Our Homeland Churches and How to Study ThemHeath, Sidney
Religion
Our Homeland Churches and How to Study Them
Heath, Sidney
Church architecture -- Great Britain
The Reformation, with its vast social and political upheaval, was not
conducive to the encouragement of the fine arts, and from this period
the art of glazing in England declined beyond measure, and was not the
only art that received its death-blow in the triumph of Puritanism. The
art has, however, revived greatly during recent years, thanks, among
other artists, to William Morris and Burne-Jones. A few words must
be said about the "Jesse" window found in some of our cathedrals and
churches. Strictly speaking, it is a representation of the genealogy of
Christ, in which the different persons forming the descent are placed on
scrolls of foliage branching out of each other, intended to represent a
tree. It was also wrought into a branched candlestick, thence called a
Jesse, a common piece of furniture in ancient churches. The subject is
found on a window at Llanrhaiadr y Kinmerch, Denbighshire, on the stone
work of one of the chancel windows at Dorchester Church, Oxfordshire,
and in carved stone on the reredos of Christchurch Priory, Hants.
It is not perhaps generally known that the actual colours used in early
stained glass possessed each of them their own specific symbolism.
Underlying the obvious story conveyed by the human figures or decorated
devices, there was an inner story to be read with profit by those who
understood the mystic symbolism concerning colours. Without entering at
length into this interesting subject, it may yet be stated that green
was the symbol of Regeneration, red of Divine Love, white of Divine
Wisdom, yellow of Faith, and grey, or a mixture of black and white, the
emblem of Terrestrial Death and Spiritual Immortality. These colours at
different times or in different countries had other meanings as well,
and ecclesiologists tell us that the colours chosen for depicting the
robes of our Lord differ according to the period of His life which it
was intended to represent.
CHAPTER XII.
CRYPTS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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