The organ, as a solemn musical instrument, may claim a very early origin, and has been in use in our churches from the Anglo-Saxon era. The ancient organs were small, and all the pipes were exposed. The phrase "a pair of organs," so frequently met with in old inventories and church accounts, may probably have answered to the great and choir organ of a subsequent period—one instrument in two divisions. The mechanism of the old organs was rude and simple, compared with the improvements of modern times, and the cost was small; they were generally placed in the rood-loft.

The church chest is often an ancient and interesting object: sometimes we find it rudely formed, or hollowed out of the solid trunk of a tree, with a plain or barrel-shaped lid of considerable thickness. The churches of Bradford Abbas, Dorsetshire; Long Sutton, Somersetshire; and Ensham, Oxfordshire; contain chests thus rudely constructed. Sometimes they are strongly banded about with iron. The fronts and sides of these chests are not unfrequently embellished more or less richly with carved tracery, panel-work, and other detail in the style prevalent at the period of their construction. In Clemping Church, Sussex, is an early chest of the thirteenth century, the front of which exhibits a series of plain pointed arches trefoiled in the head, and other carved work. In Haconby Church, Lincolnshire, and in Chevington Church, Suffolk, are very rich chests covered with tracery and detail in the decorated style of the fourteenth century. In Brailes Church, Warwickshire, is an ancient chest of the fifteenth century covered with panel-work compartments, with plain pointed arches foliated in the heads. Panelled chests of this century are numerous. In Shanklin Church, Isle of Wight, is a chest bearing the date of 1519, on which no architectural ornament is displayed, but the initials T. S. (Thomas Selkstead) are fancifully designed, and are separated by the lock, and a coat of arms beneath.

In the south wall of each aisle, near the east end, and also in other parts of the church, we frequently find the same kind of fenestella or niche containing a piscina, and sometimes a credence shelf, as that before described as being in the chancel: this is a plain indication that an altar has been erected in this part of the church; and this end of the aisle was generally separated from the rest of the church by a screen, the lower part of panel, the upper part of open-work tracery, of stone or wood, similar to that forming the division between the chancel and nave; and the space thus enclosed was converted into or became a private chapel or chantry; for it was anciently the custom, especially during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, for lords of manors and persons of wealth and local importance to build or annex small chapels or side aisles to their parish churches, and these were endowed by license from the crown with land sufficient for the maintenance, either wholly or in part, of one or more priests, who were to celebrate private masses daily or otherwise, as the endowment expressed, at the altar erected therein, and dedicated to some saint, for the souls of the founder, his ancestors and posterity, for whose remains these chantry chapels frequently served as burial-places. At this service, however, no congregation was required to be present, but merely the priest, and an acolyte to assist him; and it was in allusion to the low or private masses thus performed, that Bishop Jewell, whilst condemning the practice as untenable, observes, "And even suche be their private masses, for the most part sayde in side iles, alone, without companye of people, onely with one boye to make answer."

The screens by which these chapels were enclosed have in numerous instances been destroyed; still many have been preserved, and chantry chapels parted off the church by screen-work of stone may be found in the churches of Bradford Abbas, Dorsetshire; and Aldbury, Hertfordshire; in which latter church is a very perfect specimen of a mortuary chapel, with a monument and recumbent effigies in the midst of it. Chantry chapels enclosed on two of the sides by wooden screen-work are more common.

Although no ancient high altar of stone is known to exist, some of the ancient chantry altars have been preserved: these are composed either of a solid mass of masonry, covered with a thick slab or table of stone, as in the north aisle of Bengeworth Church, near Evesham, and in the south aisle of Enstone Church, Oxfordshire; or of a thick stone slab or table, with a cross at each angle and in the centre, supported merely on brackets or trusses built into and projecting from the wall, as in a chantry chapel in Warmington Church, Warwickshire; or partly on brackets and partly sustained on shafts or slender piers, as in a chantry chapel, Chipping-Norton Church, Oxfordshire. Sometimes a chamber containing a fire-place was constructed over a chantry, apparently for the residence, either occasional or permanent, of a priest: such a chamber occurs over the chantry chapel containing the altar in Chipping-Norton Church; and such also, with the exception of the flooring, which has decayed or been removed, may be seen in the chantry chapel which contains the altar in Warmington Church. In both of these chambers are windows or apertures in the walls which divide them from the church, through which the priest was enabled to observe unseen any thing passing within the church.



We often find an opening or aperture obliquely disposed, carried through the thickness of the wall at the north-east angle of the south, and the south-east angle of the north aisle: this was the hagioscope, through which at high mass the elevation of the host at the high altar, and other ceremonies, might be viewed from the chantry chapel situate at the east end of each aisle. In general, these apertures are mere narrow oblong slits; sometimes, however, they partake of a more ornamental character, as in a chantry chapel on the south side of Irthlingborough Church, Northamptonshire, where the head of an aperture of this kind is arched, cinquefoiled within, and finished above with an embattled moulding. In the north and south transepts of Minster Lovel Church, Oxfordshire, are oblique openings, arched-headed and foliated; and in the north aisle of Chipping-Norton Church, in the same county, is a singular hagioscope, obliquely disposed, not unlike a square-headed window of three foliated arched lights, with a quatrefoil beneath each light.

We sometimes meet with one or more brackets, with plain mouldings or sculptured, projecting from the east wall of a chancel aisle or chantry chapel; and on these, lamps or lights were formerly set, and kept continually burning in honour of the Virgin or of some other saint; and we also meet with rich projecting canopies or recessed niches, with brackets beneath, on which images of saints were formerly placed.

The use of the low side window, common in some districts, near the south-west angle of the chancel, and sometimes, but not so frequently, near the north-west angle, and occasionally even in the aisle, has not been correctly ascertained; it has, however, been conjectured to have served for the purpose of a confessional; and on minute examination indications of its formerly having had a wooden shutter, which opened on the inside, are sometimes visible; and on the south side of Kenilworth Church, Warwickshire, is an iron-barred window of this description, on which the wooden shutter is still retained.[209-*]

The sedilia or stone seats, so frequently found in the south wall of the chancel, are occasionally, though not often, to be met with in the south walls of side aisles or chantry chapels: when this is the case it is presumed the endowment was for more priests than one.

Such, not to digress into more minute particulars, may suffice to convey a general idea of the manner in which our churches were internally decorated, and how they were fitted up, with reference to the ceremonial rites of the church of Rome, in and before the year 1535. The walls were covered with fresco paintings, the windows were glazed with stained glass; the rood-loft and the pulpit, where the latter existed, were richly carved, painted, and gilt; and the altars were garnished with plate and sumptuous hangings. Altar-tombs with cumbent effigies were painted so as to correspond in tone with the colours displayed on the walls; the pavement of encaustic tiles, of different devices, was interspersed with sepulchral slabs and inlaid brasses; and screen-work, niches for statuary, mouldings, and sculpture of different degrees of excellence, abounded. Suspended from aloft hung the funeral achievement; at a later period, even more common, the banner, helme, crest, gauntlets, spurs, sword, targe, and cote armour.[210-*] In addition to these were, in some churches, shrines and reliquaries, enriched by the lavish donations of devotees, and wooden images excessively decked out and appareled[211-*]—objects of superstition, to which pilgrimages and offerings were made. And if in the review of the conceptions of a prior age, viz. of the fourteenth century, we find a higher rank of art to be evinced, and the style and combination of architectural and sculptured detail to be more severe and pure, at no period were our churches adorned to greater excess than on the eve of that in which all were about to undergo spoliation, and many of them wanton destruction.

For on the suppression of the monasteries and colleges, to the number of 700 and upwards, and of the chantries, in number more than 2300, effected between the years 1535 and 1540, the abbey churches were not only despoiled of their costly vestments, altar plate and furniture, and shrines enriched with silver, gold, and jewels, but many of them were entirely dismantled, and the sites with the materials granted to individuals by whom they were soon reduced to a state of ruin. Some were even, either then or in after-times, converted into dwelling-houses; and others, or some portion of such, were allowed to be preserved as parochial churches; but the private chantry altars, though left bare and forsaken, were not as yet ordered to be destroyed.

By the royal injunctions exhibited A. D. 1538, such feigned images as were known to be abused of pilgrimages, or offerings of any kind made thereunto, were, for the avoiding of idolatry, to be forthwith taken down without delay, and no candles, tapers, or images of wax were from thenceforth to be set before any image or picture, "but onelie the light that commonlie goeth about the crosse of the church by the rood-loft, the light afore the sacrament of the altar, and the light about the sepulchre;" which, for the adorning of the church and divine service, were for the present suffered to remain. By the same injunctions a Bible of the largest volume, in English, was directed to be set up in some convenient place in every church, that the parishioners might resort to the same and read it; and a register-book was ordered to be kept, for the recording of christenings, marriages, and burials.

But beyond the suppression of the monasteries and chantries, an act the effect of secular rather than religious motives, little alteration was made during the reign of Henry the Eighth in the ceremonies and services of the church, although the minds of many were becoming prepared for the change which afterwards ensued. And in the reign of his successor, Edward the Sixth, a striking difference was effected in the internal appearance of our churches; for many appendages were, not all at once, but by degrees, and under the authority of successive injunctions, discarded. Thus, by the king's injunctions published in 1547, all images which had been abused with pilgrimage, or offering of any thing made thereunto, were, for the avoiding of the detestable offence of idolatry, by ecclesiastical authority, but not by that of private persons, to be taken down and destroyed; and no torches or candles, tapers or images of wax, were to be thenceforth suffered to be set before any image or picture, "but only two lights upon the high altar before the sacrament, which, for the signification that Christ is the very true light of the world, they shall suffer to remain still." And as to such images which had not been abused, and which as yet were suffered to remain, the parishioners were to be admonished by the clergy that they served for no other purpose but to be a remembrance. The Bible in English, and the Paraphrases of Erasmus upon the Gospels, also in English, were ordered to be provided and set up in every church for the use of the parishioners. It was also enjoined that at every high mass the gospel and epistle should be read in English, and not in Latin, in the pulpit or in some other convenient place, so that the people might hear the same. Processions about the church and churchyard were now ordered to be disused, and the priests and clerks were to kneel in the midst of the church immediately before high mass, and there sing or read the Litany in English set forth by the authority of King Henry the Eighth. By the same injunctions all shrines, covering of shrines, all tables, candlesticks, trindles or rolls of wax, pictures, paintings, and all other monuments of feigned miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry, and superstition, were directed to be utterly taken away and destroyed; so that there should remain no memory of the same in walls, glass windows, or elsewhere within churches; and in every church "a comely and honest pulpit" was to be provided at the cost of the parishioners, to be set in a convenient place for the preaching of God's word; and a strong chest, having three keys, with a hole in the upper part thereof, was to be set and fastened near unto the high altar, to the intent the parishioners should put into it their oblation and alms for their poor neighbours[215-*].

Hence the primary introduction of desks with divinity books, the litany stool, and the charity box, yet retained in some of our churches. But as much contention arose respecting the taking down of images, also as to whether they had been idolatrously abused or not, all images without exception were shortly afterwards, by royal authority, ordered to be removed and taken away.

In the ritual the first formal change appears to have been the order of the communion set forth in 1547 as a temporary measure only, until other order should be provided for the true and right manner of administering the sacrament according to the rule of the scriptures of God, and first usage of the primitive church. In this the term altar is alone made use of; but in the first Liturgy of King Edward the Sixth, published in 1549, the altar or table whereupon the Lord's Supper was ministered is indifferently called the altar, the Lord's table, God's board. Ridley, bishop of London, by his diocesan injunctions issued in 1550, after noticing that in divers places some used the Lord's board after the form of a table, and some as an altar, exhorted the curates, churchwardens, and questmen to erect and set up the Lord's board after the form of an honest table, decently covered, in such place of the quire or chancel as should be thought most meet, so that the ministers with the communicants might have their place separated from the rest of the people; and to take down and abolish all other by-altars or tables. Soon after this, orders of council were sent to the bishops, in which, after noticing that the altars in most churches of the realm had been taken down, but that there yet remained altars standing in divers other churches, by occasion whereof much variance and contention arose, they were commanded, for the avoiding of all matters of further contention and strife about the standing or taking away of the said altars[216-*], to give substantial order that all the altars in every church should be taken down, and instead of them that a table should be set up in some convenient part of the chancel, to serve for the ministration of the blessed communion; and reasons were at the same time published why the Lord's board should rather be after the form of a table than of an altar, expressing however in what sense it might be called an altar. In the second Liturgy of King Edward the Sixth, amongst other important changes both of doctrine and discipline, the word altar, as denoting the communion-table, was purposely omitted.

The peculiar formation, frequently observable, of the old communion-tables, seems to have originated from the diversity of opinion held by many in the Anglican church, as to whether or not there was in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper a memorative sacrifice; for by those who held the negative they were so constructed, not merely that they might be moved from one part of the church to another, but the slab, board, or table, properly so called, was purposely not fastened or fixed to the frame-work or stand on which it was supported, but left loose, so as to be set on or taken off; and in 1555, on the accession of Queen Mary, when the stone altars were restored and the communion-tables taken down, we find it recorded of one John Austen, at Adesham Church, Kent, that "he with other tooke up the table, and laid it on a chest in the chancel, and set the tressels by it[218-*]."

It appears that texts of scripture were painted on the walls of some churches in the reign of Edward the Sixth; for Bonner, bishop of London, by a mandate issued to his diocese in 1554, after noticing that some had procured certain scriptures wrongly applied to be painted on church walls, charged that such scriptures should be razed, abolished, and extinguished, so that in no means they could be either read or heard.

In the articles set forth by Cardinal Pole in 1557, to be inquired of in his diocese of Canterbury, were the following: "Whether the churches be sufficiently garnished and adorned with all ornaments and books necessary; and whether they have a rood in their church of a decent stature, with Mary and John, and an image of the patron of the same church?" Also, "Whether the altars of the church be consecrated or no?"

But in 1559, the first year of the reign of Elizabeth, many of the injunctions set forth in the reign of Edward the Sixth, as to the mode of saying the Litany without procession, the removal and destruction of shrines and monuments of superstition, the setting up of a pulpit, and of the poor-box or chest, which latter was however "to be set and fastened in a most convenient place," were re-established. By these injunctions it appears that in many parts of the realm the altars of the churches had been removed, and tables placed for the administration of the holy sacrament; that in some other places the altars had not yet been removed: in the order whereof, as the injunctions express, save for an uniformity, there seemed to be no matter of great moment, so that the sacrament was duly and reverently ministered; and it was so ordered that no altar should be taken down but by oversight of the curate and churchwardens, or one of them, and that the holy table in every church should be decently made and set in the place where the altar stood, and there commonly covered, and so to stand, saving when the communion of the sacrament was to be distributed; at which time the same was to be so placed within the chancel in such manner that the minister might be the more conveniently heard of the communicants in his prayer and ministration.



Many of the old communion-tables set up in the reign of Elizabeth are yet remaining in our churches, and are sustained by a stand or frame, the bulging pillar-legs of which are often fantastically carved, with arabesque scroll-work and other detail according to the taste of the age. The communion-table in Sunningwell Church, Berkshire, probably set up during the time Bishop Jewell was pastor of that church, is a rich and interesting specimen. Communion-tables of the same era, designed in the same general style, with carved bulging legs, are preserved in the churches of Lapworth, Rowington, and Knowle, Warwickshire; in St. Thomas's Church, Oxford; and in many other churches. Sometimes the bulging pillar-legs are turned plain, and are not covered with carving: such occur in Broadwas Church, Worcestershire; in the churches of St. Nicholas and St. Helen, at Abingdon; and in the north aisle of Dorchester Church, Oxfordshire. The table or slab of the communion-table in Knowle Church is not fixed or fastened to the frame or stand on which it is placed, but lies loose; and this is also the case with an old communion-table of the sixteenth century, now disused, in Northleigh Church, Oxfordshire. In an inventory of church goods, taken in 1646, occurs the following: "Item, one short table and frame, commonly called the communion-table." On examining the old communion-tables, the movability of the slab from the frame-work is of such frequent occurrence as to corroborate the supposition that some esoteric meaning was attached to its unfixed state, which meaning has been attempted to be explained.

Under the colour of removing monuments of idolatry and false feigned images in the churches, much wanton spoliation and needless injury was effected; and this to such excess that in 1560 a royal proclamation was issued, commanding all persons to forbear the breaking or defacing of any monument or tomb, or any image of kings, princes, or nobles, or the breaking down and defacing of any image in glass windows, in any churches, without consent of the ordinary. And in the same year, in a letter from the queen to the commissioners for causes ecclesiastical, occasion is taken to remark that "in sundry churches and chappells where divine service, as prayer, preaching, and ministration of the sacraments be used, there is such negligence and lacke of convenient reverence used towardes the comelye keeping and order of the said churches, and especially of the upper parte called the chauncels, that it breedeth no small offence and slaunder to see and consider on the one part the curiositie and costes bestowed by all sortes of men upon there private houses, and the other part, the unclean or negligent order or sparekeeping of the house of prayer, by permitting open decaies, and ruines of coveringes, walls, and wyndowes, and by appointing unmeet and unseemly tables, with fowle clothes, for the communion of the sacraments, and generally leavynge the place of prayers desolate of all cleanlynes, and of meet ornaments for such a place, whereby it might be known a place provided for divine service." And the commissioners were required to consider the same, and in their discretion to determine upon some good and speedy means of reformation; and, amongst other things, to order that the tables of the commandments might be comely set or hung up in the east end of the chancel, to be not only read for edification, but also to give some comely ornament and demonstration that the same was a place of religion and prayer[223-*].

An ancient table, apparently of this period, of the commandments painted on panel, but in language somewhat abbreviated, is still hung up against the east wall of the south transept of Ludlow Church, Salop[224-*].

By the articles issued by royal authority in 1564, for administration of prayer and sacraments, each parish was to provide a decent table, standing on a frame, for the communion-table; this was to be decently covered with carpet, silk, or other decent covering, and with a fair linen cloth (at the time of the ministration); the ten commandments were to be set upon the east wall, over the table; the font was not to be removed, nor was the curate to baptize in parish churches in any basins.

In the Visitation Articles of Archbishop Parker, A. D. 1569, we find inquiries were to be made whether there was in each parish church a convenient pulpit well placed, a comely and decent table for the holy communion, covered decently and set in the place prescribed; and whether the altars had been taken down; also whether images and all other monuments of idolatry and superstition were destroyed and abolished; whether the rood-loft was pulled down, according to the order prescribed; and if the partition between the chancel and church was kept.

The latter inquiry is explanatory of the fact why, when the rood-lofts in many churches were taken down, the screens beneath them, separating the chancel from the nave, were left undisturbed.

By the injunctions of Grindal, archbishop of York, A. D. 1571, all altars were ordered to be pulled down to the ground, and the altar stones to be defaced and bestowed to some common use.

Pulpits of the reign of Edward the Sixth are rare, nor are those of the reign of Elizabeth very common. The pulpit in Fordington Church, Dorsetshire, of the latter period, is of stone, the upper part worked in plain oblong panels; and a kind of escutcheon within one of these bears the date 1592; the lower part or basement of this pulpit is circular in form.

The richly embroidered and costly vestments and antependia or frontals, of a period antecedent to the Reformation, were in some instances converted into coverings for the altar or communion table, or into hangings for the pulpit and reading desk. In Little Dean Church, Gloucestershire, the covering for the reading desk is formed out of an ancient sacerdotal vestment, probably a cope, of velvet, embroidered with portraits of saints. The cushion of the pulpit of East Langdon Church, near Dover, is made out of either an ancient antependium or vestment; the material consists of very thick crimson silk, embroidered with sprigs, and in the centre of the hanging are two figures supposed to represent the salutation of the Virgin, who is kneeling before a faldstool.

We occasionally, though rarely, meet with ancient charity-boxes of a date anterior to the Reformation: the churches of Wickmere, Loddon, and Causton, in Norfolk, still retain such[226-*]. At the Reformation, however, they were first required to be set up in churches. The ancient poor-box in Trinity Church, Coventry, is an excellent specimen of the Elizabethan era, and the shaft which supports it is of stone, covered with arabesque scroll-work and other detail peculiar to that age; but most of the old charity-boxes are of the seventeenth century.



Towards the close of the sixteenth century the practice of preaching by an hour-glass, set in an iron frame affixed to the pulpit or projecting from the wall near it, began to prevail; and in the succeeding century this practice became quite common. In the churchwardens' accounts for St. Mary's Church, Lambeth, occurs the following: "A. 1579, Payde to Yorke for the frame on which the hower standeth,—..1..4;" and in the churchwardens' accounts of St. Helen's Church, Abingdon, is an item, "Anno MDXCI. payde for an houre glass for the pilpit, 4d." In the parochial accounts for St. Mary's, Shrewsbury, A. D. 1597, is a charge "for removing the desk and other necessaries about the pulpit, and for makeinge a thing for the hower glasse, 9d." In Shawell Church, Isle of Wight, the old iron stand for the hour-glass still remains affixed to a pier adjoining the pulpit; it is composed of two flat circular hoops or rings, one at some distance above the other, annexed or attached and kept in position by four vertical bars of iron, and the lower ring has cross-bars to sustain the glass. In Cassington Church, Oxfordshire, projecting from the wall by the side of the pulpit, is an iron stand for the hour-glass, consisting of two circular hoops or rings of iron, connected by four wrought iron bars, worked in the middle; and across the lower ring or hoop is an iron bar or stay. In High Laver Church, Essex, the iron stand for the glass still remains, and is in fashion not unlike a cresset, having only one hoop or ring encircling the top, and supported on four iron bars, which cross in curves at the bottom. Many other churches might be enumerated in which the stand for the hour-glass is still preserved; and the hour-glass itself, together with its frame, is said to be retained in South Burlingham Church, Norfolk. An hour-glass within a rich and peculiar frame, supported on a spiral column, and apparently of the latter part of the seventeenth century, is yet preserved in St. Alban's Church, Wood Street, London.



To the close of the sixteenth century the mode of pewing with open low-backed seats continued to prevail; the ends of these seats were not covered with tracery or arched panel-work, but were plain, though they sometimes terminated with a finial. In the nave of Stanton St. John Church, Oxfordshire, are some old open pews or seats, apparently of the reign of Henry the Eighth, the backs of which are divided diamond-wise, and form a kind of lattice-work, and the ends terminate in grotesque heads. In Harrington Church, Worcestershire, are some open seats of plain workmanship, bearing the date of 1582. The church of Sunningwell, Berkshire, is fitted up with a range of open seats on each side of the nave, without any ornament, with the exception of a large carved finial at the end of each seat. In Cowley Church, near Oxford, are open seats of the date of 1632, which have at the ends finials carved in the shallow angular designs of that period. All these seats are appropriately placed, or disposed facing the east, and none are turned with the backs towards the altar[230-*]. About the commencement of the seventeenth century our churches began to be disfigured by the introduction of high pews, an innovation which did not escape censure; for, as Weaver observes, "Many monuments of the dead in churches in and about this citie of London, as also in some places in the countrey, are covered with seates or pewes, made high and easie for the parishioners to sit or sleepe in; a fashion of no long continuance, and worthy of reformation[231-*]." The high pews set up in the early part of this century are easily distinguished by the flat and shallow carved scroll and arabesque work with which the sides and doors are covered. In the directions given on the primary visitation of Wren, bishop of Norwich, A. D. 1636, we find an order "that the chancels and alleys in the church be not encroached upon by building of seats; and if any be so built, the same to be removed and taken away; and that no pews be made over high, so that they which be in them cannot be seen how they behave themselves, or the prospect of the church or chancel be hindered; and therefore that all pews which within do much exceed a yard in height be taken down near to that scantling, unless the bishop by his own inspection, or by the view of some special commissioner, shall otherwise allow."

From a paper found among secretary Cecil's MSS.[232-*], it appears that in 1564 some ministers performed divine service and prayers in the chancel, others in the body of the church, and some in a seat made in the church; and in the parochial accounts of St. Mary's Church, Shrewsbury, A. D. 1577, is an entry "for coloringe the curate's pew and dask;" but no public notice of the modern reading desk, or, as it was called, the "reading pew," occurs till 1603, when, in the ecclesiastical canons then framed, it was enjoined that besides the pulpit a fitting or convenient seat should be constructed for the minister to read service in; and in allusion to the reading desk, Bishop Sparrow, in his Rationale of the Book of Common Prayer, observes, "This was the ancient custom of the church of England, that the priest who did officiate in all those parts of the service which were directed to the people turned himself towards them, as in the absolution; but in those parts of the office which were directed to God immediately, as prayers, hymns, lauds, confessions of faith or sins, he turned from the people; and for that purpose, in many parish churches of late, the reading pew had one desk for the Bible, looking towards the people to the body of the church, another for the prayer-book, looking towards the east or upper end of the chancel. And very reasonable was this usage; for when the people was spoken to it was fit to look towards them, but when God was spoken to it was fit to turn from the people." And so he goes on to explain the custom of turning to the east in public prayer.

In Bishop Wren's directions it was enjoined that the minister's reading desk should not stand with the back towards the chancel, nor too remote or far from it.

The double reading desk is still occasionally met with, as in East Ilsley Church, Berkshire, where is a kind of double reading desk so that the minister can turn himself either towards the west or south. In Priors Salford Church, Warwickshire, is an old carved reading pew bearing the date of its construction, 1616; and in St. Peter's Church, Dorchester, Dorsetshire, and in Sherbourne Church, in the same county, are reading pews which evidently, from the style and the carved work with which they are covered, were constructed in the early part of the seventeenth century.

The enclosing of the communion table in the church of Stow, in the county of Norfolk, by rails, about the year 1622, is noticed by Weaver, who states that the vicar and churchwardens pulled down a tomb to make room for the rail.

In Bishop Wren's diocesan directions it was ordered that the communion table in every church should always stand close under the east wall of the chancel, the ends thereof north and south, and that the rail should be made before it, reaching up from the north wall to the south wall, near one yard in height, so thick with pillars that dogs might not get in.

But we find the situation of the altar or communion table, and the reason of its severance by means of rails, more particularly noticed in the canons entertained by the convocation held in 1640. In these (after an allusion to the fact that many had been misled against the rites and ceremonies of the church of England, and had taken offence at the same upon an unjust supposal that they were introductive unto popish superstitions, whereas they had been duly and ordinarily practised by the whole church during a great part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and that though since that time they had by subtle practices begun to fall into disuse, and in place thereof other foreign and unfitting usages by little and little to creep in, yet in the royal chapels and many other churches most of them had been ever constantly used and observed) it was declared that the standing of the communion table sideway under the east window of every chancel was in its own nature indifferent[235-*]; yet as it had been ordered by the injunctions of Queen Elizabeth that the holy tables should stand in the places where the altars stood, it was judged fit and convenient that all churches should conform themselves in this particular to the example of the cathedral and mother churches; and it was declared that this situation of the holy table did not imply that it was or ought to be esteemed a true and proper altar, whereon Christ was again really sacrificed; but that it was and might be called an altar, in that sense in which the primitive church called it an altar, and in no other. And because experience had shewn how irreverent the behaviour of many people was in many places, (some leaning, others casting their hats, and some sitting upon, some standing, and others sitting under the communion table, in time of divine service,) for the avoiding of which and like abuses it was thought meet and convenient that the communion tables in all churches should be decently severed with rails, to preserve them from such or worse profanations.

Communion rails carved in the nondescript style, almost peculiar to the reign of Charles the First, are preserved in St. Giles's Church, Oxford; in the Lady Chapel, Winchester Cathedral; in the Church of St. Cross, near Winchester; in the choir of Worcester Cathedral; and in Andover Church, Hants: in which last instance the rails are composed of open semicircular arches, supported on baluster columns, with pendants similar to hip knobs hanging from the arches; but specimens of altar rails of a period antecedent to the Restoration are not often to be met with, the reason for which will be adduced.

By the canons of 1603 the churchwardens or questmen were to provide in every church a comely and decent pulpit, to be set in a convenient place within the same, and there to be seemly kept for the preaching of God's word. Carved pulpits set up between the years 1603 and 1640 are numerous, and the sides are more or less embellished with circular-arched panels, flat and shallow scroll-work, and other decorative detail in fashion at that period; and not a few bear the precise date of their construction.

In the nave of Bristol Cathedral is a stone pulpit, ascended to by means of a circular flight of steps; the sides are panelled and ornamented with escutcheons surrounded by scroll-work, and it bears the date of 1624.

In Ashington Church, Somersetshire, is a pulpit with the date 1627.

In Bradford Abbas Church, Dorsetshire, is a fine carved wooden pulpit and sounding-board, and on it appears the date 1632.

The date of 1625 appears on a fine carved wooden pulpit, the sides of which are covered with semicircular-headed panels, in Huish Episcopi Church, Somersetshire.

In one of the churches at Wells is a fine wooden pulpit, of the date 1636; at the angles are columns of semi-classic design, fantastically carved; the panels are curiously ornamented with figures in relief, and it is supported on a stand composed of a square and four detached columns, above which are represented a number of birds with large beaks; the sounding-board over corresponds in design with the pulpit.

A very fine carved wooden pulpit, the sides of which are embellished with circular-arched panel and scroll-work, with the date 1640, and a sounding-board over, is contained in Cerne Abbas Church, Dorsetshire.

Many carved pulpits of this era have, however, no assigned date; they are commonly placed at the north or south-east angle of the nave, but never in the middle of the aisle, so as to obstruct the view of the communion table.

The commandments were again, by the canons of 1603, ordered to be set upon the east end of every church, where the people might best see and read the same; and other chosen sentences were to be written upon the walls of the churches in places convenient.

On the south wall of Rowington Church, Warwickshire, are sentences painted with a border of scroll-work; the like also occur at Astley Church, in the same county; and on the walls of Bradford Abbas Church, Dorsetshire, are sentences of scripture painted in black-lettered characters within panels surrounded by scroll-work.

By the same canons the churchwardens were required to provide, if such had not been already provided, a strong chest, with a hole in the upper part thereof, having three keys, of which one was to remain in the custody of the minister, and the other two in the custody of the churchwardens; which chest was to be set and fastened in the most convenient place, to the intent the parishioners might put into it their alms for their poor neighbours.

In the retro-choir, Sherbourne Church, Dorsetshire, is a poor-box with three locks; and a carved poor-box, of the early part of the seventeenth century, is preserved in Harlow Church, Essex. In Elstow Church, Bedfordshire, are the remains of a poor-box of the same period. In Clapham Church, in the same county, is an old poor-box, the cover of which is gone, on which are the initials I. W., and the date 1626: this is fixed on a plain wooden pillar near the south door; and in the south aisle of Bletchley Church, Buckinghamshire, is an oak pillar or shaft surmounted by a poor-box, with an inscription carved on it of "Remember the Pore," and the date 1637[240-*].

The communion tables of the early part of this century were not so richly carved as those of the reign of Elizabeth, and in general the pillar-legs were plain and not so bulging; but the frieze or upper part of the frame-work, on which the table rested, was often covered with shallow and flat carved panel and scroll-work, and sometimes with the date of its construction.

In the church of St. Lawrence, at Evesham, the communion table bears the date of 1610; and round the frieze is carved an inscription, stating by whom it was given. In Cerne Abbas Church, Dorsetshire, is a carved communion table, bearing the date of 1638. The communion table in Godshill Church, Isle of Wight, is supported on four carved bulging pillar-legs; and round the frieze, below the ledge of the table, is the following inscription:

"Lancelot Coleman & Edward Britwel, Churchwardens, Anno Dom. 1631."

In Whitwell Church, Isle of Wight, the communion table stands on plain bulging pillar-legs; and on the frieze round the ledge is carved in relief an arm holding a chalice, with the following inscription:

"I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. Psa. 116. v. 53. Anno Dom. 1632."

As the rubric of the church enjoined that at the communion the priest should himself place the elements upon the holy table, the custom of having a side table, called the credence table, for the elements to be set on previous to their removal by the priest to the communion table for consecration, was observed in some churches in the latter part of the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth century. Such table appears to have been introduced in the reign of Elizabeth, by Andrews, bishop of Norwich, whose model Archbishop Laud is said to have followed[242-*]; and it originated from the prothesis, or side table of preparation, used in the early church; it was likewise, as we have seen, used at the sacramentals of the church of Rome, and on that account was strongly objected to by the Puritans.



In the chancel of Chipping-Warden Church, Northamptonshire, on the north side of the communion table, is a semicircular oak table, apparently of the reign of Charles the First, standing on a frame supported by three plain pillar-legs, like those of the communion tables of the same period, and enriched with carved arched frieze-work similar to the arched panel-work on pulpits of the same period.

A plain credence table of black oak, which from the style and make was evidently set up after the Restoration, still continues to be used as such in St. Michael's Church, Oxford, being placed on the north side of the communion table.

The objections of the Puritans against many of the usages of the Anglican church, and their refusal to conform to such under the pretence of their being superstitious, had no slight effect in altering the internal appearance of our churches in the middle of the seventeenth century, and during the period their party had obtained the ascendancy, and had succeeded for a while in abolishing in this country episcopal church government; for among the "innovations in discipline," as they were called by the Puritan committee of the House of Lords in 1641, we find the following usages complained of: the turning of the holy table altarwise, and most commonly calling it an altar; the bowing towards it or towards the east many times; advancing candlesticks in many churches upon the altar, so called; the making of canopies over the altar, so called, with traverses and curtains on each side and before it; the compelling all communicants to come up to the rails, and there to receive; the advancing crucifixes and images upon the parafront or altar cloth, so called; the reading some part of the morning prayer at the holy table, when there was no communion celebrated; the minister's turning his back to the west, and his face to the east, when he pronounced the Creed or read prayers; the reading the Litany in the midst of the body of the church in many of the parochial churches; the having a credentia or side table, besides the Lord's table, for divers uses in the Lord's Supper; and the taking down galleries in churches, or restraining the building of galleries where the parishes were very populous[244-*].

In August, 1643, an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons was published, for the taking away and demolishing of all altars and tables of stone, and for the removal of all communion tables from the east end of every church and chancel; and it was prescribed that such should be placed in some other fit and convenient place in the body of the church or in the body of the chancel; and that all rails whatsoever which had been erected near to, before, or about any altar or communion table, should be likewise taken away; and that the chancel-ground which had been raised within twenty years then last past, for any altar or communion table to stand on, should be laid down and levelled, as the same had formerly been; and that all tapers, candlesticks, and basins should be removed and taken away from the communion table, and not again used about the same; and that all crucifixes, crosses, and all images and pictures of any one or more Persons of the Trinity, or of the Virgin Mary, and all other images and pictures of saints, or superstitious inscriptions belonging to any churches, should be taken away and defaced before the first day of November, 1643: but it was provided that such ordinances should not extend to any image, picture, or coat of arms, in glass, stone, or otherwise, set up or graven only for a monument of any dead person not reputed for a saint, but that all such might stand and continue.

By a subsequent ordinance, passed in May, 1644, it was prescribed that no rood-loft or holy water fonts should be any more used in any church; and that all organs, and the frames or cases in which they stood, in all churches, should be taken away and utterly defaced.

Under colour of these ordinances the beauty of the cathedrals and churches was injured to an extent hardly credible; the monuments of the dead were defaced, and brasses torn away, in the iconoclastic fury which then raged; the very tombs were violated; and the havoc made of church ornaments, and destruction of the fine painted glass with which most church windows then abounded, may in some degree be estimated from the account given by one Dowsing, a parliamentary visitor appointed under a warrant from the Earl of Manchester for demolishing the so called superstitious pictures and ornaments of churches within the county of Suffolk, who kept a journal, with the particulars of his transactions, in the years 1643 and 1644: these were chiefly comprised in the demolition of numerous windows filled with painted glass, in the breaking down of altar rails and organ cases, in levelling the steps in the chancels, in removing crucifixes, in taking down the stone crosses from the exterior of the churches, in defacing crosses on the fonts, and in the taking up (under the pretence of their being superstitious) of numerous sepulchral inscriptions in brass. Nor did the churches in other parts of the country, with some exceptions, escape from a like fanatical warfare; and, in this, many of our cathedrals suffered most. But this was not enough: our sacred edifices were profaned and polluted in the most irreverent and disgraceful manner; and with the exception of the destruction which took place on the dissolution of the monastic establishments in the previous century, more devastation was committed at this time by the party hostile to the Anglican church than had ever before been effected since the ravages of the ancient Danish invaders.

But as to other alterations at this time effected. In January, 1644, an ordinance of parliament was published for the taking away of the Book of Common Prayer, which was forbid to be used any longer in any church, chapel, or place of public worship. In lieu of this the "Directory for the Publike Worship of God" was established: this contained no stated forms of prayer, but general instructions only for extemporaneous praying and preaching, and for the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper; the former of which was to be administered in the place of public worship and in the face of the congregation, but "not," as the Directory expresses, "in the places where fonts in the time of popery were unfitly and superstitiously placed." And at the administration of the Lord's Supper the table was to be so placed that the communicants might sit orderly about it or at it; but all liturgical form was abolished, and the prayers even at this sacrament were such as the minister might spontaneously offer.

At Brill Church, in Buckinghamshire, the communion table, on an elevation of one step, is inclosed with rails, within an area of eight feet by six feet and a half, and a bench is fixed to the wall on each side; an innovation made at this period, in order that the communicants might receive the sacrament sitting. The communion table in Wooten Wawen Church, Warwickshire, though perfectly plain in construction, is unusually long and large, and appears to have been set up by the Puritans at this period, so that they might sit round or at it.

To the removal of the communion table from the east end of the chancel may be attributed the usage which, in the middle of the seventeenth century, began to prevail of constructing close and high seats or pews, without regard to that uniformity of arrangement which had hitherto been observed; and many seats were now so constructed that those who occupied them necessarily turned their backs on the east during the ministration of prayer and public service. The erection of unseemly galleries, which have greatly tended to disfigure our churches, was another consequence of the innovation on the ancient arrangement of pewing.

After the Restoration the communion tables were again restored to their former position at the east end of the chancel; and in Evelyn's Diary for 1661-2, we find the change of position in his parish church thus noticed: "6 April. Being of the vestry in the afternoone, we order'd that the communion table should be set as usual altarwise, with a decent raile in front, as before the rebellion."

The altar rails were now generally restored, and in most instances we find those in our churches to be of a period subsequent to the Restoration, as the details in the workmanship evince. In the church accounts of St. Mary's, Shrewsbury, for 1662, we find a "memorandum that this year the rayles about the communion table wer new sett up, and the surplice was made." In Wormleighton Church, Warwickshire, the altar rails have on them the date of 1664; and the communion table, which is quite plain, is of the same character and era.

But a return, after the Restoration, to the former usages of the Anglican church was not made without great opposition; and accordingly we find objections stated to the bowing to the altar and to the east, to the preaching by book, to the railing in of the altar, to the candles, cushion, and book thereon, to the bowing at the name of Jesus, and to the organs as "popish-like music, and too much superstition[250-*]."

When the rood was taken down at the Reformation, a custom began to prevail of fixing up in its stead or place, against the arch leading into the chancel, the upper part of which was in consequence blocked up by it, and facing the congregation, so as to be seen by them, the royal arms, with proper heraldic supporters; but it does not clearly appear that this was done in consequence of any express law or injunction to that effect, though it may perhaps have served to denote the king's supremacy. We seldom, however, find the royal arms of earlier date than the Restoration, in the twenty years previous to which they appear to have been generally taken down. In Brixton Church, Isle of Wight, on some plain wooden panelling between the tower and a gallery at the west end are the remains of the royal arms, which, from the style in which they have been painted with the rose and thistle, appear coeval with the reign of James the First; they are surmounted by a crown, below which is an open six-barred helme. These arms appear to have been removed from their original position against the chancel-arch, and are now much mutilated. In the church accounts, St. Mary's, Shrewsbury, for 1651, is a charge of 1l. 8s. "for making the states armes." In Anstey Church, Warwickshire, the arms of the commonwealth, put up during the inter-regnum, were taken down not many years back. The little church of St. Lawrence, in the Isle of Wight, still retains the royal arms put up at the Restoration in 1660.

Excepting the rood-loft galleries, we have few galleries in our churches of a period antecedent to the latter part of the seventeenth century. At the west end of Worstead Church, Norfolk, over the west door, is a gallery erected in 1550, at the cost of the candle called the Bachelor's Light. At the west end of the nave in Leighton Buzzard Church is a gallery erected in 1634; and at the west end of Piddletown Church, Dorsetshire, is a gallery with the date of its erection, 1635.

From about the period of the Revolution, in 1688, we may trace the commencement of a custom, still partially prevailing, of setting up the pulpit and reading-pew in the middle aisle, in front of the communion table; so that during the whole of the service the back of the minister was turned to the east, and the view of the communion table obstructed; but we have not found any pulpit thus placed of an earlier period.

We still retain, in the Anglican church, the usage of placing two candlesticks and candles upon the communion table, in compliance with the injunctions of King Edward the Sixth, together also with an offertory dish; of reading the lessons from the eagle desk, and of saying the Litany at the litany-stool. These practices are, however, more particularly observed in our cathedrals and college chapels than in our parochial churches, in most of which they have fallen into desuetude.

To conclude, in the language of the synod held in 1640: "Whereas the church is the house of God, dedicated to his holy worship, and therefore ought to remind us both of the greatness and goodness of his Divine Majesty; certain it is that the acknowledgment thereof, not only inwardly in our hearts, but also outwardly with our bodies, must needs be pious in itself, profitable unto us, and edifying unto others: we therefore think it meet and behoveful, and heartily commend it to all good and well-affected people, members of this church, that they be ready to tender unto the Lord the said acknowledgment, by doing reverence and obeisance, both at their coming in and going out of the said churches, chancels, or chapels, according to the most ancient custom of the primitive church in the purest times, and of this church also for many years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

"The reviving, therefore, of this ancient and laudable custom we heartily recommend to the serious consideration of all good people, not with any intention to exhibit any religious worship to the communion table, the east, or church, or any thing therein contained, in so doing; or to perform the said gesture in the celebration of the holy eucharist, upon any opinion of a corporal presence of the body of Jesus Christ on the holy table or in the mystical elements, but only for the advancement of God's majesty, and to give him alone that honour and glory that is due unto him, and no otherwise; and in the practice or omission of this rite we desire that the rule of charity prescribed by the apostle may be observed, which is, that they which use this rite despise not them who use it not, and that they who use it not condemn not those that use it."



"... a bloodie crosse he bore, The deare remembrance of his dying Lord, For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore, And dead, as living, ever him ador'd: Upon his shield the like was also scor'd."

FOOTNOTES:

[154-*] Hist. Eccles. lib. vi. c. 6. Durantus, however, assigns a different origin. "In veteri testamento non nisi lotus templum ingrediebatur." De Labro, seu Vase Aquae Benedictae, c. 21.

[156-*] "Ad valvas ecclesiae,"—Ordo ad Faciendum Catechumenum, Manuale.

[156-+] Constitutions of Edmund Archbishop of Canterbury, A. D. 1236. [TN-6]De Baptismo et eius Effectu."

[158-*] It is much to be regretted that of late years many ancient fonts have been cast out of our churches, and earthenware and pewter basins substituted in their stead for the administration of the holy sacrament of baptism: a practice not authorized by the Anglican church, but rather condemned; for in the canons set forth by authority, A. D. 1571, it is provided that "Curabunt (OEditui) ut in singulis ecclesiis sit sacer fons, non pelvis, in quo baptismus ministretur, isque ut decenter et munde conservetur." And in the canons of 1603, after alluding to the foregoing constitution, and observing that it was too much neglected in many places, it is appointed "That there shall be a font of stone in every church and chapel where baptism is to be ministered; the same to be set in the ancient usual places." In the orders and directions given by Bishop Wren, A. D. 1636, to be observed in his diocese of Norwich, we find it enjoined, "That the font at baptism be filled with clear water, and no dishes, pails, or basins be used in it or instead of it."

[160-*] The 28th decree of a foreign council, that of Wirtzburgh, held A. D. 1278, prohibits the fortifying of churches in order to make use of them as castles.

[164-*] Anglice sermocinari solebat (Abbas Samson) populo, sed secundum Linguam Norfolchie ... unde et pulpitum jussit fieri in ecclesia et ad utilitatem audiencium et ad decorem ecclesie.—Cronica Jocelini de Brakelonda, sub anno 1187.

[167-*] Cottonian MS. Titus D. xxvii. 10th saec.

[167-+] "Crux que erat super magnum altare, et Mariola, et Johannes, quas imagines Stigandus archiepiscopus magno pondere auri et argenti ornaverat, et sancto AEdmundo dederat."—Cronica Jocelini de Brakelonda, p. 4.

[168-*] "Supra pulpitum trabes erat, per tranversum ecclesiae posita, quae crucem grandem et duo cherubin et imagines Sanctae Mariae et Sancti Johannis apostoli sustentabat."—Gervasius de Combustione, &c.

[169-*] "Superest exponere, quod manus illa e nubibus erumpens indicet: Quae procul dubio omnipotentis Dei dexteram designat."—Ciampini Vetera Monimenta, vol. ii. pp. 22, 81.

[171-*] "In elevatione atque utriusque squilla pulsatur."—Durandi Rationale, lib. iv.

[171-+] In Yeovil Church Accounts, A. D. 1457, is an item, "In una cordul empt p le salsyngbelle ijd."—Collectanea Topographica, vol. iii. p. 130.

[172-*] It is now in the possession of William Staunton, esq., of Longbridge House, near Warwick.

[173-*] Durandus, in his description of a church, makes no mention of screen-work, but observes, "Notandum est quod triplex genus veli suspenditur in ecclesia videlicet quod sacra operit, quod sanctuarium a clero dividit, et quod clerum a populo secernit;" evidently alluding in the latter to the curtain extended across the chancel arch.

[174-*] "Item tunc stent in sedibus suis versa facie ad altare donec ad misericordias vel super formulas prout tempus postulat inclinent."—Monasticon, 1st ed. vol. i. p. 951.

[180-*] The placing of more than two lights on the altar seems never to have been practised in the churches of this country; at least I have not met with any ancient illumination in which more than two are represented.

[181-*] The cover of an ancient thurible of latten was lately discovered in the chest of Ashbury Church, Berkshire: the lower part is of a semi-globular or domical form, from which issues an embattled turret or lantern in the form of a pentagon, which is finished by a quadrangular spire; the sides both of the lantern and spire are partly of open work, and round the domical part is inscribed Gloria Tibi Domine.

[181-+] A small ampulla of brass or latten, supposed to have been an ancient chrismatory for the consecrated oil used in the sacrament of extreme unction, has been within the last few years discovered in the castle ditch, Pulford, Cheshire: this curious little relic is not more than two inches high; the body is semi-globular, or bulges in front, with a plain Greek cross engraved on it, and is flattened at the back; and at the neck are two bowed handles, by chains attached to which it appears to have hung suspended from the shoulders.

[182-*] Harding, in his controversy with Bishop Jewell, mentions "the monstrance or pixe" as if one and the same article.—Defence of the Apology, &c., p. 343.

[183-*] Quo finito sacerdos cum suis ministris in sedibus ad hos paratis se recipiant et expectent usque ad orationem dicendam vel alio tempore usque ad Gloria in excelsis.—MS. Rituale pen. Auc.

[183-+] This arrangement was different to that directed by the rubrical orders of the Roman missals, on their revision after the council of Trent, by which the celebrant was to be seated between the deacon and sub-deacon: "In missa item solemni celebrans medius inter diaconum et sub-diaconum sedere potest a cornu epistolae juxta altare cum cantatur Kyrie eleison, Gloria in excelsis, et Credo."—Missale Romanum, Antverpiae, MDCXXXI.; Rubricae Generales, &c. One of the queries published by Le Brun, whilst composing his liturgical work, was, "Si le pretre s'assied au dessus du diacre et du soudiacre, ou au milieu d'eux."

[186-*] Prope altare collocatur Piscina seu Lavacrum in quo manus lavantur.—Durandi Rat. de Ecclesia, &c. In ancient church contracts the term Lavatorie was sometimes used for the Piscina, as in that for Catterick Church. In the Roman Missal subsequent to the Tridentine council the word Sacrarium is used.

[187-*] At Alvechurch, Worcestershire, the custom prevails of the priest washing his hands in the vestry before the administration of the sacrament, and napkins are brought to dry his hands.

[189-*] "Il y avoit pour cet effet en chaque piscine, comme en peut voir encore a une infinite d'autels, deux conduits, ou canaux, pour faire ecouler l'eau, l'un pour recevoir l'eau qui avoit servi au lavement des mains, l'autre pour celle qui avoit servi au purification ou perfusion du chalice."—De Vert, Explication des Ceremonies de l'Eglise, vol. iii. p. 193.

[190-*] In "Le Parfaict Ecclesiastique, par M. Claude de la Croix," (a curious work published A. D. 1666, and containing full instructions for the clergy of the Gallican church, and an exposition of the rites and ceremonies,) amongst appendages to an altar is enumerated "une credance ou niche dans le mur a poser les burettes et le bassin," p. 536. And in another place, "au coste de l'Autel il y faut une petite niche a poser les burettes et le bassin, et y faire un trou en facon de piscine a fin que l'eau se perde en terre." p. 568.

[190-+] "In cornu Epistolae ... ampullae vitreae vini et aquae cum pelvicula et manutergio mundo in fenestella seu in parva mensa ad haec praeparata"—Missale Romanum ex Decreto, &c. 1631.

"Calix vero et alia necessaria praeparentur in credentia cooperta linteo, antequam sacerdos veniat ad altare."—Ibid.

[192-*] The earliest account of the sepulchre thus set up that I have yet met with occurs in an inventory of church furniture, A. D. 1214, in which is mentioned "velum unum de serico supra sepulchrum."

[193-*] "Table" was a word used to express any sculptured basso relievo, more especially that inserted in the wall over an altar.

[199-*] A series of coloured engravings from the paintings on the walls of this chapel, which were evidently executed at the close of the fifteenth century, was published in 1807 by the late Mr. Thomas Fisher.

[200-*] By an injunction set forth by royal authority, A. D. 1539, it was ordered, "That from henceforth the said Thomas Becket shall not be esteemed, named, reputed, and called a saint, but Bishop Becket; and that his images and pictures thorow the whole realme shal be pluckt downe and avoided out of all churches, chapel, and other places."—Fox's Martyrology.

[209-*] The locality, character, and construction of the confessional in our ancient churches are not yet clearly elucidated. Du Cange described the confessional, "confessio," simply as "cellula in qua presbyteri fidelium confessiones excipiebant;" whilst according to De la Croix, in his remarks on those of the Gallican churches in the middle of the seventeenth century, "Les confessionaux doiuent estre a l'entree des Eglises, et non pas aupres des Autels, ny dans le Choeur, ny en lieu cache, et tousieurs vne ouuerture pour ecouter le Penitent, avec vn treillis de bois ou autre estoffe, et vn volet pour le fermer, quand on ecoute de l'vn des costez ouuert."

[210-*] The tabard or heraldic coat worn over the body armour, and still worn by the heralds on state occasions.

[211-*] "Our churches stand full of such great puppets, wondrously decked and adorned; garlands and coronets be set on their heads, precious pearls hanging about their necks; their fingers shine with rings set with precious stones; their dead and stiff bodies are clothed with garments stiff with gold."—Homily against Peril of Idolatry.

[215-*] In the injunctions given by Bishop Ridley, in the visitation of his diocese A. D. 1550, occurs the following: "Item that the minister in the time of the communion, immediately after the offertory, shall monish the communicants, saying these words, or such like, 'Now is the time, if it please you, to remember the poor men's chest with your charitable alms.'"

[216-*] Dr. Cardwell, in his editorial preface to the reprint of the two Books of Common Prayer set forth in the reign of Edward the Sixth, observes, "The communion service of the first liturgy contained a prayer for the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the bread and wine, and a following prayer of oblation, which, together with the form of words addressed to the communicants, were designed to represent a sacrifice, and appeared to undiscriminating minds to denote the sacrifice of the mass. Numerous, therefore, and urgent were the objections against this portion of the service. Combined with a large class of objectors, whose theology consisted merely in an undefined dread of Romanism, were all those, however differing among themselves, who believed the holy communion to be a feast and not a sacrifice, and that larger class of persons who, placing the solemn duty upon its proper religious basis, were contented to worship without waiting to refine."

[218-*] Fox's Martyrology.

[223-*] In compliance with the queen's letter, the following directions were sent by the commissioners to the dean and chapter of Bristol:

"After our hartie comendac[=on]s.—Whereas we are credibly informed that there are divers tabernacles for Images, as well in the fronture of the roodeloft of the cath^l church of Bristol, as also in the frontures, back, and ends of the walles wheare the co[=mn] table standeth, for asmoch as the same churche shoulde be a light and good example to th' ole citie and dioc. we have thought good to direct these our l[=re]s unto you, and to require youe to cause the said tabernacles to be defaced & hewen downe, and afterwards to be made a playne walle, w^th morter, plast^r, or otherways, & some scriptures to be written in the places, & namely that upon the walle on the east end of the quier wheare the co[=mn] table usually doth stande, the table of the c[=om]and^ts to be painted in large caracters, with convenient speed, and furniture according to the orders latly set furthe by vertue of the quenes ma^ts c[=om]ission for causes ecclesiasticall, at the coste and chardges of the said churche; whereof we require you not to faile. And so we bed you farewell. From London, the xxi. of December, 1561."—Britton's Bristol Cath. p. 52.

[224-*] In the chancel of Bengeworth Church, Gloucestershire, is a table of the commandments, with the letters cut in box-wood. This has the date of 1591 upon it.

[226-*] These are engraved in vol. xx. of the Archaeologia, and, from the general style and mouldings, appear to have been constructed in the latter part of the fifteenth century.

[230-*] The symbolical turning towards the east whilst pronouncing the Creed is adverted to by St. Cyril. In the Apostolical Constitutions, book ii. sect. xxviii., the attendants at public worship are enjoined to pray to God eastward. The custom of turning to the east at prayer is noticed by many of the early fathers of the church, and among them by St. Basil, who remarks, "As to the doctrines and preachings which are preserved in the church, we have some of them from the written doctrine; others we have received as delivered from the tradition of the apostles in a mystery. For, to begin with the mention of what is first and most common, who has taught us by writing that those that hope in the name of our Lord should be signed with the sign of the cross? what written law has taught us that we should turn towards the east in our prayers?.... Is not all this derived from this concealed and mystical tradition?.... We all, indeed, look towards the east in our prayers."—Basil, Epist. ad Amphiloc. de Spiritu S. Whiston's translation in Essay on the Apostolical Constitutions.

[231-*] Funeral Monuments, A. D. 1631, p. 701.

[232-*] Printed in Strype's Life of Parker. In the same paper the communion table is noticed as standing in the body of the church in some places, in others standing in the chancel; in some places standing altarwise, distant from the wall a yard, in others in the middle of the chancel, north and south; in some places the table was joined, in others it stood upon tressels; in some the table had a carpet, in others none.

[235-*] "The position of the table had now become the token of a distinct and solemn belief as to the nature of the eucharist, and was therefore treated as a question of conscience and an article of faith."—Cardwell's Documentary Annals, vol. ii. p. 186, note. The extracts given from the injunctions have been principally taken from this work.

[240-*] The unostentatious and laudable practice of bestowing alms to the charity-box has long fallen into disuse in most churches; but within the last few years charity-boxes have been set up in some of our churches, and this commendable custom is again gradually reviving.

[242-*] Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. iii. p. 170.

[244-*] Cardwell's Conferences, p. 272.

[250-*] Hickeringill's Ceremony-Monger, (pub. 1689,) p. 63.

OXFORD: Printed by T. Combe, Printer to the University.—May 10, 1841



Published by J. H. Parker, Oxford.

SECOND EDITION.

In the Press, with many additional Wood-Cuts,

A GLIMPSE AT THE MONUMENTAL ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE OF GREAT BRITAIN,

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A GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN GRECIAN, ROMAN, ITALIAN, AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

Exemplified by Seven Hundred Wood-Cuts.



Published by J. H. Parker, Oxford.

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SOME ACCOUNT OF THE DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE of ENGLAND

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Illustrated by numerous Engravings, from original drawings, of EXISTING REMAINS.



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Transcriber's Note

The following errors and inconsistencies have been maintained.

Misspelled words and typographical errors: Page Error TN-1 26 (fig. 5.). has an extra . following the ) TN-2 79 isuse should read disuse TN-3 104 rom should read from TN-4 106 pannels should read panels TN-5 156, fn + 1236. De Baptismo should have an open quote mark before De TN-6 192 each which should read each of which. The word "of" did not print in the original text, although a space is present for it.

The following words had inconsistent hyphenation:

wood-work / woodwork zig-zag / zigzag

The following words had inconsistent spelling:

Botolph / Botulph Higham Ferrars / Higham Ferrers Sherbourne / Sherborne Wooten Wawen / Wotten Wawen

THE END