Part 1 (1/2)
Ecclesiastical Curiosities.
by Various.
The Church Door.
By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, B.A.
That first impressions have no small influence in moulding the opinions of most people can scarcely be denied; and therefore in our estimate of the architectural value of a church the door is an element of some importance. A shabby and undignified entrance raises no expectations of a lofty and solemn interior; and that interior must be emphatically fine, if we are not to read into it some of the meanness of its portal.
On the other hand, though the church be but plain and simple--so that it lack not a measure of the dignity which may well accompany simplicity--our thoughts will be raised and fitted to find in it something worthy of its high purpose, if we have been prepared by pa.s.sing through a n.o.ble porch, and beneath a doorway that speaks itself the entrance to no ordinary dwelling.
[Ill.u.s.tration: DOOR AT CROWLE CHURCH.]
In primitive times the approach to a church must have been full of dignity, the wors.h.i.+ppers being warned, by successive gates and doors, of the sacredness of the building which they were about to enter. Eusebius gives us a full account of a splendid church built at Tyre by Paulinus, from which we may gather the plan on which such buildings were erected in the primitive ages, when the means were forthcoming, and no opposition from the heathen world prevented.
The whole church at Tyre and its precincts were enclosed within a wall, at the front of which was a stately porch, known as the ”great porch,”
or the ”first entrance.” Pa.s.sing through this the wors.h.i.+pper entered the courtyard, or _atrium_, round which ran a covered portico, or cloister, and in the centre of which was a fountain, or cistern, of water.
Opposite the ”great porch” was the door into the church itself; at Tyre there were (as in many of our cathedrals) three such doors, a large one in the centre, flanked by smaller ones at some distance along the wall.
These opened into a vestibule, or ante-temple, from which admittance was gained into the nave of the church by yet another door or gate.
Each of the s.p.a.ces formed by these several barriers had its special use.
Within the _atrium_ all the wors.h.i.+ppers washed their hands as a preparation, both literal and emblematic, for a.s.sisting in the sacred mysteries; here, too, penitents under censure for the most flagrant sins remained during the divine offices, and besought the prayers of their brethren as they pa.s.sed on to those holier courts, from which for a time they were themselves excluded. Within this open courtyard, also, as in a modern churchyard, burials were sometimes permitted. The portico beyond the second entrance was the place for the ”hearers,” that is for those who were not yet sufficiently instructed in the faith to be allowed to be present except at the reading of the Scriptures and the sermons (these were catechumens in their noviciate and the heathens and Jews), and also for those Christians who were degraded temporarily to the same position as a penance for some sin. Beyond this portico, the nave was still further divided for the separation of different orders of penitents; so that the faithful in possession of all their privileges had quite a number of doors or gates through which to pa.s.s before reaching that place, immediately outside the apse, or chancel, which it was their right to occupy.
In order that the several cla.s.ses of persons attending church might be kept strictly within those portions of the building which were a.s.signed to them, a special order of door-keepers existed in the Church. The keys of the church were solemnly delivered to these _ostiarii_, and they were accounted to form the lowest in rank of the minor orders. The simple words of the commission, uttered by the bishop to the _ostiarius_, were, ”Behave thyself as one that must give an account to G.o.d of the things that are kept under these keys.” Such was the formula prescribed by the fourth Council of Carthage (398 A.D.), and found in the Roman ritual of the eighth century. This order of clergy was almost confined to the west, however; we find traces of its existence at one time at Constantinople, but for the most part the deacons guarded the men's entrance, and sub-deacons or deaconesses the women's, in the east.
[Ill.u.s.tration: WEST DOOR, HOLY TRINITY, COLCHESTER.]
In the earliest English churches the entrance was of a very simple nature; for the artistic skill of the people was small, and their ideals were unambitious. The buildings consisted of a nave without clerestory, and a chancel; the door being placed in the centre of the western wall.
A curious example of such a door meets us at Holy Trinity, Colchester, although in this case it gives admittance not into the nave directly, but through the ancient tower. This tower, the oldest part of the church, has been constructed of the fragments of buildings older still; the Roman bricks of the ruined city of Camulodunum having been used to form it. In the western side is a narrow doorway, contained by two square shafts with very simple capitals, and having a triangular head with an equally simple moulding by way of drip-stone. The date is supposed to be between 800 and 1000 A.D. A church perhaps yet older is that of S. Lawrence at Bradford-on-Avon, which has a good claim to be the veritable structure reared by S. Aldhelm in the first years of the eighth century. Here there is a northern porch of unusual size in proportion to the rest of the building; the entrance to which is by means of an arched doorway, tall and narrow. The narrowness of some of these ancient doorways is remarkable. At Sowerford-Keynes is one, now built up, which, though nearly nine feet high, is but 1 foot 9 inches wide at the springing of the arch, widening towards the base to 2 feet 5 inches. The jambs are of ”short and long” work, and the abacus has a very simple zig-zag moulding. The arch itself is not built up, but carved out of one stone, which is cut square on the upper side and scooped into a parabolic curve on the lower. A double row of cable moulding decorates it. This, which has been called ”one of the most characteristic specimens of Saxon architecture in England,” was the northern entrance to the church. Another instance of a western door of simple design is supplied by Crowle, or Croule, in north Lincolns.h.i.+re.
Here we meet with a rectangular doorway, the top of which is formed of one long stone, on which is some antique carving and a fragment of a runic inscription.[1] Above this is a tympanum filled with diamond-shaped stones of small size.
[Footnote 1: See a full account of this stone in ”Bygone Lincolns.h.i.+re,”--Vol. I, William Andrews & Co.]
With the rise of the so-called Norman style of architecture the doors of our churches took a handsomer form; and as the churches themselves were now formed on a larger and n.o.bler plan, more than one entrance was often required. The usual door for the people was now commonly placed at the south side, except in churches connected (as were so many of our cathedrals) with monastic foundations. In this latter case the south side was generally occupied by the cloisters and other conventual buildings, and the people's door was therefore placed upon the north side. At this period, too, the church-porch begins its development; for, although porches in a strict sense were at any rate not usual, the door-way deeply sunk in the ma.s.sive wall and protected by three, four, or even more concentric arches, suggests the more fully developed shelter of the porch. Of doors of this kind any of our older abbey-churches will supply adequate, and often splendid, examples. The great north door of Durham Cathedral, and the smaller, but not less beautiful doors into the cloisters there, are fine instances. The west and north doors of the little cathedral of Llandaff supply examples in another cla.s.s of building; and even small and obscure parish churches are sometimes dignified with the possession of an entrance full of the ma.s.sive solemnity of this Norman work. The village church of Heysham, on Morecambe Bay, has a south door well worthy of mention in this connection; and the Lincolns.h.i.+re church already cited, Crowle, has an interesting doorway of this kind.
As art progressed in Christendom, and exhibited its growing force especially in the churches, the entrances thereto shared in the increasing splendour of the whole. The mouldings of the arches and the pillars, the elaboration of capitals and bases, all showed the evidence of devotion guided by taste and skill. And often something more than mere decoration was attempted; the opportunity was seized to add instruction, and figures of saints and angels, or complete scenes from scriptural or ecclesiastical story, filled the expanse of the tympanum or the niches of the columns. About the twelfth century, also, it became customary to divide the main entrance into two by means of a pillar, or a group of pillars; the two-leaved door being thus made symbolical of the two natures of Christ, of Whom, as Durandus tells us, it is itself the emblem, ”according to that saying in the Gospel, 'I am the Door!'”
The Continent presents some splendid examples of these decorated porticoes. The cathedral of Strasburg, preserved as by a series of miracles in spite of every danger that can a.s.sail a building, fire, lightning, earthquake, and cannonade, has a very grand west entrance; its tall doors set within a number of receding arches, and the sharply-pointed gable which crowns them flanked and crested with tapering pinnacles. The French artists of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were unrivalled in the beauty and wealth of statuary with which they adorned their churches, and not least their doors. ”The glory and the beauty” of the great porch at Amiens has been set forth fully by Ruskin, who has woven into one wonderful whole the meaning of the statues, which, like ”a cloud of witnesses,” throng the western front.
But Amiens is not alone; S. Denis, Paris, Sens, Angouleme, Poictiers, Autun, Chartres, Laon, Rheims, Vezelay, Auxerre, and other cathedrals are all magnificent in this respect. The princ.i.p.al entrance to Seville cathedral is flanked by columns upholding niches filled with figures of saints and angels, while the tympanum contains a carving of the entrance of the Saviour into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday. In the island of Majorca, the south door-way of the cathedral of Palma is exceptionally beautiful. The statue of the Blessed Virgin crowns the centre column, and above is the Last Supper. A record of the architect of this splendid piece of work is preserved in an old account book of the cathedral: ”On January 29th, 1394, Master Pedro Morey, sculptor, master artificer of the south door, which was begun by him, pa.s.sed from this life. Anima ejus requiescat in pace. Amen.” The entrance in the west front is also a fine one, and is inscribed, ”Non est factum tale opus in universis regnis.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: WEST DOOR, HIGHAM FERRERS CHURCH.]
Although in England we cannot match the gorgeousness of detail exhibited by the flamboyant architecture of some of the examples above noticed, yet we too have instances of which we may well be proud. The western front of Peterborough cathedral, over the partial renovation of which there has recently been so much controversy between architects and antiquaries, has been p.r.o.nounced to be ”the grandest portico in Europe;”
but this has reference to the whole facade rather than to the door-way in itself. If our subject allowed of our taking so wide a view, the splendid west fronts of Exeter, York, and others of our minsters, would demand a place of honour in the list. Gloucester cathedral has a dignified porch over the south door, in which are the figures of a number of saints. The west door of Rochester is also interesting; its decorated Norman arches are richly carved, and enclose a tympanum covered with characteristic sculpture. Of a different type is the graceful west door at Ely, whose pointed arches are upheld by delicately cut shafts, the tympanum over the twin doorways being pierced by a double trefoil within a vesica. The parish church of Higham Ferrers has double western doors, separated by a bold shaft, above which is a niche (now unoccupied) for a statue. The tympanum, anciently divided by this figure, has five medallions on each side filled with sculptured scenes from the New Testament, round which runs a scroll of conventional foliage. The neighbouring churches of Rushden and Raunds have also good double-leaved doors. To take one instance from the Northern Kingdom, S. Giles's, Edinburgh, has a dignified west entrance. Many of the better examples of our modern churches have admirable porticoes, of which one example must suffice. All Saints' Church, Cheltenham, has double doors within receding arches; the tympanum has the figure of Our Lord enthroned in glory surrounded by the saints, and the central shaft and the side pillars contain other statues.
There is occasionally found in a cathedral, or other large church, a porch of unusual depth, known as a Galilee. Here, during Lent, those a.s.sembled who were bidden to do public penance; the coming of Maundy Thursday being the signal for their admission once more into the church itself. Ely has a western Galilee entered by an arch, divided by a central pillar, and filled in the upper part with tracery. Lincoln has a Galilee, deep and dignified in plan, with a vaulted roof. Another English cathedral so provided is that of Chichester; and among parish churches the Galilee is found at Boxley, Llantwit, Chertsey, and S. Woolos.