CHAPTER VIII

EXAMPLES OF SYMBOLISM CONTINUED
We come now, according to the plan we laid down, to speak of the symbolism of some particular features of a church, which do not fall so well under any of the four heads which we have been considering. And firstly, of windows.
The primary idea shadowed forth in every one of the styles, is the saying of our Lord to His disciples, ye are the light of the world. More simply set forth at first, this notion acquired, in the course of time, various methods of expression, and was subjected to different modifications ; but we must retain it as the ground work or we shall be in danger of mistaking the true meaning of ancient church architects.
In Norman, then, and early English, the single lights north and south, set forth the Apostles and Doctors who have shined forth in their time as the lights of the Church : and the rich pattern of flowerwork wherewith the stained glass in them was decked, represented the variety of graces in each. But to have symbolised the servants without the Master, the members without the Head, had been at variance with all the Catholic Church has ever practised. Looking therefore to the east end, we behold that well-known feature, the Triplet : setting
Examples of Symbolism xci
forth the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity.^ Nor is this all : to denote that all the Church has, and all She is, is from above, the string course, springing from the eastern triplet, runs round the whole church (often both within and without,) binding it, as it were, in and connecting every other light, with those at the east. Again, the Western Door, as we shall see, symbolised Christ : and two lights, typical of His two natures, are therefore generally placed over it. There are, un- doubtedly, instances of western triplets : though we think that the Camden Society has well explained these.
In some cases, there is a series of couplets on each side of the church : and, taking the hint from Durandus, we may interpret this arrangement of the mission of the Apostles two and two.
A series of triplets as in Salisbury cathedral, and the Lady Chapel of Bristol, is very rare : and, of course, not objectionable on any other grounds than that of the too cheap use of a most beautiful feature.
So far all is simple : but as we approach the decorated style, the symbolism becomes excessively complicated. The principal doctrines of the Catholic Church are set forth in each window : and to unravel the whole of these is often a task of no small difficulty. We shall proceed to give a few examples, with the explanation which appears to us probable : entreating the reader to remember, that if in any instance our conjectures should appear unfounded, the failure of probability in one case throws no discredit on the others, and still less does it invalidate the system. Durandus's silence on the language of tracery is easily explained by the considera- tion, that assign as late a date as we will to the
» We read, in the legend of S. Barbara, that, being confined by her father in a room where were two windows only, she added a third, by way of setting forth this Mystery.
xcii Introductory Essay
publication of his work, it came forth while the Early English style was yet in existence : and his silence on triplets only proves, what is well known to ecclesio- logists, that they are far less common in foreign than in our own architecture.
In Norman windows the wheel window is conspicuous. This, whether formed with the radii like those of Bar- freston, or of the Temple church, represent (as we shall presently observe that Norman symbolism usually does represent) an historical fact: namely, the martyrdom of S. Catherine. The celebrity of this Virgin Martyr may tend to explain why she should be so far honoured : a celebrity which has descended to our own day in the common sign of the Cat and Wheel : as well as the fire- work so denominated.
Of Norman triplets there are not many to which we can refer. The tower of Winchester, however, present- ing one on each face, is a noble example. The south- eastern transept of Rochester, though later, is equally in point : it contains two triplets, far apart, and one disposed above the other. The west front of S. Etienne at Caen is a well-known instance.
The earliest symbolism of Early English triplets re- presented the Trinity alone; the Trinity in Unity was reserved for a somewhat later period. And this was typified by the hood moulding thrown across the three lights. At other times a quatre-foiled, or cinque-foiled, circle was placed at some little distance above the triplet : thus typifying the Crown which befits the Majesty of the King of Kings. And the same Crown is often exhibited above the western couplet. But, for as much as we are ' compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every person by Himself to be God and Lord,' a crown is sometimes represented over each light of the triplet, as in Wimborne minster.
Examples of Symbolism xciii
Another method of representing the same doctrine was by a simple equilateral triangle for a window : whether plain, of which there are many examples, or with the toothed ornament, as in the famous example at York minster.
S. Giles's at Oxford has windows, the tracery of which will serve as an example of many : it has tJiree /"/'^-foiled lights, with tJiree quatre-foiled circles, arranged triangle-wise in the head.
This type is a little varied in S. Mary Magdalene's church, in the same city, by the introduction of the ogee form.
Berkeley church has a wheel window containing three quatre-foils : the three spaces left between them and the line being /'/r-foiled.
The east windows of Dunchurch and Fen Stanton have been explained in the publications of the Cam- bridge Camden Society : the former in their ' Few Words to Church-Builders,' the latter in their illustrations of monumental brasses. Part iv.
The south transept of Chichester cathedral is a glorious specimen of decorated symbolism. In the gable is a Marygold, containing two intersecting equila- teral ^'rZ-angles : the six apices of^ these are j-^,t'-foiled : the interior Jiex-2.^on is beautifully worked in six leaves. The lower window seven lights : in the head is an equilateral spherical ^'rZ-angle, containing a large tre- foil, intersected by a smaller tre-ioW. Here we have the Holy Trinity, the Divine Attributes, the perfection of the Deity.
A window in Merton College chapel has three lights : with a circle in the head containing six j-^,i'-foils.
Broughton, Oxon, has in the head of one of its windows a circle, containing two intersecting equilateral triangles, the six apices, and six spaces around, being /r^-foiled.
xciv Introductory Essay
The east jend of Lincoln, though far inferior to the south transept of Chichester, is nevertheless highly sym- bolical. The east window of each of the aisles has three lights, with three foliated circles, disposed triangle- wise in the head. The great east window has eight lights in two divisions, each whereof has three foliated circles in the head : and in the apex of the window is a circle containing seven foliations. The upper window has a circle of eight foliations in the head : and in the apex of the gable is an equilateral trefoil.
The next element introduced was the consideration of the Six Attributes of the Deity. One of the simplest examples was to be found in the west window of the north aisle of S. Nicholas, at Guildford : a plain circle, containing six /r^-foils : these are arranged in two tri- angles, each containing three /r^-foils, and the two sets are varied.
The clerestory of Lichfield cathedral (circ. 1300), is a series of spherical /^/-angles, each containing three /r^-foils.
A similar clerestory occurs in the north-west transept of Hereford cathedral, and the same idea is repeated in its triforium : a series of three //^-foiled lights, with tJiree circles in the head.
The east end of Lichfield symbolises most strikingly the same glorious doctrine. The apse is /r/'-gonal : the windows of each side are the same : each is of tJiree lights, with six tre-foils (emblematical of the six attri- butes) disposed above in the form of an equilateral /r/"-angle.
The east end of Chichester is rather earlier, but intro- duces yet another element. Here we have a triplet : and at some height above it, a wheel-window of seven circles : symbolising therefore eternity and perfection.
The triforium and clerestory of Carlisle are singular
Examples of Syvibolisni xcv
symbols of the doctrine of the Trinit}-. The former has in each bay three adjacent equal lancets. The latter is a series of triplets ; the central window in each being composed of three lights. We may observe, by the way, that three adjacent equal lancets are hardly ever found, whatever the reason may be. We know but of three examples : in the churches of Bosham, Sussex, Godalming, Surrey, and S. Mary-le-Crypt, Gloucester : and in all these cases they occupy the same position, the south east end of the chancel, or chancel aisle.
Dorchester church, Oxfordshire, has for one of its windows an equilateral spherical triangle with three heads, or knops, one at each angle.
We are now in a purely decorated age. And as one of its earliest windows we may mention that in the Bishop of Winchester's Palace at Southwark. It was a wheel, and contained two intersecting equilateral tri- angles : around them were six j^x-foiled triangles the hexagon in the centre containing a star of six greater and six smaller rays. Here, of course, the Blessed Trinity and the divine and human natures were set forth.*
* We may perhaps be allowed to say a few words here on the subject of those singular windows which the Cambridge Camden Society has called Lychnoscopes.
It appears, that in Early English churches, the westernmost window on the south side of the chancel is both lower than, and in other ways (particularly by a transom) distinguished from the rest. It is sometimes merely a square aperture, as in some churches in the Weald of Sussex : sometimes a small ogee-headed light, as in old Shoreham : sometimes, where the south side of the chancel is lighted by a series of lancets, the westernmost, as in Chiddingfold, Sussex, is transomed, where the others end, and carried down lower; sometimes the lower part appears to have been originally blocked, as in Kemerton, Gloucestershire, and Kingstone next Lewes, Sussex : sometimes there are remains of clamps, as at Buck- land, Kent, sometimes of shutters. Again, sometimes there are two, one north, the other south of the chancel : sometimes the same arrangement is found S.E. of the nave. On the other hand, it is never found in any but a parish church : never in late work : seldom is it ornamented. We will give a few remarkable instances. I. Ditider^ Somersetshire. Here there is a double Ijxhnoscope, north and south : the date is late Early
xcvi Introductory Essay
The symbolism of the more comphcated decorated windows it is next to impossible to explain. Carlisle and York have doubtless their appropriate meaning ; but who will now pretend to expound it ?
One exception we may make : — the east window of Bristol cathedral. It is of seven lights, but so much
English, and the specimen is unique from there being a rude moulding in the window arch. 2. Othery^ Somersetshire. The lychnoscope itself is here blocked : it is square-headed, and of two lights : date probably Early Decorated. The church is cruciform, and a central perpendicular tower was subsequently erected. One of the diagonal buttresses is thrown out at a distance of some three feet from the window, so as to hide it : and an oblique square hole has been cut through the masonry of the buttress. This is the more remarkable, because there are stalls in the chancel, of perpendicular work, which would seem to render any window in that position useless. 3. Cliriston^ Somersetshire. Here, almost close to the ground^ is a horizontal slit which appears never to have been glazed. This is an early Norman church. So at Albury, Surrey, at the S.E. end of the south aisle. 4. S. Appolline^ Guernsey. This church is of the same date as, or may be earlier than, the last. The windows are rude and square- headed slits : the lychnoscope is transomed. 5. Preston^ Sussex. There are three windows in the south of the chancel, which rise one above the other, like sedilia, to the east. 6. Loxton^ Somersetshire. This is an Early English church with a south western tower serving as porch. From the eastern side of this a long slit is carried through the nave wall, a distance of some twenty feet, and exactly commanding a view of the altar. It is grated at the west end, not glazed : the eastern end has long been blocked up. Way is made for it by a bulge of the wall in the angle formed towards the east by the tower and nave. This seems to form a kind of connecting link between the hagioscope and the lychnoscope.
With these windows we will -venture to connect those extremely rare ones, three adjacent, unconnected, equal, lancets, as occurring of the same date at the same position. There is again another kind of lychnoscope only found where the chancel has aisles. A panel of the parclose, or wooden screen, behind the longitudinal stalls, is sometimes found pierced with a small quatrefoil, at the S.W. part of the chancel. This is vulgarly called a confessional. It seems, however, clearly connected with the lychnoscope. Examples are found at Erith, Kent, and Sundridge in the same county. Perhaps also the curious slit in the south wall of the chancel of S. Michael's church, Cambridge, communicating with a south chantry chapel is another variety.
From the above facts we deduce the following remarks : i. That the necessity for a lychnoscope must in some cases have been very urgent : as may be proved by the example, at Othery, where a buttress is much injured to form one. 2. But yet this need was not universal, because there are many churches in which the arrangement does not occur. 3. That it ap- pears, strictly speaking, a parochial arrangement, not being found in cathedral or collegiate churches. 4. That smaller buildings rather than larger are marked with it : it seldom occurs where there are aisles to the
Examples of Syinbolisin xcvii
prominence is given to the three central ones, as strongly to set forth the Most Holy Trinity : over thena is a crown of six leaves and by the numerous winged foliations around them, the Heavenly Hierarchy may, very probably, be understood.
chancel. 5. That, where eniplo)'ed, lychnoscopes were only used occa- sionally ; else the shutters which have evidently sometimes existed, would have been useless. 6, That they are very seldom ornamented, and never have stained o^lass. 7- That in the Perpendicular era they c^enerally, though not universally, ceased to be used. 8. That, a large sill seems to have been a requisite to them. 9. That, where the upper part is glazed, the lower part often was not, as in the Decorated lychnoscope at Beckford, Gloucestershire. The principal hypotheses to explain the use of this arrangement are : i. Dr Rock's. That it was a contrivance by which lepers might see the Elevation of the Host. But the structure of the greater part of these windows forbids this idea : many instances occur in which it is splayed away from the Altar, none (except that at Loxton, and a doubtful case at VVinscombe, Somersetshire, where a perpendicular addi- tion has been made) in which it is splayed towards it. 2. That of the Cambridge Camden Society, that it was for watching the Paschal light. But this, besides being a priori improbable is refuted by that at Othery. Here the eye has to look through two apertures at some distance from each other, and therefore can command only a very small field on exactly the opposite side of the chancel. 3. It has been imagined bj some that it was for confession. The idea of confession near an altar sufficiently refutes itself ; but furthermore, some of these openings are so very low down that the thing would be impossible. Two solitary facts more, though they throw no light on the subject, may yet be mentioned. I. In the church of S. Amaro, near Funchal, in Madeira, is a grating at the west-end like that at Loxton. Its use is now said to be to cool the church, though in that case one should have expected to meet it elsewhere. 2. In Sennen church by the Land's End, there is said to have been a lychnoscope (now no longer existing) used to take in the tithe-milk. We may gather on the whole, I. that lychnoscopes could not have been used to look into a church 2. Nor to hand anything in or out. Both these are sufficiently disproved b}' Othery, 3. Nor to speak through. But one can hardly imagine any other use, except it were to look out of the church. We are inclined to think that it was in some way connected with the ringing of the bells, or of the sancte bell. Where the tower is central, we very often find it : as at Old Shoreham and Alfriston, Sussex : at Loxton it is evidently for some purpose connected with the tower. So in Beckford, which has a central tower ; and Uflfington, Berks, a cross church. And the place where the sancte bell was rung is exactly between a double lychnoscope. But what the particular use might have been we will not pretend to guess. We will con- clude this long note by a question as to the authority for calling the small chancel door, the Priesfs Door. It is never (originally) furnished with a lock, but always with an interior bar, thus showing that it could only have been used from the inside. So the priest could never have entered the church by this way, unless the door were previously opened for him.
xcviii Introductory Essay
IL Doors
Durandus has given us a clue to the symbolical meaning which these generally present, by directing our attention to that saying of our Lord's, / am the door. And this, uttered as tradition reports it to have been, in reference to the Gate of the Temple, on which the Saviour's eyes were then fixed, gives additional force to the allusion.
In small churches, doors are seldom the subject of much symbolical ornament, except in the Norman style ; but in cathedrals, some of the most strikingly figurative arrangements are often thrown into them. The Person, the Miracles, or the Doctrines of our Lord are here frequently set forth. He is sometimes, especially in the tympanum of Norman doors, as at Egleton in Rutland, represented as described in the Apocalyptic vision ; with a sword in His mouth. More frequently, however, with His Blessed Mother ; in order, perhaps, to connect His entrance into the world with ours into the Church, which He thereby gathered together. This in the south entrance of Lincoln minster, is enclosed in a quatre-foil : because the birth of Christ is announced by the four evangelists ; and angels are represented around it in attitudes of adoration. A singular, and indeed irre- verent symbol, is to be seen in a door of Lisieux church: the Holy Ghost descending on the Blessed Virgin, and the infant Saviour following Him. In the entrance to the cloisters of Norwich cathedral, the door arch is filled by nine niches, the central one being occupied by the Saviour, the others by saints. But this arrangement is much more common in French churches : where two, or even three rows of saints in the architrave are not uncommon : witness the south and west doors of S. Germain, at Amiens, and a west door of S. Etienne, at
Examples of SyjJibolisiii xcix
Beauvais. This is sometimes, in late Flamboyant work, carried to an absurd extent : in a south door of Gisors, two niches actually hang down out of the soffit. Early English doors are generally double, thereby representing the Two Natures of our Saviour : but embraced by one arch, to set forth His One Person. So the celebrated door in Southwell minster : the west door in the Galilee of Ely cathedral : the entrance to the chapter House, at Salisbury ; the west door of the same : so the decorated west door of York ; so the door to the Chapter House there, of which the inscription truly says : Ut Rosa Phlos phlorum^ sic est dojnus ista Domorum : so the west door and entrance to the Chapter House of Wells. The west door of Higham Ferrars has the Saviour's triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, over the double western doors. And this is the case in one of the doors of Seville cathedral. Both these connect the ideas of His entrance into the temporal, with that of ours into the spiritual, Jerusalem. In these symbolical doorways, we have one proof of the immeasurable superiority of English over French architecture : compare any of the above named with the celebrated west door of Amiens, with its twenty- two sovereigns in its soffit. Again, by way of contrast to the second Adam, by whom we enter into Heaven, we sometimes, especially in Norman churches, have the Forbidden Tree, with Adam and Eve in the tympanum : setting forth the one man by whom sin entered into the world.
The Crucifixion seldom occurs over doors : while over porches a crucifix is very common. The cause of the difference is explained by a consideration that the former are shut, the latter open : and ' when Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of Death, Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.' Indeed it may almost be asserted that a crucifix is never seen over a
c Introductory Essay
closed door, 'except where it forms a part of the usual representation of the Trinity. For the Trinity is also, in Norman churches, there represented : and that not inappropriately : inasmuch as the Trinity is the begin- ning of all things. A Holy Lamb is sometimes found in Norman tympana : as saith the Saviour, / am the door of the sheep. A hasty glance at Durandus"^ might lead us to imagine that we should find the Apostles set forth under the similitude of doors : but he there probably refers to the well - known passage in the Apocalypse. Apoc. xxi, 14.
This however leads us to another, and that a totally different, meaning attached to doors. We have already noticed the fact, that many Norman and Early English mouldings refer to various kinds of martyrdom : those which do so occur more frequently on doors than any- where else ; for it is written, ' We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.' And here we may observe a very curious aud beautiful progression in symbolism. In the early ages of Christianity, it was a matter requiring no small courage to make an open profession of Christianity, to join one's self to the Church Militant : — and this fact has left its impress in the various representations of martyrdom surrounding the nave-doors of Norman and the first stage of Early English churches : as well as in the frightful forms which seem to deter those who would enter. But in process of time, as the world became evangelised, to be a member of the visible Church was an easy matter : the difficulty was transferred from an entrance into tJiat, to the so living, as to have part in the Communion of Saints : — in other words, to an entrance into the Church Triumphant. And therefore in late Early English, and Decorated, the symbols which had occupied the nave-
* Durand. i, 26.
Examples of Symbolism ci
doors in the former period, are now transferred to the chancel arch.
The different agricultural operations, the signs of the zodiac, and occupations of various kinds, sometimes found on the outside of Norman doors, signify that we must turn our backs on, and leave behind us, all worldly cares and employments, if we would enter into the Kingdom of God. In later porches, true love knots are sometimes found on the bosses : because part of the service of Holy Matrimony was performed there. The serpent, in which the handle is so universally fashioned, has probably reference to that text, ' They shall lay their hands upon serpents,' to signify that God's arm will protect us, when engaging, or about to engage in, His service. For the serpent with his tail in his mouth is not a Christian, and indeed by no means a desirable, emblem of eternity, and therefore the door handle cannot be so interpreted.
The doors are of course placed near the west end : for it is only by way of the Church Militant that we can hope to enter the Church Triumphant. One door, indeed, the priest's door, conducts at once into the chancel. Durandus is probably right in interpreting this of Christ's coming into the world ; though it involves a little confusion of symbolism, inasmuch as the chancel, properly speaking, denotes the blessed place which He left : not the abode to which he came. It is to be noted as an instance of the decline of symbolism in the Per- pendicular age, that in churches which have aisles to the chancel of that date, we sometimes, as at Bitton, Gloucestershire, Godalming, Surrey, and Wivelsfield and Isfield, Sussex, find an entrance at the east end of the south aisle. Though used as a priest's door, this is entirely to be blamed : what shall we say then of modern churches, which have two doors at the east end, one on
G
cii Inti'odiictory Essay
each side of the altar, as Christchurch, Brighton? In Seville cathedral, a late, although fine flamboyant build- ing, there are large doors at the east end of each choir aisle.
Porches are usually on the south side. For as the east was considered in an especial manner connected with the Kingdom of Heaven, so was the north imagined to be under the Prince of the Power of the Air. It is curious how diametrically opposed in both these ideas were Christianity and Paganism. For as by the latter the west was known as ' the better country, where lay the Isles of the Blest in their abundant peace,' so in the north dwelt the deathless and ageless Hyperboreans : whose state was the model of good government and secure happiness. That the belief of our ancestors is not yet extinct, a very slight knowledge of our country churchyards will prove : the north side of the church- yard has generally not more than one or two graves. To be buried there is, in the language of our eastern counties, to be buried out of Sanctuary : and the spot is appropriated to suicides, unbaptised persons, and excom- municates. A particular portion is, in some churchyards of Devonshire, separated for the second class and called the chrisomer. Where the contrary is the case, it may be worth inquiring how far it does not arise from the accidental position of the Churchyard Cross on the north side. There the spell seems broken : and the villagers' graves cluster around it, as if the presence of that sacred symbol were a sufficient protection to the sleeping dust. A remarkable instance of this occurs at Belleville, between Dieppe and Abbeville, in Normandy.
The doors in the transepts are, ' in small churches, almost invariably east or west : much more frequently the latter. This, however, is probably not symbolical : but an arrangement adopted to prevent any resemblance
Examples of Symbolism ciii
in the porches and transepts : — and it is a rule which needs to be much impressed on modern church builders.
The rule as to the western position of the doors, seems to apply generally to the churchyard.
It is worthy of remark that in the matter of doors, Protestantism presents us, as is so frequently the case, with a very unintended piece of symbolism. When we see, as in the beautiful church of Bisley, Gloucestershire, thirteen different openings, with external staircases, made into the church, through windows and elsewhere, can we forbear thinking of him who cometh not by the doors into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way ?