Part 18
The brass at Edenham is—or rather was, for it is now taken into the church for safety—quite startling, being formerly on the west face of the tower, forty feet from the ground. It is of an archbishop, and when the Lincolnshire Architectural Society went to Edenham in 1888, and the brass was there described by Bishop Trollope, I remember that much amusement was caused by the episcopal figure looking so much like a rough portrait of the good bishop himself. It may, however, be taken as certain that this is not a sepulchral brass, but part of a representation of the giver of the tower, _c._ 1500, since the rivets of another brass, the donor kneeling, can be detected on the other side of the west window lower down. It must then be of a saint, and so may be assumed to be St. Thomas of Canterbury. It is, however, well worth mention here.
Lastly, I turn to the inscriptions. There are many rather curious ones dotted about the county, but they are mostly too long to be worth transcribing in full. I will give, therefore, two only, from Wrangle and Lusby.
At Wrangle, on the tomb of John Reed, a merchant of the Staple of Calais, and his wife, is a marginal inscription running round a large slab, which has been broken in parts, but was copied by Marratt. The introduction of the verse part is curiously abrupt, and seems to need some link. It runs: “_They for man when yᵉ [winde blows make the mill grin]de. and ev. on thy own soule have thou [a minde. that thou givest w]yth thy hande that shalt thou finde. and yᵗ thou levys thy executors comys far behinde. do for your slefe whill yᵉ have space. to pray ihu of m̅cy and grace i̅ heuen to haue a place._”
In the tiny church of Lusby, close to the battlefield of Winceby, there is a small brass plate on a slab which bears, as far as I can make it out, the date 1555. It has a pretty little inscription in verse as a dialogue between a wife and a husband. It runs:
“_My flesh in hope doth rest and slepe_ _In earth here to remayne._ _My spirit to Christ I gyve to kepe_ _Till I do rise agayne._”
“_And I wyth you in hope agre,_ _Though I yet here abyde._ _In full purpose if Goddes will be_ _To ly down by your syde._”
I hope now that I have sufficiently proved my point as to the great value and interest of the Lincolnshire brasses. Mr. Macklin in his small work, _Monumental Brasses_, made a kind of tripos for the counties, in which Lincolnshire, though taking honours, only won a third class. In his larger and greatly improved book, _The Brasses of England_, in “The Antiquary’s Library,” this list disappears, and I should be surprised if he would not now raise the county to his second class. At any rate, some twenty brasses of great importance or fine workmanship, together with many rare or even unique instances of particular types, are amply sufficient to establish a claim to considerable distinction.
ON MEDIÆVAL ROOD-SCREENS AND ROOD-LOFTS IN LINCOLNSHIRE CHURCHES
BY THE EDITOR
In many times and in many places religious men have loved to veil or screen off those parts of their House of God which they considered more particularly sacred, from the “profanum vulgus.” The veil of the Jewish Temple, the veil which stretched across the Saxon chancel arch, the chancel-screens from the earliest days of Gothic to our own in the Church of England, the “Jubé” in France, Belgium, and Germany, the “screens and ambones” of Italy, and the “Iconostasis” of the Greek Church (different in position though it be), all testify to the widespread character of this custom. The very word “chancel” itself is derived from the Latin _cancelli_—a lattice-work or screen.
In the decrees of the Second Council of Tours, A.D. 557, “lay persons were not to enter the chancel, which is divided off by screens, except to partake of the sacrament of the altar.” A complete screen extended all round the choir later on. Eusebius describes the choir of the Church of the Apostles, erected by Constantine at Constantinople, as enclosed by screens or trellis work, marvellously wrought: “Interiorem ædis partem undique in ambitum circumductam, reticulato opere ex aere et auro affabre facto convestivit.”[97] Professor Willis describes the screen of old St. Peter’s at Rome as follows (and an engraving of it is also given by Pugin): “In front of the steps (to the altar) were placed twelve columns of Parian marble, arranged in two rows; these were of spiral form and decorated with sculpture of vine leaves: the bases were connected by lattice-work of metal or by walls of marble breast-high. The entrance was between the central pillars, where the _cancelli_ or lattices were formed into doors. Above these columns were laid beams or entablatures upon which were placed images, candelabra, and other decorations; and indeed the successive Popes seem to have lavished every species of decoration in gold, silver, and marble work upon this enclosure and the crypt below. The entire height, measured to the top of the entablature, was about 30 feet; the columns, with the connecting lattices and entablatures, formed, in fact, the screen of the chancel.”[98] At San Clemente, at Rome, the chancel is divided off by a screen wall all round, being 4 feet 6 inches high; each ambo, or reading-desk for Epistle or Gospel, is in the middle of the north and south walls and faces east. Between this choir and the sanctuary is a cross wall of marble, 6 feet high, with an opening in the centre. These existing screens are probably due to Adrian I., and date from the year 790, but they are almost certainly on the original lines.[99] At Giotto’s Chapel of the Arena, Padua, the chancel is formed by marble screens on each side of the nave, leaving a broad entrance-way between them, and enclosing about one-third of its length. Against the west sides of these screens are altars, each with a small carved marble reredos; whilst on the east are steps leading to the two ambones: that on the north being a book-rest, carved in marble, and fixed with its face to the east; that on the south of iron, and turning upon a pivot.
Thus even in Saxon times the choir of Canterbury, which extended into the nave, was enclosed by a breast-high wall. And Gervase tells us of the choir of Conrad (A.D. 1130), “that at the bases of the pillars there was a wall built of marble slabs, which, surrounding the choir and presbytery, divided the body of the church from its sides called aisles.” The same choir of Canterbury is now enclosed by the very beautiful screen built by Prior d’Estria. Rochester again has a solid stone wall round its choir, and the same is the case at _Lincoln_ (though never a monastery). “The choir, as a rule, was occupied,” says Dr. Jessopp, “exclusively by the monks or nuns of the monastery. The servants, work-people, and casual visitors who came to worship were not admitted into the choir; _they_ were supposed to be present only on sufferance. The church was built for the use of the monks: it was their private place of worship.” And, as we shall see presently, the screens were still more solid where there happened to be a parish church in the nave.
Pugin, in his well-known work on the subject of rood-screens, points out another reason for these walled-in choirs (besides the one just mentioned), _i.e._ that they shut off in some degree the cold draughts of air from the monks during their frequent and lengthy services in buildings which at that time (and for many a century to come) were not warmed at all. Later still the cathedrals, other than monastic, like _Lincoln_, and collegiate churches like Southwell, followed suit in separating off the choir from the nave. In all these cases, as a rule, the screen was solid, but when the same movement spread to parish churches, the chancel was divided off by a screen of open work, there being no need for the N. and S. screens, as a rule (though Newark has them), so that the congregation—here regarded as an integral part of the worshippers—might see the altar and all the ceremonial. In such Saxon churches as have retained their Saxon chancel arches, these are very narrow, and originally in all probability were closed by a veil, more or less completely. This is alluded to in an Anglo-Saxon Pontifical, “extenso velo inter eos (_i.e._ clericos) et populum,” and by Durandus (who was Bishop of Mende, a small city in the Lozère district of France from 1286 to 1296), “interponatur velum aut murus inter clerum et populum.” Later, when the use of the veil ceased, and these chancel arches were felt to be, through their narrowness, a great obstruction to the view from the nave into the choir, openings were made on each side to partially circumvent this difficulty. At _Bracebridge_, near Lincoln, for example, the chancel arch, exceedingly narrow (being only 5 feet wide), is of Saxon date and has a round-headed opening—a hagioscope—on either side.
The Lenten veil (a remnant of former use), which was hung across the chancel between the screen and the altar, is alluded to in _Lincoln Cathedral Statutes_, “velum pendere ante altare,” and at _Leverton_, as “the veil of the temple hanging between the choir and the altar in Lent.” At _Heckington_ and _Claypole_ still remain the hooks used for this purpose.
But besides separating the clergy and laity, the western portion of the screens, where they were solid, or the upper part where they were open, served to support, or was in close relation to, a horizontal beam—the rood-beam—which stretched across the chancel arch, and itself supported the rood. This, of course, was a crucifix, and, as Fuller says, “when perfectly made and with all the appurtenances thereof, had not only the image of Our Saviour extended upon it, but the figures of the Virgin Mary and St. John” (the former on the north at Our Saviour’s right hand, the latter on the south side and so at His left).
It may be mentioned here that roods carved in stone have been found on the outside of Saxon churches. Thus, on the west side of the porch at _Branston_, near Lincoln, are the remains of such a sculpture under a three-headed arch; also at _Marton by Stow_ a Saxon crucifix rudely carved in stone was found during the restoration in 1892, and another existed at Headbourn Worthy, Hants.
A Saxon or Runic cross was found in the north aisle in restoring _Colsterworth Church_; and at _Barton on Humber_ (St. Peter’s), over the inside of the eastern arch of the tower, is a stone slab with a face carved in the upper part of it.
These roods of wood or metal were apparently early introduced into churches, with or without the screens as mentioned before: “A.D. MXXIII. Kanutus Rex dedit ecclesiæ Christi in Doroberniæ” (vel Duroverniæ = Canterbury), “portum de Sandwico cum corona sua aurea quæ adhuc servatur in capite crucis majoris in navi ejusdem ecclesiæ.”
Stigand again, who was buried at Winchester in 1069, according to John of Exeter: “Magnam crucem ex argento cum ymaginibus argenteis in pulpito ecclesiæ contulit.” Aldred, the last Saxon Archbishop of York (1060-1069), erected “Supra ostium chori pulpitum aere, aere auro, argento auro, mirabili opere Teutonico exornavit,” in Beverley Minster. Mention is made of a black marble crucifix at Waltham in the time of Canute, and the rood at Battle Abbey is spoken of as existing in 1095. Gervase, in describing Lanfranc’s cathedral at Canterbury (1174), says: “A screen with a loft (_pulpitum_) separated in a manner the aforesaid tower” (the central one) “from the nave, and had in the middle and on the side towards the nave the altar of the Holy Cross. Above the loft, and placed across the church, was the beam, which sustained a great cross” (a crucifix almost certainly), “two cherubim, and the images of St. Mary and St. John the Apostle.”
Occasionally, as at Chipping Ongar, we find indications of a rood-beam having been placed across the _east_ end of the chancel, immediately above the altar, and, of course, carrying on it the rood. At _Stow_, in the chancel, in the jambs of the side windows north and south of the altar space, there was a fracture and displacement of the mouldings exactly in the same place in each, no doubt to support a beam for the crucifix.
In some cases these altar-screens were double walled, with a kind of platform or gallery on the top, whereon the sacred relics could be displayed, while the space between the walls served as a sacristy or feretory. At _Lincoln Minster_, for instance, the original reredos-screen was double, with a long narrow space, serving as a sacristy, between the two screens lighted by the quatrefoils, still open in the back screen wall, with aumbries, &c., in the walls, and a newel-stair at the north-west corner leading to the tabernacle above. A similar arrangement, according to the late Precentor Venables, of a narrow slip sacristy behind the reredos may be seen at St. Nicholas’, Great Yarmouth, and at Llantwit in South Wales. A somewhat similar example exists at Beverley Minster; at the back (_i.e._ eastwards) of the altar-screen is a platform, reached by a stair at the north end, and supported by three elegant arches on shafts, with a vaulted roof, an excellent specimen of Decorated work. At York Minster, again, there was a double screen—
“The wooden screen behind the high altar of the same work as the rest of the quire, surmounted with triangular coats-of-arms containing each a rose, &c., of the common form, supported behind by angels. It was handsomely painted and gilt. It had a door at each end which opened into a place behind the altar, where antiently the archbishops used to robe themselves at the time of their enthronization, and thence proceeded to the high altar, where they were invested with the pall. On the top of this screen was a gallery for musick.... By the taking away of this the altar was carried back one arch to a stone screen behind it of excellent Gothick architecture.”
Professor Willis believed that this was the place where the portable feretrum or shrine of St. William was kept. At Winchester Cathedral, behind the high altar (the beautiful altar-screen of which will be mentioned presently), is a raised platform in the feretory, cut off from the choir by the reredos-screen, with originally an arcade in front of it, making a platform of about 10 feet broad. This probably sustained the shrine of St. Swithun, and also those of SS. Birinus, Edda, and Ethelwold. The eastern face is ornamented with tabernacles of Decorated work, and the floor under the platform is carried by a small vault, to which entrance is gained below the range of tabernacles. This vault is supposed to be the “Holy Hole” of the records.
An altar-screen with rood, &c., is to be seen in an illustration of the hearse of Abbot Islip in Westminster Abbey. At St. Cross, Nuremberg, a rood with St. Mary and St. John and several angels, contained in very fine and lofty tabernacle work, surmounts a carving of the Deposition by Veit Stoss, which is protected by triple doors, with paintings by Wohlgemuth, over the high altar. This may also have been the case at Chichester, as in the years 1276 tapers are mentioned: “Supra trabem pictam supportantem crucifixi imaginem viii ejusdem ponderis.” In the Laudable Customs of Hereford, in the twelfth century, there is an allusion to the beam in “Missa accenduntur xiii cerei supra trabem”; and, on great feasts, “iv ante majus altare quinque in basinis xiij super trabem et vij super candelabra.” Joceline de Brakelond tells us that at Bury St. Edmunds, in the Abbey Church, there was a “Crux que erat super magnum altare, et Mariola et Johannes, quas imagines Stigandus archiepiscopus magno pondere auri et argenti ornaverat, et Sancto Ædmundo dederat.” The following quotations from the Liber Niger of _Lincoln Minster_ (about the year 1236) refer to this in all probability: “Item in eisdem festis invenire, xvi cereos supra trabem secus altare,” &c. “Omnes prescripti cerei exceptis cereis super candelabrum ereum et trabem secus altare,” &c. “Item in principalibus festis debent ponere xvj cereos parvos super trabem secus altare et illuminare et extinguere et in depositione habere unum illorum quem voluerint.”
Then on the choir-screen top, whether of wood or stone, there was a gallery—the rood-loft which came into general existence in the fourteenth, although as we have seen it was mentioned in the eleventh century, and in parish churches often the only evidence left of this rood-loft’s existence is the stone staircase of approach.
The _names_ of the rood-loft are various: Holy Loft, Candlebeam, Pulpitum (Englished as poulpete, &c.), Rood Soller or Soler (the latter a word used by Chaucer, who speaks of the “Soler Hall at Cantebrige”; it is interesting to note that there is still a _Garret_ Hostel Lane and Bridge there). In Norfolk it was called the Perk or Perch; in France, the Jubé; in Germany, the Letter; and in Wales, Lloft y Grog. The screen itself has been termed the trelyse, as in Mr. Gibbon’s _Early Lincoln Wills_ we find one R. Bradley bequeathing 3s. 4d. for “gilding of the trelyse.” Also it was termed spur or spere, as J. H. Parker gives us in a contract for a rood-loft at Merton College Chapel, _c._ 1486, “with speres and lynterns for two awters.”
As there is a great difference between the solid stone screens of cathedral, monastic, and collegiate churches, and the light wood ones of parish churches, both in material, design, and uses, it will be well to describe each class separately.
The solid chancel-screens of cathedrals, abbeys, and collegiate churches have first to be considered. They may conveniently and naturally be divided into two classes, of both of which _Lincolnshire_, in spite of much ambonoclastic energy, can still show examples.
_Those cathedrals which were originally monastic, and those monastic churches which had parochial naves._—In these (and it will be seen later, more especially in the Cistercian foundations), there were two solid stone screens, of which one was at the east end of the nave, with an altar, the Jesus altar, or Holy Cross altar, or parish altar, in the midst of its western front, and a door on either side. This was the rood-screen, and would have the rood with its belongings on its loft or on a transverse beam a little above it. (Mention will be made presently of the parish rood-screen and loft which was still further westwards.) Between the two screens was an interval, generally of one bay, which, among the Cistercians, was allotted to the inmates of the infirmary, the sick, old, and infirm. At Norwich Cathedral this interspace is the Chapel of Our Lady of Pity; the same was probably the case at Peterborough, where an altar is named, “of Our Ladies Lamentation,” and at Durham.
Passing through the interval we should come to the second screen, also of stone, and with a loft. On this would be the organ, and there would be a projecting feature eastwards from which the Gospels, Epistles, and Lessons might be read, or portions of the service chanted. A brief extract from The Rites of Durham,[100] followed by a citation of examples, some of which are destroyed and some fortunately extant, will make this arrangement, I hope, quite clear. After speaking of “the pair of organs over the quire dore” in the eastern screen, the writer says:—
“There” (_i.e._ in the same loft) “was also a Lanterne of wood, like unto a Pulpit, standing and adjoyning to the Wood Organs over the Quire door, where they had wont to sing the nine Lessons in the old time on principal dayes, standinge with their faces towards the high Altar” (pp. 27-28).
Then, with regard to the western screen, his account runs as follows:—
“In the Body of the Church, betwixt two of the highest Pillars supporting, and holding up the West side of the Lantern, over against the Quire door, there was an Altar, called _Jesus_-Altar,” &c. “And on the backside of that saide Altar there was a fair high stone Wall: and at either end of the Wall there was a door, which was lock’d every night, called the two Rood-doors, for the Procession to go and come in at; and betwixt those two doors was _Jesus_-Altar placed, as is aforesaid” (p. 54).
This altar was protected by a screen “of wainscot,” and had a “table” or triptych over it:—
“There was also, in the height of the said Wall, from pillar to pillar, the whole story and Passion of our Lord wrought in stone, most curiously and most finely gilt. And also above the said Story and Passion, was all the whole story and the Pictures of the twelve Apostles,” &c. “And on the height above all the foresaid story from Pillar to Pillar, was set up a border very artificially wrought in stone with mervellous fine colours, very curiously and excellent finely gilt, with branches and flowers,” &c. “And also above the height of all, upon the Wall, did stand the goodliest and most famous Rood that was in all this land, with the Picture of _Mary_ on the one side of our Saviour and the Picture of _John_ on the other, with two splendent and glistering Arch-angels, one on the one side of _Mary_ and the other on the other side of _John_,” &c. “Also on the backside of the said Rood before the quire door there was a loft,” &c. (pp. 56-57).
This arrangement is scarcely mentioned by writers on foreign rood-screens, though Pugin gives a hint of it in his description of the Domkirche—the Cathedral—of Lübeck, which has a central altar and side doors, whereof he has given a plate, and two bays to the westward of this screen there is a rood-beam supporting the rood. There is an iron screen also, with central altar and side doors, in Freiburg, Switzerland.
In England this double screen seems to have been most characteristic of Cistercian churches. Thus, at _Louth Park Abbey_ there was a stone screen, called the pulpitum, at the west end of the choir, extending across the nave, whereon stood the organs, &c. In the middle of the screen was the choir door or lower entrance (_inferior introitus_). The bay west of the pulpitum (which was sometimes of considerable thickness, with an altar on either side the quire door, as at Jervaulx) was open, and formed the retro-quire, where those who were extra-chorum for a time (_e.g._ the _minuti_, _i.e._ those who had been let blood), and such of the infirm as could attend, might hear the services.
West of this bay was a second screen pierced with doors at either end, and having an altar in the middle against its western side. On top of this screen was the rood-loft, with the great rood and its attendant images. A bay westward was a low fence screen (the wainscot screen alluded to in the above quotation from The Rites of Durham), and the remainder of the nave was fitted up for the conversi or working brothers. At Fountains, J. T. Micklethwaite noted the same arrangement. At Bolton, in Yorkshire, where the nave is in actual use as the parish church, the altar stands precisely in the position of this Jesus or parish altar; the piscina may be seen close at hand in the south wall, and the Late Perpendicular oak screen, once in front of the altar, is now at the west end.