in matters of state,
with patriarch, father (applied to a bishop or a priest) and pope, abbot,
priest, presbyter, or elder, in the Church. Thus it came to pass that in
the earliest times the aged ruler was usually seen supporting his weight
of years by the help of his staff; and the step from this familiar sight
to the idea that the staff symbolized his rule, was simple and natural.
The sceptre, therefore, which was the needful support of Homer's old
councillors, has become the emblem of royal power; and the crutch-stick of
the aged bishop is transfigured into the crosier.
This being the case, it is obviously impossible to fix the exact date at
which the crosier, or any other of these staves of office, came to be
recognized simply as such, the progress from the first idea being in all
cases a gradual development. We find the episcopal staff, however,
mentioned in connection with S. Caesarius of Arles, who was bishop of that
See from A.D. 501 to 542, and it is also referred to by Gregory, Bishop of
Tours, in the same century, and again in the proceedings of the Fourth
Council of Toledo a little later.