L I B RARY 
 
 OF THE 
 U N IV t RSITY 
 or ILLl NOIS
 
 /
 

 
 A FEW THOUGHTS 
 
 gnttrtor arransement of Cl)uvci)e5; ; 
 
 THE SUBSTANCE OF A PAPER 
 
 READ AT A GENERAL MEETING OF THE MEMBERS OF THE 
 
 EXETER DIOCESAN ARCHITECTURAL SOCIETY, 
 
 MARCH 24, 1842. 
 
 THOMAS HILL LOWE, 
 
 DEAN OF EXETER. 
 
 EXETER: 
 P. A. HANNAFORD.
 
 
 , UIUC 
 
 ''«cntA^'
 
 A FEW THOUGHTS 
 
 INTEEIOR ARRANGEMENT OF CHURCHES. 
 
 To prescribe rules for the construction of Churches, 
 or for their interior arrangement, is, of course, per- 
 fectly idle, unless we can discover in the objects for 
 which these sacred edifices are designed, or in the 
 general practice of the Catholic Church, some fixed 
 principles for our information and guidance. In com- 
 mencing an inquiry of this nature, the first thing 
 that strikes us is the remarkable fact that in the con- 
 struction of the Tabernacle (and of the Temple which 
 superseded it) everything relating to the form of the 
 edifice, the disposition of its parts and the arrangement 
 of its services, its altars and its furniture, even to the 
 minutest hooks, and cords, and pins, was done by 
 express Divine appointment, according to the pattern 
 which was showed to Moses in the Mount ; and in the 
 Christian Church we find that this Divine model was 
 afterwards adhered to, at least in its main features, as 
 closely as the different characters of the Mosaic, and 
 the Christian dispensations, and consequently of their 
 worship, would permit.
 
 It would lead us too far from our immediate subject, 
 to give a detailed account of the arrangements of the 
 Tabernacle and its services, all of which were designed 
 either to represent by sensible images the condition of 
 the Church under the first Covenant ; or to be types 
 and figures of that second Covenant, of which our 
 Lord Himself was the Mediator, and of that expia- 
 tion which He offered on the Cross for the sins of the 
 world. For our present purpose, it will be sufficient 
 to bear in mind, that the Tabernacle consisted of two 
 principal parts — an outer Court, and an inner Sanc- 
 tuary — that the people were admitted no farther than 
 into its outer Court, in which stood the altar of 
 burnt-offering, that at the upper or western extremity 
 of the Court stood the Sanctuary, or Holy place, and 
 that this was again divided into two parts, the first of 
 which, called by St. Paul a " worldly Sanctuary," was 
 designed to represent the world, or rather the Church 
 on earth, received into Covenant with God, but having, 
 as yet, no access to Him, except through the mediation 
 of the Aaronical priesthood ; and that the interior 
 Sanctuary, or Holy of Holies — the presence-cham- 
 ber, as it were, of God, who dwelt there in unap- 
 proachable light, under the symbol of the Shechinah, 
 which rested above the Cherubim of glory oversha- 
 dowing the mercy-seat — was a type of Heaven itself. 
 Into the first Sanctuary none but the Priests could 
 enter ; and into the second, or Most Holy Place, none 
 even of the Priests might set his foot, or look into 
 that which was within the veil, except the High 
 Priest alone, once in every year, on the Great Day of 
 Expiation, as a type of Christ ; " the Holy Ghost thus
 
 signifying that the way into the Holiest of all was not 
 yet made manifest." * Afterwards, when Solomon 
 erected his magnificent Temple on Mount Sion, the 
 Temple, properly so called, was surrounded by other 
 Courts for the reception of different classes of wor- 
 shippers, who were permitted to enjoy a nearer access 
 to God, in proportion to the degree in which they 
 submitted to the requirements of the Mosaic law. 
 Those who simply renounced Polytheism, were admit- 
 ted only into the outermost Court, called the Court of 
 the Gentiles ; but none were suffered to enter into 
 the Court of the Worshippers, unless they had been 
 received into Covenant with God by circumcision, and 
 had thereby bound themselves to the observance of that 
 law in all its fulness. 
 
 Such were the arrangements of the Jewish Temple ; 
 and this Divine pattern was, in all its main features, 
 so closely, and so universally adhered to in the Chris- 
 tian Church, as to render it highly probable that this 
 was done in obedience to apostolical precept and ex- 
 ample. For though the poverty of the first Christians, 
 and the persecutions under which they laboured, did 
 not allow them to erect stately edifices for the purposes 
 of Divine worship, they did what they could ; and it 
 is evident that, from the earliest periods, they had 
 houses, or at least, spacious rooms, according to their 
 means, which were set apart for the purpose of holding 
 their religious assemblies, and the ministration of the 
 Word and Sacraments. There are many indications of 
 this in the Acts of the Apostles, and in other of the 
 apostolical writings ; one of the clearest is that pas- 
 * Heb. ix.8.
 
 sage in which St. Paul reproaches the Corinthians 
 with their profane manner of receiving the Holy Eu- 
 charist, and making no difference between the Lord's 
 supper and their ordinary meals. " What, have ye 
 not houses to eat and to drink in ? or despise ye the 
 Church of God?"* and the earliest is in the second 
 chapter of the Acts, where St. Luke says that the 
 Apostles continued " breaking bread," not as our trans- 
 lation has it " from house to house," but x-ar oikov, 
 "'in the house" — that is, the place in which they 
 met for the purpose of Divine worship. The epistle of 
 St. Clement of Rome, a contemporary of the Apostles, 
 to the same Corinthians, contains a decisive proof, not 
 only that certain places were in his time set apart 
 for the service of God and His offerings, but that they 
 were regarded by him as being so set apart by Divine 
 appointment. " We should do," he says, " according 
 to order, and at the appointed times, whatsoever The 
 Lord has commanded to be done. He has commanded 
 us to make our oblations, and to perform our religious 
 services, not in a hasty or disorderly manner, but at 
 certain appointed times and seasons ; and He himself 
 
 * Mede has shown that S. S, Augustin, Basil, the author under 
 the name of St. Jerom, St. Chrysostom, Sedulius, (Ecumenius, and 
 Theophylact, in their comments on this passage, took the word 
 Church, not for the assembly, but the place of Avorship. The words 
 of St. Augustin quoted by him are very striking : " Ecclcsia dicitur 
 locns quo ecclesia congregatur. Nam ecclesia homines sunt, de 
 quibus dicitur ' ut exhiberet sibi gloriosam ecclesiam.' Hanc tamen 
 vocari etiam ipsam Domum Orationum, idem Apostolus testis est, ubi 
 ait ' Ninnquid domus vos habetis, ad manducandum et bibendum ? 
 an ecclesiam Dei contemnitis ? ' et hie quotidianus loquendi usus ob- 
 tinuit, ut ad ecclesiam prodire, aut ud Ecclesiam confugere non dicatur, 
 nisi quod ad locum ipsuni pariefes-qnc, prodierit vol confugerit, quibus 
 ecclesije congregatio continctur." — Qua?st. 57, in Levit.
 
 has, by His sovereign will, appointed the places where, 
 and the persons by whom they should be performed ; 
 that all things, being done in a religious manner and 
 according to His good pleasure, may be acceptable to 
 him.""* In the next century, his namesake of Alex- 
 andria speaks of the Church as if that word, in its 
 customary and more obvious signification, was already 
 used to designate the place of worship rather than the 
 assembly of the worshippers.-f* Tertullian, in the be- 
 ginning of the third century, speaks of the Church in 
 this sense, as the " House of God,"! and expressly 
 disting-uishes the Baptistery § from the Church ; and 
 St. Cyprian, || in an epistle to Cornelius, speaks of 
 the Church as the place in which God'^s Altar stood, 
 and the conclave of sacred and venerable clergy sat 
 together. It is needless to multiply examples. 
 
 The first Churches were, of course, extremely 
 simple ; but even in these it is probable, if not cer- 
 tain, that, under much diversity of external appear- 
 ance, the same general arrangement of the interior 
 was observed, as that which we collect in complete 
 detail from the descriptions which Eusebius and So- 
 crates ^ have left of the Churches built by Constantine ; 
 
 and more especially from 
 
 the 
 
 panegyric oration pro- 
 
 nounced 
 
 by the former in 
 
 the 
 
 presence of the 
 
 Bishop 
 
 Paulinus, 
 
 at the consecration of the magnificent 
 
 temple 
 
 which that Emperor erected at 
 
 lyre, i 
 
 
 * Clem. 
 
 Rom. ad Cor. I. c. 40. 
 
 
 + Clem. Alex. Strom. 7. 
 
 X Tertull 
 
 . De Idol. c. 7. 
 
 
 § De Coron. IMil. 
 
 c. 3. 
 
 II Cj'prian Ep. 590, ed Potter, 
 
 
 
 
 IT Euseb 
 l.i. 17. 
 4 Euseb. 
 
 de Vita Constant. 1 
 
 iii. c 
 
 . 50, 51, and 1. iv. 58. See. 
 
 H. E. 1, X. 4. 
 
 

 
 10 
 
 These churches were generally divided into three 
 parts ; the Narthex, the Naos, and the Bema ; for we 
 need not notice the -rg^/SoXov, or outward narthex, 
 answering nearly to our churchyard ; nor yet the 
 ''Ai^^iov, or Atrium, an open cloister, beyond which 
 the first class of penitents were not permitted to go. 
 In this court there commonly stood one or more large 
 fountains for the use of persons entering into the 
 Church — a custom mentioned by Tertullian,* derived, 
 probably, from the Jewish Church, and alluded to 
 by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews.*|* The 
 narthex, which was so called fi-om its narrow and 
 wand-like form, | was appropriated to the Catechumens, 
 and to the second class of penitents, who were called 
 audientes, because they were permitted to hear the 
 reading of the Scriptures and the sermon. In this 
 part of the Church, which occupied the entrance, the 
 font was placed, when separate baptisteries had fallen 
 into disuse ; and here also, heathens, heretics, and 
 schismatics, were admitted amongst the Hearers. This 
 portion of the sacred edifice — the narthex, answered 
 closely to the Court of the Gentiles in the Jewish 
 Temple, and was required for the purposes of mark- 
 ing the distinction between believers and unbelievers, 
 and carrying out the penitential discipline which was 
 then in force. With the decay of that discipline its 
 use has ceased ; but possibly the narthex might be 
 restored with advantage in some of our Colonial 
 Churches, where the great mass of the people are 
 heathens, as in India and New Zealand ; more espe- 
 
 * De Orat. 11. t Heb. x. 22, % Siiicer in voc,
 
 11 
 
 cially, if anything like the ancient discipline conld be 
 restored with it. 
 
 We come now to those parts of the Church which 
 are strictly and universally necessary ; viz., the Naoc, 
 or nave ; and the B^^a, or chancel. The nave derived 
 its name fi'om the oblong shape in which it was gene- 
 rally constructed, resembling that of a ship ; upon 
 which account the Church, in its spiritual signification 
 was sometimes called the Ship of Christ ; and the 
 Ark of Noah was regarded as a type of it. It was 
 separated fi-om the narthex by the beautiful gates, 
 which were also called the royal gates ; as the Church 
 itself was called the basilica or the palace ; because, 
 though it commonly derived its title from the saint 
 or martyr to whom it was dedicated, it was regarded 
 as the palace of " God the King of all the Earth."" 
 Here the ordinary service, or Bllssa Catechumenormn^ 
 was celebrated ; and here stood the ambo, which was 
 sometimes called the B^^ooa avayvajaroov ; and, some- 
 times, though more rarely, the pulpit or tribunal, from 
 its being highly elevated, and ascended by steps. From 
 this spot the Gospels and Epistles were read aloud ; 
 and sometimes, for the convenience of being better 
 heard, it seems to have been used, as our modern 
 pulpits are, to preach from. Sermons, however, were 
 generally addressed to the people from the B^^xa, or the 
 steps of the altar,* and not from the ambo, which oc- 
 cupied the place which is, or should be, occupied by the 
 eagle in our Cathedral Churches.-f* In the time of 
 
 • " Ut plurimum Episcopi in gradibus altarif? concionabantur." — 
 Vales, in Sonat. 1. 6. 5. 
 
 t In Exeter Cathedral the eagle has been removed from its 
 ancient and accustomed position, before the steps of the altar, and
 
 12 
 
 Divine Service the men and women were kept separate, 
 and were arranged on opposite sides of the nave ; 
 the men, for the most part, occupying the right, or 
 south side, and the women the north, as they still 
 not un frequently do in some of our ancient rural 
 Churches. Sometimes, however, the women were 
 placed in galleries above. Both these customs, as 
 well as many of the arrangements of our Church 
 service, were borrowed from the practice of the Jewish 
 Synagogue. 
 
 The Btjijucc, or chancel, derived its Greek name from 
 the steps by which it was ascended, and its Latin name 
 from the cancelli, the screen, or lattice, by which it 
 was separated from the body of the Church. It was 
 also called the "Ay/of, or "Ayiov ayiuv,* by way of 
 eminence, and because it corresponded to the Holy 
 of Holies ; duffiatrryi^ioi^, because the altar stood in 
 it ; and the presbyterium, because in the greater 
 churches the throne of the bishop and the seats of 
 
 looking _/?om it, and has been placed, for the convenience of the 
 people, a great ])art of whom woidd not otherwise heai- the les- 
 sons, almost at the west end of the choir, looking towards the 
 altar. The old position both of the litany-desk and the eagle were 
 significant. The litany-dcsk looked towards the altar, because our 
 j^rayers and supplications are addressed to God ; the eagle, or read- 
 ing-desk looked from the altar, because the word of Gon comes forth 
 from Him to us. The change may be justified by necessity, but the 
 cause itself, which has made the change necessary, is a matter of 
 regret. 
 
 * In the following short passage of the oration of Euscbius, the 
 three titles "Kyiov aylcov, Bvaiaanqpiov, and "A^ara occur, e^' ciTraa-'i 
 re TO Tcov ayicov ayiov 6vaiaa-Trj piov iv /xecro) dels, avdis, koI 
 ToSf, ws av e'lrj toIs ttoWois ci^ara, to'ls dno ^v\ov irepdtppaTTe 
 BiKTvois. But the title ayiop ay'iav is here given to the altar itself, 
 as that by which the chancel was cliiefly sanctified.
 
 13 
 
 his presbyters were placed at the upper end, in the 
 apsis, behind the altar. The episcopal throne was 
 raised above the rest, and in the centre ; it was the 
 chair or seat — the cathedra or sedes — from whence are 
 derived our English names of cathedral and see. 
 Besides these more customary appellations, chancels 
 are sometimes spoken of as 'ASara and "A^yra, 
 because laymen, except as communicants, were not 
 permitted to enter them ;* and the hangings by which 
 the chancel was separated from the nave, were, with 
 the same allusion to the heathen mysteries, called zuru- 
 TiraaiJM (JjVGTikov, the mystic veil. It was on this 
 veil that Epiphanius tells us he found in the Church 
 of Anablatha in Palestine, the image of Cubist, or 
 of some Saint painted ; and as this was contrary to 
 Scripture, and to the usage of the Church, he tells 
 us that he caused it to be torn up, and ordered the 
 wardens to wrap the dead body of some poor man 
 in it, and to use it as a shroud or pall. And, in 
 conclusion, he requests the Bishop of Jerusalem, to 
 whom he wrote, to give orders that in future no 
 such veils should be hung up in the Church, as being 
 contrary to our religion. -f* 
 
 Within the veil, and in the middle of the chancel, 
 not close to the wall, as is now the custom, but in 
 advance of the Bishop's throne and the seats of the 
 Presbytery, stood the altar, or table of the Lord, un- 
 der a stately ciborium, or canopy. 
 
 * It appears from some of the writings of Dionysius of Alex- 
 andria, preserved by Eusebius, H. E. 1. vii. that la\niien and women 
 were communicated at the altar. 
 
 t Epiph. Epist. ad Joan. Hierosolymitan, vol. ii. p. 317.
 
 14? 
 
 A most groundless stress is sometimes laid on the 
 term Ly which the commnnion-tahle should properly 
 be designated ; so that -the respective customs of call- 
 ing it on the one hand an altar, and on the other a 
 table, are become the characteristic shibboleths of two 
 parties amongst us ; by one of whom the Holy Eu- 
 charist is regarded chiefly as a commemorative sacri- 
 fice, and by the other only as a commemorative feast. 
 But nothing can be more evident, than that in the 
 primitive Church both names were used indifferently. 
 St. Paul, I am sure, calls it a table — but it is remark- 
 able that, in the passage in which he so calls it, he 
 is drawing a strict parallel between the Christian sacri- 
 fice, and the Jewish and Heathen sacrifices which 
 imply the use of an altar, between the Lord's table 
 and the table of devils. Any person who reads the 
 passage with attention, and without prejudice, will see 
 that as by " the Table of Devils" the Apostle unques- 
 tionably means the altars on which sacrifice was offered 
 to the Heathen deities, so, by " the Lord*'s Table," he 
 means the altar on which the one great sacrifice of 
 the cross is commemorated and represented by the 
 Church. 
 
 On this subject there is much good sense, though 
 somewhat quaintly expressed, in Stavely's " History 
 of Churches in England." 
 
 " The holy table," he says, " and the altar, must not 
 be omitted without due regard, with one of which all 
 our churches were, and are still furnished, as being 
 necessary for the due celebration of the great mystery 
 of the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ. This, 
 in the primitive, and in the late reforming times, was
 
 15 
 
 and is a table, made and framed of wood ; whereat 
 Christians are to eat and drink, as best suiting to the 
 true notion of the Lord's supper. In the middle cor- 
 rupted times it was generally made of stone, as more 
 corresponding with the import of an altar whereon the 
 Sacrifice of the Mass was, and is still, offered up in the 
 Roman Church. 
 
 " Now, as there has been great difference in the 
 Church about the thing, so no less heats have there 
 been about the very name ; those that are altogether 
 for tables will not, by any means, endure them to be 
 called altars, as resolving to avoid the very shadow 
 of the sacrifice of the mass ; as those who are wholly 
 for altars, will not vouchsafe them the name of tables, 
 as being inconsistent with their real sacrifices, as they 
 esteem them, offered up upon the same. And yet, 
 in sobriety, why may not a Protestant properly enough 
 call it an altar, too, and that, not only in regard of the 
 sacrifices of thanksgivings and praises there offered up 
 to God, but also in regard of the celebration of the 
 commemoration of the true and only sacrifice made by 
 Christ of Himself once for the sins of the world, to be 
 continued by His institution till His coming again. 
 As on the other side, why may not a Papist call it a 
 table, from the comessation and feasting together, which, 
 as a federal rite, completes the notion of all sacrifices ? 
 so quacunque via accepta, this holy utensil may, upon 
 divers considerations, be styled both an altar and a 
 table, viz. : an altar, in respect of what is there offered 
 up to God, and a table, in respect of what is there 
 eaten and participated of by man ? And hence it 
 is, that frequently among the Doctors of the Church,
 
 16 
 
 it is sometimes called an altar, and sometimes a 
 table."* 
 
 Of those Fathers of the Church who most frequently 
 call it a table, there are few, if any, who do not at 
 least as commonly call it an altar,-f- and even when 
 they speak of it as a table, it is generally with the 
 addition of some impressive epithet, as the Holy, the 
 Mystic, the Tremendous, the Royal, the Divine, the Im- 
 mortal, the Sacred table — denoting its peculiar use in 
 the Christian Church, and signifying that it was the 
 table at which God vouchsafed to feed his worshippers 
 Avith the spiritual food of the most precious body and 
 blood of Christ, in all its life-giving properties and 
 efficacy,' through the consecrated symbols of bread and 
 wine. But though either of these terms may be em- 
 ployed in a sound Catholic sense, persons will probably 
 accustom themselves to speak of it as the altar, or the 
 table, according to the view they take of the import- 
 ance of guarding against the error of considering the 
 Blessed Eucharist only as a bare commemorative rite ; 
 or the error of regarding it as a true and proper sacri- 
 fice, in which that body of flesh and blood which our 
 Lord took of the substance of His Virgin Mother, is 
 again offered up for the sins of all the world. 
 
 Men of devout and thoughtful minds, by whatever 
 name they call the Lord''s table, will meditate with 
 reverence on the greatness of their blessing in being 
 permitted to approach it ; and, instead of hastily con- 
 demning, as trifling or superstitious, the ancient cere- 
 
 * Stavely ; History of Churches in England, chap. 13. 
 t In the Ruhrics of the first Liturgy of Edward Vlth, it is called 
 the altar, or God's hoard, indifferently.
 
 17 
 
 monial of the Olmrcli in the celebration of the Holy 
 Mysteries, ^^ill rather look through these outward cere- 
 monies, and above them, and beyond them, to the 
 spiritual truths which they were designed to represent. 
 
 In the chancels of the primitive, and of the medieval 
 Church, — till the rude hand of sacrilegious innovation 
 had plundered and defaced them — ever5i;hiug was a 
 type of Heaven, as it is represented in the visions of 
 the Apocalypse, and of the services which the blessed 
 angels perform before the throne of God. 
 
 The lamps burning on the altar, the incense offered 
 with the prayers, the golden vessels blazing with gems, 
 and everything that met the eye of the worshipper, 
 tended to fill his mind with religious, reverential awe, 
 and to make him feel how vast was the privilege which 
 he enjoyed of thus being admitted, through the blood 
 of Christ, as it w^ere, into the very presence of God, 
 and to hold communion with the saints in light. 
 
 There is only one other point in the interior arrange- 
 ment of the ancient Churches which it may be right to 
 mention, and that chiefly because of the manner in 
 which it bears on our present practice. On either side 
 of the chancels, or rather of the apsis, there were gene- 
 rally two rooms, or recesses, which were separated from 
 the rest of the chancel, much in the same way as the 
 chancel itself was separated from the body of the church. 
 On the north side was the diaconicum or vestry ; on the 
 south, the Yl^o^zdig, or oblationarium, called, in the 
 Liturgy of St. James, Tlcc^ur§u-7r&Zpy, or the side-table, 
 on which the offerings of the people were laid, and from 
 which the elements were taken to be consecrated on the 
 altar. And as our Chm-ch directs that the priest should
 
 18 
 
 himself place the holy elements on the Lord's tahle, a 
 Upo^iffic, or credence, as it was afterwards called, is still 
 required for the due celebration of the Lord's Supper, 
 and cannot be dispensed with, unless the vestry be so 
 close at hand that the officiating priest may readily take 
 from thence the elements for consecration, and make the 
 oblation. Whenever this is not done, as there is no 
 oblation, there is reason to fear that the Sacrament 
 itself is vitiated, as far, at least, as neglect, perverseness, 
 or wrong intention, on the part either of the priest or 
 the communicants, can vitiate it. 
 
 The other point arising out of the ancient position of 
 the diaconicum, on the north side of the chancel, is of 
 less importance; but still, as nothing is unimportant 
 which relates to the due celebration of this Divine 
 ordinance, it is right to notice it. In consecrating the 
 Eucharist, it was anciently and still is the custom, both 
 in the Greek and the Latin Church, and it was ex- 
 pressly required in the first Liturgy of Edward VI., 
 that the priest should consecrate the elements, " turning 
 him to the altar," as the present Rubric enjoins that he 
 should " stand before the table."" In the prefatory 
 Rubric of the Liturgy which is now in force, he is 
 directed to commence the service " standing at the 
 north side of the table " ; the Rubric, therefore, which 
 is prefixed to the prayers of consecration, coupled with 
 the ancient and universal usage of the Catholic Church, 
 leaves scarcely room for doubt, but that the framers 
 of our present Liturgy intended that the priest should, 
 in the act of consecrating the holy elements, stand in 
 front of the Lord's table, as he had always been accus- 
 tomed to do. It is contended, however, by Wlieatley,
 
 19 
 
 that the north side of the table was anciently regarded 
 as the front of it ; and that the modern practice, pe- 
 culiar to ourselves, of consecrating at the north end, is, 
 in fact, a return to the practice of antiquity. For 
 proof of this he alleges the testimony of Bishop 
 Beveridge, who, he says, has shown that whenever, in 
 the ancient Liturgies, the minister is directed to stand 
 before the altar, the north side of it was always 
 meant;* and for this he refers in a note to Beveridse's 
 Pandectffi Canonum,-f- and also to Renaudofs Oriental 
 Liturgies.^ Both his authorities fail him. All that 
 Beveridge says is, that the diaconicum, or vestry, was 
 always on the north, or right side, of the chancel, and 
 that the priests and deacons came from the vestry to 
 the altar, prostrating themselves before it. But this is 
 far from proving that the north side of the altar is its 
 front. The passage from Renaudot is the Rubric in 
 the Ordo Communis Liturgiae Secundum Ritum Syrorum 
 Jacobitarum, which directs the priest, after having him- 
 self communicated, " to take § the paten in his right 
 hand and the chalice in his left, and to come from the 
 north side of the altar to the south." But this Rubric, 
 if Wheatley were right in his interpretation of it, 
 which he clearly is not, would only prove that the 
 priest in that particular church, communicated himself 
 at the north side of the altar. 
 
 The practice, which has crept in amongst ourselves, 
 
 * Wheatley's Rational Illustration of tlie Book of Com. Praver, 
 Cliap. vi. 994. 
 
 t Beveridge Pandect. Canon, vol. ii. p. 76, § 15. 
 
 X Renaudot, Liturg. Oriental, vol. ii. p. 24. 
 
 § Sacerdos portal discum in dextcra sua ; calicem in sinistra ; 
 veuitfpic a latere Septcntrionali ad australe ; 9 c.
 
 20 
 
 is, I believe, different from that of all other Churches 
 upon earth, and has not even the authority of these 
 Syrian Jacobites to support it. Doubtless, the position 
 in which the priest stands in consecrating the Eucha- 
 ristic elements is not a matter of primary or essential 
 importance. But even in things indifferent, it is hardly 
 seemly to depart from ancient and universal usage ; 
 still less when that usage is probably, if not certainly, 
 sanctioned by our own Church. She has given the 
 reason why she requires that the priest, when he con- 
 secrates the elements, should quit his position at the 
 north side of the Lord's table, and place himself before 
 it, viz. that " he may with the more readiness and 
 decency break the bread before the people, and take 
 the cup into his hands."" Now the paten and chalice 
 can hardly be reached " with readiness and decency," 
 whilst the priest is standing at the side of the table ; 
 especially if he has to get at them over the great 
 cushion, on which the service-book is now commonly 
 placed. If the priest, therefore, consulted either ancient 
 usage, or his own convenience, as well as for decency's 
 sake, he would consecrate the elements in front of the 
 table ; and if the Church had meant that, after having 
 arranged the bread and wine, he should return again 
 to the north side, and there recite the prayer of conse- 
 cration, contrary to all former usage, it can hardly be 
 conceived that she would not have said so in explicit 
 terms. Had such been her intention the Rubric would, 
 probably, have been worded thus : " When the priest, 
 standing before the table, hath so ordered the bread and 
 wine, that he may with the more readiness and decency 
 break the bread and take the cup into his hands, he shall
 
 21 
 
 then return to the north side, and say tlie prayer of con- 
 secration, as folio weth." 
 
 Our inquiry into the construction and arrangement of 
 the most ancient Christian Churches — a construction 
 and arrang-ement which were unquestionably copied 
 from the Divine pattern of the Tabernacle — will now 
 enable us to lay down some fixed principles for our 
 OTvn guidance in building or restoring churches. To 
 the integi-ity and completeness of a Church, it is re- 
 quired that it should consist of a nave and a chancel, 
 corresponding to the sanctuary and the holy of holies in 
 the Temple. For though, under the Mosaic dispensa- 
 tion, none but the priests and Levites were admitted 
 into the sanctuary, which was a type of the Church on 
 earth, and from the holy of holies, which was a type 
 of Heaven, even they were excluded; whilst in the 
 Christian Church the worshippers being, as St. Peter 
 says, " a royal priesthood," are not only admitted into 
 the nave, but into the chancel itself, the type of Heaven, 
 the presence-chamber of God, and are permitted to 
 feast at His table on the Bread of Life ; yet the 
 marked distinction between the nave and chancel, as 
 the respective types of the Church on earth and that 
 in Heaven, was unquestionably borrowed from the 
 Divine pattern of the Tabernacle ; and in a rightly- 
 ordered Church, as in the Tabernacle, spiritual truths 
 are embodied under sensible images, and are impressed, 
 on the minds of those who are taught their meaning, 
 with the utmost force and perspicuity. 
 
 These things, however, have been so utterly lost 
 sight of, that the Churches, as they are called, which 
 have been erected since the Reformation, have, for
 
 22 
 
 tlie most part, till very recently, but small pretence 
 to the character of Churches. They are, rather, 
 preaching-houses, and nothing more. Chancels they 
 have none ; but, in lieu of them, a shallow recess 
 to hold the communion-table, just like the thing 
 which is made to receive a side-board in a private 
 dining-room ; and this generally hid from the view of 
 the congregation by a pulpit standing right before it, 
 perhaps twenty-feet high, and a reading-desk to preach 
 the prayers from of scarcely less towering dimensions ; 
 and, instead of a capacious font of stone, significantly 
 placed at the entrance of the Church, Avhich with us 
 is invariably to the east,* they have a little basin, or 
 cup, perched on something like a flower-stand, either 
 close to the altar-rails, or, perhaps, within them. All 
 these Puritanical abominations are the natural growth 
 of that departure from Catholic principles, which it 
 was once the glory of our Church to have preserved 
 and restored to their pristine purity, that depreciation 
 of the blessed Sacraments, and that undue exaltation 
 of preaching, which are the pride of Dissenters and 
 the shame of Churchmen ; and in this city and its 
 neighbourhood, as in all other parts of England, we 
 may find abundant specimens of some, or all, of these 
 imseemly and irreverent abortions. 
 
 But if we turn from these anomalous structures to 
 the Churches which our forefathers have left us, how- 
 ever small or mean they may be in other respects, or 
 whatever superstitious images may have defaced their 
 
 * Tliis is so assumed by the Cliurch, tliat tlic Rubric in the 
 Communion Service simply directs that the Priest should stand on 
 the norlh side of the altar.
 
 23 
 
 rood-lofts and altars, — in the construction of their 
 houses of God they strictly adhered to those Catholic 
 models to which, by God's blessing, we are beginning 
 to retm'u. 
 
 Looking, then, to the universal usage of the Church 
 from the earliest periods of which we have any record, 
 it is clear, not only that every Church should have a 
 chancel, but that the chancel should be sufficiently 
 spacious to admit the whole body of communicants, 
 and, consequently, that it should not be of less propor- 
 tions than one-third of the nave ; that instead of being 
 shoved under the gallery at the entrance of the Church 
 — as we may see it in some modern Chapels, — it should 
 stand at the upper, or eastern end, and be raised above 
 the nave by steps, and separated from it by an open 
 screen ; that, as a type of Heaven, it should be 
 adorned, and rendered as fit a representation of the 
 presence-chamber of the Deity as our means will 
 afford ; that it should be exclusively set apart for the 
 celebration of the Holy Mysteries ; that every secular 
 association should, as far as possible, be excluded from 
 it ; and that none, even of the offices of the Church, 
 except the sacrifice and feast of the Eucharist, should 
 be performed within its hallowed enclosure. 
 
 The only apparent exceptions to this rule, are the 
 solemn offices of Confirmation and Ordination, both of 
 which, though not sacraments in the sense in which 
 Baptism and the Lord's Supper are Sacraments, are 
 strongly impressed with a sacramental character. The 
 performance of these holy rites is strictly reserved to 
 those of the Episcopal order. By the first, the cate- 
 chumens are qualified to become communicants, and
 
 24 
 
 to present themselves at the Lord's table ; by the 
 second, the clergy are ordained and appointed to mi- 
 nister at the altar, and to execute the offices of priests 
 and deacons in the Church of God. 
 
 It was doubtless necessary, at the era of the Re- 
 formation, to remove from the rood-loft and the altars 
 the crucifixes, images and relics, Avhich, with whatever 
 pious intention they had been originally placed there, 
 had been abused to gross superstition ; for had they 
 been in themselves as sacred, as venerable, and as au- 
 thentic as that brazen serpent which Moses set up in 
 the wilderness, and which remained till the time of 
 Hezekiah, yet when they became, like that most holy 
 relic, objects of superstitious adoration, the fathers of 
 our Reformation piously and wisely followed the ex- 
 ample of that good king in destroying them — and 
 Heaven forbid that they should be restored. But 
 when the rash hand of fanatic innovation in its blind 
 and indiscriminating zeal, not only removed the images, 
 but broke down the screens by which the chancels 
 were separated from the body of the Church, and 
 threw them open, and admitted the mass of the 
 people to occupy the sacred precincts, the religious 
 reverence with which they had hitherto been regarded 
 was exchanged for an irreverent contempt, far more 
 injurious to the cause of piety than the most mis- 
 taken superstition ; and we may now see in most 
 of our rural Churches a rabble of boors and boys 
 seated on the very steps and rails of the altar, 
 and the altar itself used to place their hats on, and 
 perhaps, at other times, and where there is no pro- 
 per vestry, employed as a table for the accommodation
 
 25 
 
 of the farmers in vestry assembled. This extreme 
 irreverence, and shocking desecration of holy things 
 is capable of no excuse. But the confounding of all 
 distinction between the nave and the chancel, has led 
 to some minor irregularities, which, as they tend to 
 make us forget that the chancel is, so to s^jeak, the 
 presence-chamber of God, require to be reformed. A 
 custom has long been growing up amongst us, and 
 is now become so general as to be almost universal, 
 of performing the marriage ceremony at the Lord's 
 table. Now this is done in direct contravention to 
 the intention of the Church, and the explicit direc- 
 tion of her rubrics, which prescribe that " the per- 
 sons to be married shall come into the body of the 
 Church with their friends and neighbours, and there 
 standing together, the man on the right hand, and 
 the woman on the left, the priest shall"" perform 
 the service. When the marriage is done, and the 
 blessing given, and not till then, by another rubric, 
 the priest and the clerks are directed to go to the 
 Lord''s table, saying or singing as an Introit, the 1 28th 
 or the 67th Psalm ; then follow certain prayers, with 
 another benediction, and a brief sermon, as prepara- 
 tory to the holy communion, which it is pronounced 
 " convenient that the new-married persons should re- 
 ceive at the time of their marriage." It is for this, 
 and for no other reason, that they present themselves 
 before the Lord's Table ; and unless they there re- 
 ceive the communion, it may well be questioned 
 whether this part of the service should be performed 
 at all. What business have Ave at that table 
 except as communicants ? Our present practice is
 
 26 
 
 contrary to the orders of the Church ; and it is 
 hardly possible that a rule so plain should hare been 
 so universally violated, had not the nave and chancel 
 been previously so confounded and thrown together, 
 as. to remove all apparent distinction between them. 
 To restore the screens in our old Churches may, at 
 present, be a matter of difficulty ; — but if they are 
 restored in those which are now being built, and the 
 chancels are appropriated, as they ought to be, to 
 that sole use for which they were exclusively de- 
 signed, holier and better principles would take root 
 amongst us, the good example would spread itself 
 abroad, and we shoiild more sensibly feel the blessing 
 of meeting in the House of God, and of being ad- 
 mitted into His presence, and should more earnestly 
 covet the inestimable privilege of receiving at his table 
 that heavenly and spiritual food which makes us 
 one with Christ, and gives us a present communion 
 with the Church in Heaven. 
 
 The desecration of our chancels, has led, by inevit- 
 able consequence, to the disregard and contempt of the 
 blessed Eucharist ; and the neglect of the Holy Com- 
 munion of the Lord's Supper, where all Christians 
 should meet together at " God's Board" (as our fathers 
 loved to call it), has not only fostered the growth of 
 sectarian principles, but by substituting a compulsory 
 poor's-rate for the free-will offering of the Eucharist 
 alms, has encouraged the systematic neglect and hard- 
 hearted treatment of those who by Christ's appoint- 
 ment are especially committed to the care of the 
 Church. The enormous evils which have resulted from 
 the spread of these principles — principles which are
 
 27 
 
 based on infidelity and selfishness — are universally felt, 
 and many vain attempts are made to remedy them. 
 The Freemason, instead of endeavouring to repair and 
 strengthen the Church, would erect a new brotherhood 
 on the principles of pure Deism ; the Socialist and the 
 Chartist would utterly overthrow the Church, which they 
 regard as the chief cause of all their wrongs ; and our 
 Legislature — once Christian, but now consisting of men 
 of all religions and of none — propound year by year, 
 their abortive schemes for the punishment of vice and 
 the suppression of pauperism, which serve only to show 
 that their authors neither regard this world as God's 
 world, nor the Church as a divinely-appointed institu- 
 tion for the cure of all its ills. 
 
 Those, meanwhile, whose minds are more deeply im- 
 bued with Catholic principles, who look back with affec- 
 tion and regret on the memorials of a better age, and 
 who feel how low we are fallen in almost everything 
 which relates to the Christian life, are invincibly assured 
 that in the Church alone, and in the full maintenance of 
 those principles of Catholic unity which she inculcates, 
 is to be found a cure for all the evils to which we are 
 subject, either as individuals, or as members of society ; 
 that she is the sole appointed guardian and interpreter 
 of sacred truth ; and that through her alone, and in the 
 sacraments of grace, of which she is the dispenser and 
 steward, we can have full communion with God, and be 
 made partakers of the fulness of salvation, which is re- 
 served for His elect. And therefore it is, that they so 
 earnestly desire to revive the honour of the blessed 
 sacraments, to restore to the houses of God their due 
 reverence, and to make all Christians feel that the king-
 
 28 
 
 dom of God consists not merely, nor mainly, in a certain 
 system of religious doctrines, which every one is to be- 
 lieve for himself, and to accept in the sense which his 
 own judgment prefers, but rather that it is a holy so- 
 ciety of which Christ is the Founder and the Head, 
 bound together in the unity of the Spirit, having one 
 faith, one hope, one bond of love, and maintaining 
 through the grace of the same sacraments an uninter- 
 rupted fellowshijD with one another and with God. 
 
 As, in the material buildings which are dedicated to 
 the purposes of Christian worship, the chancel, with its 
 most holy services is designed to be a type of that 
 heaven, and that communion with God through Christ, 
 at which we aim ; so also the nave or body of the 
 Church should, in all its parts and arrangements, pre- 
 sent a type of the Church on earth, and exhibit by 
 sensible images the course and progress of a Christian 
 from earth to heaven. 
 
 The font, therefore, at which we are admitted by 
 baptism into the family and household of God, and 
 receive by spiritual regeneration the first seed and 
 principle of divine life, should stand conspicuously at 
 the lower end of the Church, and as near as possible 
 to its entrance. It should also be of stone, and of 
 sufficient capacity to permit the baptism of infants by 
 immersion ; and natural piety suggests that it should 
 be made, in all respects, as worthy as possible of the 
 great and holy purpose to which it is appropriated. 
 
 The reading-desk and pulpit, on the contrary, should 
 be placed at the upper end of the nave, and on either 
 side of it, and as near as may be to the arch of the 
 chancel, but never in the middle, so as in the smallest
 
 29 
 
 degree to intercept the view of the chancel and its holy 
 furniture ; and they should look downwards towards 
 the congregation, not only to denote that the word of 
 God comes from Him to them, but to avoid the irre- 
 verence of constraining the people to turn their backs 
 on the sanctuary, whilst they are listening to the Scrip- 
 tures, or the Sermon, or even following the minister in 
 oftering their prayers and supplications to Almighty 
 God. 
 
 For the same reason, no square pews should be per- 
 mitted ; to say nothing of the loss of space, the exclu- 
 sion of the poor, and the numberless inconveniences witli 
 which they are attended. If there must be pews, they 
 should be oblong, and all the pews or seats should be 
 so constructed that the whole congregation may have 
 their faces directed towards the east ; and they should 
 be of such dimensions that those who occupy them may 
 conveniently kneel, and of a moderate and uniform 
 height, with an open space, or avenue, between them, 
 leading directly up the centre of the nave, and display- 
 ing the altar to view, not only from the entrance of the 
 Church, but, if possible, from every part of it. 
 
 As the eyes of the Jewish worshipper were evermore 
 turned to the most holy place — that type of heaven, 
 where their God and King dwelt in the glory of the 
 Shechinali, " in light which no man might approach 
 unto" — so should the eyes of Christian worshippers be 
 turned to that point of God's house, where the holy 
 table stands, where Christ is more especially present, 
 and imparts Himself in all His fulness to the souls of 
 the faithful ; and to that point should all our jirayers 
 be directed ; and surely, if our chancels were, as they
 
 30 
 
 were of old, exclusively set apart for the celebration of 
 the holy mysteries, and furnished in a manner befitting 
 the presence-chamber, or, if you will, the guest-chamber 
 of our Lord, (and those who contend for the exclusive 
 use of the word table, instead of altar, are esjiecially 
 bound to see that the chancel is so set apart, and so 
 furnished,) we might soon expect to witness a revival 
 of something more like the principles of love and unity 
 by which the primitive Christians were distinguished. 
 Young persons, from the moment of their admission 
 into the assembly of the faithful, and their first parti- 
 cipation in the public prayers of the Church, would be 
 constantly looking forward and anxiously preparing 
 themselves for the time when, having been confirmed 
 by their bishop, they would be permitted to pass 
 through the chancel-arch, to join in the holy and 
 spiritual feast of the Lord"'s table, and to receive, as 
 it were from His own hands, " a pledge and assurance" 
 of their union with Him, and of their " right, through 
 that ineffable union, to the tree of life." Persons so 
 taught, and so disposed, would surely need no other 
 societies, nor bind themselves by any other vows to the 
 practice of temperance, or liberal almsgiving, or watch- 
 ful self-control, or any other Christian virtue ; but 
 living in constant communion with Christ, and with 
 one another, and deriving from Him unfailing supplies 
 of grace, they would have, even now, their conversation 
 in heaven, with God's angels for their guardians, and 
 His Holy Spirit for their Guide and Comforter. Of 
 course it is not maintained that such effects will be pro- 
 duced in every instance by these, or any other outward 
 aids to religious reverence ; nor, on the other hand, that
 
 81 
 
 religious reverence, and faith, and hope, cannot be ex- 
 ercised where these aids are either wanting, or purposely 
 rejected. But the question is, what are the respective 
 tendencies of the opposite systems ? which is best 
 adapted to beget reverential feelings towards God, and 
 to animate our faith and hope, by placing us, as it were, 
 in His presence, and making us feel that we belong to 
 the Communion of Saints, and are children of the 
 Resurrection ? 
 
 It ought not amongst Christians to admit of dispute, 
 that when we enter a Church, everything should make 
 us feel that we are in the house of God, and in the 
 presence of the Great King ; that the building is 
 His, that everything belonging to it is His, and, as 
 such, is to be regarded with reverence and awe. All 
 that savours of the world, all that may remind us of 
 human vanity, and mere secular distinction, must be 
 kept out of sight. When " the rich and the poor 
 meet together," they should meet as in the sight of 
 Him who is " the maker of them all," and the very form 
 and arrangement of the building, its walls covered, as 
 of old, with scripture sentences, its M'indows and mi- 
 nutest decorations, should speak to us as pilgrims who, 
 with God's word to guide, and his sacraments to 
 strengthen them, are journeying onwards to a better 
 country, and looking for the city which hath founda- 
 tions, " whose builder and maker is God."
 
 London : 
 
 rrinted by S. & J. Bentlcy, Wikou, and Fiey, 
 
 Bangor flouse, Slice Lane.