Christian antiquities -- England; Churches -- England
These windows were called by Parker and other writers of the Gothic
Revival, "Lychnoscopes;" and then by the ecclesiologists, "Low-side
Windows." But the name given by the late G. E. Street has now become so
generally accepted that it seems necessary to look a little further into
the evidence of the fitness or unfitness of this designation for them.
Behind some stalls in the Royal Chapel were discovered some remains of a
mural painting, apparently to represent the communicating of a leper
through some such window, and he at once concluded that it was for this
very purpose so many of them were introduced into the chancels of our
mediaeval churches. There seemed, however, nothing to indicate that it
was at one of these special windows at all that this function was
performed. And the very fact of the representation itself would seem to
indicate rather an exceptional instance, or special circumstance, such
as the communicating of some knight or person of note who might, for
instance, have brought leprosy in his own person from the Holy Land,
from whence probably in the first instance it came; and who would not be
admitted within the church. But the records of the existence of lepers
would seem to show their numbers to have been very limited, and confined
to few localities. And in any case this would be no sufficient cause for
the introduction of these windows as of universal occurrence throughout
the land, for these windows are found almost everywhere, and in very
many instances on both sides of the chancel. Moreover, in many cases the
act of administration through these windows would be exceedingly
difficult, if not impossible, on account of the position, or the
arrangement, of the window itself.
To my mind a very much more practical and reasonable supposition would
be that they were introduced, and used, for burial purposes. At a period
when the body would not be brought into the church, except in the case
of some ecclesiastic or other notable person, the priest would here be
able, _from his stall_, to see the funeral _cortege_ come into the
churchyard, and then say the first part of the office through this
window; which was always shuttered and without glass. In some cases
there is a book-ledge corbelled out on the east jamb of the window
inside, which has puzzled antiquaries, but which has not otherwise
received a satisfactory explanation. In immediate proximity to the
window, at the end of the stalls (and sometimes in the earlier churches
_through_ them), was the priest's door, out of which he would then
proceed to the grave to commit the body to the earth. The grave itself
needs not necessarily be within sight of the window. But in a number of
instances the churchyard cross was so; and this may have served as the
recognised place for the mourners, with the body, to assemble.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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