POSITION, NUMBER AND ARRANGEMENT OF STALLS
The history of the changes of position of the stalls of the clergy is one
of the most curious and least understood episodes in ecclesiology; it may
be worth while therefore to go into it somewhat at length, and to begin at
the beginning. As regards what was at all times the main service in the
church, the Mass, there were two conditions which it was desirable to bear
in mind in church planning. One was that the celebrant should face to the
East; the other that the congregation should face to the East. In the
earliest Christian days the latter was most often disregarded. The earliest
arrangement, normally, of a Christian church was that the sanctuary,
containing the altar, should be to the west, and that the laity should be
in the nave occupying the eastern portion of the church. At this time the
western portion of the church consisted of a semicircular apse. This apse
had a double function. On the chord of it was placed the High altar (in the
earliest days it was the only altar); and to the west of it stood the
celebrant facing east and facing the congregation, as he does to this day
at St Ambrogio, Milan, and other churches which retain this primitive plan.
Behind the altar, ranged round the apse, were the seats of the clergy,
having in the centre the throne of the bishop. Thus the apse, like the
chancel of an English parish church, had a double function; the portion
containing the altar was the sanctuary, the portion containing the seats of
the bishop and his presbyters was the choir; basilicas so orientated were
divided into nave, sanctuary, choir; whereas English parish churches divide
into nave, choir, sanctuary. Many examples of basilicas with eastern nave
and western choir still survive in Rome, Dalmatia, and Istria. To this day
in Milan cathedral and St Mark's, Venice, the stalls of the clergy and
singers are placed on either side of and at the back of the high altar; the
apse, with infinite loss to the dignity of the services, being made to
serve both as sanctuary and choir.
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[Illustration: Lincoln]
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[Illustration: York Minster]
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There is, however, an alternative plan, which may have been in use from the
first simultaneously with the other. At any rate it can be but little
later, for in 386 was begun the important church of St Paul _extra muros_
at Rome, with apse to the east and nave to the west. By this alteration, if
no further change had been made, the congregation would face eastward, but
the celebrant and the bishop with his presbyters westward. Strangely
enough, this curious arrangement was actually adopted at least once in
England. In the walling of the semicircle of the cathedral apse at Norwich
there still remains the bishop's throne and portions of the seats of his
clergy. And since Norwich cathedral is not orientated to the west, but to
the east, it follows that the people faced east and the bishop and clergy
west; it is hardly conceivable, however, that the celebrant can have faced
west. Such a disposition can never have been but rare. A new arrangement
was made; in the first place the celebrant was made to face eastward, with
his back to the congregation, thus permanently obscuring their view of the
altar and of many portions of the office; in spite of its obvious and great
disadvantages this position has been retained in the vast majority of
Western churches ever since. There remained the question of the seating of
the bishop and presbyters. The remedy adopted was to transfer them from the
apse to the nave; the result being that they sat to the west instead of to
the east of the altar. In this second position for some considerable time
the seats of the clergy remained. At S. Clemente, S. Maria in Cosmedin,[6]
and other basilican churches in Rome, the seats of the clergy still remain
in the eastern bays of the nave, separated off, however, all round by low
marble screens, which, at S. Clemente, are mainly those of the sixth
century church.
Great was the revolution wrought in church planning by the determination
that the laity, clergy, and celebrant should all alike face East. To the
Catholic believer nothing was of more mystic import than the orientation of
the church. He prayed toward the East, toward the Holy Land where his Lord
lived and died and was buried; he looked forward to the dawn of that day
when He should come from the East to judge the quick and dead.
"Our life lies eastward; every day
Some little of that mystic way
By trembling feet is trod;
In thoughtful fast and quiet feast
Our heart goes travelling to the East
To the incarnate God;
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Still doth it eastward turn in prayer
And rear its saving altar there;
Still doth it eastward turn in creed,
While faith in awe each gracious deed
Of her dear Saviour's love doth plead;
Still doth it turn at every line
To the fair East, in sweet mute sign
That through our weary strife and pain
We crave our Eden back again."[7]
The next step appears first in ninth century churches, and in the plan of
the monastery of St Gall. It involved no change in the position of the
stalls of the clergy; but instead of being placed in the eastern bays of
the nave, the sanctuary was lengthened to contain them. And so we reach the
familiar parochial chancel, with its western portion forming a choir, and
its eastern a sanctuary. The clergy left the nave and the laity in the
midst of whom they had so long sung and prayed, and removed to the chancel,
where to the north and south were solid walls, while to the west, no doubt
very shortly, was added a screen guarding the entrance to the chapel.
Though the new plan made no alteration in the relative position of the
stalls of the clergy, it was nevertheless a real revolution. The chancel
became practically a secluded, closed chapel; the offices and services
which had been performed in the midst of the laity became more and more the
prerogative of a privileged ecclesiastical order; in the end, in the
greater churches, special altars were put up for the laity in the nave;
except in the parish churches, laymen lost the right to participate in
services at the High Altar. {21}
[Illustration: Carlisle]
In our great monastic and collegiate churches it was long before the ninth
century innovation--viz., the insertion of the choir in the eastern limb of
the church--was generally adopted; in some it was never adopted at all. The
typical Cistercian churches, _e.g._, Kirkstall, reverted to the Early
Christian arrangement, by which the eastern division of the church was
appropriated exclusively to the sanctuary; and this was the case with many
Benedictine and collegiate churches also. Till ignorant and incompetent
"restorers" were let loose on them, the eastern limb of the cathedrals of
the Secular Canons of Wells and Hereford, that of the Benedictine cathedral
of Ely and others formed one vast sanctuary, the stalls being placed under
the central tower and in the eastern part of the nave; at Wells the choir
had a length of 47 feet, but the sanctuary of 67 feet. The reason why a
sanctuary so long was required was no doubt that it was desired to place in
it two altars; one, the "choir" or "matins" altar, for ordinary services;
the other, the High altar, more to the east, reserved for High Mass.[8]
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[Illustration: Durham]
{23} In some cases, _e.g._, at Westminster, in many Cistercian churches,
and in Spanish cathedrals, the stalls were not placed under the central
tower, but still more to the west, wholly in the nave. In Gothic days,
however, in English plans--Westminster is French in plan--the tendency was
more and more to place the choir of the monastic and collegiate churches in
the eastern limb, just as in a parish church. In the cathedrals the
precedent was first set at Canterbury, where in 1096 Prior Ernulph set out
a new eastern limb consisting of an eastern apse preceded by no less than
nine bays. Sometimes there was a special reason for the removal of the
choir from the crossing and the nave. In several cases--in pious
recollection of the burial of many a martyr in Early Christian days down in
the catacombs of Rome--the Italian practice of constructing a crypt beneath
the eastern limb was followed. This had been so as early as St Wilfrid,
671-678, whose crypts at Ripon and Hexham still survive, and in the
Anglo-Saxon cathedrals of Winchester, Worcester, Rochester, Gloucester,
Canterbury, York, and Old St Paul's. And when these were remodelled by the
Norman conquerors, in all cases the crypt was reproduced. Such crypts of
course necessitate the building of the eastern limb at a higher level than
crossing and nave; in some cases, _e.g._, at Canterbury, the difference in
height is very considerable. The result must have been that where as at
Canterbury the sanctuary was a long one, the High altar at its east end
must have been invisible, or nearly so, to monks seated in the crossing and
nave. Consequently, first at Canterbury _c._ 1100, in the thirteenth
century at Rochester, Old St Paul's and Worcester, and in the fourteenth
century at Winchester and York, the stalls were removed to the eastern
limb, the western portion of which now became choir. The only exception
among cathedrals with crypts is Gloucester, where the crypt is low and the
eastern limb is short and where the stalls remain to this day beneath the
central tower. The example set by cathedrals with crypts was soon followed
by churches of every degree which had none; whether Benedictine, such as at
Chester, Augustinian, as at Carlisle, or served by Secular Canons, as at
Exeter. And so in the churches of monks, regular canons and secular canons
alike, most of the ecclesiastical authorities reverted to what had been all
along the normal plan of the English parish church, viz., an eastern limb
containing choir as well as presbytery.[9] {24}
[Illustration: Chester]
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The length of the stalled choir varied of course with the number of monks
or canons serving the church. In a church of the first rank, such as
Lincoln or Chester, about sixty stalls seems as a rule to have been found
sufficient. These would generally occupy three bays; where more than three
bays are occupied with stalls, it is usually because more stalls have been
added at some later period, as at Lincoln, Norwich, and Henry the Seventh's
chapel, Westminster. In the centre, between the stalls, a considerable
space had to be left free, in order to leave room for processions from the
High Altar to the lectern and to the ecclesiastics in their stalls; as well
as for processions of the whole ecclesiastical establishment on Palm
Sunday, Corpus Christi day, Easter Sunday and other festivals, and on every
Sunday in the year. The lectern also was often of great size, and a gangway
had to be left on either side of it. In Lincoln Minster the space from one
chorister's desk to the chorister's desk opposite is 18 feet: from the back
of the northern to the back of the southern stalls is 40½ feet, which is
above the average breadth of an English cathedral or monastic choir. The
breadth of the choir conditioned the whole of the planning of the church;
for as a rule the nave and transepts were naturally given the same breadth
as the choir, in order that the central tower should be square.
As for the number of rows of stalls on either side of the choir, it was
usually three, rising successively in height; at Lincoln the floor of the
uppermost row is 2 feet 6 inches above that of the choir; the canopies rise
22 feet above the floor. At Lincoln modern additions have been made; at
present the upper row consists of 62 canopied stalls; 12 of them being
"return" stalls facing east; 25 facing north and 25 facing south. Below
them is a row of stalls without canopies; of these lower stalls there were
originally 46; in front of these again are the seats of the "children of
the choir."
The number of stalls in the uppermost row was regulated in a collegiate
church by the number of prebends founded in the church; in a monastic
church by the number of monks in the monastery. At Westminster the number
of monks between 1339 and 1538 varied from 49 to 52, 47, 30; in the upper
stalls there was accommodation for 64. At Southwell there were 16
prebendaries; at times some of these were foreigners, and never visited
Southwell or England; the rest stayed in their country parishes, and it was
sometimes with great difficulty that a single prebendary could be got
together to take charge of the Minster services; they had, however,
deputies; and for them and their masters the two western bays of the
present choir were probably appropriated. And for the meetings of this
collegiate body, which were held seldom, and which hardly ever had an
attendance of more than a half dozen prebendaries, one of the most
magnificent Chapter houses in {26} England was built. At Wells there were
54 canons or prebendaries, each with his own separate estate or prebend;
the greater number of them resided on their prebendal estates in the
country; only on rare occasions did they come up to Wells, and then
probably only for the time occupied by some important meeting; even on such
occasions there seem never to have been more than 20 canons present.[10]
Nevertheless stalls were duly provided for the whole 54, and the Psalter
was divided into 54 portions for daily recitation by the Bishop and his
canons. Each of these absentee canons at Wells had or was expected to have
a deputy in the form of a "vicar choral" who was paid by him a small
stipend called "stall-wages." A beautiful street of little houses--one of
the loveliest things in that loveliest of English cities--built for the
vicars, still survives at Wells; others at Hereford, Lincoln, Chichester
and elsewhere. At Wells the first and highest row of stalls was in practice
occupied by the senior canons, the priest-vicars and deacons; the second
row by junior deacons, subdeacons and others; the third row by choristers
on the foundation; in front of that was a seat for choristers on probation.
The seating of the choirs, however, naturally differed with the
constitution of the collegiate body. Beverley Minster was not a cathedral
proper; but its church and its establishment were on cathedral scale, and
there are no less than 68 stalls. At Beverley the exact position in the
upper row of the provost, treasurer, chancellor, clerk of the works, and
other dignitaries was definitely settled in 1391 by Thomas Arundel,
Archbishop of York. He directed that the clerks or vicars should occupy the
lower stalls, each in front of the canon, his master; and that the
choristers should sit in front of the clerks. "Clerici vero et omnes et
singuli in secunda forma qui libet coram magistro suo. Pueri vero seu
choristae ante clericos predictos loca sua teneant ut fieri consuevit etiam
ab antiquo."[11] At the back of the canons' stalls in many churches,
_e.g._, Chester and Norwich cathedrals (48), may still be seen painted the
name of the country parish where the canon's prebend lay. Appointments to
such canonries are still regularly made; but it has become usual to style
the occupants "honorary canons" or "prebendaries." As a matter of fact they
are just as much canons as the residentiaries. The difference is that the
latter come into residence for three months a year or longer, while the
former need not come at all; and if they did come, there is no house to
receive them nor any stipend. How the cathedral and collegiate
establishments lost, long before the Reformation, the services of the great
majority of their staff cannot be told here; partly it arose from sheer
neglect of duty, partly it was imposed on the canons by the necessity of
serving in their parish churches and of superintending their estates. {27}
[Illustration: Beverley Minster]
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At the backs of canons' stalls is sometimes painted the verse of a psalm.
This refers to a very ancient usage. The daily recitation of the whole
Psalter by the members of a cathedral chapter, according to the psalms
attached to their respective prebends, formed part, in the opinion of Mr
Henry Bradshaw, of the _Consuetudines_ introduced by the Norman bishops in
the twelfth century. In the _Liber Niger_ or _Consuetudinary_ of Lincoln
Minster, copies of which, earlier than 1383, remain in the Muniment Room,
it is stated that "it is an ancient usage of the church of Lincoln to say
one mass and the whole psalter daily on behalf of the living and deceased
benefactors of the church." At Wells also the whole Psalter was recited
daily for the same pious purpose. At Lincoln tablets still are to be seen
on the backs of the stalls giving the initial verse in Latin of the psalms
which the holder of the prebend is bound to recite daily: and at the
installation of each prebendary, the Dean calls his attention to the tablet
and admonishes him not to discontinue the obligation (52). Even at St
Paul's, though the original stalls all perished in the fire of 1666,
fifteen of the present stalls on each side are inscribed with the Latin
words with which various psalms commence; the Psalter here being divided
into thirty portions.
* * * * *
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