130: Derived from the Italian _credenzare_, to test by tasting beforehand; which refers to an ancient custom for the governor of a feast to taste the wines before presenting them to his guests. The application of the word to this piece of Church furniture is supposed to have its origin in an attempt once made to mix poison with the eucharistic elements. 131: The rubric at the commencement of the Prayer Book concerning "the Ornaments of the Church, and of the ministers thereof," still directs a credence-table to be placed in every church. 132: In Flamborough Church, Yorkshire, a few years since, a white glove was hanging over the centre arch of the very beautiful chancel screen,--perhaps is hanging there still. Sometimes a bridal wreath was hung up with the glove. 133: When the rood screens were pulled down by the Puritans and the chancels were alienated from their proper use, it became necessary, in order to protect the immediate precinct of the altar from general intrusion, to erect around it some barrier; hence the origin of altar-rails, which were first ordered to be put up by Archbishop Laud. There are a few instances of ancient screens of considerable height immediately surrounding the altar. 134: As in Bottisham Church, Cambridge; Westwell, Kent; and most of our cathedrals. 135: Such galleries existed in the parish churches of Whitby, Yorkshire, and of Sandon, Staffordshire, a few years ago, but these have probably been since removed. 136: Rood is analogous to our common word _rod_. It is a Saxon word, and means a cross. 137: It is a question whether the order in the canons for placing the Commandments in churches was intended to be other than temporary. At the time few comparatively had Bibles or Prayer Books, so there was then a reason for the order, which no longer exists. One of many churches in which the Commandments were painted at an early date over the chancel arch, is Fordwich, Kent; the date is 1688. At Dimchurch, in Kent, there is an old painting of the Commandments over the chancel arch, and a modern one over the altar. 138: As at C.... Church, Kent. 139: "_Cancellæ_ are lattice-work, by which the chancels being formerly parted from the body of the church they took their names from thence. Hence, too, the Court of _Chancery_ and the Lord _Chancellor_ borrowed their names, that court being enclosed with open-work of that kind. And so to _cancel_ a writing is to cross it out with the pen, which naturally makes something like the figure of a lattice."--Pegge's _Anonymiana_. 140: Some of our chancels, however, were originally made considerably _lower_ than the nave. When the church has been built on a slope it has sometimes followed the fall of the ground from west to east.