PREFACE

Within comparatively recent years the discovery has been made that it is possible to treat the Bible, for critical purposes, as though it were an ordinary item of national literature, while maintaining a fitting reverence for it as the inspired Word; and that by so doing a flood of sidelight is cast upon it which illuminates the obscurity of some of its most difficult passages.

So, to compare lesser things with greater, it is possible and advisable to discard all feeling of ecclesiasticism (so to term it) when speaking of ecclesiastical antiquities. The science of ecclesiology is of comparatively recent growth, and it has hitherto suffered much at the hands of those who have approached it not so much to learn the plain lessons it teaches, as to force it to declare the existence or non-existence in early or {viii} mediaeval times of certain rites and observances. While we should treat ancient churches and their furniture with respect—a respect which should not be denied to the despised, though often quaint and interesting, high pews and west galleries—as being edifices or instruments formed for the use of the worshippers of God, yet for antiquarian purposes they should be examined and dissected in exactly the same spirit as that in which we investigate the temples of ancient Greece, or the stone weapons of prehistoric man. In this spirit the author of the present book has worked.

Ecclesiology, besides its sentimental connection with ecclesiasticism, possesses many features which render it the most popular branch of the great all-embracing science of archaeology. The objects with which it is concerned appeal strongly to the senses; the finest works of the architect, the limner, the silversmith, the engraver, the embroiderer, the illuminator, and the musician, come within its scope; they are accessible to all who live within reach of an ancient church or a moderately good museum, and the pleasant excursions and companionships with which its votaries are favoured invest its pursuit with the happiest associations. Above all, it lacks that terrible obstacle which lies at the threshold of almost every other subject of serious archaeological study—the necessity of attaining perfection in at least {ix} one foreign language. No one can form more than the merest dilettante acquaintance with the antiquities of India, Egypt, Greece, Ireland, or any other country, without mastering the language in which the records of the country are written; but the merest smattering of mediaeval dog-Latin is quite sufficient to open the door to high (not, perhaps, the highest) attainments in ecclesiology.

These manifold attractions have resulted in hampering the study of ecclesiology with a serious drawback, which is wanting in nearly all the other branches of archaeology. The investigation of the marvellous antiquities of the four countries just mentioned—or, indeed, of almost any other country—can be undertaken by a student with the certainty that if he applies himself to it sufficiently to master the many difficulties which will, no doubt, present themselves, he will be in a position to break ground as yet untouched; his knowledge will enable him to make original discoveries of his own. But it is far otherwise in ecclesiology. So easily understood are the facts of the subject (except in a few obscure points relating to the early Church); so definite are the statements of the numberless records, when the vagaries of symbolical theorizers are sifted away from them; so countless has been, and is, the army of students, that the scope for research-work is reduced to a minimum; hardly anything is left for the originally-minded {x} worker but to discover the personal names of the different artists whose handiworks he sees before him, or else to propound some startling and revolutionary theory respecting the use of low-side windows or Easter sepulchres.

In the subdivision of ecclesiology with which this book is concerned, originality, whether of fact or treatment, is practically impossible. This work cannot claim to be more than a compilation, but it can claim to fill a space not exactly occupied by any other book, in that it gives in a brief and convenient form the principal facts connected with vestments and their use throughout the chief subdivisions of the Christian Church; it is not, as are almost all other works on the subject, confined to one branch only, or at most to the great Churches of the West and the East, but includes as well the smaller and more isolated communities, and those branches of the Universal Church which have undergone reformation.

Exception may possibly be taken to the manner in which the alleged symbolism of vestments has been treated. But it is impossible to overlook the facts. If, as is now the opinion of every leading ecclesiologist, the vestments are the natural result of evolution from civil Roman costume, it is clearly ludicrous to suppose that when they were first worn they possessed the symbolical meanings they are alleged to bear; the symbolism is as {xi} much an accretion as are the jewels and the embroidery of the middle ages. Moreover, the symbolical meanings attached to them are so obviously the 'private judgments' of the writers who describe them, and are so irreconcilable and so far-fetched, that to the unbiased mind they do not appear worthy of serious treatment.

In some recent books on ecclesiological and antiquarian matters Greek words are transliterated into English characters. This practice has not been followed in the present work because of the unsatisfactory appearance of Greek words in Roman dress, and because the Greek alphabet is familiar to all students. Words of other languages, such as Russian or Armenian, are, however, expressed in English letters, as their alphabets are not so well known, and they are not so easily set up in native type.

I must record my indebtedness to my lamented friend the late Prof. Middleton for useful hints and assistance; to Dr F. R. Fairbank, of St Leonard's-on-Sea, for many notes and references which have been of great value to me, and especially for the loan of several blocks; to Mr W. J. Kaye for the loan of a rubbing of the Sessay brass; to the Rev. S. Schechter for kind assistance in questions which arose in the first chapter; to the Rev. A. D. A. van Scheltema for information regarding the Church of Holland; and for many helps and {xii} suggestions to my father, to whom, in acknowledgment of the interest he has throughout shown in the preparation of the book, I wish to dedicate it. A list of the principal works laid under contribution is given in an Appendix. R. A. S. M.