Wood Carvings in English Churches II

Front matter

Beverley Minster

Wood Carvings in English Churches

I.—STALLS AND TABERNACLE WORK

Chapter 1

PART I

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CHAPTER I

STALLS IN CHURCHES OF MONKS AND CANONS

In all churches of monks and canons, whether secular canons or canons following the Augustinian, Premonstratensian, Gilbertine or other Rule, stalls were placed in the choir. These stalls were occupied either by the monks or by the canons and their deputies and by men singers and choristers; there was also a limited lay use. The stalls had seats; these, however, were occupied for but short portions of a service: during the greater part of each service the occupants of the stalls stood or knelt. The seats turned up on a pivot, as may be seen by comparing those of Beverley St Mary (2) with those of Christchurch (2); and when they were turned up, a small ledge underneath the seat gave a little support to any one standing in the stall; for his comfort also there was usually a circular projecting ledge behind him, against which he could lean his back; e.g., at Beverley St Mary, but not at Balsham (3); also he could rest his hands on the shoulders of the stall, when standing, as at Beverley St Mary and Balsham. An elbow was often provided lower down, for use when he was seated; as in the two above-mentioned churches. Above was usually some form of canopy, varying from a cornice of slight projection, as at Balsham, to such tabernacled spires as those of Beverley Minster (27). In front of the stalls, except sometimes the front stall occupied by choir boys, was a desk for service books. Every part of the stallwork was carefully designed; and parochial, collegiate and monastic stalls alike were constantly growing in importance and loveliness up to the Dissolution.

Christchurch

Beverley St Mary's

| | Balsham | | | Beverley Minster

| | St Luke | | | St Matthew

| | St John | | | St Mark

Christ Church, Newgate Street

Lincoln

The upper shoulder was usually simply molded, as at Beverley St Mary; it rarely took the form of an animal, as at Balsham. Usually the lower elbow was simply molded, as in Beverley Minster (3); sometimes it terminated in a mask, an animal or foliage; as in the lower range of stalls at Christchurch (2) and at Cartmel (80); in Beverley St Mary there is an angel in front of each of the lower elbows. As a rule, the projecting ends of the elbows were carried down as supports, e.g., at Beverley Minster; sometimes, however, a shaft or pair of shafts is introduced, as at Balsham, Beverley St Mary, Hereford All Saints (44); Dunblane (67) and Christchurch (2), where they are highly enriched. The upper part of the back of the stall is usually panelled; e.g., Winchester (35), Chichester (36). Hereford All Saints (44), Balsham (3). In the sixteenth century, however, panelling became less common; at Dunblane the stall backs are plain (67); at Cartmel they are filled in with scrolls and fretwork (80); at King's College, Cambridge, with coats of arms (78); at Christchurch with carvings of masks and animals (76). In Wren's church at Christ Church, Newgate Street, the panels of the stalls have fine carvings of St Matthew (4), St Mark (4), St Luke (4), St John (4), the Last Supper and other subjects. The desks also usually have traceried panelling in front and at their ends, which is often of much importance in helping to fix the date of the stalls; e.g., at Chester (24), Manchester (6), Trunch (85) and Stowlangtoft (91). At Lincoln the panels of the lowest rows of desks contain alternately the figures of a king and of an angel with a musical instrument (5). On the stall ends was lavished the best artistic talent of the day; there are magnificent examples at Chester (9), Ripon (8) and Beverley Minster (7); very fine also are those in Bishop Tunstall's chapel in Durham castle. On the example from Manchester is an impaled shield, displaying on the dexter half the letters I. B. (i.e., John Beswick, donor of the northern stalls), a cross intervening, and beneath on a chevron seven nails or cloves. The sinister half is occupied by a demi-virgin issuing out of an orle of clouds. The illustrations from Ripon shew the stalls of the Archbishop of York and the Mayor of the city (8). In the former the poppy head takes the form of an elephant holding a man in his trunk, and carrying a castle filled with soldiery; in front of the elephant is a centaur (renewed); below is a large mitre studded with precious stones (mitra preciosa) above a shield charged with the three stars of St Wilfrid, the patron saint of the Minster, and supported by two angels, between whom is a scroll with the date 1494. Attached to the latter is a collared baboon; beneath is a shield charged with the arms of the see of York, two keys in saltire. Of the two examples illustrated from Chester (10), one represents the Annunciation; the other is a most elaborate Jesse Tree (9).

Manchester

The ends of the desks usually terminate in poppy heads; at Chester, Ripon, Manchester and Beverley there are magnificent examples. At Blythburgh, Suffolk (11), is a foliated poppy head with a lion in front; in front of the desks and those on the opposite side of the chancel are niches containing statuettes of the apostles; these stalls were brought into the chancel from the Hopton chapel, which is said to have been founded in 1452; the Hopton arms appear on the bench end. There are interesting desks in the great church of Walpole St Peter, Norfolk (12). When Edmund the King of the East Saxons was shot to death by the Danes and afterwards beheaded, his head was guarded by a wolf; the scene is depicted here and up and down all East Anglia; the whole story is told in six foliated capitals in the north porch of Wells cathedral, which is early in the thirteenth century. At Stowlangtoft, Suffolk, the poppy head consists of a vested priest reading at a lectern or altar (91).

Beverley Minster

Besides stalls for monks, clergy and singers, benches or stalls are sometimes found for members of a church gild, as at Fressingfield, Suffolk; or those now used by almsmen at Etwall, Derbyshire, on which the date 1635 is inscribed; the Jacobean armchair motif is prominent; nevertheless there is Gothic cusping at the back; pegs are thoughtfully provided for the almsmen's hats (13).

| | Ripon | | | Ripon

Chester

The stalls are generally constructed very solidly. The ends of a row are inserted in a strong sill, into which the standards for the supports of the book board are also inserted. The elbows are in one solid piece and are framed into the backs of the stalls; they are further secured by the heavy capping above, which admirably connects and strengthens the work. On either side the elbow is sunk to enable the seat to be turned up on its hinges and to afford it support when down. The seats are generally about an inch in thickness, the misericords projecting about five inches. As the entire seat is got out of one solid piece of wood, the time expended on each must have been very considerable; and difficulties in the grain without doubt frequently added immensely to the labour. The work is often cut across the grain and worked with much skill. Great care was taken in some instances to match the wood; e.g., in the panelled backs of the stalls in Henry the Seventh's chapel.

Chester

The construction of the tabernacled canopies is well seen in the set of illustrations from Chester cathedral. In Lincoln Minster, where they are of somewhat simpler type, they may be described as follows. The canopies are hexagonal, supported on shafts, which have clustered niches above their proper capitals; the stalls of the Chancellor and Treasurer, which are at the extreme east on either side of the choir, have winged seraphs in their capitals. The niches have ogee canopies bowing forward in front of their true gables, with various small heads and faces on the hip-knobs. A second story of the canopy contains a niche, square in plan, but set lozenge wise, covered with a lofty pinnacle, and flanked by open screenwork with high flying buttresses, nearly all of which have lost their crockets. All the niches originally contained statues. The loss of these greatly damaged the general effect—the alternation of light and shadow, the play of line and the added mass. Now that the statues have been replaced, the general character intended to be impressed on the design can be well realised (52).

Blythburgh

The cost of woodwork so elaborate as that of the later stalls, especially those with tabernacled canopies, was very great. At Wells the stalls, destroyed in 1848—another example of "restoration"—were begun in 1325; each resident canon paid 30 solidi for his own stall, and the stalls were to cost altogether £1,200. The non-resident canons, having subscribed little or nothing, were ordered in 1337 to make up a deficit of £200 for the completion of the stalls. As the number of stalls needed at Wells would be about sixty, it follows that the expenditure on each stall was to be £20, which in our money might be £300; giving a grand total of about £18,000. The stalls at Amiens number 116, and were put up between 1508 and 1522. Viollet-le-Duc computes that in 1866 they could not have been put up for less than £20,000. But they do not possess tabernacled spirelets, having a comparatively simple horizontal cresting. At Windsor in 1483 six canopies cost £40; thus sixty would cost £400, or in our money about £4,800; i.e., about £80 each; but this expenditure relates to the canopies only, and not to the stalls or the misericords, or the lower stalls and desks; if the cost of these be added, the cost might be as great as at Wells. Few probably realise the vast expenditure which our forefathers gladly undertook not only on the building but the equipment of their churches: in a church of the first rank, such as Exeter cathedral, the cost of the altar, reredos, sedilia, bishop's throne, canopied stalls and pavement would hardly fall short of £30,000 of our money; which is exclusive of the cost of the masonry, vault, timber roof and leading, and stained glass.

Walpole St Peter's

As regards the arrangement of the stalls, as many as there were room for were placed at the back of the choir screen, usually two or three on either side of the western doorway of the choir. The juxtaposition of screen and stalls gives some very beautiful effects, e.g., at Chaddesden, Derbyshire (99); still more so is this the case when screen and stalls are of the same design, as at Chester (24), where the screen was designed in accordance with the stallwork by Sir Gilbert Scott.

Etwall

As to the place of honour in the stalls, that raises some interesting points. There were no less than three places of honour in a chancel; in each case the place of honour was to the right, because it was written in the Psalms, "Sit thou on my right hand"; and because of the words of the Creed, "sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty"; first, the right hand or north side of the altar, facing the west; second, the first seat to the right, or on the south side, of the entrance to the chancel through the choir doorway; thirdly, the extreme right to the east, or nearest the altar, of the south row of stalls. In the sanctuary the Lord Christ was conceived to be in real, corporeal presence, face to face with His people, His right hand to the north, His left hand to the south. In the sanctuary therefore the place of honour was on the north; and to this day when a bishop visits a parish church, his chair is placed north of the altar; the gospel also is read on the north side, the epistle on the south. In several churches in Derbyshire there are stone "gospel-desks" affixed to the north wall of the chancel. Turning to the choir, things are different. When the procession enters the choir from the nave through the screen doorway, the right of the return stalls is the place of honour. Here in a cathedral of the old foundation, i.e., one which has always been served by secular canons, such as Lincoln, Wells, Hereford, the dean sits on the right, and the subdean or the precentor on the left of the gangway. In a monastic church the abbot sat on the south, the prior on the north side. But sometimes a monastic church, e.g., Ely, Winchester, Norwich, was also the cathedral of a bishop, who was ipso facto abbot. In such a church the bishop should sit on the right-hand side of the return stall; at Ely there is no bishop's throne, and he occupies that position to this day.

| | Beverley Minster | | | Beverley Minster

Where a bishop's throne was erected, it was placed on the south side of the choir, which is ecclesiastically always favoured more than the north. Of the stalls on the south side of a choir the one most to the right is of course the easternmost; and it is here that the ancient thrones remain of the bishops of Exeter, St David's and Durham. Again, even if it was not a cathedral church, there were occasions when it was not convenient for an abbot to be so remote from the altar as the return stalls, e.g., at certain portions of the Mass; for such occasions alternative seats were provided for the abbot and prior; the former occupying the easternmost stall on the south side, the prior that on the north. At Peterborough there is evidence that the abbot's seat was on the south, at the east end of the choir, near the ostium presbyterii. At Ripon the bishop occupies the easternmost stall in the south side, which from the carving of a mitre at the back appears to have been originally assigned to the Archbishop of York; the place of honour opposite is occupied by the Wakeman or Mayor of the city.

Chapter 2

CHAPTER II

POSITION, NUMBER AND ARRANGEMENT OF STALLS

The history of the changes of position of the stalls of the clergy is one of the most curious and least understood episodes in ecclesiology; it may be worth while therefore to go into it somewhat at length, and to begin at the beginning. As regards what was at all times the main service in the church, the Mass, there were two conditions which it was desirable to bear in mind in church planning. One was that the celebrant should face to the East; the other that the congregation should face to the East. In the earliest Christian days the latter was most often disregarded. The earliest arrangement, normally, of a Christian church was that the sanctuary, containing the altar, should be to the west, and that the laity should be in the nave occupying the eastern portion of the church. At this time the western portion of the church consisted of a semicircular apse. This apse had a double function. On the chord of it was placed the High altar (in the earliest days it was the only altar); and to the west of it stood the celebrant facing east and facing the congregation, as he does to this day at St Ambrogio, Milan, and other churches which retain this primitive plan. Behind the altar, ranged round the apse, were the seats of the clergy, having in the centre the throne of the bishop. Thus the apse, like the chancel of an English parish church, had a double function; the portion containing the altar was the sanctuary, the portion containing the seats of the bishop and his presbyters was the choir; basilicas so orientated were divided into nave, sanctuary, choir; whereas English parish churches divide into nave, choir, sanctuary. Many examples of basilicas with eastern nave and western choir still survive in Rome, Dalmatia, and Istria. To this day in Milan cathedral and St Mark's, Venice, the stalls of the clergy and singers are placed on either side of and at the back of the high altar; the apse, with infinite loss to the dignity of the services, being made to serve both as sanctuary and choir.

Lincoln

York Minster

There is, however, an alternative plan, which may have been in use from the first simultaneously with the other. At any rate it can be but little later, for in 386 was begun the important church of St Paul extra muros at Rome, with apse to the east and nave to the west. By this alteration, if no further change had been made, the congregation would face eastward, but the celebrant and the bishop with his presbyters westward. Strangely enough, this curious arrangement was actually adopted at least once in England. In the walling of the semicircle of the cathedral apse at Norwich there still remains the bishop's throne and portions of the seats of his clergy. And since Norwich cathedral is not orientated to the west, but to the east, it follows that the people faced east and the bishop and clergy west; it is hardly conceivable, however, that the celebrant can have faced west. Such a disposition can never have been but rare. A new arrangement was made; in the first place the celebrant was made to face eastward, with his back to the congregation, thus permanently obscuring their view of the altar and of many portions of the office; in spite of its obvious and great disadvantages this position has been retained in the vast majority of Western churches ever since. There remained the question of the seating of the bishop and presbyters. The remedy adopted was to transfer them from the apse to the nave; the result being that they sat to the west instead of to the east of the altar. In this second position for some considerable time the seats of the clergy remained. At S. Clemente, S. Maria in Cosmedin, and other basilican churches in Rome, the seats of the clergy still remain in the eastern bays of the nave, separated off, however, all round by low marble screens, which, at S. Clemente, are mainly those of the sixth century church.

Great was the revolution wrought in church planning by the determination that the laity, clergy, and celebrant should all alike face East. To the Catholic believer nothing was of more mystic import than the orientation of the church. He prayed toward the East, toward the Holy Land where his Lord lived and died and was buried; he looked forward to the dawn of that day when He should come from the East to judge the quick and dead.

"Our life lies eastward; every day Some little of that mystic way By trembling feet is trod; In thoughtful fast and quiet feast Our heart goes travelling to the East To the incarnate God;

Still doth it eastward turn in prayer And rear its saving altar there; Still doth it eastward turn in creed, While faith in awe each gracious deed Of her dear Saviour's love doth plead; Still doth it turn at every line To the fair East, in sweet mute sign That through our weary strife and pain We crave our Eden back again."

The next step appears first in ninth century churches, and in the plan of the monastery of St Gall. It involved no change in the position of the stalls of the clergy; but instead of being placed in the eastern bays of the nave, the sanctuary was lengthened to contain them. And so we reach the familiar parochial chancel, with its western portion forming a choir, and its eastern a sanctuary. The clergy left the nave and the laity in the midst of whom they had so long sung and prayed, and removed to the chancel, where to the north and south were solid walls, while to the west, no doubt very shortly, was added a screen guarding the entrance to the chapel. Though the new plan made no alteration in the relative position of the stalls of the clergy, it was nevertheless a real revolution. The chancel became practically a secluded, closed chapel; the offices and services which had been performed in the midst of the laity became more and more the prerogative of a privileged ecclesiastical order; in the end, in the greater churches, special altars were put up for the laity in the nave; except in the parish churches, laymen lost the right to participate in services at the High Altar.

Carlisle

In our great monastic and collegiate churches it was long before the ninth century innovation—viz., the insertion of the choir in the eastern limb of the church—was generally adopted; in some it was never adopted at all. The typical Cistercian churches, e.g., Kirkstall, reverted to the Early Christian arrangement, by which the eastern division of the church was appropriated exclusively to the sanctuary; and this was the case with many Benedictine and collegiate churches also. Till ignorant and incompetent "restorers" were let loose on them, the eastern limb of the cathedrals of the Secular Canons of Wells and Hereford, that of the Benedictine cathedral of Ely and others formed one vast sanctuary, the stalls being placed under the central tower and in the eastern part of the nave; at Wells the choir had a length of 47 feet, but the sanctuary of 67 feet. The reason why a sanctuary so long was required was no doubt that it was desired to place in it two altars; one, the "choir" or "matins" altar, for ordinary services; the other, the High altar, more to the east, reserved for High Mass.

Durham

In some cases, e.g., at Westminster, in many Cistercian churches, and in Spanish cathedrals, the stalls were not placed under the central tower, but still more to the west, wholly in the nave. In Gothic days, however, in English plans—Westminster is French in plan—the tendency was more and more to place the choir of the monastic and collegiate churches in the eastern limb, just as in a parish church. In the cathedrals the precedent was first set at Canterbury, where in 1096 Prior Ernulph set out a new eastern limb consisting of an eastern apse preceded by no less than nine bays. Sometimes there was a special reason for the removal of the choir from the crossing and the nave. In several cases—in pious recollection of the burial of many a martyr in Early Christian days down in the catacombs of Rome—the Italian practice of constructing a crypt beneath the eastern limb was followed. This had been so as early as St Wilfrid, 671-678, whose crypts at Ripon and Hexham still survive, and in the Anglo-Saxon cathedrals of Winchester, Worcester, Rochester, Gloucester, Canterbury, York, and Old St Paul's. And when these were remodelled by the Norman conquerors, in all cases the crypt was reproduced. Such crypts of course necessitate the building of the eastern limb at a higher level than crossing and nave; in some cases, e.g., at Canterbury, the difference in height is very considerable. The result must have been that where as at Canterbury the sanctuary was a long one, the High altar at its east end must have been invisible, or nearly so, to monks seated in the crossing and nave. Consequently, first at Canterbury c. 1100, in the thirteenth century at Rochester, Old St Paul's and Worcester, and in the fourteenth century at Winchester and York, the stalls were removed to the eastern limb, the western portion of which now became choir. The only exception among cathedrals with crypts is Gloucester, where the crypt is low and the eastern limb is short and where the stalls remain to this day beneath the central tower. The example set by cathedrals with crypts was soon followed by churches of every degree which had none; whether Benedictine, such as at Chester, Augustinian, as at Carlisle, or served by Secular Canons, as at Exeter. And so in the churches of monks, regular canons and secular canons alike, most of the ecclesiastical authorities reverted to what had been all along the normal plan of the English parish church, viz., an eastern limb containing choir as well as presbytery.

Chester

The length of the stalled choir varied of course with the number of monks or canons serving the church. In a church of the first rank, such as Lincoln or Chester, about sixty stalls seems as a rule to have been found sufficient. These would generally occupy three bays; where more than three bays are occupied with stalls, it is usually because more stalls have been added at some later period, as at Lincoln, Norwich, and Henry the Seventh's chapel, Westminster. In the centre, between the stalls, a considerable space had to be left free, in order to leave room for processions from the High Altar to the lectern and to the ecclesiastics in their stalls; as well as for processions of the whole ecclesiastical establishment on Palm Sunday, Corpus Christi day, Easter Sunday and other festivals, and on every Sunday in the year. The lectern also was often of great size, and a gangway had to be left on either side of it. In Lincoln Minster the space from one chorister's desk to the chorister's desk opposite is 18 feet: from the back of the northern to the back of the southern stalls is 40½ feet, which is above the average breadth of an English cathedral or monastic choir. The breadth of the choir conditioned the whole of the planning of the church; for as a rule the nave and transepts were naturally given the same breadth as the choir, in order that the central tower should be square.

As for the number of rows of stalls on either side of the choir, it was usually three, rising successively in height; at Lincoln the floor of the uppermost row is 2 feet 6 inches above that of the choir; the canopies rise 22 feet above the floor. At Lincoln modern additions have been made; at present the upper row consists of 62 canopied stalls; 12 of them being "return" stalls facing east; 25 facing north and 25 facing south. Below them is a row of stalls without canopies; of these lower stalls there were originally 46; in front of these again are the seats of the "children of the choir."

The number of stalls in the uppermost row was regulated in a collegiate church by the number of prebends founded in the church; in a monastic church by the number of monks in the monastery. At Westminster the number of monks between 1339 and 1538 varied from 49 to 52, 47, 30; in the upper stalls there was accommodation for 64. At Southwell there were 16 prebendaries; at times some of these were foreigners, and never visited Southwell or England; the rest stayed in their country parishes, and it was sometimes with great difficulty that a single prebendary could be got together to take charge of the Minster services; they had, however, deputies; and for them and their masters the two western bays of the present choir were probably appropriated. And for the meetings of this collegiate body, which were held seldom, and which hardly ever had an attendance of more than a half dozen prebendaries, one of the most magnificent Chapter houses in England was built. At Wells there were 54 canons or prebendaries, each with his own separate estate or prebend; the greater number of them resided on their prebendal estates in the country; only on rare occasions did they come up to Wells, and then probably only for the time occupied by some important meeting; even on such occasions there seem never to have been more than 20 canons present. Nevertheless stalls were duly provided for the whole 54, and the Psalter was divided into 54 portions for daily recitation by the Bishop and his canons. Each of these absentee canons at Wells had or was expected to have a deputy in the form of a "vicar choral" who was paid by him a small stipend called "stall-wages." A beautiful street of little houses—one of the loveliest things in that loveliest of English cities—built for the vicars, still survives at Wells; others at Hereford, Lincoln, Chichester and elsewhere. At Wells the first and highest row of stalls was in practice occupied by the senior canons, the priest-vicars and deacons; the second row by junior deacons, subdeacons and others; the third row by choristers on the foundation; in front of that was a seat for choristers on probation. The seating of the choirs, however, naturally differed with the constitution of the collegiate body. Beverley Minster was not a cathedral proper; but its church and its establishment were on cathedral scale, and there are no less than 68 stalls. At Beverley the exact position in the upper row of the provost, treasurer, chancellor, clerk of the works, and other dignitaries was definitely settled in 1391 by Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of York. He directed that the clerks or vicars should occupy the lower stalls, each in front of the canon, his master; and that the choristers should sit in front of the clerks. "Clerici vero et omnes et singuli in secunda forma qui libet coram magistro suo. Pueri vero seu choristae ante clericos predictos loca sua teneant ut fieri consuevit etiam ab antiquo." At the back of the canons' stalls in many churches, e.g., Chester and Norwich cathedrals (48), may still be seen painted the name of the country parish where the canon's prebend lay. Appointments to such canonries are still regularly made; but it has become usual to style the occupants "honorary canons" or "prebendaries." As a matter of fact they are just as much canons as the residentiaries. The difference is that the latter come into residence for three months a year or longer, while the former need not come at all; and if they did come, there is no house to receive them nor any stipend. How the cathedral and collegiate establishments lost, long before the Reformation, the services of the great majority of their staff cannot be told here; partly it arose from sheer neglect of duty, partly it was imposed on the canons by the necessity of serving in their parish churches and of superintending their estates.