“It is convenient to mention here the other lights, which were kept
in 1548, by the retention of the ceremonies with which they were
connected. These were the two tapers carried by boys in processions
at High Mass, and at other services when solemnly performed; the
herse light, used at Matins or Tenebres on the last three days of
Holy Week; the paschal candle, which stood in a tall candlestick,
or hung in a bason on the north side of the high altar, and was
lighted with much ceremony on Easter Eve, and burned at all the
principal services throughout Paschal tide; the torches carried in
the procession on Corpus Christi Day; the lantern carried before
the Sacrament when it was taken to the sick; the large standing
tapers which were placed round a corpse during the funeral service;
and the candle used at baptism. Most of the lights, which a little
earlier had been common round tombs, were endowed, and as such had
been taken away, but the custom of survivors placing lights round
the graves of their departed friends would probably be continued
still for a few years.”
Chapels were the most usual places for tombs, but they are found in
every part of the church. The various forms of them are too familiar
to require description, but the use of colour gave them much more
decorative importance in an interior than they have now. Many were
painted, and others were covered with rich cloths. Flat gravestones
had often carpets laid over them, and raised tombs had palls of
cloth of gold or other costly stuff. The church of Dunstable still
possesses such a pall: it is of crimson velvet, richly embroidered.
Tapestries and cloths of various kinds were very much used, especially
in chancels, as curtains and carpets, and as coverings for seats and
desks and the like. Every church also had special hangings for Lent,
when images and pictures were covered up generally with white or
blue cloths, marked with crosses and the emblems of the Passion. The
Lenten veil between the choir and the high altar seems also to have
been retained in 1547, but in 1548 Cranmer and his party had partly
succeeded in doing away with it. All parts of the church were more or
less adorned with imagery and pictures on walls, in windows, or on
furniture. None had been ordered to be taken away except such as had
been superstitiously abused, or which were representations of “feigned
miracles.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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