III. Chancel Arch and Rood Screen

We come now to speak of the chancel arch and the rood screen, two of the most important features in a church. These, as separating the choir from the nave, denote literally the separation of the clergy from the laity : but symbolically the division between the Militant and Triumphant Churches : that is to say, the Death of the Faithful. The first grea*- symbol which sets this forth, is the Triumphal Cross : the Image of Him* who by His Death had overcome Death, and has gone before His people through the valley of its shadow. The images of Saints and Martyrs appear in the lower panelling, as examples of faith and patience to us. The colours of the rood screen itself represent their passion and victory : the crimson sets forth the one, the gold the other. The curious tracery of net-work typifies the obscure manner in which heavenly things are set forth, while we look at them from the Church Militant. And for as much as the Blessed Martyrs passed from this
* ' Let us consider Him,' says Bishop Hall, 'now, after a weary conflict with the Devil, looking down from the Triumphal Chariot of the Cross on His Church.'
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world to the next through sore torments, the mouldings of the chancel arch represent the various kinds of sufferings through which they went. Faith was their support, and must be ours : and Faith is set forth either in the abstract, by the limpet moulding on the chancel arch ; or on the screen, as in Bishop's Hull, Somerset- shire, by the Creed in raised gilt letters : or is represented by some notable action of which it was the source : so in Cleeve, Somersetshire, the destruction of a dragon runs along, not only the rood screen, but the north parclose also. But in that the power of evil spirits may be exercised against us till we have left this world, but not after, horrible forms are sometimes sculptured in the west side of the chancel arch. The foregoing remarks may perhaps explain what has been felt by some ecclesiologists as a difficulty : how it happens, since the chancel is more highly ornamented than the nave, that it is the western, or nave side, not the eastern or chancel side, of the chancel arch which invariably receives the greatest share of ornament. The straitness of the entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven is set forth by the excessive narrowness of Norman chancel arches. And the final separation of the Church Triumphant from everything that defileth was almost invariably repre- sented by the Great Doom painted in fresco over the rood screen : of which there are still several examples, as the celebrated one in Trinity church, Coventry : and many more might be found, if the whitewash in that place were scraped off. And not only is the judgment of the world, but that of individuals here set forth : on the south side of the chancel wall of Preston church, Sussex, is a fresco of S. Michael weighing the souls : the Devil stands by, eager to secure his prize, but by the intervention of the Blessed Virgin, the scale prepon- derates in favour of the sinner. There might probably
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be an altar to the Blessed Virgin under this picture. Also deeds of faith are represented in similar positions : — so in the same church on the north chancel wall, is the fresco of the Martyrdom of S. Thomas of Canterbury. We have already noticed the triplicity, in some instances, of Norman chancel arches. A very curious triple chancel arch is to be seen at Capel-le-Ferne, Kent. We may also refer to those singular double ones, Wells and Finedon, and in anothermanner, Darlington, in Durham, and Barton, in Cumberland. It may be well, finally, to note the entire absence in the ground plans of our churches of any reference to Purgatory. The only instance in which chancel and nave are separated by any intervening object, is the chantry of Bishop Arundell in Chichester cathedral. Of the triple division of the church by two (so to speak) chancel arches, we have already spoken.