In the year 1548 the “Order of Communion” was put forth; in 1549 the
Prayer Book appeared. Mr. Micklethwaite has drawn up an account of
the parish church of 1548 before the Reformed Prayer Book, and with
the alterations made in the service up to that date. The principal
entrance was by the south door; in the porch was a basin of holy water;
the font stood sometimes in the middle of the nave, sometimes against
the west side of one of the pillars; it had a cover which could be
locked down. Near it was a locker in which were kept the oils, salt,
etc., required for the old rite of baptism.
“At the beginning of the sixteenth century all but very poor parish
churches seem to have been furnished with pews, but the whole area
was not filled with them, as at a later date. Old pews west of the
doors are very rare, but they are found sometimes, as at Brington,
Northants. Generally all this space was left clear, and there
was a clear area of at least one bay, and often much more at the
west end. A church with aisles had nearly always four blocks of
pews, and the passages were broad alleys, that in the middle being
often more than a third of the width of the nave, and the side
passages were not much less. The appropriation of special places
to individuals seems to have been usual, and even that bugbear of
modern ecclesiastical reformers, the lock-up pew or closet, was not
unknown. These in parish churches were generally chantry chapels,
arranged for private services at their own altars and for use as
pews during the public services.”
The pulpit had no fixed position: it was made movable; one of that
period still remains at Westminster. It was ordered in 1547 that the
priests and choir should kneel in the midst of the church and sing
or say the Litany; the Litany desk came into use afterwards. The
confessional had been continued in certain London churches: at St.
Margaret Patens there was the “shrivyng pew”; at St. Christopher le
Stock the “Shriving House.” The usual custom was for the penitent to
kneel or stand before the priest, who sat in a chair. The Bible and the
Paraphrases of Erasmus were chained to a desk somewhere in the nave.
The Rood screen, which was a music gallery, carried a loft and the
organ when there was one. The loft contained desks for singers; it was
also provided with pricks for candles. The great cross rose above the
loft. In the chancel stood the high altar; when there were no aisles
two smaller altars stood one on either side. Above the altar was a
reredos of carved work; at the ends of which hung curtains. There
was generally a super altar. On the high altar stood the cross, with
figures, reliquaries, and images to adorn it. Also they laid on the
altar the Textus or Book of the Gospels, with the paxbrede or tablet
for the kiss of peace. There were generally two lights on the altar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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