Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/375

 12 S. ill Jt-LY, 1917.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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pany, but Davenport failed to realize his genius as an actor, and gave him the blunt advice : " Young man, get back to your scribbling." It was this disappointment which led Dickens to draw what Mr. Lander described as a " gross caricature " of Crummies and his family. Mr. Lander de- clared that Jean Davenport was noted for her beauty and grace, and that her hands were so remarkable that they often served as a model for celebrated sculptors. As he was adopted by Mrs. General Lander on the death of his own parents he was intimately acquainted with the history of the Daven- port family. It would be interesting to learn if Dickensians agree that the Sirius was indeed the vessel which carried to America Mr. Vincent Crummies and his daughter. R. S. PENGELLY.

12 Poynder.s Road, S.W. 4.

THE ALPHABET IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH (12 S. hi. 271, 340). The alphabet ceremony forms part of the rite for the dedication of a church in the ' Pontificate Romanum,' and may be seen whenever a Catholic church is solemnly dedicated. After the entrance of the bishop and the introductory prayers, the bishop proceeds to the eastern corner of the nave on the left-hand side, and, passing in a diagonal line across the church, traces on the pavement with the end of the pastoral staff the letters of the alpha- bet. Then, going to the right eastern corner, he repeats the ceremony in another diagonal line across the pavement. " The present custom," writes Mgr. Duchesne, ' Christian Worship ' (S.P.C.K., 1903), at p. 409n., " is to trace the alphabet in Greek characters in the first line, and in Latin in the second. The ninth-century rituals do not note this distinction. The pavement is previously covered with ashes along the two diagonals, in order that the letters may be rendered visible."

As to the origin of the ceremony of the alphabet, Mgr. Duchesne (op. cit., p. 417) writes :

" It is unknown in the East ; and in the West ....it is not attested before the ninth century, even in the Frankish- Liturgy. From that date it is difficult to trace it back to its true source and to say whether it is Roman or Gallican. Sig. de Rossi (Bull., 1881, p. 140) points out interesting relations between this singular rite and certain Christian monuments on which the alphabet appears to have a symbolical significa- tion. He has removed all doubt as to the idea which suggested the ceremony. It corresponds with the taking possession of land and the laying down its boundaries. The saltire, or St. Andrew's cross (crux decussata), upon which the bishop traces the letters of the alphabet, recalls the two transverse lines which the Roman surveyors traced in the first iastance on the lands they

wished to measure. The letters written on this cross are a reminiscence of the numerical signs which were combined with the transverse lines in order to determine the perimeter. The series formed by these letters, moreover, that is the entire alphabet, is only a sort of expansion of the mysterious contraction A ii, just as the decussis, the Greek X, is the initial of the name of Christ. The alphabet traced on a cross on the pavement of the church is thus equivalent to the impression of a large sigmirn Christi on the land which is henceforward dedicated to Christian worship. This profound symbolism, as well as the ancient custom on which it is grafted, must go back to a time when barbarism was not yet dominant, and consequently far beyond the eighth century. This is all that can be said. There were Roman surveyors in other places besides Rome and Italy, and there is no indication that this curious transference of their practices originated in Italy rather than in Gaul or Spain."

For the alphabet on fonts, see Mr. Francis Bond's ' Fonts and Font Covers,' at p. 117 ; and for the alphabet on bells, see Mr. Walters's ' Church Bells of England,' at p. 329. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

Durandus, ' Rationale Divinorum Offi- ciorum,' lib. i. cap. 6, num. 20 sqq., gives an elaborate symbolical explanation of the practice at a consecration of writing the Greek and Latin alphabet with a pastoral staff on a cross of sand and ashes or the pavement of the church. Greek and Latin letters are employed to the exclusion of Hebrew, since the Jews have departed from the faith. The alphabet, thus inscribed on the cross stands for three things. (1) The Greek and Latin letters represent, the union in faith of Jews and Gentiles due to the cross, of Christ. The position of the cross, the limbs extending transversely from the right angle of the east to the left angle of the west, and vice versa, is a sign that the nation that was formerly on the right hand has now been placed on the left ; that which was at the head, at the foot ; and conversely, by virtue of the cross. This is worked out at some length. (2) The writing represents a page of each Testament that has been fulfilled by the cross of Christ. The transverse position of the cross indicates that one Testament is included in the other. (3) The articles of faith are hereby represented. For the pavement of the Church is the foundation of eur faith. The letters are the articles of faith in which the ignorant are instructed, whose duty is to regard themselves as dust and ashes. The writing of the alphabet on the pavement is the teaching of faith in the heart of man. The staff by which the lett ers are written is the teaching of the apostles, &c. EDWARD BENSLY.