This character is of comparatively recent creation,—none of the species
having been seen about in this country previous to the consecration of
S. George's church. About that time two or three made their appearance,
and, though not by any means in a flourishing condition, they have
somewhat increased. It has been asserted that their first dislike of
screens arose from a desire of literary notoriety, and that, finding
several old women of both sexes had taken a most unaccountable and
inexplicable offence at the ancient division of the chancel, and the
restoration of the crucifix, which had been so wisely destroyed in the
good old days of Queen Bess, they profited by the occasion to increase
the sale of a periodical. But this may be mere calumny; and, indeed, it
is very probable that it is a case of pure development, as at first they
did not exhibit any repugnance to pointed churches, which they rather
lauded, and only took objection to certain upright mullions and painful
images; but they speedily developed other propensities and ideas, and
latterly have exhibited symptoms almost similar to hydrophobia at the
sight, or even mention, of pointed arches or pillars. The principal
characteristics of modern ambonoclasts may be summed up as
follows:—Great irritability at vertical lines, muntans of screens, or
transverse beams and crosses; a perpetual habit of abusing the finest
works of Catholic antiquity and art, and exulting in the admiration of
everything debased, and modern, and trumpery; an inordinate propensity
for candles and candlesticks, which they arrange in every possible
variety; they require great excitement in the way of lively, jocular,
and amatory tunes at divine service, and exhibit painful distress at the
sound of solemn chanting or plain song; at divine worship they require
to sit facing the altar, and near the pulpit, and then, if the edifice
be somewhat like a fish-market, with a hot-water pipe at their feet, a
gas-pipe in the vicinity, and a stove in the rear, they can realize a
somewhat Italian atmosphere in cold and cheerless England, and revive
some sparks of that devotion that the gloomy vaulting of Westminster and
the odious pillars of a new rood screen had well nigh deprived them of.
It must be, however, stated, to their credit, that the modern
ambonoclasts, unlike their predecessors, confine their attacks to
strokes of the pen; and we do not believe that they have hitherto
succeeded in causing the demolition of a single screen. Indeed, it is
probable that, if the development of their real character had not
proceeded so rapidly, they might have caused some serious mischief to
Catholic restoration; but the _cloven foot_ is now so visible, that men
are looking out in expectation of the _tail_, and are already on their
guard.
[20] The choir of S. Denis, near Paris, had been modernised a few years
previous.