Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/37

 n s. in. JAN. 14, 1911.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

31

necessary, the subject having been discussed in previous volumes.

As a guide to J. D. and others, it may be permissible to say that for deflection of chancels, see 2 S. xi. 55 ; 10 S. viii. 392 ; Seroux d'Agincouit, ' History of Art by its Monuments,' vol. ii., pi. xiv., xvii. ; vol. iii. pi. xxvii., xcviii., cxxxiv., cliv. ; Lasham, * Three Surrey Churches,' pp. 88- 109 ; Planche, * A Corner of Kent,' pp. 410-12 ; Atkinson, ' Memorials of Old Whitby,' pp. 104, 110, 124, 126, 129, 147-8, 149-51.

For the other points see 2 S. x. 68, 118, 253, 312, 357, 393 ; xi. 34, 55, 412 ; 7 S. i. 387, 435 ; vii. 251, 470 ; Arch. Journal, iii. 299, 308 ; iv. 314-26 ; The Reliquary, ix. 9-16 ; The Ecclesiologist, New Series, vii. 65-75, 101-2, 141-2; viii. 166-71, 288-90, 374-5; ix. 113-17, 187-9, 252-3, 348-52.

It would assist materially if J. D. could supply a fuller description of the two churches he mentions, or give references to where descriptions can be obtained. For instance, according to a gazetteer I con- sulted, there are about a dozen Rothenburgs in Germany and Switzerland.

A. RHODES.

[We cannot afford space for the further dis- cussion of such a wide subject, but will forward any letters to MR. RHODES.]

When I was visiting Garway Church in Herefordshire several years ago, an opening high up in the wall of the part connecting the church with the tower was pointed out to me as an example of a "poor souls' light."

R. B R.

South Shields.

Father Thurston, S. J., in ' The Catholic Encyclopaedia,' iii. 507, writes :

" A curious feature found in many churchyards from the twelfth to the fourteenth century, especially in France, is the so-called lanterne (fes worts, a stone erection sometimes 20 or 30 feet high, surmounted by a lantern, and presenting a general resemblance to a small lighthouse. The lantern seems to have been lighted only on certain feasts or vigils, and in particular on All Souls' Day. An altar is commonly found at the foot of the column. Various theories have been suggested to explain these remarkable objects, but no one of them can be considered satisfactory."

One may compare the French and Italian custom of putting lighted candles on graves on All Souls' Eve.

Mr. Leopold Wagner, in his ' Manners, Customs, and Observances,' p. 270, states

that in the time of the Druids the ancient Irish prayed to Saman, the Lord of Death, in front of their lighted candles, for the souls of their departed relatives. Father Thurston in ' The Catholic Encyclopaedia,' iii. 247, says : "St. Cyprian in 258 was buried proelucentibus ceris"

At the present day, at all solemn Requiem Masses, lighted tapers are held in the hands of some or all of those who assist, both among those who follow the Byzantine Rite and among those who follow the Latin.

JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

Mueller and Mothes in their (German) leuchte,' quote the following passage from Petrus Venerabilis (died 1156) to explain the use of these lights :
 * Archaeological Dictionary,' s.v. ' Todten-

" Obtinet medium cimeterii locum structura qusedam lapidea, habens in summitate sua quanti- tatem unius lampadis coparum quse ob reverentiam fidelium ibi quiescentium totis noctibus fulgore suo locum ilium sacratum illustrat."

According to the same authors, such lights were either burnt on isolated columns or in stone lamps attached to church walls. Examples of the former kind are still extant in France (12th century) and Germany (13th to 16th centuries). In Germany their use was abandoned about the latter date.

Illustrations are given in the book of an isolated light in Freistadt (Upper Austria) dating from about A.D. 1488, and of an attached lantern against the wall of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna (A.D. 1502).

Other examples mentioned are those at Schulpforta (13th century), Regensburg (Cathedral, 14th century), and Klosterneu- burg (A.D. 1381), the last being about 30 feet high. Others are to be found in Austria and Westphalia, but the localities are not given.

Tapers and lamps are nowadays stUl burnt on graves in Roman Catholic cemeteries on the Continent, but only on one evening in the year, viz., on All Souls' Eve. L. L. K.

In a very few remote Roman Catholic villages in Germany, e.g., in Westphalia, a " Totenlaterne " is lighted when a child dies. At the funeral the " Totenlaterne" is carried before the coffin to the graveside. When the burial service is over, the " Toten- laterne " is brought back to its place in the church and then extinguished. The Roman Catholic priest to whom I owe this informa- tion thought that nothing definite was known of the origin of this rare and almost forgotten rural usage.