The third example is the church of St. Giles, Cheadle, (see Pl. XVI.) The whole of the ceiling will be richly painted with azure panels and gilt stars; the string course supporting the ribs is charged with shields and inscriptions. In the stone niches on each side of the window are images of our blessed Lady and St. Giles. Over the altar is a stone screen of tabernacle work, with images of apostles, and our blessed Lord in the centre; on the altar are a pair of candlesticks and an altar cross, with rich hangings, and frontals of various colours. The sacrarium is here formed by a fourth compartment added to the sedilia, which are surmounted by gables and pinnacles, richly foliated. On the north side is an arched tomb for the sepulchre; and the floor will be paved with encrusted tiles, charged with armorial bearings.

OF THE SEDILIA.

On the epistle side of the altar, either on the ascent of the steps leading up to the altar, or on the level pavement, three arched recesses are invariably built, for the officiating priest, deacon, and sub-deacon to sit in during the chanting of the Gloria and Credo.* These sometimes consist of three simple arches, supported either by corbels or shafts; and occasionally we find them richly decorated with canopies and groining. In parochial churches they are generally built of stone, but in the large cathedrals and abbeys they were sometimes of wood. The four arches on the epistle side of the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey, commonly called King Sebert's Tomb, are in fact the sedilia of that church. It is not at all unusual to find a fourth stall, for the assistant priest, in great churches.

Among the most beautiful examples of sedilia, remaining in England, we may mention those at Exeter Cathedral, Southwell Minster, Ripon Cathedral, Tewkesbury Abbey, Adderbury and Dorchester Church, Oxfordshire; Bishopston, Wilts; St. Mary's, Oxford; and Stockport Church, near Manchester. These arched recesses have been frequently termed confessionals, by persons unacquainted with ecclesiastical antiquities, but we need hardly observe, without the slightest foundation. The misrepresentations made on this subject, by persons who shew cathedral and other churches, is most extraordinary. Any perforation in a wall, whether it be to admit light or air, or to command a view of the high altar from some chapel, is invariably called a confessional; even the chantry chapel of the Beauchamp family, at Warwick, is so designated.

* The priest anciently sat during the Epistle in solemn masses.

It is established even beyond a doubt, that there were no confessionals in our ancient churches answering in form to those we see generally used on the Continent: confessions were heard in the church by priests, seated in chairs, whilst the penitent knelt beside them; this may be seen figured in many ancient illuminations. Even on the Continent no confessional can be found older than the last century, and this is alone sufficient to prove the extreme absurdity of the stories circulated by vergers and others, respecting confessionals in the ancient churches.

OF THE SACRARIUM.

Between the sedilia and the eastern wall of the chancel, a small niche was built, in the bottom of which a basin was hollowed out of the stone, with a pipe leading into the ground; over this was a small projecting stone shelf for the altar cruets. The most ancient sacrariums had two basins, as may be seen by those at Salisbury and Lincoln Cathedrals; one for the ablutions of the hands at the Lavabo, and the other for the ablutions of the chalice, which were not received by the priest, as at present, but poured down the sacrarium. The old rubric respecting the Lavabo is as follows: Eat ad Piscinam dicens Lavabo: reversus dicit In spiritu humilitatis, &c." This is found in many ancient Missals. When the rubric for receiving the ablutions of the chalice became generally observed, the second basin was disused, and the late sacrariums have one basin only.

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OF THE ARCH ON THE GOSPEL SIDE OF THE CHANCEL.

On the gospel side of the chancel, and nearly opposite the sedilia, we generally find an arch forming a recess and canopy to an altar tomb: this was used as a sepulchre for the reservation of the blessed sacrament, from Maunday Thursday till Easter Sunday morning, which was anciently practised in the Sarum rite.* There is frequent allusion to this in the wills of pious persons, who desired to have their tombs so built that

*This ceremony is quite distinct from the reservation of the blessed sacrament from Maundy Thursday for the mass of Good Friday, on which day the Church does not allow of any consecration. The blessed sacrament, so reserved, is watched all night, and hence the name of sepulchre has been most improperly given to the chapel in which it is solemnly kept; but there is not the slightest correspondence as to time in the present watching, which takes place on Maundy Thursday night, when our Lord did not suffer till Friday. The watching, according to the Sarum rite, commenced on Good Friday, and continued till Easter-day, early in the morning, when the blessed sacrament was brought forth from the sepulchre with solemn procession. This ceremony was also practised in France and some of the Northern Countries, but there is no trace of it in the Roman rite.

they might serve for the sepulchre; that when men came to pay their devotions to our Lord's body, at that holy time, they might be moved to pray for the repose of their souls. At Long Melford Church, Suffolk, the tomb of one of the Clopton family served for this purpose. Some of the finest examples of stone sepulchres are at Eckington Church, Lincolnshire, and Hawton Church, Nottinghamshire; these are richly decorated in the style of Edward III, with representations of the Roman soldiers asleep, and other appropriate imagery.

OF THE REVESTRY OR SACRISTRY.

It is a remarkable fact, that while sacristies in most cathedral churches were placed on the south side, in parish churches they were generally built on a contrary one. We are quite at a loss to assign any reason for this; as a southern aspect would be most suitable to prevent damp or injury to the vestments. Although most of the ancient fittings of church vestries have been destroyed, we may occasionally find a few old almeries remaining, but not one vestige of the rich furniture and sacred vessels with which they were filled.†

*

OF THE ALTAR.

During the first seven centuries of the Church, altars were made indifferently of wood, stone, and metal.‡

Doubtless, during the early persecutions of the Christians,

*At Adderbury Church, Oxon; Long Melford, Suffolk; Wells Cathedral; York Minster; in a side Chapel at Carlisle Cathedral.

In Lyndwood's Provinciale we find the following inventory of ornaments required in every parish church:-"Legendam, Antiphonarium, Graduale, Psalterium, Troperium Ordinale, Missale, Manuale, Calicem, Vestimentum Principale cum casula, Dalmatica, Tunica, et cum capa in Choro, cum omnibus suis appendiciis; Frontale ad Magnum altare cum tribus Tuellis, tria supepellicia, unum Rochetum, Crucem Processionalem, Crucem pro Mortuis, Thuribulum, Lucernam, Tintinabulum ad deferendum coram corpore Christi in visitatione infirmorum, Pyxidem pro corpore Christi, honestum Velum Quadragesimale, Campanis cum chordis, Feretrum pro defunctis, Vas pro Aqua Benedicta, Osculatorium Candelabrum pro cereo paschali, Fontem cum serura, Imagines in ecclesia, Imaginem principalem in cancello."

To these may be added a lettern, or brass eagle, to stand in the chancel or choir, for the antiphonarium and graduals. A most beautiful brass lettern of this description was lying, only two years since, in a corner of the tower of St. Martin's Church, Salisbury, utterly neglected, and most probably considered a piece of old Popish lumber.

The Emperor Constantine made seven altars of silver in the Church called after his name, and that of St. John Lateran, which weighed 260lbs. Sixtus III. gave an altar of pure silver, which weighed 300lbs., to the Church of St. Mary Major. St. Athanasius speaks of an altar of wood which the Arians burnt. St. Sylvester I. is said to have forbidden all wooden altars, except that in St. John Lateran's (yet existing), because St. Peter had used it.

altars were generally of wood, as being more portable, and better adapted to the necessities of the time.

Since the seventh century, the use of stone altars in the Church has not only been universal, but obligatory, insomuch that no priest would be allowed to celebrate without, at least, a portable altar stone.

The use of portable altar stones is very ancient; Jonas, monk of St. Wandrille, is the first writer by whom they are mentioned, in the Life of St. Wulfran, where it is recorded that this holy man carried a consecrated stone with him to celebrate on it in his travels, and afterwards gave it to the Abbey of St. Wandrille. "Altare consecratum in quatuor angulorum locis et in medio; reliquias continens sanctorum in modum clypie etc." Portable altars are also mentioned by the venerable Bede, when speaking of the two Ewalds: "Cotidie Sacrificium Deo victimæ salutaris offerebant, habentes secum vascula ad tabulam altaris vice dedicatam."

The use of portable altars was however confined to journeys and cases of great necessity; they were neither meant nor suffered to replace or supersede the stone altars which are required by the Church, and which should be erected in every permanent religious edifice.

The most ancient altars were open underneath, and supported by pillars: every altar should be sufficiently detached from the wall to admit of passing behind it. The ceremonies of the consecration of an altar, in the Roman pontificial, require the bishop to pass round the altar various times. "Pontifex circuit septies tabulam altaris aspergens eam et stipitem de aqua ultimo per eum benedicta, &c." That the most ancient altars were all detached from the wall is evident by the language of the early ecclesiastical writers.

Excepting during the celebration of the holy sacrifice, neither cross nor candlesticks were formerly left on the altar, but were removed immediately after mass. The book of the holy gospels was alone kept on the altar.*

* It does not appear that any cross was placed on the altar before the tenth century. The crosses were fixed over the altars, and on the ciboriums or canopies, by which they were surmounted: neither was the image of our Lord crucified attached to these crosses. The crucifix was, however, set up on the rood as early as the eighth century; and it was probably on account of the blessed sacrament lying on the altar that the ancient Churchmen would not suffer an image in the presence of the reality; even the present rubric speaks only of a cross on the altar, crux in medio. No lights were placed on the altar before the tenth century, and even down to the French revolution, many of the most ancient and illustrious Churches of that country did not admit of any

Before the twelfth century flowers were not suffered on altars, although the custom of hanging garlands and branches, on great feasts, to decorate the church, is of the highest antiquity: even the whole pavement was not unfrequently sprinkled with flowers and aromatic herbs.

It does not appear that even the relics of saints were allowed on the ancient altars, especially in presence of the blessed sacrament. Shrines, with relics, were placed under the altars, and on a beam over the altar.*

The blessed srcrament was never reserved at the high altar of a church excepting in a golden dove, or pyx, suspended over the altar.† Mass was never celebrated formerly in presence of the blessed sacrament, even when enclosed in a tower or tabernacle.

lights on the high altars, but placed round them. Wax tapers were lit in large candlesticks on each side of the altar, hung on prickets in basins before it, and in coronas, or large circles of lights, in the choir, on the jubé or rood loft, before images, and near shrines, but not on the altars."

*This was the case at Canterbury cathedral.

+ The custom of reserving the blessed sacrament in gold and silver doves is very ancient. Perpetuus VI., archbishop of Tours, left a silver dove to a priest, Amalarius, for this purpose, "Peristerium et columbam argenteam ad repositorium." In the customs of the monastery of Cluny, a dove of gold is mentioned suspended over the altar in which the blessed Eucharist was reserved. This custom was retained till the revolution at the Church of St. Julien d'Angers, St. Maur des Fosses, near Paris, at St. Paul, Sens, at St. Lierche, near Chartres.

"The blessed sacrament was suspended in a pyx, over the high altar at Durham abbey. Within the quire, over the high altar, hung a rich and most sumptuous canopy for the blessed sacrament to hang within it, which had two irons fastened in the French trieme very finely gilt; which held the canopy over the midst of the said high altar that the pyx hung in, that it could neither move nor stir; whereon stood a pelican all of silver, upon the height of the said canopy, very finely gilt, giving her blood to her young ones, in token that Christ gave his blood for the sins of the world; and it was goodly to behold for the blessed sacrament to hang in. And the pyx wherein the blessed sacrament hung was of most pure gold, curiously wrought of goldsmith's work; and the white cloth that hung over the pyx was of very fine lawn, all embroidered and wrought about with gold and red silk, and four great round knobs of gold curiously wrought, with great tassels of gold and red silk hung at them; and the crook that hung within the cloth that the pyx hung upon was of gold, and the cord which drew it up and down was made of fine strong silk.”—Rites of

Durham.

"French Churches in which the blessed sacrament was suspended in a pyx, before the revolution: St. Maurile d'Angers, Cathedrale de Tours, St. Martin de Tours, St. Siran en Brenne, St. Etienne de Dijon, St. Sieur de Dijon, St. Etienne de Sens, Cathedrale de St. Julien, Mons, Nôtre Dame de Chartres, Nôtre Dame de Paris, St. Ouen de Rouen."-De Moleon, Voyage Liturgique. Matthew Paris speaks of the blessed sacrament being suspended over the high altar of the cathedral Church of Lincoln.-Ad an. 1140. In Stephano.

It was doubtless in allusion to these doves that St. John Chrysostom says, the sacred body of our Lord in the Churches is not enveloped in linen, as in the cradle, but in the form of the Holy Spirit.