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.
Where there was a parish service in the nave of a conventual church, the nave was more or less completely shut off from the choir. The parish altar then would stand, as first mentioned in the case of Bolton, against the east wall of the nave, and consequently there would be a parish rood-screen and rood-loft still farther down the nave, so as to cut off a chancel, so to speak, for the parish service. At Freiston Priory (although this eastern separating wall of the nave is modern, the choir having perished), the altar is approximately in the position of the people’s altar, and the staircase to the rood-loft, and the traces of the rood-screen (which exists in a neighbouring parish church—that of Fishtoft), show that three bays of the nave were cut off by it. Almost exactly the same arrangement exists at Dunster, where the choir was ordered, in 1499, to be used exclusively by the monks, and the nave to be appropriated to the parishioners. A coëval rood-screen extends across the nave, cutting off two eastern bays, with a rood-stair in the south aisle, showing its present position to be the original one.
At Edington Priory Church, Wiltshire, a new altar has been erected in the position of the original parish one against the screen. At Westminster Abbey the choir runs far into the nave (cutting off the five eastern bays), and is separated from it by a high and deep screen of which the inner stonework dates from the thirteenth century, but the fronting is modern. One bay west was the rood-screen; below it, on the floor of the nave, was the Jesus altar, at which mass was said in presence of the people. Above, in the rood-loft, was a second Jesus altar, from which, on certain days, the Epistles and Gospels were read.
Also, as everywhere in churches before the Reformation, there were altars in connection with the rood-screens and rood-lofts. For instance, in 1400, Lady Johanna, late wife of Sir Donald de Hesilrigg, bequeaths “To the convent of the house of Gysburgh, in Clyveland, one vestment of camaca to serve in the pulpit there, and one chalice of silver gilt.” At Grantham Parish Church, where there was a stone rood-screen, we know, from a mention in the Patent Rolls, that there was an altar in the rood-loft. In York Minster there was an altar in the loft before the image of the Saviour, on the south side of the church, for two chaplains, founded in 1475-6 by Richard Andrew, Dean of York.101 In the same place an inventory is given, of the date 1543, of the belongings of the “altar of the name of Jhesu in the rudde loft.”
At Norwich Cathedral the pulpitum still exists as the organ loft (with a staircase north and south from central passage to loft), between the twelfth piers of the nave (from the west end), the space between these and the eleventh is taken up by the Chapel of Our Lady of Pity—the ante-choir. Between the eleventh piers is Bishop Le Hart’s screen, with central door and an altar on either side, that on the north dedicated to St. William, that on the south to St. Mary. Further west, between the tenth piers, was probably a wooden screen, and either on this or above Bishop Le Hart’s screen the rood would be placed.
An early screen at St. Albans, built by Abbot Richard, 1097-1119, is described as a wall of stone finished with a wooden capping, the altar being raised in the centre towards the nave. The present screen, called St. Cuthbert’s, cuts off three bays of the nave westwards of the lantern. In the centre is the altar of the Holy Cross, with a door on each side opening into the choir eastwards. If the rood-beam and figures were not supported by the screen, they must have been probably westwards of it (eastwards in Murray’s Cathedrals), and supported by their own screen perhaps.
The only instance in Lincolnshire of a screen of the kind just described exists in Crowland Abbey. Here the north aisle of the nave seems to have been used for the parish church (as it is now) from early times, but the arrangement in the nave is the same as that mentioned above, though I know of no remains of any eastern screen having been discovered. The splendid western Norman arch of the central tower is screened across below by a solid wall, pierced by two side doors, and on the west side there is a space betwixt them for the altar. Also, on this side, there is a band of panelling of sunk quatrefoils, extending right across the screen a little above the doors (a wooden reredos and panelling probably filling up the plain portions of this wall); while the eastern face of the screen is ornamented with a panelled band of quatrefoils alternating with shields, and the rest of the surface is covered with panelled tracery of Perpendicular date. The doorways on this side are four-centred, with square-headed mouldings above, the spandrils being filled in with foliage. This screen most likely was built by William de Croyland, who was master of the works from 1392 to 1417. In 1539, probably the whole arch was built up solid, with a square-headed two-light window in the middle, so as to allow the nave to be used as the parish church when the choir and the rest of the abbey was pulled down. The roof of the nave fell in about 1688, after which the north aisle would again be used as the parish church. It is interesting to recall the fact that at Leominster a new north aisle was built to serve as the parish church, and so also at Blyth.
This central position of the altar, with a doorway on either side, was a general arrangement in the Jubés of Germany, of which Pugin’s plates of those in Münster Cathedral, the Domkirche and the Hospital, Lübeck, the Dom at Hildersheim, and that at Gelnhausen may serve as specimens. G. E. Street gave a sketch of a choir-screen with central altar on its western front, and a door in either side, at Zamora Cathedral (Gothic Architecture in Spain, p. 92). And a rood-screen at Wechelburg, Saxony, with crucifix, SS. Mary and John, central western altar, and side doors, is figured in Fergusson’s Handbook of Architecture, vol. ii. p. 583.
In all Norman cathedrals, probably, the choir extended westwards across the transepts into the structural nave. Consequently in any later erection of screens to mark the entrance into the choir, this ancient line of demarcation would be followed. The late Professor Willis remarks of the screen already alluded to at Canterbury, as described by Gervase, “that it may have remained, though in an altered form, to the Reformation. One of Winchelsey’s statutes (dated 1298) expressly commands that the two small doors under the great loft between the body of the church and the choir, which are near the altar under the Great Cross, shall remain.” Thus also at Chichester, Bishop Arundel’s Oratory (which was pulled down in 1859) stood across the western arch of the central tower. At Winchester, the rood-screen was in the second bay of the nave. At St. Albans, St. Cuthbert’s altar-screen is three bays down the nave, and at Norwich Bishop Le Hart’s screen (when complete with a vaulted extension westwards, and a screen still farther, whereon the rood-beam would be placed) takes in three bays of the nave. At Westminster four bays, at Gloucester one bay, were included in the choir: at Peterborough the organ-screen enclosed the first bay of the nave, and there was a second screen as at Norwich, one bay farther west. The choir of the monks at Ely extended westwards beyond the central tower, and after that had fallen, beyond the octagon to the second pier of the nave. At Furness Abbey the pulpitum doubtless occupied a bay between the third pair of piers in the nave. At Crowland, as has been stated above, the existing stone screen is across the western side of the lantern. All these, except Chichester, belonged to the Benedictine Order. At Kirkstall Abbey, a Cistercian house, the plan, as it existed in the twelfth century, shows the extension of the choir into two bays of the nave, and at Roche Abbey, also Cistercian, there are traces of the rood-screen, three bays down the nave (with central door and two side altars), no other screen being found save a wooden one in the same line across the north aisle.
In several of the cathedrals on the “old foundation” there is only one screen which—as abroad—has served for rood-screens, the rood either being on or above it. Lincoln, York, Ripon, Wells, and Southwell are all furnished with screens of this kind, which have no trace of altars on their western front. I am rather doubtful whether there may not have been altars on each side of the western doorway of the screen at Southwell.
At Lincoln the solid stone screen stretches across the entrance to the choir between the eastern piers of the central crossing, being thus in length about 42 feet and in depth from east to west about 12 feet 6 inches. Its height from the floor of the nave to the top of the parapet is 17 feet. The western front of the screen consists of a central canopied archway having four recessed tabernacles with rich ogee canopied arches, grained continuously on each side, separated by detached buttressed piers. The wall behind is covered with diaper work, and subdivided by a shelf enriched with leafage below. There are still remains of colour and gilding. Three steps lead up to the doorway, from which a passage, with flat ceiling and skeleton vaulting (reminding one of similar work in the screen at Southwell) gives entrance into the choir. On the left, i.e. on the north side of this passage, opening by double doors, which have some excellent examples of original ironwork upon them, is a broad staircase leading to the loft above. Just at the entrance to the staircase is the door, on the west side, of a dark recess with an aumbry. The staircase has also a flat ceiling and skeleton rib-vaulting, and has, on emerging above, a corbel table charmingly carved with rich foliage, forming a kind of edge to the hatchway, on three sides. On the south, or right-hand side, of the central passage is a small room, with solid vaulting, lighted by a square window looking into the south choir aisle, guarded by the original iron bars.
On the south side also of the screen, there is a second stair leading to the loft, formed in the thickness of the screen wall of the first bay of the south choir aisle, lighted by a pierced quatrefoil, and approached by a small ogee-headed archway, to be reached by a short step-ladder. This, it has been stated, was for the use of the custodian of the choir, and from its smallness could never have been used by priests arrayed in canonicals. The eastern side of the screen is formed by the return stalls, and over the entrance there is a projection of half polygonal shape, and of much the same date as the choir-stalls themselves. It is noteworthy that the eastern doorway in the stone screen has a deep moulding running round the arch, with traces of colour as a finishing touch, evidently intended to be seen, before the woodwork of the stalls was placed in front of it. I may here mention that the date of the stone screen has been generally considered to be about 1320, and that of John of Welbourn’s choir-stalls about 1380. This projection is coved, and some of the ribs run down to the doorway, but it is curiously and mainly supported by horizontal beams running westward from the projection for half their length over the floor of the loft, and being bolted through that floor at their western ends. Four uprights pass downwards from the floor of the projection, two of them to the floor of the choir, which two are stopped by responds at each side of the stone archway. On reaching the loft, there is a broad seat of stone extending the whole length of the loft on the western side, above that a broad band of elegant diaper-work, surmounted by a parapet pierced with trefoils alternately erect and inverted, and finished with a battlemented cresting.
The eastern face of the screen is guarded by a coped wall of about the same height as that just mentioned, i.e. about 4 feet. In the middle, for about 8 feet, this wall is cut away down to the level of the floor of the projection over the eastern doorway, in order to give access to that floor. As already mentioned, the joists of this floor (the floor-boarding probably only dates from 1826) lead backwards, i.e. westwards, over a beam laid in the wall north and south, and in their completed state would form a half octagonal platform. On each side of the break in the parapet wall were found, in the course of the alterations in the organ and organ case (in 1897-98), three stone steps. They are broken across, and removed towards the middle of the space, but they have evidently formed part of a half octagon, as the stone floor of the loft within this mark, made by completing the figure, is of a different colour to that outside. These steps, then, have obviously led up to the complete polygon, half within the projection and half westwards of it, over the floor of the loft. These fragmentary steps were noticed to have been much worn with use. The interior of the projection, apparently, is original work, and it is interesting to find in Wild’s plate, published in 1819 before the changes in the organ, that it is boarded round and finished with a plain moulding. J. J. Smith, the late clerk of the works at the Minster, was satisfied that there was a desk running round the inside of this projection.
Canon Christopher Wordsworth, in the Introduction to the second part of the Lincoln Cathedral Statutes, says that there was a rood altar (Sanctæ Crucis) under the lantern, either on the screen over the door, or before the entrance of the choir. He also adds, “there was, circa 1520-1536, a ‘Jhesus Mass,’ but whether this involved a special Jesus altar I cannot say.” And again, “Holy Rood or altar of St. Cross, which may have stood on the choir-screen.” An altar with this title appears to have existed in the time of Matthew Paris, circa 1250, as he says that Remigius was buried in front of it; “in prospectu altaris Sanctæ Crucis” are Giraldus Cambrensis’ own words. Therefore, as the Minster was partly used as the Parish Church of St. Mary Magdalene, on whose site it was built, and a presbyter was deputed by the Dean and Chapter to minister sacraments and sacramentals to the parishioners, “in certo loco ipsius ecclesiæ Cathedralis,” till Oliver Sutton erected the church on its present site in Exchequer Gate, it is probable that there was a Jesus altar for parochial purposes and a rood-screen across the western piers of the lantern, or even farther west in the nave. In this connection, the description of the rood-screen at the entrance to the choir given in the Metrical Life of St. Hugh, will be of much interest. It was almost certainly written between the years 1220 and 1235:—
“De crucifixo, et tabulâ aureâ in introitu chori.
Introitumque chori majestas aurea pingit;
Et proprie propriâ crucifixus imagine Christi
Exprimitur, vitæque suæ progressus ad unguem
Insinuatur ibi. Nec solum crux vel imago
Immo columnarum sex, lignorumque duorum
Ampla superficies, obrizo fulgurat auro.”
On which my friend, the late Precentor Venables, remarked, “The meaning is not free from obscurity, but we see that the rood-screen consisted of six pillars—three, we may suppose, either side the entrance to the choir—supporting two beams, on which stood the crucifix, the whole being gilt.”
This, then, may have been the screen on which the rood stood. Abroad, as can be seen at the present day (e.g. at Louvain St. Pierre), it frequently stands upon the screen itself. In other cases it may be supported by a beam above the screen. At Canterbury Cathedral, in Lanfranc’s time, we learn from Gervase that “above the loft, and placed across the church, was the beam which sustained the great cross, two cherubim, and the images of St. Mary and St. John the Apostle.” In later times it probably stood on the existing arch (built by Prior Goldstone II. about 1495 to 1517) inserted under the western arch of the central tower. At Exeter Cathedral the rood stood on a separate bar of iron, high above the screen, and was erected in 1324, after the screen was finished. The rests for it, cut out of the narrow arches on either side, were brought into view recently. At Nuremberg the same arrangement prevails, or prevailed. At Winchester Cathedral the second easternmost bay of the nave from the chancel-screen was occupied by a rood-loft, on which stood the “magna crux cum duabus imaginibus sc. Mariæ et Johannis et illas cum trabe vestitas auro et argento copiose,” &c., made and set up by Bishop Stigand, who was buried at Winchester in 1069. At Glastonbury Abbey we read of William de Taunton, Abbot (1322-1335), making the “front of the choir, with the curious stone images, where the crucifix stood.” Also at St. Edmondsbury, in the earliest part of the thirteenth century, Hugh the Sacrist “pulpitum in ecclesiæ ædificavit, magna cruce erecta,” showing the close connection between the rood and the loft. At Worcester Cathedral there are stone brackets for the rood-beam on the western pillars of the lantern, 28 feet from the floor of the nave. There seem to be no traces of rood or rood-beam in Lincoln Minster.
In the Hereford Consuetudines, one of the duties of the Thesaurarius was to keep three lamps burning day and night, one of which was “in pulpito ante crucem.” The same officer was ordered in the Liber Niger of Lincoln, “Minutam etiam candelam invenire in choro et in pulpito et alibi in ecclesia quandocumque necesse fuerit,” the Eastern use differing from the Western on the score of economy! There seems to be no reasonable doubt that the pulpitum and platform already described was the one from which the Gospel and Epistle were read or intoned, and other portions of the pre-Reformation services sung or said. Dr. Hopkins102 says: “For the accommodation of the singing monks there was a projecting gallery or pulpit, as it was sometimes termed, standing out from the centre of the east front of the rood-loft, near to the organ.” The author of The Rites of Durham speaks of “the pair of organs over the Quire dore” in the eastern screen. No doubt there were variations in what was read, sung, or chanted from the rood-loft in different dioceses and different cathedrals. According to Wild, at High Mass, as soon as the reading of the Epistle by the sub-deacon was ended (at the altar, we may presume) the deacon, leaving the altar, preceded by the crucifix and taper-bearers, and holding the book of the Gospels conspicuously elevated in his hands, walked slowly and processionally along the south side of the choir (while the choristers sang the graduale) to the steps leading to the rood-loft, where, being arrived and kneeling under the great crucifix usually erected there, he addressed the bishop or priest in these words, “Jube, Domine, benedicere,” to which the officiating clergyman answered, “Evangelium Domini Nostri Jesu Christi,” or some other benediction. And then the deacon would read the Gospel from the rood-loft and would return to the altar. From this custom, especially in France, the gallery over the screen obtained the name of Jubé. The Liber Niger, or Statutes of Lincoln Cathedral, have the following directions for this use:—
“Vnde incepto Jube domine benedicere none leccionis dabit ille benediccionem qui propinquior fuerit dignitate. et iste modus seruetur omni tempore nisi ita sit quod omnes canonici sint absentes. tunc suus clericus incipiet Jube et cetera et ipsemet lector dicat benediccionem. Deinde leget” (p. 372).
Also we find the following references to the use of the rood-loft:—
“Gloria, ergo incepto; Eat principalis subdiaconus in pulpitum per dexteram partem chori subdiacono (secundario) librum portante precedente, Vnde si contingat leccionem aliquam precedere sicut in natali Domini siue in septimana Pentecostes iiijᵒʳ temporum; secundus subdiaconus leget, et sacerdos cum suis ministris dicet epistolam. et Gradale et Alleluia et Sequenciam et hijs dictis eat ad suum sedile et ibi dicet oraciones. Lecta epistola in pulpito recedet subdiaconus principalis ex sinistra parte chori socio suo prenotato precedente et librum portante,” &c. (p. 377).
The following passage has against it in the margin:—
“De modo eundi ad euangelium in magno pulpito. Et preparent se omnes ministri altaris ad eundum pro euangelio lecturo scilicet iij diaconi et iij subdiaconi Principalibus diacono et subdiacono textus portantibus et ij turiferarij et ij ceroferarij et ij clerici pueri ferentes cruces et hij omnes per chorum exeant Set in eundo ad euangelium diaconi ire debent ex parte dextra chori precedentibus vno turiferario et ceroferario et vna cruce et subdiaconi ex sinistra precedentibus vno thuriferario et ceroferario cum cruce, Vnde incepto evangelio stabunt coram diaconis subdiaconi omnes et clerici cruces portantes principali subdiacono portante textum ante pectus Lecto evangelio ibunt ad altare modo contrario quia diaconi ibunt ex parte sinistra et subdiaconi ex parte dextra. Vnde semper quando aliquis vel aliqui venient in pulpitum magnum ad legendum euangelium siue epistolam siue exposicionem; venient in dextra et recedant in sinistra et dabit sacerdoti euangelium ad osculandum,” &c. (p. 379).
Again—
“Completorium pulsatur” in a given way. “Vnde sciendum quod quando iij cantant ad lectrinam in choro siue in magno pulpito.... Nota quod quandocumque canonicus leget siue cantet in magno pulpito siue in choro sequetur eum ministrando vicarius siue clericus in habitu nigro nisi chorus capis induatur sericis” (p. 382).
Later, i.e. in 1236, there are directions for the choir to face the altar whilst the Gospel is being read at the altar, we may presume, for the next sentence runs thus: “Et dum legitur in pulpito debet chorus se convertere ad lectorem euangelij donec euangelium perlegatur.”
There seems to be little doubt that the principal organ (if the church possessed more than one) was frequently placed on the rood-loft, or “pulpitum,” and the smaller one in the choir. There was an organ as late as Hollar’s time over the “Den” in the fourth bay of the north side of the choir at Lincoln. By the extracts already quoted from The Rites of Durham, there was evidently one pair of organs (meaning one complete organ) on the north side of the choir, and another pair on the pulpitum there, and from Henry VI.’s “owne avyse” we learn that it was expressly ordered that the Eton College rood-loft should likewise serve as an organ-gallery. Among the many interesting items in the accounts of Louth steeple, dating from 1501-1518, is this:—
“For setting up the Flemish organ in the rood-loft by four days xxd.”
So that the present position of several of our cathedral organs (which is fully justified by convenience and æsthetic satisfaction as being thoroughly Gothic) is only a survival of a very tolerably ancient practice. Playing the organ (“cuilibet cantancium organum, trahenti organa”) is mentioned in the Black Book, already quoted from, in 1322. Canon Christopher Wordsworth103 considers that the terms organizacio, organizare, apply apparently to vocal music at the lectern in choir at the end of evensong and lauds. Canon Maddison mentions that one of the vicars received a fee as late as 1536 for playing the organ at the “Jesus Mass.” On the 10th September 1442, an order for 5 marcs from the fabrick chest was made for new organs in the great choir, to be constructed by one Arnold, “organer,” of Norwich, in the best manner possible. On 14th October (of the same year, I think), Robert Patryngton is commissioned to find with all speed “a scientific man” who has skill to make the new organs in Lincoln choir. The organ, which was remodelled and enlarged in 1897-8, was the work of Allen, the case being designed by the late E. J. Willson in the year 1826.
A word or two must suffice to describe the side screens of the choir, which separate it from the north and south choir aisles. Very probably, in addition to other uses, these screen-walls were built to connect together the piers of the choir arcades, at least in the three western bays, and so help to take off some of the thrust produced by the central tower, and were constructed after its fall. The north screen-wall has an arcade or triple shafts, ornamented with dog-tooth, and with twisted bosses like the rounded head of a drill or a coil of rope at the springing of the arches. The fourth bay eastwards is of later date, the capitals much under-cut, and the corbels at the apex of the string-course having birds among natural foliage. The fourth bay on the south side is very similar; the next has later work inserted again, for the shrine of Little St. Hugh, the second bay being like the northern three, and the first taken up with the staircase for the constable of the close, and a square grated window lighting the room in the organ-loft, already described. Only those who have seen the magnificent sculptured work on the side screens of the choir of Chartres, Amiens, and Notre Dame can appreciate what can be done in decorating these screens.
The last stone screen to be described is in Tattershall Collegiate Church, founded in 1439 by Ralph, Lord Cromwell, Lord Treasurer of England.
The pulpitum, or choir screen, is of stone, and is situated between the eastern piers of the crossing. It is approached by a broad stone step, wider at the southern than at the northern end. It is a solid screen-wall with a central passage, having on the north side a staircase leading to the loft above, and on the south side a door to a small room (in the same position as in the Lincoln Minster screen), lit by three quatrefoils into the nave. The western face of the screen consists of three recesses, with wide ogee-headed arches, cusped internally, and ending in finials which run straight up to the cornice of the loft and are there cut off. There is a string-course at the apex of the arches; the intervening spaces are filled with shallow panels, having arched and cusped heads. The northern and southern ends of the screen are chamfered off, and there are traces of some pedestal and tabernacle work in the broken stonework about the height of the string-course, and again below the spring of the arches. The whole of this west front is finished off with a cresting of Tudor flowers. The central doorway takes up one of the recesses, the oak doors being mainly original, though great hooks for hinges still exist in the stonework behind them. The other two recesses exhibit very evident manifestations of having once contained altars, there being small pillar piscinæ in the south side of each recess, and marks of where the altar slabs were fitted to the work behind. They were in the same position as those at Bishop Le Hart’s screen at Norwich, at the beautiful screen in Glasgow Cathedral, at Eton College, at the eastward screen of Gloucester Cathedral, and at Roche Abbey. Altars in the same position still exist abroad, as at Lierre, Aerschot, Dixmude, and Brou. At Louvain (St. Pierre) the side arches have, unfortunately, been opened out, and the altars removed, and the same process has been gone through with the side arches at Exeter Cathedral.
On the eastern side of the screen at Tattershall, facing the chancel, is a doorway with a four-centred arch, square-headed above, with the spandrils filled in with the Tudor rose. Above the doorway, as at Lincoln, only here in stone, is a projecting three-sided feature ornamented with a band of panelling which extends across the whole width of the screen, and is similar to those already described on the western side. Below the band the screen-wall is blank, no doubt for the canopied stalls, of which there are some fragments as well as the stone bases left in the church. The upper edge of this front of the screen is finished off with Tudor flowers, which, however, are not pierced through completely as they were on the nave side. The loft is protected on each face, east and west, by a solid wall, 4 feet 7 inches in height, with a coped projecting portion behind the Tudor cresting on the west side. In the projection into the chancel there are two stone book-rests, one in the middle, 2 feet long by 1 foot 3 inches high, occupying the space behind the three middle Tudor flowers; it is 3 feet 7 inches from the floor, and has a ledge about 1½ inches wide at the lower edge to hold the book safely. The second one faces north-east, and occupies the space behind the two outer Tudor flowers; it is a couple of inches less in length. An example of much the same kind—a stone book-rest—can still be seen at the east side of the loft of the Jubé in the monastic church of Valleria at Sion, in the Rhone valley.
The rood-beam and rood probably stood across the chancel arch, above the loft, as there are marks on both pillars of considerable damage about two feet below the capitals.
From the south end of the loft a doorway gives access to a turret staircase leading up to the roof; the turret has evidently been higher, and has probably served as the bell turret for the Sanctus bell. The date of the screen has been supposed to be settled by an inscription recorded by Holles:—
Orate pro anima Roberti de Whalley hujus collegii, qui hoc opus fieri fecit anno domini mcccccxxviii, cujus anima propicietur Deus. Amen.
He seems to have been buried beneath its archway.104 But the work is evidently contemporaneous with the rest of the church, as shown especially by the staircase turret, and there is no trace whatever of any Renaissance feeling. Probably the inscription refers rather to some decoration, colour or the like, on the screen. It is curious that this screen possesses the only instance of cusped arches in the church.
Parish Chancel-screens
Simple—as the beginnings of all artistic work are—are the earliest chancel-screens of this country, and the progress from simple forms to the very rich and complex ones of the Perpendicular Period is as evident in wooden screen-work as it is in the history of tracery in stone. Probably the earliest wooden screen-work in the country exists in the Church of St. Nicholas, Compton, Surrey. The eastern end of this church, of Late Norman date, is in two storeys, the lower one forming the sanctuary, vaulted, and opening to the west with a rich Late Norman semicircular arch. Railing off the upper floor above this arch is a screen, consisting of a series of semicircular arches springing from cylindrical or octagonal shafts, with moulded bases and caps, almost certainly of twelfth-century date, and thus coëval with the Late Norman or Transitional portions of the church. In the exquisite little chapel at Kirkstead is the earliest wooden screen-work in the county (and, saving Compton, in the country), which has probably been the upper portion of a choir-screen, in the back of two pews. It is composed altogether of thirteen bays, divided equally between the seats. Each bay consists of a lancet-headed trefoil supported by octagonal pillars with moulded capitals and bases. The total height of the work is 2 feet 9 inches, and it consists of oak throughout. This screen was considered by the late Bishop of Nottingham to be coëval with the chapel itself—i.e. to have been made about the first quarter of the thirteenth century. In Rochester Cathedral is (or was) some screen-work of the same date and character. In Thurcaston Church, Leicestershire, is a screen consisting of plain panel-work in the lower part, and of a series of open arches above, trefoiled in the heads, and springing from slender cylindrical shafts, with moulded bases and caps, being almost identical (save in having cylindrical pillars) with the example from Kirkstead. In Stanton Harcourt Church, Oxfordshire, is a very similar screen, only with circular annulated pillars; this is considered to be forty or fifty years later in date—i.e. about 1260, about the same date as the screen at St. Andrew’s, Chinnor, in the same county.
The screens of Decorated and Perpendicular date may be taken together in general description, more especially as the essential feature of Lincolnshire screens—an ogee arch—appears in both and in nearly every instance.
Firstly, then, a beam runs transversely and horizontally across from pillar to pillar of the chancel arch, or in front thereof, sometimes supported by corbels at either end, as has been the case at Heckington and Wellingore. This may or may not be the rood-beam (i.e. the beam on which the rood stood). In some cases the rood-beam was quite separate from and independent of the screen, as at Claypole, where there are corbels for it on each side of and high up on the chancel arch; at Legbourne, where the same arrangement is made, and in the Morning Chapel, Lincoln Minster. At Blyton the rood-beam remains above the chancel arch; above the upper side of the beam the wall is recessed, probably to allow of a boarded and panelled background to the rood and the other two figures. Further support to this beam (of the screen) is afforded by a number of stout uprights from the floor (where is sometimes a horizontal wooden or a stone base) to the rood-beam, dividing the screen into bays, varying in number with the size of the screen, whereof the middle one is generally the largest, though at Frampton, Stixwould, Mumby, Middle Rasen, Lusby, and Miningsby it is of the same size as the others.
The middle bay is as 13 to 11, for example, at Cotes, as 2 to 1 at East Kirkby, as nearly 5 to 4 at Moulton, as 3½ to 2 at Bratoft, and as 3 to 2 at Thorpe St. Peter’s. These uprights are often formed into small pillars in the front, and occasionally on the eastward aspect also, or, in more Perpendicular work, they are fashioned as slender buttresses, Cotes and Sleaford giving examples of the former, while East Kirkby does so of the latter method. From these uprights, at about two-thirds of their height, spring more or less pointed arches, with their apices at the beam or just below it. Generally, the lower third of the screen is composed of solid panelling, sunk and with foliated and traceried heads; though at Barrow-on-Humber, at Spalding, and at Alford the panels are perforated, probably this is not original. Along the upper border of these panels often runs a scroll or vignette of open work, as at Winthorpe and at East Kirkby, and of Tudor flowers at Croft, while it is embattled at Westborough and Yarburgh.
From the middle of the transom (if it may be so termed), which runs along from upright to upright, below the open portion of the screen, in a number of Lincolnshire examples, arises a mullion up to the spring of the arch, and there divides into two ogee arches, as at Theddlethorpe, Saltfleetby (All Saints’), Mumby, Ulceby (St. Nicholas), and Marsh Chapel. In some of these cases the mullion divides up into two pointed arches above the ogees, and at Middle Rasen, where there are three ogees and two mullions in each bay, the arches intersect and are carried through the spandrils, which are now open (probably an effect of restoration). In other instances the mullion divides up into two almost semicircular arches, which form the lower and outer portion of a large ogee, as at Cotes, Denton, Stixwould, Scrivelsby, Miningsby, Swineshead, Scotter, and Folkingham. At St. Peter’s, Barton, there are two of these ogees in each bay. At Swineshead, Leverton, and Friskney, these arches beneath the ogees are more pointed in character. At Miningsby, on the west front of the mullions, are slender round pillars rising from the transom up to the point of the ogee, and there finishing in tiny crocketed pinnacles, capped by a finial. At Claypole and Althorpe the arrangement is much the same as at Cotes, but the mullions are absent; whether this is original or not seems uncertain. There are no traces of them on the transom of either screen. At Cotes and elsewhere the quatrefoil space between the heads of the arches and the upper part of the ogee is filled by a shield. Another form, which seems like a development of the Claypole scheme (although it almost certainly is much earlier in date), has no mullions, and no inner halves of the arches; from their outer halves springs an ogee, making an outline which has been called—not inaptly—the fleur-de-lis form. An excellent example of this is given by the East Kirkby screen.
Where there is no central mullion, the ogee simply springs from the uprights and terminates in a finial at the rood-beam, as at Sleaford, Ewerby, Saxilby, Moulton, Winthorpe, Croft, and Fishtoft, and in thirteen other instances. The same arrangement is found at Spalding, but the ogee is very depressed, and so the finial ends much lower than in the screens just mentioned. At Bratoft there is an almost semicircular arch beneath the ogee, freely cusped internally, somewhat the same as at Thorpe St. Peter’s, All Saints’, Benington (where the upper edge of the arch forming the base of the ogee is embattled), and Addlethorpe (tower arch screen). These ogees are profusely crocketed, generally, of course, owing to their date, with the square-shaped leaves which mark the Perpendicular Period, and they are also more or less elaborately cusped internally. Special notice should be taken of the crockets at Thorpe St. Peter’s and at Burgh (now across tower arch), which represents pelicans in various attitudes.
The middle bay partakes of the character of the lateral ones, though it is usually so different in width. Thus at Cotes it has a flattened wider ogee, with the descending mullion cut off; at Alford (where there are no mullions), a flattened wider ogee, with a depressed arch under it; at Miningsby (where all the bays are of the same width) the inner halves of the sub-arches disappear as well as the central mullion; at Denton, a flattened wider ogee; and at Swineshead, a larger and taller ogee. At Lusby the central bay ogee is identical with those of the sides; the same is true of Stixwould, with the absence of the descending mullion—also, in a different style, of Mumby; while at Theddlethorpe, Saltfleetby, and Moulton, this bay has a depressed arch with three ogees on it, the last named being also remarkable for having “a series of five shallow hoods or canopies groined in miniature underneath, to simulate vaulting.”105 At Barton there are two ogees, at Middle Rasen three. At Sleaford and Ewerby there is the same kind of arch, with two ogees upon it, but in the centre the vaulting continues downward to a cap and shaft, which ends on the arch; also at Spalding, only without the ogees.
At Claypole and Althorpe the central shaft is carried down much below the spring of the ogees, and ends on a four-centred arch. East Kirkby has two ogees on an ogival arch beneath. At Saxilby the central feature takes the form of a round-headed arch in a square-headed bay with the spandrils filled with circles, surmounted by seven small bays, each containing a crocketed ogee terminating in a finial. At Barrow there is a pointed arch, with pierced spandrils. At Benniworth there is a large ogee with curious tracery over it (? modern), entirely different from the lateral bays. At Ewerby, already mentioned, this bay has on the inner side of each ogee a beautiful wheel; on the outer side a fine network of tracery. At Folkingham the centre arch is carved and crocketed with grapes and vine-leaf ornament. At Scrivelsby, between two ogees is a large wheel of tracery, with two smaller ones filling in the spaces on each side.
All screens probably had a door or doors, though but few of these are left in Lincolnshire. At Westborough the original doors exist; they are square-headed, with tracery above and panelling below, similar to that of the side bays. Cotes, Spalding, Theddlethorpe, East Kirkby, Moulton, Helpringham, Thorpe St. Peter’s, and Barton still retain their doors, but only the lower panels are left.
Also slender buttresses have been mentioned above, as being moulded out of the uprights. Occasionally there were to the front (western face) of these uprights, especially on each side of the central doorway, flying buttresses with crocketed attachments. Remains of these are still to be seen at East Kirkby, Moulton, Fishtoft, Thorpe St. Peter’s, Bratoft, Croft, Legbourne, Crowland, and Mumby. At Grimoldby, where the lower half of the screen exists, two buttresses project some way westward and are well panelled. The extreme form of these, where the upright part of the buttresses was fashioned into a candlestand, may be exemplified by Ranworth screen (Norfolk), where the buttresses, panelled as to their lower two-thirds, separate the central passage from an altar on either side.
The intervening spaces between the ogee and the confining arch will be filled in with delicate tracery, varying of course in style with the age and locality of each particular screen. Whatever the faults of Perpendicular work may be in stone, the repetition of similar forms, the richness of the detailed ornament, and the lightness of the tracery make Perpendicular wooden screens, more perhaps than any others, the best representatives of the Cancelli (lattice-work), and very valuable portions of the furniture of a church.
In some churches, as at Laughton-en-le-Morthen, there was a low stone screen, buttressed, which would carry a lighter screen of wood. Instances of a similar arrangement may be seen at Nantwich and Morton-by-Bourne, and there is a preparation for it at Wellingore and Boston.
If the 200 churches mentioned in Mr. E. Peacock’s English Church Furniture be taken as a fair sample of Lincolnshire churches, as they well may be, almost every one possessed a rood-loft, which may now be described.
Westwards generally (but eastwards only at Worstead) from the beam, which often forms a kind of breast summer to the gallery about to be described, would extend a platform of varying width (at Selattyn in Shropshire it is 10 feet wide, usually about 4 feet), supported by a coved cornice, ornamented by ribs which intersect sometimes in a very complicated pattern, as at Sleaford, and with—as vignette—a band of carving, such as vine-leaf and grape, along the front. On very many screens, which have lost their gallery, traces can be seen where the ribs and springers for its support have been attached. The eastern portion of the gallery remains at East Kirkby, starting from the top of the screen, and being coved independently thereof. From both sides—east and west (or only one west)—of this platform would rise up a panelled screen, which sometimes, as at Upper Sheringham, consisted of open work. This gallery—the rood-loft—would be approached by one or more staircases in the piers of the chancel arch or in the north or south walls of the aisles. There are two of these staircases at Boston, Sleaford, and Grantham, while Spalding, Heckington, and most of the other churches in the county have but one.
The only complete mediæval rood-loft in the county is in the little church of Cotes by Stow. It has been carefully repaired, with foliated and traceried panels, and a vignette of grapes and vine-leaves along the lower border. The central projection is interesting and original, and here is evidently not for the crucifix, as that would be fixed at the eastern side of the loft. A similar projection will be seen at Sleaford, and probably both were used for preaching. They are exactly reversed in position from those at Lincoln Minster and Tattershall, and from that mentioned in the contract for the rood-loft at Great St. Mary’s, Cambridge, in 1521, “wyth a pulpete into the mydds of ye quyer.”
There are several screens which yet retain the hang-over, making the floor of the rood-loft. The reason for this at Sleaford is given in Mr. Peacock’s book: “Itm̅—the rode lofte taken downe all save the florthe wc̅h remayneth standing wc̅h we cannot take doune for yt is a waie frome one house to another so yt̅ we have noe passadge but that waie to ytt”—which may mean from chapel to chapel, or from aisle roof to aisle roof.
A few varieties of screens, with or without lofts, may most conveniently be noticed here before dealing at greater length with the rood-loft and its accessories. Screens are met with which most certainly have had rood-lofts, the evidence of which is the existence of remains of the springers or ribs for the coved support of the loft on one or both sides of the screen, and the rough framework above, whence the rood-loft floor has been stripped. But no trace can be found in the church either of rood-loft staircase, doors thereto, or of corbels to support the rood-loft. Also the screen may not fit its place. Of course, in some instances, the rood-loft staircase may have been entirely concealed or taken away. But it is almost certain in other instances that the screen is not in its original church. Most probably an example of this is the Ewerby screen, which is too wide for the chancel, and has evident traces of having had a rood-loft. This screen has in all likelihood come from the neighbouring priory of Haverholme. Very likely the same applies to the wooden screen in the north aisle of Crowland Abbey; it does not fit (has been removed eastwards within this century), has evidence of having had a rood-loft, and there are no signs of anything of the kind in that part of the church. It may have been the rood-screen in the nave, or the very one mentioned, of the year 1413, below. And at Cadney, near Brigg, is a screen said to have come from Newstead on Ancholme.
In other churches, on the contrary, we may find abundant evidence in the shape of rood-loft staircase and doors, and corbels, for the former existence of a rood-loft. The screen, too, may seem quite to fill its position and not show any trace of having had a rood-loft on it, and this not merely from having had the coving neatly removed (as may possibly have been the case in some churches), but by the style altogether of the upper portion of the screen. There is no coving, and therefore no pointed arch over the ogee between each upright, forming consequently a square-headed aperture instead of a pointed one.
At Winthorpe, for example, there is no trace of a loft on the existing screen, while some four feet or so westwards are putlog holes and corbels for the front of the rood-loft, as well as a complete rood-loft staircase on the north side of the chancel. Grainsby, Friskney, and Leverton are instances of similar treatment. The explanation is that the rood-loft has been made on the same plan as that at Upper Sheringham in Norfolk. Here a screen of the square-headed kind described, and with good Perpendicular tracery, fills the chancel arch to about the height of ten feet. Four or five feet westwards of this screen extends the rood-loft, not supported apparently by the screen, but just touching it. Two uprights support the front of the loft, with the spandrils filled on the north side with a pelican, on the south with a dragon. The gallery, which has an elegant open traceried front, runs across in front of the chancel arch and is reached by a staircase in the north wall. Much the same arrangement has been at East Budleigh. A feature of minor interest in Sheringham is the diversity of tracery; thus in the rood-loft seven and a half bays have the same, while three more are quite different, and in the screen the number of differences is still more marked.
There are also some screens which show no trace on their westward face of a rood-loft, and yet have or have had one. Of these, Worstead may stand for an example.
Again, occasionally a screen is found, certainly old, certainly in its original position, and yet with no signs on it or in the church of any rood-loft at all. It is fair to suppose in these cases that there never has been a rood-loft, but that the screen itself has carried the rood. Such a screen was the one at Salmonby, now removed, and the existing elegant Perpendicular ones at Wickenby and Scrivelsby. At West Tarring and Broadwater (Sussex) the low screens bristle with spikes, probably contemporaneous, which show that there never was any upper tracery or loft. Also we can have a rood-loft alone, without a screen, as seems to have been the case at Avebury (Wilts). A superb example of this kind abroad still exists in the Church of St. Etienne du Mont, Paris, of sixteenth-century date, with two spiral staircases.
To return to the rood-loft staircases, which, and the doorways to them, are met with constantly, over one hundred instances being found in Lincolnshire alone. Usually, of course, they cut through more ancient work, as at Stow, where a Saxon pier has been cut through (the Saxon piers of the eastern tower arch are likewise cut and channelled to allow of the insertion of the beams of a rood-loft); at Normanton, where a Transitional arch has been cut into; at Frieston, where the third pier from the west of the Norman north arcade of the nave has been replaced by a square mass of stonework containing the rood-loft stairs, with a Perpendicular rebate for the parish rood-screen; or as at Whaplode, where the fine Norman chancel arch has been cut across for the rood-loft, to which a Tudor staircase gave access.
It will have appeared from the quotations already given that at Canterbury, Winchester, and Beverley there were rood-lofts (pulpita) as early as the eleventh century. At Peterborough Cathedral, too, we learn that there was a new rood-loft set up by Abbot Benedict before 1193. At Sibsey (St. Margaret’s) there is a Norman nave and aisle arcades, with lofty circular pillars, square abaci and scalloped cushioned capitals. The easternmost arch of the south arcade is narrower than the others, to admit of a turret staircase formerly giving access to the rood-loft, and its respond has some later detail than the others. The rood-loft doorway at Colsterworth is among the earliest known. It has an abacus on which the nail-head ornament exists. This was probably the original rood-loft entrance, which was subsequently altered when the Perpendicular chancel arch was erected, as this must have partly blocked up the entrance. The builders therefore destroyed the right side of the original doorway and made a side entrance. At East Shefford Church (Berks), in the north wall, are two Early English windows for lighting the rood-loft, the entrance to the staircase for which still remains. At St. Nicholas, Skirbeck, the nave is of Early English date, and in consequence of the rood-loft staircase, the north arcade has narrower bays than the southern. At Bratoft, the aisle arcade, of Decorated date, has the easternmost arch much narrower than any of the others to allow of the rood-loft staircase. The little staircase at Cotes is in the thickness of the south wall. The entrance doorway is moulded in wood, and near the top a tiny two-light window, cut in alabaster, lights the stair. At St. Lawrence, Sedgebrook, the rood-loft apparently was carried across the aisles, as was the case at Corby and Carlton Scroop (and at Grantham); and access to it was supplied by a newel staircase on the south side of the church in a turret, in which a sancte-bell formerly hung. This arrangement of a staircase turret leading on to the nave or aisle roof, and ending in a sancte-bell cot, was obviously convenient, and is not very infrequent. Probably this was the case at Grantham, where the octagonal turrets finish in a spirelet, at Leake, at Fishtoft, at Swineshead, at Langtoft, at Helpringham, Quadring, and at Tattershall, though in the last-named the turret-stair begins from the stone rood-loft. Leverington Church (Cambs) has a rood-loft turret crowned with a spirelet at the south-east angle of the nave, which forms a sancte-bell cot and still retains its bell. At Sleaford there are two rood-loft stairs in the north and south piers of the chancel arch, and running up with the northern one is a separate staircase leading on to the aisle roof. No rood-loft turrets, as far as I have been able to ascertain, date back previous to the thirteenth century. Curiously, at St. Antony in Kirrier, Cornwall, there is only an external doorway to the rood-loft staircase.
Another convenient position for the sancte-bell cot was at the apex of the eastern gable of the nave, and the earliest example of this form seems to be a Norman one at Bledington Church in Gloucestershire. In Tallington Church there still hangs a bell (probably original) in this position; and Seamer Church, near Scarborough, still possesses both bell and gable sancte-bell cot. At Welbourn is a pretty hanging bell cot corbelled out beneath an excellent gable cross. Tydd St. Mary’s is another instance of both features, while Gedney, Claypole, Winthorpe, Boston, Aslackby, Sibsey, and Spalding have the gable bell cot alone. Butterwick has a gable bell cot as well as a rood-loft turret (of good circular brickwork), as have also Benington and Wrangle. Holbeach has had two gable sancte-bell cots, the first dating from 1453; this was replaced at a remarkably late date—that of the Laudian revival, I suppose, in 1629. As well as the sancte-bells which have been already mentioned, at Aslackby is a small bell (unhung in the tower), dated 1611, which is thought to be the sanctus-bell. St. Mary’s, Sutterton, is a small bell of thirteenth-century date, inscribed in Lombardic lettering, “Symon de Hotfelde me fecit.” St. Peter and St. Paul, Algarkirk, has also probably a sancte-bell, as well as Bicker, Ingoldmells, East Halton, Sutterton, Hacconby, Great Hale, and North Witham.
To return to the rood-loft: on it (or above it) would stand the great rood, often with the ends of the cross finished with heads or emblems of the Four Evangelists. Occasionally the crucifix would be sustained partly by chains from the roof, as can be seen abroad—e.g. at Louvain—to this day. In the crown of the chancel arch of Boston Parish Church are the sockets for the two chains to support the rood, and at Billinghay a central mark for a hook. On either side of the rood would be an image of St. Mary the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist.106
Not infrequently the whole of the chancel arch was boarded up, and the rood, with attendant figures, stood in front of this, or were painted on it. Just above and behind (i.e. eastwards of) the rood-loft at Cotes the chancel roof is shut off by oak boarding. On each side figures can be dimly discerned, that on the north having a nimbus, and scattered over the boarding are flowers with leaves, most probably meant for lilies. There is a large blank space in the middle, against which, no doubt, the crucifix was fastened. And it is interesting to note that at “Thorpe in parochie de Heythar” (Culverthorpe, near Haydor, probably), in April 1555, the churchwardens state: “Itm̅ we had noe Roode nor other Imageis but that were painted on the wall, and thei are defaced and put oute,” &c.107 Besides the rood and the images of St. Mary and St. John, which are mentioned in almost every one of the 200 parishes in Mr. Peacock’s book as having been destroyed in 1566, often as “the Rode Marie and John with all other Imageis of papistrie,” there are specific references in several cases to other images and tabernacles on the rood-loft. Their fate seemed to be almost invariably to be burnt. Thus at “Asbye juxa Sleford—Imprimis o̅r Images of the Rood Mary and Jhon w̅th all other Images burned Ao̅ iijᵒ Elizabeth.” At Belton, in Axholme (after mentioning the rood Mary and John), “Itm̅ one Rood-loft with a tabernacle whearin Imageis stood;” at Folkingham, “The Images belonging to the same roode-loft as the Image called the roode Marie and John w̅th an other other (sic) Image called St. Andrewe (vppon the w̅ch the parish church of ffolkinghm̅ drewe his name).” At Corbie, besides the customary three, there was “the Image of St. Johnne the Evang... of the churche.” At Gretford, again, “roode w̅t marie and Johne and the Image of saincte martine the Patrone.” At Kelby, a “picture of St. Peter” occurs in the same connection. At North Witham, after mentioning the “roode Marie and Johnne,” there are also specified “iij Images of ye rood-lofte.” It will be noted that some of these extra figures are of the patron saints of the various churches. In the rood-loft staircase of Anwick Church was found a statue of the Virgin and Child, with traces of colour on it.
All wooden screens (and probably all the stone ones also) were almost certainly coloured and gilt. The receding parts, or cavettos, of the mouldings are darkened with red or blue, the more prominent white, with often a small diaper. Round mouldings have spiral or wavy lines to show that the feature was circular. The most prominent parts were gilt, as were carved capitals. Gold, too, was often used as star or diaper on a blue or red ground. The mouldings are sometimes all blue and green, while the hollows are red foliage gilt on red ground, with all recessed parts red. A will leaving money to gilding the trelyse has already been given; Sir Richard Bozon, who died 25th March 1524, bequeathed 20s. towards the gilding of the rood-loft at All Saints’, arrowby. Thus, on Lincoln Minster screen can still be seen traces of colour, and a little scarlet blue and gold on cavettos and on crockets on that at Saltfleetby All Saints’. At South Somercotes the round mouldings are in spirals and black and gold, the spandrils of the panelling white or gold, alternate cavettos green and red, crockets gilt. In the portions of the screen at Billinghay the Tudor roses in the spandrils are coloured red and blue. At Addlethorpe the cavettos are red, finials and crockets gilt (in the north chantry chapel screen the cavettos are red and blue). At Croft the border of the panels is spirally in blue and gold, and the square flowers along the top are gilt. At Crowland the pillars of the uprights are spirally black and white, the ogees ending in finials gilt, and the cusping of the lower panels also gilt. In the beautiful screen at Alford the cavettos are red, and the leaves in the spandril gilt.
But, as well as the lavish decoration of the rood-screen and loft, which has just been described, there was very frequently some special colouring and embellishment of those parts of the church in more immediate proximity to it. The roof of the nave often has the eastern bay alone painted, as at Rainham (Kent), or that part more gorgeous than the rest, as at Southwold, where all the roof seems to have been coloured; but the eastern bay of the nave above the rood-loft has been most highly decorated with angels, with scrolls, and the implements of the Passion. In a very large number of churches was a representation of “The Doom,” or “Day of Judgment,” the most frequent place for this being over the chancel arch. “The final separation of the Church Triumphant from everything that defileth was almost invariably represented by the Great Doom painted in fresco over the rood-screen.” At Trinity Church, Coventry, and many other places mentioned by Keyser, this still exists.108 Over the chancel arch in Caythorpe Church is a rude representation of the Last Judgment, with the Archangel Michael weighing souls, and at Swaton were paintings above and on each side of the chancel arch of scenes from the life of our Lord. “The Doom” also appears on a set of panels above the chancel arch at Mitcheldean, Gloucestershire, and at St. Michael’s, St. Albans; the Day of Judgment, with the crucified Saviour in the centre, is partly over the chancel arch and partly on a panel filling in the head of the arch. A somewhat similar condition has been noticed above at Cotes, and over the rood-loft in Snetterton Church, Norfolk, is a defaced panel-painting of the Day of Judgment. (Pugin gives a view of a similar arrangement at Arnes, near Bergen, now destroyed, I believe.) The most notable of these is the one at Wenhaston, Suffolk, discovered in 1892. This piece of panelling blocked off the chancel (there being no chancel-arch) above the rood-beam, and measured 17 feet 3 inches by 8 feet 6 inches. The position of the crucifix is clearly seen, and the spaces left for the figures of St. Mary and St. John on either side. In the triforium at Gloucester Cathedral is preserved another “Doom” on panel.
Along the upper edge of the rood-screen or rood-loft would be placed basins and spikes for candles, which would be lighted on special occasions. Hence comes the name of “candlebeam,” as before mentioned, and Gibbons109 has given seven wills which illustrate this: e.g. Thomas Hadstoke leaves “To the Crucifix light in the Roode-lofte xxd. in Hycchyn church,” Thomas Buck to the “Rode lighte viijd. in Dorney Church,” William Gybbons to “the rode light” in Hamilden Church, and Thomas Fissher of Wooborn,“To thre lightes upon the rode beame vjd.” (probably one for the rood and one each for St. Mary and St. John). Also, in the continuation of that history of Crowland which passes by the name of Ingulph’s, we read as follows (1413): “In the Chapel of the blessed Mary, which had been previously prepared on the south side of the church, he (Brother Simon Eresby) most devoutly erected at his own expense two perks, which were becomingly prepared for the arrangement of the wax tapers thereon, together with a screen of considerable height, which terminated the said chapel below.” By the royal injunctions of 1538, no candles, tapers, or images of wax were thenceforth to be set before any image or picture, “but onelie the light that commonly goeth about the crosse of the church by the rood-loft,” &c.
Then, in connection with the parish church rood-screen and rood-loft, there was an altar or altars. A favourite position for these, when the width of the church allowed, was on either side of the central door of the screen, against the western face of the screen. Those at Ranworth have been mentioned already; at Patricio, in South Wales, are two stone altars, one placed on each side (beneath the rood-loft) of the entrance into the chancel, westward of and against the screen supporting the loft. On either side of the entrance into the apse of Peterchurch, Herefordshire, is a stone altar—probably the rood-screen altars; on the western side of the stone screen of St. Mary Berkeley, on the north, an altar to St. Mary the Virgin, the piscina of which remains; on the south, one to St. Andrew. At Limber Magna the steps to the rood-loft are quite perfect, and exactly under where the rood-loft was placed there is on both sides the trace of what looks like a piscina, but no marks of any altar-slab have been discovered. At St. James’, Castle Bytham, at the restoration in 1900, were found at the east end of the nave, on either side of the chancel arch, remains of shallow, semi-circular-headed recesses, bearing traces of coloured decoration, forming the reredoses of the two small altars. At Winthorpe, close to the rood-screen, on the south side, is an aumbry, most probably for use in connection with an altar on the western front of the screen. Below the rood-loft staircase at Colsterworth is a little aumbry. In the base of a pier close by the rood-loft staircase at Barkston is a small hollow, possibly intended as a piscina or stoup for the service of a rood-altar. Mention has been made of an altar on the rood-loft of the perished screen at Grantham. At Frampton a beautiful little quatrefoil window, just under the roof at the south end of the rood-loft, has been opened out, as well as a hole in the wall beneath it, probably for an office book.
The fate of the roods and rood-lofts has been mentioned above; since those days much damage has been done to the screens which were left, by actual destruction, accident, ignorance, and neglect. Fortunately, in the last thirty years opinion has got educated somewhat, and many of the old screens have been restored, repaired, and (where necessary) replaced, while new ones, designed by the first architects of the day, are furnishing our churches. “Le bon temps viendra” for screens, and indeed has already come in part.
In domestic chapels of any size it is not unusual to find a chancel screen, as at The Mote, Ightham, figured by J. H. Parker. Also, in not a few instances, the western part of the chapel thus shut off has been divided into two storeys, the upper chamber being for the use of the lord and his family, the lower one for the domestics. This arrangement, according to J. H. Parker, continued to be usual in the fifteenth century, and even later, as at East Hendred, Berks, at Studley Priory and at Godstow Nunnery, in Oxfordshire. The chapel at Markenfield Hall, Yorkshire, has also been an example of the same. At East Hendred, the screen to both upper and lower chambers still exists; at Berkeley Castle the screen in front of the upper chamber is original, though altered, that of the lower one is modern. Here, as not infrequently, there is a fireplace in the upper chamber. At Chibburn, Northumberland, and at Trecarrel House, Cornwall, the same arrangement has prevailed. “In Hawarden Castle, Flintshire (said the same authority), the chapel is very small, and must have been merely a private oratory, or, as seems more probable, the chancel or sacrarium only, separated by a screen from the principal chamber in the keep, and with also a ’squint’ or opening from the passage in the thickness of the wall, to enable persons thus placed to see the elevation of the Host.”
In the Chancery at Lincoln, at the north end of what was the Hall (pulled down by Chancellor Maundeville in 1714), are three pointed doorways of fourteenth-century date, the easternmost of which leads to the buttery, the western one to the cellars, while the middle one leads up a flight of steps with a timber-framed plaster partition on each side, and at the top of these stairs a door on the right hand (easterly, therefore) leads into a room which almost certainly was the chapel. On the eastern side of the partition is a screen of three double bays, open from the middle upwards, with contemporary ironwork. In the opposite side of the partition are two double loops, all being probably, according to the late E. J. Willson, of Henry VIII.’s date.
In hospitals also, a somewhat similar arrangement obtained, the chapel being equal in height to two storeys, and separated from a room above and below by a screen. These rooms were dormitories, so that the sick could, as it were, attend service while they were in bed. In Browne’s Hospital at Stamford, the chapel is open to the roof, and on the ground floor it is separated at the west, from a common room once a dormitory, by a handsome oak screen with doors groined over on both sides. There are returned stalls on the east side thereof. In the ancient hospital at Chichester, the chapel consists of a sacrarium only, and is separated from the hall or principal chamber by an open screen with a curtain. In the almshouses, Sherborne, Dorset, is or has been a similar arrangement.
Note.—Considerations of space, unfortunately, have prevented any allusion to Chantry Chapel Screens.