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Vol. 1X._No. 29.
THE CATHOLIC HERALD
18 PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY BY
M. FITHIAN,
No. 61 North Second Street, Philadelphia.
Terms.—Three Dollars per annum, payable half yearly
én advance, Fiye Dollars will be received for 2 copies, or 1
copy for two years.’ All arrearages must be settled prior to
ordering a paper to be discontinued. All Communications,
except from Agents, or Subscribers enclosing remittances,
must be post paid, and addressed ‘ ‘Io the Editor of the
Catholie Herald, ‘Philadelphia, Pa,”
Poctry.
THE. SPIRIT-BAND.
BY MRS. R. 8. NICHOLS.
ay yiona (We are withme! Ye are withme!
Even at the morning's birth,
When her robes of light are loosened
O’er the fair and freshened earth;
Ye are with me—round about me,
Winged spirits of the skies,
Peopling airand space around me
Though unseen by other eyes.
AsI gaze upon your features,
To each linenment I trace,
Though you are but passing shadows,
Likeness to sume well-known face.
First thou comest, longest parted,
Bound by every tie to earth;
Slowly, sadly did we yicld thee,
“Knowing weil thine angel worth.
When the summer flowers were stricken
By the autumn reaper's breath,
Knowing thee as ripe for harvest, “
Cate the noiseless reaper, Death!
By the border lakes, whose: beauty
Cast around thy heart a spell,
Where thy fuorsteps oft have lingered,
There thy corse i@ sleeping well ‘
Ye are with me!‘ Ye are with me!
Atthe golden noontide buns,
And the spirit-gleam around me,
‘Vells ine of your hidden power.
There's another form beside me,
os Slight and fairy-like its frame ;°
Life was short, no years it numbered,
Earth searce stumped it wuha name t
YetL wept when thou did’st Jeave us,
And my heart is beating wild, ‘
As I gaze upon thine image,.
Aud recail my brother's child!
Ye are with me! Yeare with me!
At the twilight-hour of rest,
When the sunsct rears its banners
O'er the portals of the west.
Ilush thy moonings, gentle spirit,
Soft thy shadow fills on mine,
And an angel voice is whispering
“Lo! young mother, he is thine!”
Ay, thou'rt with them, loved and loving,
Naugbt could stay the tyrant’s band 5
j Ouward! still his course is onward,
O'er our bright and cherished Inad.
What to me are spring’s low breathings ?
7 Whatthe melodies that ring
Through our green and ancient foresis?
Thee, to me, not these can bring,
Thou art called the Awakener ;
But, sweet spring, thy ower bath fled,
' Task not thy birds nor flowers,
Wake for me thy holy dead ! .
Ye are withme! . Ye are with me!
When ‘the mournful midnight waves
‘ * < Woo the moon's unsteady gleamings
, As they lightthe new made graves!
What! thou, too, art gazing on me, :
With thy dark and eager eyes; fos ou te
Lavt to leave us—Joved most fondly—
hallte
Philadelphia, Thursday, September 30, 1841.
tt baf tick
When the low-voiced breeze is sighing
In its strange yet sweet unrest,
And the perfum’d urns are flinging
Odors on its peaceful breast,
‘Then these phantom forms flit by ne,
Breathing of a “ better land ;”"
Yet | feel most lone, when round me
Float the silent spixiT-BaNp.
From the Dublin Review.
ON THE PRESENT STATE OF ECCLESIAS-
TICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND.
(Continued from page 299.)
OF THE CHANCEL SCREEN, ROOD, AND ROOD LOFT.
From the earliest ages there has been a separation
between priest and people, between the sacrifice and
the worshippers, in every church. ‘They, have been
various in materials, in construction, and in arrange-
ment, but have always existed in some form or other.
In parish churches, these screens were generally built
of wood, and consisted of open tracery panels, from
about three feet from the floor, with an entrance capa-
ble ofbeing closed by doors with open panels ; their
height varies from eight to fifteen feet, according to the
seale of the church, and their breadth extends the
whole width of the chancel arch, or in a choir church
the breadth of: the nave. ‘The carving on many of
these screens is most varied and elaborate, and inde-
pedent of the important mystical reasons for.their erec-
tion, they form one of the inost beautiful features of the
ancient charehes, and impart much additional effect to
the chancel when seen through them. Like other parts
of the interior, these screens were enriched with paint-
ing and gilding, and on the lower panels it was cus-
tomary to figure saints. and martyrs ‘on diapered
grounds.(1)
THE ROOD LOFT
Was a gallery partly resting on the screen, and running
across the whole of its width, frequently supported on
arched canopied work rising from. the sereen, The
ascent to these lofis in large churches was usually by
two staircases ; but in smal] parish churches one awas
considered sufficient, It was carried up either in the
pier of the chancel arch, or in a small turret outside
the wall, and communicated with the rood loft by a
narrow gallery, of which there are several examples at
Stamford... We will not refer in this place to the nse
of these rood lofis or jubes in Jarge buildings, but eon-
fine our remarks to their purpose in parochial churches.
Their first and most important use was to serve as
an elevated place from. whence the holy Gospel might
be sungto the people, according toa most ancient and
universal practice of the church, of singing the holy
Gospel from a raised place.(2) |
2. The whole of the Passion of, our Lord was sung
from the rood Jofi;(3) the Gradual and other parts of
the mass were chaunted, and small organs fixed on the
rood loft.
3. Lessons were read from the rood loft. in many
churches, and holy days announced to the people.
(1] [tis not vnasual for modern artists to decry the an-
cient system of decorating churches with much paiating ;
but those who raise these objections seem to furget that
what is technically termed keeping, is quite as requisite
ina building as ina picture. The moment colour is intr
duced in the windows, the rest of the braameuts must cor-
respond,—the ceiling, the floor, all must bear their part in
the general effect. A stained window ina white church
is a mere spot, which, by its richuess, serves only to exhi-
hit ia a more swiking manuer the: poverty of the -rest of
the building.
jn the old churches, the azure and gilt ceiling, the en-
crusted of various colours, the frescoes oo the walls;
the heraldic charges, the costly hangings of the altars, the
variegated glass, all harmonized together, avd formed a
splendid whole, which can only be produced by the com-
bined effect of all these details ;—owit any of them, aad
the unity of the design is destroyed,
{2] The amboues of, the ancieut Basilicas served for
this purpase. :
3) * There was a fair rood loft, with the rood, Mary
and John of every side, and. with a fair pair of organs
staading thereby ; which loft extended all the breadth of
the church. Aud on Good Fridas, a priest there standing
by the mod sang the Passiva.”—Records of Long Melford
‘Thee I view with sad surprise.
Church, :
Whole Number 455
4, On great feasts, lights were set up in the rood lofts
and at Christmas and Whitsuntide’ it was decorated
with boughs and evergreens. . Imniediately in the cen-
tre of the Joft stood the rood or.cross, with an image of
our Lord crucified, and on either side the blessed Virgin
and St. John. ‘The cross was usually floreated,(4) ane
terminated at the extremities with quartrefoils, and
emblems of the four evangelists; on the reverse of
which the four doctors of the Church were not unfre-
quently carved.
‘To illustrate these sereens and roods, we have figured
various churches, either completed or in “course of
erechion.
The first is the interior of Si. Mary’s, Southport,(5)
See pl. X) of which an exterior prospect is given on
plate IX. ‘This church being exceedingly small, the
chancel screen is merely surmounted by the rood with-
out any loft; the screen’ as well as the cross are
diapered and painted from ancient examples. The
second is the nave of St. Alban’s church at Maccles-
field, just completed.» (See pl. XI.) Ilere is a regular
rood luit, ascended from a siaircase in the southern
chapel, twelve feet from the chancel floor, sirmounted
by across, with the usual accompaniments. ‘The images
of this rood are of ancient German work of the 15th
century, and were removed from their original position
during the invasion of the French.
The eastern window seen through the screen is
filled with rich stained glass, given by John ‘the pre-
sent Earl of Shrewsbury, a great benefactor to this
church. In the tracery are angels, habited in albs,
bearing scrolls with various scriptures, and shields with
emblems of our Lord’s passion; the ‘I'albot lion is also
introduced in the quartrefoils. wees
In the centre light is an image of ‘St. Alban, proto-
martyr of England, standing uncer a canopy ; the other
lights are: filled with quanied glass’ interspered with
emblems. ©. ‘ 4
The sedilia and dossell of altar are of stone 3 this
latier consists of a row of canopied niches, richly
carved and filled with images of aposiles. “»
On either side of the screen hang two damask curs
tains of crimson, and’a frontal is suspended before the
altares Atthe end of the ‘southern ‘aisle is a chapel
dedicated in honour of our blessed Lady, and divided
off by an open screen in a stone arch.’ The charch is
capable of accommodating from eight hundred’ to one
thousand persons, and its total cost, with the. tower
coarplete, will be about £6000,
‘The third example is a transverse section of the
great church now érecting in St. George’s Fields, Lon-
don (see pl. XII); shewing the great rood screen loft,
with the screens and chapels terminating the aisles,
[4] [1 is worthy ofremark, that the ancient crosses were
all siehly decorated, in order to set forth that the very in-
strument on which our divine Redeemer suffered an ig-
Somivions death had become the emblem of his glorious
victory over siu and its ‘punishment, and should therefore
ornamented as the figure of this great triamph and our
redemption, . The old mystical school of Christian paints
ers invariably figure our Lord with extended arms ou the
cross,—oot through ignorance of drawiag, but to represent
the Son of God embracing the sins of the whole world,
Notuufrequently, too, do we find the figures of the blessed
Virgin and St.Jvho much smaller io proportion than that
of our Lord, ‘This was dove solely for the purpose of ex-
Pressing the majesty of God. If we only examine atten.’
lively the productions of the ages of faith, we shall find
that they convey @ profound mystical meaving, and many
copveutional modes of representing the sacred things, that
have been described by moderv upstarts as proofs of bars
harous ignorance, are in fact the most couviocing proofs
of ‘the piety and wisdom of those, who preduced then.
Their productions are addressed to the understanding, vot
merely fo the eye, and there is more edification to he gain-
ed trom a Saxon cross, with its enamelled emblems, than
in all.the anatomical crucifixions of modern’ times, ia
which the whole efforts of the artisis appear to, have been
directed towards producing a distorted represeutation of a
dying malefactor, iustead of the overpow eriug sacrifice of
the Son of God,
{5] This buildng, which. possesses every requisite for
a parochial cburch,—nave, chancel, rood wad screen, stone
altar, sedilia, sacrarium, southern porch, steups for hale
lowed water, font and cover, bell, turret, organ and loft,
open seats, stone pulpit, stained glass, and is capable of
holding 300 persons,—has been. erected ; for £1500 inclu-
ding every expense,