Chapter II: Appendix: III

References to pictorial illustrations in MSS. in the British Museum,
567.

DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.

BURIAL OF THE DEAD _Frontispiece_

The illustration taken from a French MS. of the middle of the
fifteenth century [Egerton 2019, f. 142, British Museum] will reward a
careful study. Begin with the two pictures introduced into the broad
ornamental border at the bottom of the page. On the left are a pope,
an emperor, a king, and queen; on the right Death, on a black horse,
hurling his dart at them.

Go on to the initial D of the Psalm _Dilexi quoniam exaudiet Dominus
vocem_: “I am well pleased that the Lord hath heard the voice of my
complaint.” It represents a canon in surplice and canon’s fur hood,
giving absolution to a penitent who has been confessing to him (note
the pattern of the hanging at the back of the canon’s seat). Next
consider the picture in the middle of the border on the right. It
represents the priest in surplice and stole, with his clerk in albe
kneeling behind him and making the responses, administering the last
Sacrament to the dying person lying on the bed. Next turn to the
picture in the left-hand top corner of a woman in mourning, with an
apron tied about her, arranging the grave-clothes about the corpse,
and about to envelope it in its shroud. In the opposite corner, three
clerks in surplice and cope stand at a lectern singing the Psalms for
the departed; the pall which covers the coffin may be indistinctly
made out, and the great candlesticks with lighted candles on each side
of it. All these scenes lead us up to the principal subject, which is
the burial. The scene is a graveyard (note the grave crosses)
surrounded by a cloister, entered by a gate tower; the gables,
chimneys, and towers of a town are seen over the cloister roof; note
the skulls over the cloister arches, as though the space between the
groining and the timber roof were used as a charnel house. The priest
is asperging the corpse with holy water as the rude sextons lower the
body into the grave. Note that it is not enclosed in a coffin--that
was not used until comparatively recent times. He is assisted by two
other priests, all three vested in surplices and black copes with a
red-and-gold border; the clerk holds the holy-water vessel. Three
mourners in black cloak and hood stand behind. The story is not yet
finished. Above is seen our Lord in an opening through a radiant cloud
which sheds its beams of light over the scene; the departed soul
[de--parted = separated from the body] is mounting towards its Lord
with an attitude and look of rapture; Michael the Archangel is driving
back with the spear of the cross the evil angel disappointed of his
prey. Lastly, study the beautiful border. Is it fanciful to think that
the artist intended the vase of flowers standing upon the green earth
as a symbol of resurrection, and the exquisite scrolls and twining
foliage and many-coloured blossoms which surround the sad scenes of
death, to symbolize the beauty and glory which surround those whom
angels shall wait upon in death, and carry them to Paradise?

_To face page_

ORDINATION OF A PRIEST, LATE 12TH CENTURY 94

Gives the Eucharistic vestments of bishop and priest, a priest in cope
and others in albes, the altar and its coverings, and two forms of
chalice.

ORDINATION OF A DEACON, A.D. 1520 146

Gives the vestments of that period. The man in the group behind the
bishop, who is in surplice and hood and “biretta,” is probably the
archdeacon. Note the one candle on the altar, the bishop’s chair, the
piscina with its cruet, and the triptych.

(1) AN ARCHDEACON LECTURING A GROUP OF CLERGYMEN ON THEIR SECULAR
HABITS AND WEAPONS, 14TH CENTURY 174

He is habited in a red tunic and cap, the clergy in blue tunic and red
hose and red tunic and blue hose.

(2) AN ARCHDEACON’S VISITATION 174

A CLERICAL PROCESSION 190

The illustration is taken from a French Pontifical of the 14th century
in the British Museum [Tiberius, B. viii.], and represents part of the
ceremonial of the anointing and crowning of a king of France. We
choose it because it gives in one view several varieties of clerical
costume. There was very little difference between French and English
vestments, _e.g._ the only French characteristic here is that the
bishop’s cope is embroidered with fleur-de-lys. On the left of the
picture is the king, and behind him officers of state and courtiers.
An ecclesiastical procession has met him at the door of the Cathedral
of Rheims, and the archbishop, in albe, cope, and mitre, is sprinkling
him with holy water; the clerk bearing the holy-water pot, and the
cross-bearer, and the thurifer swinging his censer, are immediately
behind him. Then come a group of canons. One is clearly shown, and
easily recognized by the peculiar horned hood with its fringe of
“clocks.” Lastly are a group of bishops, the most conspicuous bearing
in his hands the ampulla, which contains the holy oil for the
anointing.

The photograph fails here as in other cases to give the colours which
define the costumes clearly and give brilliancy to the picture. The
king’s tunic is crimson, and that of the nobleman behind him blue. The
archbishop has a cope of blue _semée_ with gold fleur-de-lys; the
water-bearer, a surplice so transparent that the red tunic beneath
gives it a pink tinge; the cross-bearer, a blue dalmatic lined with
red over a surplice; the canon a pink cope over a white surplice, and
black hood. The first bishop wears a cope of blue, the second of red,
the third of pink. The background is diapered blue and red with a gold
pattern. The wall of the building is blue with a gold pattern; the
altar-cloth, red and blue with gold embroidery.

INTERIOR OF A CHURCH AT THE TIME OF MASS 204

A SERMON 215

The bishop in blue chasuble and white mitre, people in red and blue
tunics, two knights in chain armour, late 13th century.

(1) BAPTISM BY AFFUSION 233

The male sponsor holds the child over the font, while the priest pours
water over its head from a shallow vessel. He wears a long full
surplice, his stole is yellow _semée_ with small crosses and fringed.
The parish clerk stands behind him, 15th century.

(2) BAPTISM BY IMMERSION 233

Here the priest wears an albe apparelled and girded, and an amice, but
no stole; the sitting posture of the child occurs in other
representations, 14th century.

CONFIRMATION. (From a printed Pontifical, A.D. 1520) 238

The bishop wears albe, dalmatic, cope, and mitre, the other clergy
surplice and “biretta.”

(1) PRIEST IN SURPLICE, CARRYING CIBORIUM THROUGH THE STREET TO A
SICK PERSON, PRECEDED BY THE PARISH CLERK WITH TAPER AND BELL 240

The ciborium, partly covered with a cloth, as in the illustration,
which the priest carries, is silvered in the original illustration,
and consequently comes out very imperfectly in the photograph.

(2) PRIEST, ATTENDED BY CLERK, GIVING THE LAST SACRAMENT, 14TH
CENTURY 240

BISHOP AND DEACON IN ALBE AND TUNIC, ADMINISTERING HOLY
COMMUNION 246

Two clerics in surplice hold the housel cloth to catch any of the
sacred elements which might accidentally fall.

CONFESSION AT THE BEGINNING OF LENT 334

The priest in furred cope, the rood veiled; the altar has a red
frontal. The two men are in blue habit. The woman on the right is all
in black; the other, kneeling at a bench on the left, is in red gown
and blue hood.

MARRIAGE 410

It represents the marriage of the Count Waleran de St. Pol with the
sister of Richard, King of England. The count is in a blue robe, the
princess in cloth of gold embroidered with green; the groomsman in
red, the man behind him in blue, the prince in the background in an
ermine cape. The ladies attending the princess wear cloth of gold,
blue, green, etc.; the bishop is vested in a light green cope over an
apparelled rochet, and a white mitre. The bishop (and in other
representations of marriage) takes hold of the wrists of the parties
in joining their hands.

VESPERS OF THE DEAD 458

The mourners in black cloaks are at the east end of the stalls; the
pall over the coffin is red with a gold cross; the hearse has about
eighteen lighted tapers; the ecclesiastics seem to be friars in dark
brown habit (Franciscans).

MEDIÆVAL NORWICH. (From Braun’s “Theatrum”) 492

MEDIÆVAL EXETER. (From Braun’s “Theatrum”) 498

MEDIÆVAL BRISTOL. (From Braun’s “Theatrum”) 500

KNIGHTS DOING PENANCE AT THE SHRINE OF ST. EDMUND 535

The abbot is vested in a gorgeous cope and mitre; one of the monks
behind him also wears a cope over his monk’s habit.

References to other pictorial illustrations in MSS. in the British Museum are given in Appendix III., p. 567.

PARISH PRIESTS AND THEIR PEOPLE.