Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/96

70 grandeur. There is every reason to suppose that this allegory was as frequently depicted in English churches during the fourteenth century, as that of the "Dance of Death," of which it may be considered the first idea, was at the close of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century. A remarkably well executed representation of it occurs in a manuscript Psalter of the early part of the fourteenth century in the Arundel collection in the British Museum. Two kings and a queen are represented as meeting three skeletons; above each of the figures is a sentence in English.

This valuable manuscript, which appears to have been executed in England, contains a contemporary note, that in the year 1339 it was given by John de Lyle to his daughter Audere.

The following remarks were submitted to the Committee of the Institute, by Mr. John J. Cole.

"Although it is said in the recent part of the Journal, that the intention or use of the singular openings in some churches called hagioscopes, lychnoscopes, low side windows, &c., has baffled the enquiries of ecclesiologists, I yet venture to offer another suggestion on the subject.

"It is this; that prior to the introduction of sanctus bell-cots, and commonly when these were not erected, then, at the low side window—the only real opening in the church except the doors, and this unglazed, but provided with a shutter—the sacristan stood, and on the elevation of the host opened the shutter and rang the sanctus bell, as directed, I think, in the ancient liturgy.—'In elevatione vero ipsius corporis Domini pulsetur campana in uno latere, ut populares, quibus celebrationi missarum non vacat quotidie interesse, ubicunque fuerint, seu in agris, sue in domibus, flectant genua.'—Constit. Job. Peckham, A.D. 1281.

"This rule could be better observed by means of a low side window, strictly regarding the words 'in uno latere,' than by a bell-cot which was probably an innovation, though an elegant one. There is no example of the latter, earlier perhaps than transition Norman, whereas of the former there is one of the Saxon period, it seems, at Caistor; and the cot was not as general as the window, which continued in use down to late Perpendicular. I need hardly observe that a hand-bell is still rung in Roman Catholic churches on the elevation of the host.

"I. H. P. finds the existing theories irreconcilable with the varied positions of the low side windows. In order to defend my own proposition, I would suggest that when, as usually, they were 'in uno latere,' the south