Archaeologia Cambrensis. SIXTH SERIES.—VOL. IV, PART II. APRIL, 1903. MONTGOMERYSHIRE SCREENS AND ROOD-LOFTS. BY ARCHDEACON THOMAS, M.A., F.S.A. (Reprinted by permission from the "Montgomeryshire Collections.") ONE of the duties of an archdeacon being to inspect periodically the fabrics and the furniture of the churches and their records, I have, in the course of my visits, met with many beautiful remains of screens and roodlofts, and with occasional notices of the removal of others. As some of them are marvels of skill in design and execution, and yet their history is little known, it will not be uninteresting to recall briefly their purpose and history, and to place on permanent record some account of those at least within the county. Their Origin.-In the ordinary division of our parish churches into nave and chancel, we are reminded that the chancel derives its name from the Cancelli, lattices or balusters, that marked off the portion where the divine offices were celebrated from the body of the church where the people joined in the worship. For the first three centuries, indeed, of the Christian era, we find no record of any such partition; but if we may argue from analogy, it is most probable that something of the kind did exist. For, just as the great festivals 6TH SER., VOL. III. 7 and the sacraments of the Christian Church were the evangelical development of those of the Jewish Church, so it is most likely that in the arrangement of the fabric, the divine pattern followed in the Tabernacle and the Temple would influence that of the Ecclesia. And we do find, as a matter of fact, that from the early part of the fourth century, that is, "after the time of Constantine, tapestry, a veil, curtain, or balustrade, like an altar-rail, was employed, like the modern Greek 'iconostasis,' as a screen to mark the division." These screens, mentioned by St. Augustine, St. Gregory Nazianzen, Theodoret, Sozomen, Synesius, St. Germanus, St. Paulinus, St. Gregory of Tours, and the Council of Chalcedon, had three doors; one facing the altar, a second fronting the Gospel side, and a third the Epistle side. Before them veils were dropped at the consecration. In their construction more substantial and permanent materials were early employed. The screen of the Apostles at Constantinople was a lattice of gilt brass; that of Tyre, erected by Paulinus, of carved wood; and one of stone, c. 340, remains at Tepekerman. In England, the earliest form appears to have been that, not of screen work, but of curtains drawn across the narrow chancel arch of our pre-Norman (and early Norman) churches, and is alluded to in an early AngloSaxon Pontifical as "Extenso velo inter eos et populum ;" and, later on, by Durandus in the thirteenth century "interponatur velum aut murus inter clerum et populum." 112 The earliest wooden screen work known to Mr. Bloxam in this country is a loft in the Norman church of St. Nicholas, at Compton, in Surrey; and almost the only one of the thirteenth century he had met with was at Thurcaston, in Leicestershire. Specimens of screen work of the fourteenth century are more numerous, but still rare, while those of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries are frequent. 1 Walcott's Sacred Archaeology. 2 Bloxam, Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture, vol. ii, p. 35. Form.-They occur under several forms: earliest as simple screens; later, but still early, as rood screens, that is, screens with a figure of our Lord on the Cross and the Virgin Mother and St. John on either side. Sometimes they have a loft above them, upon which was also a rood; and occasionally the rood was placed on a beam, more or less carved, and extending across the nave at the chancel arch. In Wales, we have mention of roods as early as A.D. 935, when in the Dirnetian Code of the Laws of Howel Dda it was enacted that "one of the three places where a person is not to give the oath of an absolver, is at the church door;1 for the Pater' is there to be chanted before the rood" (canys canu y Pader adyly [dyn] yna rac bron y groc). Although comparatively few now remain in our churches, it is evident that they were at one time general. Small windows high up in the church wall, which lighted them, corbels on which their beams rested, the remains of the stair and the doorway by which they were approached, and occasionally fragments of the screen itself, attest their former existence. Use. It will be asked what was their use and purpose were they simply ornamental, or had they a ritual and liturgical use? At first they appear to have been simply a low partition to divide the nave from the choir or chancel. The next stage was the introduction of a beam above it, extending across the arch and supported by a row of columns. Then followed the gradual elaboration of these several parts. A simple cross placed over the centre gave prominence to the prime doctrine of the Atonement and its bearing on the Christian life. "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which (or whom) the world hath been crucified unto me and I unto the world" (Gal. vi, 14). Between the supporting pillars a little tracery was introduced. Then came 1 By the church door appears to be meant here the screen door from the nave into the chancel. the transition from the symbolic to the realistic, and the substitution of the Crucifix for the Cross. "For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. ii, 2). The awe and reverence which the sacred Figure called forth in those "before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth crucified" (Gal. iii, 1), expressed itself in the more elaborate ornamentation of all the surroundings, and the figures of St. John and the Mother were added on either side. The prominent position. thus given to the Virgin Mother and St. John must have tended greatly to promote the cultus of Hagiology, which spread so rapidly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. And when the rood screen came to be enlarged into a rood loft, the crocketed niches were filled with statuettes, and the panels sometimes painted with pictures of the saints. The Epistles and Gospels, which were read at first from " Ambons," raised desks or pulpits, and afterwards from the screen, were now read from the rood loft, as also were certain public notices, as Letters of Communion, Bishops' Pastorals, the proclamation of Treaties and Acts of Councils. From it, too, penitents were absolved, the benediction of the bishop was pronounced, and elect abbots were presented to the people. Sometimes the lofts contained an altar; more often altars were placed under them at the west side, and were thence called "rood altars." In later times they were used as organ lofts and singing galleries. Being used for so many purposes, and occupying so 1 "Besides the altars at Peterchurch (in Herefordshire), the only rood-loft altars I have met with yet existing in this country are two beneath the rood loft in the little church of Patricio, near Crickhowel, South Wales: one placed on each side of the entrance into the chancel, westward, and against the screen supporting the rood loft. Both of these altars are of plain masonry, with the usual thick, projecting, covering slabs and altar-stones, each marked with the five crosses, and the under part of each chamfered.” (Bloxam, vol. ii, p. 140). important a position, they were richly ornamented. The vaulting, which curved out from the traceried screen and projected on either side, was ornamented with elaborate designs; the sides of the loft were pierced with graceful open tracery; the junction of the panels was set off with delicate canopy work, and the horizontal bands were enriched with beautiful vine, oak, and other patterns; and the whole was in some cases adorned with rich colouring in vermilion, blue, and gold. The images themselves were enriched with gold and jewels. Thus Gruffydd ap Meredydd ap Dafydd says of the famous Rood of Chester: "Llun ei oreu mab llawn aur a main."" When we think of the havoc and destruction with which they were visited by the Reformers and their successors, we cannot but ask why they were so grievously maltreated, and what could have led to the determined and wholesale ruin that overtook such beautiful specimens of ecclesiastical art, such marvels of delicate design and workmanship, as made them the chiefest ornaments of our Pre-Reformation Churches. The answer must be, the abuses which sometimes accompanied them. And when it was determined to do away with the abuse, small consideration was given to distinctions and exceptions, "De minimis non curat lex." The desire to instruct an ignorant and impressionable people through eye, for everywhere "Segnius irritant animos demissa per aures, Quam quæ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus," led to the introduction of devices and tricks, by means of which, as in miracle plays and puppet shows, a greater realism was produced, and deeper emotions excited of pity, awe, and devotion. Mr. Walcott quotes the statement that "many superstitions were connected with Roods with rolling eyes and sweating brows, with speaking mouth and walking feet'." 1 Myv. Arch., p. 308. |