Examples of Symbolism Continued. We come now, according to the plan we laid down, to speak of the symbolism of some particular features of a church, which do not fall so well under any of the four heads which we have been considering. And firstly, of WINDOWS.
The primary idea shadowed forth in every one of the styles, is the saying of our LORD to His Disciples, YE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. More simply set forth at first, this notion acquired, in the course of time, various methods of expression, and was subjected to different modifications; but we must retain it as the ground work, or we shall be in danger of mistaking the true meaning of ancient Church Architects.
In Norman, then, and Early English, the single lights, North and South, set forth the Apostles and Doctors, who have shined forth in their time as the lights of the Church: and the rich pattern of flowerwork wherewith the stained glass in them was decked, represented the variety of graces in each. But to have symbolized the servants without the Master, the members without the Head, had been at variance with all the Catholick Church has ever practised. Looking therefore to the East end, we behold that well known feature, the Triplet: setting forth the Most Holy and Undivided TRINITY. [We read, in the legend of S. Barbara, that, being confined by her father in a room where were two windows only, she added a third, by way of setting forth this Mystery.] Nor is this all: to denote that all that the Church has, and all She is, is from above, the string course, springing from the eastern Triplet, runs round the whole church (often both within and without,) binding it, as it were, in and connecting every other light, with those at the east. Again, the Western door, as we shall see, symbolized CHRIST: and two lights, typical of His Two Natures, are therefore generally placed over it. There are, undoubtedly, instances of western Triplets: though we think that the Camden Society has well explained these.
In some cases, there is a series of couplets on each side of the church: and, taking the hint from Durandus, we may interpret this arrangement of the mission of the Apostles two and two.
A series of Triplets, as in Salisbury Cathedral, and the Lady Chapel of Bristol, is very rare: and, of course, not objectionable on any other grounds than that of the too cheap use of a most beautiful feature.
So far all is simple: but as we approach the Decorated style, the symbolism becomes excessively complicated. The principal Doctrines of the Catholick Church are set forth in each window: and to unravel the whole of these is often a task of no small difficulty. We shall proceed to give a few examples, with the explanation which appears to us probable: entreating the reader to remember, that if in any instance our conjectures should appear unfounded, the failure of probability in one case throws no discredit on the otliers,and still less does it invalidate the system. Durandus's silence on the language of tracery is easily explained by the consideration, that assign as late a date as we will to the publication of his work, it came forth while the Early English style was yet in existence: and his silence on Triplets only proves, what is well known to Ecclesiologists, that they are far less common in foreign than in our own architecture.
In Norman windows the wheel window is conspicuous. This, whether formed with the radii like those of Barfreston, or of the Temple church, represent (as we shall presently observe that Norman symbolism usually does represent) an historical fact: namely, the martyrdom of S. Catherine. The celebrity of this Virgin Martyr may tend to explain why she should be so far honoured: a celebrity which has descended to our own day in the common sign of the Cat and Wheel: as well as the firework so denominated.
Of Norman Triplets there are not many to which we can refer. The Tower of Winchester, however, presenting one on each face, is a noble example. The Southeastern transept of Rochester, though later, is equally in point: it contains two triplets, far apart, and one disposed above the other. The West front of S. Etienne at Caen is a well-known instance.
The earliest symbolism of Early English Triplets represented the TRINITY alone: the TRINITY in UNITY was reserved for a somewhat later period. And this was typified by the hood moulding thrown across the three lights. At other times a quatre-foiled, or cinque-foiled, circle was placed at some little distance above the triplet: thus typifying the Crown which befits the Majesty of the King of Kings. And the same Crown is often exhibited above the Western couplet. But, for as much as we are COMPELLED BY THE CHRISTIAN VERITY TO ACKNOWLEDGE EVERY PERSON BY HIMSELF TO BE GOD AND LORD, a crown is sometimes represented over each light of the Triplet, as in Wimborne Minster.
Another method of representing the same doctrine was by a simple equilateral triangle for a window: whether plain, of which there are many examples, or with the toothed ornament, as in the famous example at York Minster.
S. Giles's, at Oxford, has windows, the tracery of which will serve as an example of many: it has three tre-foiled lights, with three quatre-foiled circles, arranged triangle-wise in the head.
This type is a little varied in S. Mary Magdalene's church, in the same city, by the introduction of the ogee form.
Berkeley church has a wheel window containing three quatre-foils: the three spaces left between them and the line being tre-foiled.
The East windows of Dunchurch and Fen Stanton have been explained in the publications of the Cambridge Camden Society: the former in their few words to Church builders, the latter in their illustrations of Monumental Brasses; Part iv.
The South transept of Chichester Cathedral is a glorious specimen of Decorated symbolism. In the gable is a Marygold, containing two intersecting equilateral triangles: the six apices of these are sex-foiled: the interior hexagon is beautifully worked in six leaves. The lower window seven lights: in the head is an equilateral spherical triangle, containing a large tre-foil, intersected by a smaller tre-foil. Here we have the HOLY TRINITY, the Divine Attributes, the perfection of the DEITY.
A window in Merton College Chapel has three lights: with a circle in the head containing six sex-foils.
Broughton, Oxon, has in the head of one of its windows a circle, containing two intersecting equilateral triangles, the six apices, and six spaces around, being trefoiled.
The East end of Lincoln, though far inferior to the south transept of Chichester, is nevertheless highly symbolical. The East window of each of the Aisles has three lights, with three foliated circles, disposed triangle-wise in the head. The great East window has eight lights in two divisions, each whereof has three foliated circles in the head: and in the apex of the window is a circle containing seven foliations. The upper window has a circle of eight foliations in the head: and in the apex of the gable is an equilateral trefoil.
The next element introduced was the consideration of the six attributes of the DEITY. One of the simplest examples was to be found in the West Window of the North Aisle of S. Nicholas, at Guildford: a plain circle, containing six trefoils: these are arranged in two triangles, each containing three trefoils, and the two sets are varied.
The Clerestory of Lichfield Cathedral, (Circ. 1300,) is a series of spherical triangles, each containing three trefoils.
A similar Clerestory occurs in the North-West Transept of Hereford Cathedral, and the same idea is repeated in its triforium: a series of three tre-foiled lights, with three circles in the head.
The East end of Lichfield symbolizes most strikingly the same glorious Doctrine. The apse is trigonal: the windows of each side are the same: each is of three lights, with six trefoils (emblematical of the Six Attributes) disposed above in the form of an equilateral triangle.
The East end of Chichester is rather earlier, but introduces yet another element. Here we have a triplet: and at some height above it, a wheel-window of seven circles: symbolising therefore eternity and perfection.
The triforium and clerestory of Carlisle are singular symbols of the Doctrine of the TRINITY. The former has in each bay three adjacent equal lancets. The latter is a series of triplets: the central window in each being composed of three lights. We may observe, by the way, that three adjacent equal lancets are hardly ever found, whatever the reason may be. We know but of three examples: in the churches of Bosham, Sussex, Godalming, Surrey, and S. Mary-le-Crypt, Gloucester: and in all these cases they occupy the same position, the South East end of the Chancel, or Chancel Aisle.
Dorchester church, Oxfordshire, has for one of its windows an equilateral spherical triangle with three heads, or knops, one at each angle.
We are now in a purely Decorated age. And as one of its earliest windows we may mention that in the Bishop of Winchester's Palace at Southwark. It was a wheel, and contained two intersecting equilateral triangles: around them were six sex-foiled triangles, the hexagon in the centre containing a star of six great and six smaller rays. Here, of course, the Blessed Trinity and the Divine and Human Natures were set forth.
[We may perhaps be allowed to say a few words here on the subject of those singular windows which the Cambridge Camden Society has called Lychnoscopes.
[It appears, that in Early English churches, the Westernmost window on the South side of the Chancel is both lower than, and in other ways (particularly by a transom) distinguished from, the rest. It is sometimes merely a square aperture, as in some churches in the Weald of Sussex: sometimes a small ogee-headed light, as in Old Shoreham: sometimes, where the South side of the Chancel is lighted by a series of lancets, the Westernmost, as in Chiddingfold, Sussex, is transomed, where the others end, and carried down lower; sometimes the lower part appears to have been originally blocked, as in Kemerton, Gloucestershire, and Kingstone next Lewes, Sussex: sometimes there are remains of clamps, as at Buckland, Kent, sometimes of shutters. Again, sometimes there are two, one North, the other South of the Chancel: sometimes the same arrangement is found S. E. of the Nave. On the other hand, it is never found in any but a parish church: never in late work: seldom is it ornamented. We will give a few remarkable instances. 1. Dinder, Somersetshire. Here there is a double lychnoscope, North and South: the date is late Early English, and the specimen is unique from there being a rude moulding in the Window Arch. 2. Othery, Somersetshire. The lychnoscope itself is here blocked: it is square-headed, and of two lights: date probably Early Decorated. The church is cruciform, and a central Perpendicular Tower was subsequently erected. One of the diagonal buttresses is thrown out at a distance of some three feet from the window, so as to hide it: and an oblique square hole has been cut through the masonry of the buttress. This is the more remarkable, because there are stalls in the Chancel, of perpendicular work, which would seem to render any window in that position useless. 3. Christon, Somersetshire. Here, almost close to the ground, is a horizontal slit which appears never to have been glazed. This is an early Norman church. So at Albury, Surrey, at the S.E. end of the South Aisle. 4. S. Appolline, Guernsey. This church is of the same date as, or may be earlier than, the last. The windows are rude and square headed slits: the lychnoscope is transomed. 5. Preston, Sussex. There are three Windows in the South of the Chancel, which rise one above the other, like sedilia, to the East. 6. Loxton, Somersetshire. This is an Early English church with a South Western Tower serving as Porch. From the Eastern side of this a long slit is carried through the Nave wall, a distance of some twenty feet, and exactly commanding a view of the Altar. It is grated at the West end, not glazed: the Eastern end has long been blocked up. Way is made for it by a bulge of the wall in the angle formed towards the East by the Tower and Nave. This seems to form a kind of connecting link between the hagioscope and the lychnoscope.
[With these windows we will venture to connect those extremely rare ones, three adjacent, unconnected, equal, lancets, as occurring of the same date at the same position. There is again another kind of lychnoscope only found where the Chancel has Aisles. A panel of the parclose, or wooden screen, behind the longitudinal stalls, is sometimes found pierced with a small quatrefoil, at the S.W. part of the Chancel. This is vulgarly called a Confessional. It seems however clearly connected with the lychnoscope. Examples are found at Erith, Kent, and Sundridge in the same county. Perhaps also the curious slit in the South wall of the Chancel of S. Michael's church, Cambridge, communicating with a South Chantry Chapel is another variety.
[From the above facts we deduce the following remarks: 1. That the necessity for a lychnoscope must in some cases have been very urgent: as may be proved by the example, at Othery, where a buttress is much injured to form one. 2. But yet this need was not universal, because there are many churches in which the arrangement does not occur. 3. That it appears, strictly speaking, a parochial arrangement, not being found in Cathedral or Collegiate churches. 4. That smaller buildings rather than larger are marked with it: it seldom occurs where there are Aisles to the Chancel. 5. That, where employed, lychnoscopes were only used occasionally; else the shutters which have evidently sometimes existed, would have been useless. 6. That they are very seldom ornamented, and never have windows it is next to impossible to explain. Carlisle and stained glass. 7. That in the Perpendicular era they generally, though not universally, ceased to be used. 8. That a large sill seems to have been a requisite to them. 9. That, where the upper part is glazed, the lower part often was not, ns in the Decorated lychnoscope at Beekford, Gloucestershire. The principal hypotheses to explain the use of this arrangement are. 1. Dr. Bock's. That it was a contrivance by which lepers might see the Elevation of the Host. But the structure of the greater part of these windows forbids this idea: many instances occur in which it is splayed away from the Altar, none (except that at Loxton, and a doubtful case at Winscombe, Somersetshire, where a Perpendicular addition has been made) in which it is splayed towards it. 2. That of the Cambridge Carnden Society, that it was for watching the Paschal light. But this, besides being a priori, improbable is refuted by that at Othery. Here the eye has to look through t\vo apertures, at some distance from each other, and therefore can command only a very small field on exactly the opposite side of the Chancel. 3. It has been imagined by some that it was for confession. The idea of confession near an Altar sufficiently refutes itself: but furthermore, some of these openings are so very low down that the thing would be impossible. Two solitary facts, more, though they throw no light on the subject, may yet be mentioned. 1. In the church of S. Amaro, near Funchal, in Madeira, is a grating at the West-end like that at Loxton. Its use is now said to be to cool the church, though in that case one should have expected to meet it elsewhere. 2. In Sennen Church, by the Land's-End, there is said to have been a lychnoscope (now no longer existing) used to take in the tithe-milk. We may gather on the whole, l. That lychnocopes could not have been used to look into a church. 2. Nor to hand anything in or out. Both those are sufficiently disproved by Othery. 3. Nor to speak through. But one can hardly imagine any other use, except it were to look out of the church. We are inclined to think that it was in some way connected with the ringing of the Bells, or of the Sancte Bell. Where the Tower is central, we very often find it: as at Old Shoreham and Alfriston, Sussex: at Loxton it is evidently for some purpose connected with the Tower. So in Beckford, which has a central Tower; and Urfington, Berks, a Cross church. And the place where the Sancte Bell was rung is exactly between a double lychnoscope. But what the particular use might have been, we will not pretend to guess. We will conclude this long note, by a question as to the authority for calling the small Chancel door, the Priest's Door. It is never (originally) furnished with a lock, but always with an interior bar, thus showing that it could only have been used from the inside. So the Priest could never have entered the church by this way, unless the door were previously opened for him.]
The symbolism of the more complicated Decorated windows it is next to impossible to explain .Carlisle and York have doubtless their appropriate meaning: but who will now pretend to expound it?
One exception we may make:--the East Window of Bristol Cathedral. It is of seven lights, but so much prominence is given to the three central ones, as strongly to set forth the MOST HOLY TRINITY: over them is a crown of six leaves and by the numerous winged foliations around them, the Heavenly Hierarchy may, very probably, be understood.