On the epistle side of the altar a sacrarium should be fixed, with a basin and waste pipe, with a stone shelf for the cruets. On the same side, and corresponding to the width of the three steps ascending to the altar, three niches should be built, partly in the thickness of the wall, and partly projecting, with canopies, and convenient seats for the priest, deacon, and sub-deacon. Opposite to these an arched tomb, to serve as the sepulchre for holy week. Adjoining the chancel, a sacristy or revestry for keeping the vestments and ornaments; or, in any small churches an almery may be provided for this purpose on the gospel side of the altar, within the chancel. An image of the saint in whose honour the church is dedicated, should be set up in the chancel. Where there are lateral aisles, they should be terminated towards the east by altars, either erected against the wall, and protected by open screenwork, or in chapels, eastward of the aisles, divided off from the church by screens. That these arrangements may be the better understood, we have subjoined four plans of Catholic churches now erecting in exact conformity with the ancient traditions. (See Plates I, II, III, and below.)

Having thus generally noticed the requisites for a church, we will now proceed to consider these in detail.

B

OF THE POSITION OF THE CHURCH.

A church should be so placed that the faithful face the east while at prayer. Such has been the practice of the Church from the earliest period, and very few are the examples of any deviation from this rule. The chancel should consequently be turned towards the east; and all the altars in the church should be so placed, that the celebrant, while officiating, looks towards the same quarter. *

Independent of all Christians turning towards the same point, being a beautiful figure of the unity of the Church, those learned writers, Durandus, Gavantus, and Cardinal Bona, have adduced the following reasons for this rule :

1. That the apostles turned towards the east while at prayer.

2. That the Holy Spirit descended on them from the east on Pentecost.

3. That we should all turn towards the Holy Land, where our Lord was born.

4. That as our Lord was the great light of the world, we should turn towards the brightest quarter of the world, as a figure of his glory.

5. That as our Lord was crucified looking towards the west, the roods, placed in the same position, face the faithful. 6. That the star appeared in the east to the three wise men at the birth of our Lord.

7. To distinguish the faithful from infidels or heretics, who, being without faith or unity, turn in any direction.

8. That according to the traditional belief of the Church, our Lord will come from the east to judge the living and the dead.

But independent of these mystical and pious reasons, the ancient and canonical position is the most judicious that could have been chosen. How beautifully do the rays of the rising sun, streaming through the brilliant eastern windows of the choir or chancel, darting their warm and cheerful light to the very extremity of the nave, correspond to the hymn appointed to be sung at prime.

"Jam lucis orto sidere,

Deum precemur supplices,
Ut in diurnis actibus,

Nos servet a nocentibus."

* An inspection of a plan of an old cruciform church would readily shew how strictly this principle was adhered to in the arrangement of the various altars, whether in the transepts, extremities of aisles, or lateral chapels of apsics.

Then as the day advances, from the whole southern side a flood of light is poured into the building, gradually passing off towards evening, till all the glories of a setting sun immediately opposite the western window light up the nave with glowing tints, the rich effect being much increased by the partial obscurity of the choir end at the time.

Now this beautiful passage of light from sunrise to sunset, with all its striking and sublime effects, is utterly lost in a church placed in any other than the ancient position. In short, there are both mystical and natural reasons for adhering to antiquity in this practice, a departure from which can only be justified under the most urgent necessity.*

OF THE CHURCHYARD.

*

The inclosure within which a church was erected was set apart by solemn consecration for the burial of the faithful.+ And however objectionable places for interment may be in the midst of crowded cities, still it must be allowed that nothing can be more calculated to awaken solemn and devout feelings, than passing through the resting-place of the faithful departed. How often is the pious Christian moved to pray for his deceased brother, when he sees graven on his tomb,"Of your charity pray for my soul"! What a train of profitable reflections, what holy meditations, may not be suggested by a sepulchral cross! In days of faith, prayer formed the link of communion between the living and the departed. Truly might it be said in time of old, when such pious respect was paid to the memorials and sepulture of the dead, "Oh, grave, where is thy victory! Oh, death, where is thy sting!"

Men formerly visited and knelt by tombs and graves; now they would shun them, and try and banish them from their sight as things odious and dreadful, and in accordance with the spirit of the times, which strives to make churches like

*We occasionally find examples of ancient churches, which, from the localities in which they have been erected, deviate from the usual position of west to east. These are, however, to be regarded as exceptions to the rule, and they can only serve as authorities for equally difficult scites.

+ The first prayer in the beautiful office of the consecration of a cemetery is as follows::

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Omnipotens Deus, qui es custos animarum et tutela salutis, et fides credentium, respice propitius ad nostræ servitutis officium, ut ad introitum nostrum purgetur bene+dicatur, sancti+ficetur, et conse+cretur hoc cœmeterium, ut humana corpora hic post vitæ cursum quiescentia, in magno judicii die simul cum felicibus animabus mereantur adipisci vitæ perennis gaudia. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen."

assembly-rooms, gay and comfortable, with carriage drives. and covered porticos to set down the company :-the very remembrance of death is to be excluded, lest the visitors to these places might be shocked at the sight of tombs. Hence burying the dead is become a marketable matter, a joint-stock concern, an outlay of unemployed capital; and a large pleasureground, sufficiently distant from the town, is staked out by some speculators; in which, according to the prospectuses issued, every religion may have a separate parterre, with any class of temple, from the synagogue to the meeting-house.

However these sort of modern arrangements may suit the unitarian and the infidel, we hope and trust the Catholic church will still be surrounded by its consecrated inclosure, with its winding path, and its tombs, where the pious Christian may recite a De Profundis and a requiem, as he wends his way to the house of prayer, and still may the branches of the solemn yew tree* overshadow its arched porch. It was customary to erect a stone cross, raised on steps, on the south-western side of the church to mark the hallowed ground; and the shafts of these crosses, some of which were even Saxon, still remain in various churchyards, although the upper part has almost in every instance been destroyed by Protestant fanaticism. Wooden crosses, with the name of the deceased, and an invocation for prayer painted or cut on them, were erected over the graves of the faithful, in place of the hideous upright slabs, with bad poetry, pompous inscriptions, and ludicrous cherubs, now so much in vogue. These sepulchral crosses are still set up on the Continent in villages, and such retired places as have yet remained in happy ignorance of urns, pedestals, broken pillars, and all the adopted Pagan emblems of mortality,† for which modern designers have abandoned the ancient and touching memorials of departed Christians.‡

* The branches of yew trees served anciently for palms in the procession of Palm Sunday.

+ So blindly do artists of the present day adopt the ornaments and ideas of ancient paganism, that a stuff has recently been manufactured at Lyons intended for copes, to be used in funeral offices, in which the poppy, emblem of eternal sleep, has been introduced in lieu of those appropriate figures by which the joyful mystery of the resurrection (a Christian's brightest hope) was formerly represented.

In an old English office-book belonging to the Scarisbrick family of Lancashire, the illuminated borders at the office for the dead are particularly curious. The whole of the ceremonies connected with a burial service are most accurately depicted. The convoy, the hearse, and lights in the church, the celebration of the holy Eucharist, the recitation of the office, and the churchyard with the grave, are all introduced. In this latter we have a perfect delineation of the

Besides these, some graves were covered with coped slabs, gradually diminishing at the lower end, with floreated crosses sculptured on them, and the inscription cut on each side of the stems; and there are some instances of a later date, of regular altar tombs, with panelling and shields round them, having been erected in churchyards, of which there are examples at Glastonbury, Lavenham (Suffolk), and Bury St. Edmund's. Several of the Catholic churches now erecting .will have cemeteries round them, disposed in the ancient manner, and from which all modern funeral monstrosities will be rigidly excluded.

OF THE EXTERNAL FORM AND DECORATION OF THE CHURCH.

The most striking and characteristic external feature of a church is its tower or spire. This is so attached to the popular notion of such a building, that any religious edifice wanting this essential mark would never generally receive any other appellation than that of chapel. Towers, attached to parochial churches, are most ancient in this country; they appear to have been erected from a very early period, and several Saxon examples yet remain. It is a feature of ecclesiastical architecture which the establishment never abandoned even in its most degenerate period.

A church tower is a beacon to direct the faithful to the house of God; it is a badge of ecclesiastical authority, and it is the place from whence the heralds of the solemnities of the church, the bells, send forth the summons. Let no one imagine that a tower is a superfluous expense,* it forms an essential part of the building, and should always be provided in the plan of a parochial church.

A tower to be complete, should be terminated by a spire: every tower during the finest periods of pointed architecture either was, or was intended to be, so finished; a spire is in fact an ornamental covering to a tower; a flat roof is contrary to every principle of the style, and it was not till the decline of the art that they were adopted. The vertical principle,

stone cross, the wooden crosses at the head of the graves, and all the interesting characteristics of an Anglo-Catholic parochial cemetery of the 15th century. * If funds are not sufficient, the tower may be the last part of the building completed; but due preparation should be made with regard to walls and foundations from the beginning, so that it may always be carried up when means will allow of its completion. This is the principle on which all the ancient churches were built. The plan on which they were commenced was originally good, and then they were gradually completed as the funds permitted.