A dictionary of the architecture and archaeology of the middle ages: including words used by ancient and modern authors in treating of architectural and other antiquities ... also, biographical notices of ancient architects / By John Britton ... Illustrated by numerous engravings by J. Le Keux.

John Britton

Date:: 1838

Credit: A dictionary of the architecture and archaeology of the middle ages: including words used by ancient and modern authors in treating of architectural and other antiquities ... also, biographical notices of ancient architects / By John Britton ... Illustrated by numerous engravings by J. Le Keux. Source: Wellcome Collection.

58/624 (page 18)

$vol. XI. p. 359 ; and Binghanis Works, vol. i. p. 302.] Where wooden altars were retained, a marble, or stone, slab was always used to cover them. ‘‘ Altare portabile conse- crationem amittit, cum la'pis a ligno avellitur.’’—[^Du Ca?ige.~\ Christian altars are generally in the form of small oblong tables, but they are sometimes made to resemble sarcophagi. The early Christians were accustomed to assemble for pub- lic worship at the tombs of saints and martyrs; and they afterwards raised altars at the places where the bodies of such persons had been interred. Hence, probably, origi- nated the monumental shape, and the general usage of enclosing holy relics within them. These being inserted, the aperture was closed up with a small stone, termed sigillum altaris, and with mortar tempered with holy water.—\_l)u Caage, in uoce Malta; Ciampini, Vet. Alon. vol. I. p. 180.] The churches of the Greek Christians have but one altar to each; and it is generally admitted that the Latin churches did not contain more before the sixth cen- tury. From that time altars appear to have become very numerous. Bingham remarks that there are no fewer than twenty-five, besides the high altar, in St. Peter’s Church, at Rome [fForks, vol. i. p. 302] ; and Battely enumerates thirty-seven altars in Canterbury Cathedral prior to the Reformation. Their increase became so extensive in the time of Charles the Great, that he ordered the number to be reduced.^—[Batte/p’s Cant. Sac. pt. ii. p. 26, in which work is a dissertation on the subject.] In some parish churches, there were various altars dedicated to different saints; that of Lan:ibeth, in Surrey, had five, be- sides the high altar. The decorations of Roman Catholic altars were often very splendid, being richly adorned with carving or embossed work; they were also sometimes studded with precious stones and metals. The high altar in St. Augustin’s -Church, at Canterbury, was not only embel- lished in a costly manner, but was accompanied by eight shrines, containing relics : of this, an engraved represen- tation is given in Somner’s ^^Antiquities of Canterbury,” copied from an ancient drawing in Trinity Hall, Cam- bridge. On great festivals, all the relics of a church were displayed on the high altar, which was illumined by numerous wax tapers.— [Given and Blakewaif s Shrewshury,$