Traces of the primitive sacredness of the doorway and the threshold, in
places of worship, are to be found in Europe, ancient and modern, as in
Asia and Africa.
The term “threshold” occurs in such prominence in connection with
temples, in the earliest Greek literature, as to show that its primitive
meaning included the idea of altar, or of sanctuary foundation. Thus the
House of Zeus on Olympus is repeatedly spoken of as the “House of the
Bronze Threshold.”[386] In these references, “the nature of the
occurrences, the uniformity of the phrase, the position of the words in
the verse, all point to this as an old hieratic phrase, and the meaning
evidently is, ‘the house that is stablished forever.’”[387]
This term “bronze threshold” occurs more than once in reference to the
temple-palace of Alcinoüs.[388] Tartarus is described as having gates of
iron and a “bronze threshold.”[389] Night and day meet as they cross the
“great threshold of bronze;” and Atlas upholds heaven at the threshold
of the under-world.[390]
The treasures of Delphi are described as “within the stone threshold of
the archer god, Phoebus Apollo, in Rocky Pytho.”[391] And he who seeks
counsel at that oracle is spoken of as one who crosses “the stone
threshold.”[392]
In Sophocles’ “Oedipus at Colonus” the Athenian warns the stranger
Oedipus that he is on holy ground, in the realm of Poseidon, and that
the spot where he now treads is “called the brazen threshold of the
land, the stay of Athens.”[393] In other words, the bronze threshold is
an archaic synonym for the enduring border, or outer limit, of spiritual
domain.
This prominence given to the threshold in earlier Greek literature is
not, it is true, continued in later writings; yet there are traces of it
still in occasional poetic references to the “threshold of life,” and
the “threshold of the year,” and the “threshold of old age.” When Homer
refers “to houses, to rooms in houses, or to courtyards, the ‘threshold’
is constantly spoken of: a man steps over a threshold, stands at a
threshold, sits at a threshold, etc. And so important is the threshold
that its material is almost regularly mentioned; it is ash, oak, stone,
bronze, etc. In later times all these locutions disappear; men go
through doorways, enter, stand in porches, etc., instead.”[394] Yet it
is the archaic use that points to the primitive prominence of the
threshold.
In historic times, however, as in earlier, the altar of sacrifice was to
be found, in Grecian and Roman temples, near the threshold of the door.
While there were smaller altars, for the offering of incense and
bloodless sacrifices, in the interior of temples, the larger and more
important altars, for the offering of animal sacrifices, whether of
beasts or of men, were before the temple, in front of the
threshold,–_bomoi pronaoi_.[395]
A ruined temple of Artemis Propylæa, at Eleusis, shows the main altar
immediately before the threshold, between the antæ. The altar of the
temple of Apollo at Delphi was in a like position; as shown in the fact
that “when Neoptolemus is attacked by Orestes in the vestibule of the
temple at Delphi, he seizes the arms which were suspended by means of
nails or pins from one of the antæ, takes his station upon the altar,
and addresses the people in his own defense.”[396]
When the “priest of Jupiter, whose temple was before the city” of
Lystra, would have given divine honors to Paul and Barnabas, he brought
the garlanded oxen “unto the gates,” to sacrifice them there. At the
gate of the city, within which the supposed gods were to be found,
seemed the proper place of sacrifice.[397]
There are references in classic story, as in Babylonian legends, in
Phenician and Syrian beliefs, and in the Hebrew prophetic visions, to
life-giving waters flowing out from under the threshold of the
sanctuary. In the garden of the palace-temple of Alcinoüs “are two
springs, the one ripples through the whole garden, the other opposite it
gushes under the threshold of the courtyard to the lofty house, and from
it the citizens draw their water.”[398] On “the apple-growing shores of
the Hesperides,” where Atlas upholds “the holy threshold of heaven,”
according to the poets, “springs of ambrosia pour from the chamber of
Zeus, from his bedside,” and give a rich blessing to the life-giving
earth.[399] And of Delphi it is said: “Going toward the temple we come
upon the spring Cassotis: there is a low wall about it, and you ascend
to the spring through the walls. The water of this Cassotis they say
sinks underground, and in the shrine of the god [Apollo] makes the woman
prophetic [is inspiration to her.]”[400]
In the early churches of Europe, the threshold marked a sacred boundary
of the edifice, to cross which indicated a certain covenant right to
participate in the privileges of the house of God. As the structure of
the churches changed, in the progress of the centuries, the threshold of
the sanctuary came to be in a different portion of the building, or
series of buildings; but its sacredness remained, wherever it was
supposed to be. The term “altar” also changed, from the border line of
the place of worship, to the holy table within the sanctuary.
Speaking of the growth of the early church buildings, Bingham says: “In
the strictest sense, including only the buildings within the walls, they
were commonly divided into three parts: (1.) The _narthex_ or
ante-temple, where the penitents and catechumens stood. (2.) The _naos_
or temple, where the communicants had their respective places. And (3.)
the _bēma_ or sanctuary, where the clergy stood to officiate at the
altar. But in a larger sense there was another ante-temple or _narthex_
without the walls, under which was comprised the propylæa, or
_vestibulum_, the outward porch; then the _atrium_ or area, the court
leading from that to the temple, surrounded with porticos or
cloisters.... There were also several _exedræ_, such as the baptistery,
the _diaconicum_, the _pastophoria_, and other adjacent buildings, which
were reckoned to be either without or within the church, according as it
was taken in a stricter or a larger acceptation.”[401]
In the early churches, the place of baptism was outside of the church
proper, or the _naos_, it is said. “There is nothing more certain than
that for many ages the baptistery was a distinct place from the body of
the church, and reckoned among the _exedræ_, or places adjoining to the
church.”[402] “The first ages all agreed in this, that, whether they had
baptisteries or not, the place of baptism was always without the
church.”[403] Even in mediæval times, in the churches of England,
baptisms were on the outer side of the threshold of the church proper,
“the child being held without the doors of the church”[404] until
baptized. In many churches of Europe at the present time the baptismal
font is at or near the door of the church.
In 1661, a formal reply of the Church of England bishops to a request of
the Presbyterians that the font might be placed before the congregation,
that all might see it, was: “The font usually stands, as it did in
primitive times, at or near the church door, to signify that baptism was
the entrance into the church mystical.”[405]
Marriages, like baptisms, were at the church porch or outside of the
threshold. “The old missals direct the placing of the man and the woman
at the church door during the service, and that at the end of it they
shall proceed within up to the altar.”[406] The idea would seem to be
that a holy covenant like marriage, which is the foundation of a new
family, must be solemnized at the primitive family altar,–the threshold.
Describing the marriage rites of Germany in the middle ages,
Baring-Gould says: “In a Ritual of Rennes, of the eleventh century, we
find a rubric to this effect: ‘The priest shall go before the door of
the church in surplice and stole, and ask the bridegroom and bride
prudently whether they desire to be legally united; and then he shall
make the parents give her away, according to the usual custom, and the
bridegroom shall fix the dower, announcing before all present what
(witthum) he intends to give the bride. Then the priest shall make him
betroth her with a ring, and give her an honorarium of gold or silver
according to his means. Then let him give the prescribed benediction.
After which, entering into the church, let him begin mass; and let the
bridegroom and bride hold lighted candles, and make an oblation at the
offertory; and before the Pax let the priest bless them before the altar
under a pall or other covering [the wedding canopy], according to
custom; and lastly, let the bridegroom receive the kiss of peace from
the priest, and pass it on to his bride.’”[407]
“In ancient times the people of France were married, not within the
church at the altar as now, but at the outer door. This was the case in
1599, in which year Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry II., was married to
Philip II. of Spain; and the Bishop of Paris performed the ceremony at
the door of the cathedral of Notre Dame. Another instance of this kind
occurred in 1599 in France. Henrietta Maria was married to King Charles
by proxy at the door of Notre Dame, and the bride, as soon as the
ceremony was over entered the church, and assisted at [attended]
mass.”[408]
“The pre-Reformation rule was to begin the marriage service at the door
of the church. In his ‘Wyf of Bathe,’ Chaucer [in the days of Edward
III.] refers to this custom:–
‘Housbandes atte chirche dore I have had fyve.’
This old usage was abandoned by authority in the time of Edward VI. Yet
there is reason for thinking that it was not entirely given up. “There
is a poem of Herrick’s, written about 1640, which is entitled, ‘The
Entertainment or Porch Verse at the Marriage of Mr. Hen. Northly.’”[409]
“When Edward I. married Marguerite of France, in 1299, he endowed her at
the door of Canterbury Cathedral.” Selden declares that “dower could be
lawfully assigned only at the door;” and Littleton affirms to the same
effect.[410]
“At Witham in Essex it is, or was, the custom to perform the first part
of the marriage service at the font [near the door]. When the Rev. A.
Snell was appointed to the benefice in 1873, he spoke to a bridegroom
about this usage, and he (the bridegroom) particularly requested that he
might be married at the font, as he liked old customs.”[411]
Another survival of the primitive rite of threshold covenanting seems to
be shown in certain customs observed in various parts of Europe, which
look like the substitution of an altar-stone for a threshold altar, in
the marriage ceremony.
“Thus in the old temple of Upsal [in Sweden], wedding couples stood upon
a broad stone which was believed to cover the tomb of St. Eric.”[412]
Corresponding customs in other regions would go to show that the earlier
practice was to leap over the stone, as a mode of threshold covenanting,
instead of standing on it. The latter was a change without a reason for
it.
For instance, just outside “the ruined church, or abbey, of Lindisfarne,
is the socket or foot-stone, in which was mortised a ponderous stone
cross, erected by Ethelwold, and broken down by the Danes. This socket
stone is now called the “petting stone,” and whenever a marriage is
solemnized in the neighborhood, after the ceremony the bride is obliged
to step upon it; and if she cannot stride to the end thereof, the
marriage is deemed likely to prove unfortunate and fruitless.” While
this would seem to point to the custom of standing upon the stone, in
the modern marriage customs of the same region, a barrier is “erected at
the churchyard gate, consisting of a large paving-stone which was placed
on its edge and supported by two smaller stones. On either side stood a
villager, who made the couple and every one else jump over it.”[413]
“In Lantevit Major Church was a stone called the ‘marriage stone,’ with
many knots and flourishes, and the head of a person upon it, and this
inscription:
‘_Ne Petra calcetur
Qu[a]e subjacet ista tuetur_,’
Brides usually stood upon this stone at their marriages.”[414] Yet the
inscription itself:
“Let not the stone be trodden upon;
What it lies under, it guards,”
forbids standing upon this threshold altar; and it is probable that in
earlier times it was stepped over in marriage covenant, and not upon.
At Belford, in Northumberland, it is still the custom to make the
bridal pair, with their attendants, leap over a stone placed in their
path outside the church porch. This stone also is called the “petting
stone,” or the “louping stone.” At the neighboring village of
Embleton, in the same county, two stout young lads place a wooden
bench across the door of the church porch, and assist the bride and
groom and their attendants to surmount the obstacle; for which
assistance a gift of money is expected. In some places a stick has
been held by the groomsmen at the church door for the bride to jump
over. And again a stool has been placed at the churchyard gate, over
which the whole bridal party must jump one by one; and this stool has
been called the “parting-stool.”[415]
A “mode of marriage” current in Ireland, until recent times, was that of
jumping over a form of the cross;[416] and jumping over a broomstick as
a form of marriage would seem to be a survival of this custom of leaping
across the threshold-stone, in token of a covenant. “Jumping the
broomstick” is sometimes spoken of as an equivalent of marriage.
These various obstacles to progress, at wedding time, would seem to be
as suggestions of the threshold altar, which must be passed in the
marriage covenant. The church threshold, like the home threshold, is a
temporary hindrance to an advance. Unless it is stepped across, the
covenant is incomplete.
An illustration of the popular idea of the sacredness of the church
threshold, and of the impropriety of stepping on it, in its passing, is
found in a Finnish mode of judging a clergyman. “In Finland, it is
regarded as unlucky if a clergyman steps on the threshold, when he comes
to preach at a church.” A writer on this subject says: “A Finnish friend
told me of one of his relations going to preach at a church, a few years
ago,–he being a candidate for the vacant living,–and the people most
anxiously watched if he stepped on the threshold as he came in. Had he
done so, I fear a sermon never so eloquent would have counted but little
against so dire an omen.”[417] Here is a new peril for pulpit
candidates, if this primitive test becomes widely popular!
Even to the present time, it is customary, in portions of Europe, for
Jews to rub their fingers on the posts of a synagogue doorway, and then
kiss their fingers. Quite an indentation in the stone at the door of the
synagogue in Worms is to be seen, as due to this constant sacred
rubbing.[418]