the church of St. Cross, before the altar of There was subsequently a royal ordonour Lady, in the very place where the nance in France, that none but archbishops, priest usually stood at the celebration of bishops, curates, patrons, founders, and the mass, (Ibid., p. 135.) &c., &c. On lords who hold supreme courts of judicathis principle the Campo Santo at Pisa ture, should be buried in churches. All was filled, or supposed to be filled, with other persons in churchyards; and that earth from the Holy Land. On the same they should be as far from the church as principle men desired to be buried in the possible. (Ibid., 176.) dresses of friars or monks. (Ibid., p. 341.) On the same principle prevailed the pilgrimages to the tombs of saints; and the belief that morsels of clay taken from the grave of a holy man are preservatives against disease, and against the powers of darkness-a superstition as prevalent now in Ireland among the poor Romanists as it was anywhere during the darkest ages.

Such was the gradual transition from a period when none but saints were thought worthy of a place within a consecrated temple, to a day, like the present, when a refusal to admit within the walls of a Christian church the monuments and panegyrics of men who die in infidelity or crime, is stigmatised as bigotry.

It was suggested that the exhibition of the human figure upon the tomb is another 'The canons,' says Gough, p. 178, require departure from the strict propriety of Christhat the burials of the faithful be in the ceme- tian taste and truth: although, if there is one teries. At first this was observed with scrupu- kind of sepulchral monument beautiful in lous exactness; but in time insensibly crept in the custom of burying in the church persons its form, comparatively correct in idea, and distinguished by their sanctity. Afterwards the interesting both to the sculptor and the anemperors made interest to be buried at the door tiquary, it is the old altar-tomb, covered of the church, leaving the interior part to the with its recumbent figure of knight, or saints. But the saints did not lie long alone. king, or bishop, of which so many exquiIn aftertime interment in the church was per-site remains are still found in our churches. mitted, not only to ecclesiastics of exemplary Some of the most beautiful of these have conduct, but to those of common character, or eminent only for the rank which they had held. been preserved by the diligence and fidelity At length the laity were admitted indifferently, of the late lamented Mr. Stothard, in The as at present. The spirit of the church always Monumental Effigies of Great Britain;' and opposed the abuse of burying in churches, de- it is gratifying to see the same work concrees having been issued against it by councils tinued by Mr. Hollis. in all ages, and in various parts of Christendom the general idea of thus commemorating And yet against the fathers strenuously opposed it. In the 6th century the Council of Braga forbids interment the dead may be urged what has been obin churches; "for if cities maintain their privi- jected already-the tendency to individulege of not burying the dead within their walls, al ze sepulchral memorials-the heavy exwith how much more reason should the house pense attending it-its being obviously and temple of the Holy Martyrs be kept clear." restricted to the rich-its necessarily imAnother Council in the 9th century is equally plying burial within the church—and an strong in its prohibition. Bourbon, archbishop of Rouen, at a council held appearance of ostentation not compatible there, 1581, decrees that the dead be not buried with the perfect humility and unobtruin churches, not even the rich; "the honour siveness of a pure Christian character. not being to be paid to wealth, but to the grace of the Holy Spirit, should be reserved for those who are especially consecrated to God, and their bodies temples of Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, for those who have held any dignities, ecclesiastical or secular, and are really and truly ministers of God, and instruments of the Holy Spirit, and for those who by their virtues or merits have done service to God and the State.""*

Cardinal

In a memorial connected with death there must be truth, perfect truth, or it must fail in taste. And one truth the monumental effigies did exhibit in a most striking form, at a very early stage in the various transitions through which they passed. Till about 1230, according to both Gough and Cotman, the knight was represented drawing his sword; and the bishop or abbot with hand uplifted in the act of blessing: but from that time nearly

* Constantine the Great was buried close to his church, in the very porch. It was the general prac-be nearer to the holy body of St. Cuthbert. (Gough, tice to bury the heads of religious houses in their vol. ii., p. 176.) The Emperor Theodosius, says chapter-houses or their cloisters. Thus in 1420 Gough, was the first who made a law against bury (Gough, vol. ii., p. 176). Biskop Chinnoe, who had ing in churches. (Cod. Theod., lib. x., tit. 17.) Ál been abbot of Glastonbury, was buried in the Chap-phonso the Wise, king of Spain, forbade it, except ter House there, because he had completed it; and to royal personages, bishops, &c. (Ley xi., Ph. 1. before Bishop Bell, the Bishops of Durham, in their tit. 13)The custom of burying out of the church Chapter House, because they would not presume to continued in Spain till the end of the 13th century.

all have the hands joined over the breast, which are represented at the feet of the in the attitude of prayer. And perhaps various effigies, and of which a satisfactory nothing can bring together in a more touch- account has scarcely yet been given. The ing form the vanity of human greatness, first idea suggested by them appears to the real awfulness of death, and the conso- have been that of the powers of evil tramlation and support administered beneath it pled on or destroyed by good and holy by Christianity. This, indeed, might not men. No other interpretation can be put have been the lesson really intended to be on their earliest occurrence in the form of conveyed. The attitude was more proba- serpents or dragons' heads pierced by the bly connected with the superstitions of po- end of the bishop's crozier. This device pery, and with those erroneous opinions on is often found, especially on early French the intermediate state of the dead, which monuments; and generally in cases where coupled prayer with the doctrine of purga- no figure is represented on the tomb; and tory. If a truly humble spirit of prayer only the crosier itself, grasped occasionally had originated such designs, they would by a hand sculptured in high relief. From not so soon have degenerated into gorgeous this it is easy to pass to the idea of the lion exhibitions accompanied by more decisive and the dragon, as emblematic of the same intimations of the state of blessedness of evil powers, and placed under the fect of the deceased than perhaps true Christianity the recumbent figure. A transition appears would warrant in ordinary cases. to have taken place from this idea to an Prior to 1350,' says Cotman, the heads of emblematic representation of the virtues military men, and those of kings, ladies, eccle- of the deceased-the lion_representing siastics, and burgesses, when represented recum- courage, the dog fidelity. We must not bent, rest on cushions, single or double-called, be drawn aside here into heraldry-it is in the "Lincolnshire Church Notes of 1629," undoubted that by and bye the animals rein the British Museum, a pillow and a bolster' presented on the tombs were often con(and the increasing luxury may be traced even nected with the family arms, or some rebus in these). On each side of these is usually of the family name. The last stage appears placed an angel, emblematic perhaps of the ministering angels, who are ever about the path to have been where the dog especially is and bed of the faithful, smoothe the pillow of really the representative of the living fathe dying, and carry the disembodied soul to re- vourite, taking its station, not under, but ceive the blessing of its Maker. This last part on, the feet of its mistress, or couched unof their office is shown on the Elsing brass, der its master, with its name written on a where, as from the head of the knight, two an- label, or engraved on a collar round the gels are carrying to heaven in a sheet his glorified spirit. On the Lynn brasses the soul is neck; as Sir Bryan Stapleton's dog' Jakke' traced to its utmost stage, and is seated in the at Ingham, and Dame Cassy's Terri' at bosom of the Father; to whom the angels are Deerhurst. These are trifles to dwell upon, offering incense, and in whose praise they are but they indicate a remarkable change of striking their celestial harps. The most beau-feeling. tiful example of this is given by Gough, vol. ii., p. 311, from the monument of Lady Percy, at Beverley Minster.'-Introduct., p. xiii.

It seems also that, as greater prominence was given to the pomp of life, in exhibiting the figure in its most gorgeous form, and

It is unnecessary to say that the origin of the recumbent figure is to be found probably in the practice of carrying the dead body uncoffined to the grave, and dressed tice now in many parts of the continent. in its most gorgeous apparel, as is the pracThus the marble tomb was only the per

with the strictest accuracy, and in covering the tomb with highly-wrought canopies, it funeral. The canopy may be traced from the tomb with highly-wrought canopies, it petuation of the spectacle exhibited at the was held necessary to convey the contrast of death with life more strikingly by the the recesses in the side walls within which introduction of the skeleton, or represent- surmounted by a richly-wrought Gothic the coffin-tombs were early lodged, and ation of the body in its state of corruption, arch, to the perfect chantries. From some in the same tomb. This is not uncommon of the royal tombs in Westminster Abbey, in the fifteenth century, and becomes more frequent afterwards. It seems as if, with it might be supposed that it was thought a the increasing decay of sound religion, death Proper appendage, upon the same prinbecame more and more an object of fear; ciple as the canopy was carried over the and the world more likely to absorb the thought. And it may be that some such transition may be traced in the animals

* For instance, see Gough, vol. ii., pp. 111, 118.

living person. With the chapels and chantries, such as those of Bishop West and Bishop Alcock, at Ely, we reach perhaps the acmé of corruption under the influence of popery. They involve many of the most

objectionable features of that melancholy system; the sale of masses, the doctrine of indulgences and purgatory, the growth of a mischievous secular power in the Church, and the withdrawal of attention from the one Supreme Being to whom the sacred building is dedicated, to inferior and human

creatures.

general movement of mind which displayed itself in the sixteenth century.

And it is worthy of remark that this change is not confined to England. There is in the Bodleian Library a very large and curious collection of drawings illustrating the sepulchral monuments of France. They were purchased, we believe, by Gough himself, and fill upwards of a dozen folio volumes. This collection is the more interesting and valuable, as in the tumults of the Revolution the monuments themselves must have for the most part perished. They are executed with great care; and an examination of them will show a singular coincidence with the history of the sepulchral monuments of England.

But in the mean time another very interesting form of monument had been introduced in brasses, a form indicating a more general demand for sepulchral memorials, a more lax admission of bodies to be buried within the church, and a greater disposition to overlook strict Christian discipline in the circumstances of death. The earliest English brass (says Cotman) upon record is that of Simon de Beauchamp, who The altar tomb was soon affected. It completed the foundation of Ravenham became gradually charged with mere ornaAbbey, and died before 1208, and was ments, and those of a classical character, buried in front of the high altar in St. Paul's until it sunk into the heathen sarcophagus; Church, at Bedford. On the Continent bulging out under James into a variety of their date is as early; and in the church of heavy, cumbrous forms; and retaining no St. Julien, at Mons, is one of Geoffroi le trace whatever of its original coffin-shape. Bel, who died in 1150.* The honour of The figure on it, by slow and almost imthe invention is attributed by some to perceptible advances, begins to stir, and France. Those mentioned by Cotman, in pass from death into life. The feet feel the France, accord with those of Lynn, in Nor- new idea first: they fall apart, as is natural folk, in being not mere effigies let into the in a sleeping posture, instead of being ristone, but large sheets of metal covering gidly fastened together, as in the ancient the whole slab; and, where not occupied mode of laying out the corpse, and particuby the figure, filled with tabernacle work, larly as specified in many of the monastic or representing an embroidered carpet rules. It is no longer the dead, whether They have also cushions under the head, occupied in the last moments with prayer, which are not to be found in any other of or reminding the bystander of the pains of that epoch in Norfolk. Others have de- purgatory, but the living, which fixes the rived them from Flanders, and especially attention. And yet it is the living asleep, from Ghent; and traced them to those and asleep in the greatest number of early countries chiefly which supplied the Flem- instances in most painful postures; as if ings with wool. They were composed of the process of turning in their beds and various squares, for the convenience of im- raising themselves on their arm to look portation; are often enamelled, and in the round, they could only perform painfully canopy and tabernacle work exhibit some and by stealth, and in a considerable numof the most exquisite combinations which ber of years; and from this they rise to we possess of Gothic architecture. What-kneel together, with their wives and childever might be thought of restoring them, it is lamentable to think how many have been destroyed, some to make tablets for inscriptious upon later tombs, but far more for the sake of the metal in times of war and pillage.

We come now to the period in which the revival (we will not call it of art, for art in great perfection existed already, but) of Grecian art, began to corrupt and break down the system of Gothic architecture; and with it to introduce entirely new principles into our sepulchral monuments principles very closely connected with the

* Cotman's Brasses, p. 5.

ren, until they finally attain an erect pos-
ture, as in most of our modern statues.
Perhaps the most remarkable instance of
this transition is to be found in the Fetiplace
monuments in Swinford church, which have
been noticed and slightly etched in Mr.
Markland's little volume, but are engraved
with great beauty in Shelton's 'Oxfordshire.'
Among these are two of precisely the same
general form, exhibiting each three figures,
lying on shelves, as in the berths of a ship,
and under one canopy or cornice.
they are of different dates; and, except in
the details of ornament, there is scarcely
any difference but in the attitude of the
figures; those of the later century being

But

mixed without due proportion; and entangle the eye in a labyrinth of fractured lines, without unity, or harmony, or grace.

To ac

advanced another stage in liveliness by line, the picturesque grouping, the pendent drawing up one of the legs, as well as rest- masses, the niches and pillars, the florid ing on the right arm. Those who wish to foliage running over the surface, all of them trace this change may observe it in West- points in perfect keeping with the primary minster Abbey in the monuments of John principle of elevation which is the germ of Lord Russell (1584), Thomas Owen, Esq. the Gothic, are wholly incompatible with (1598), Sir Thomas Hesketh (1605), Sir the simplicity and symmetry of the Grecian. Dudley Carleton (1631), Lord Cottington And the artists vainly endeavoured to pre(1652), the Duke of Newcastle (1676);— serve them by means of vases, pyramids, without mentioning others where the pro- busts, scrolls, coats-of-arms, projecting cess of resuscitation, or, as it really seems, cornices, broken pediments, and by what of waking out of sleep, is farther advanced.* has not inappropriately been called the For a long time, however, a devotional | 'crinkum-crankum' style of Elizabeth and feeling still prevailed; and the attitude of James; in which angles and curves are, as prayer is preserved. Generally the hus- before, studiously intermixed, but interband and wife are kneeling face to face; and a book lies open before them on a prie-Dieu. But instead of asking the prayers of the bystanders, they pray for themselves, as Sir John Spelman and his wife, (1545,) at Narburgh: the prayer issuing from their lips. Nor must we forget another feature which begins to appear about the end of the fifteenth century, and rises into great importance in the two next. This is the introduction of children into the tombs of their parents. As the Romish superstitions were discarded, the merits of celibacy fell with them; the character and duties of the citizen became prominent; and to have raised up defenders for his country was one of the chief virtues to be recorded on his tomb. The sons are thus brought in kneeling behind their father, or standing at his feet; and daughters by their mother. Where there are two wives, or sometimes three (and this alone is a feature indicating strongly a revolution of sentiment), each family is attached to its own mother. On the tomb of William Yelverton, at Roughâm, (1586) there are sixteen; Richard Althorp's (1554) has effigies of nin teen; and William Bardewell's, at West Sterling, (1460,) commemorates no less than thirty sons and daughters.† Even the dead children are represented in their winding-sheets, or, at a later period, lying About the same period comes in one of on their beds. It is unnecessary to point the most monstrous innovations upon the out here the architectural solecisms com- pure principles of Christian art-we mean mitted in the attempt to preserve the ori- the studied and elaborate representation of ginal Gothic features of the altar-tomb, the naked figure. 'Græca res est,' says with the recumbent figure and canopy, in Pliny,* ‘nihil velare.' And with the introthe altered elements of Grecian or Italian duction of Grecian art the ' nihil velare' art. All that was beautiful and appropriate principle penetrated even into our Churches, in the Gothic design becomes full of sole-With this came also the entire loss of realcisms in the new style. The broken out-ity. Allegory had indeed begun to intrude, as we have seen, in the employment of an

As the figure on the tomb gradually rises into life, the artists appear to have laboured under increasing difficulties in impressing on the spectator, through some other means, the fact that the person represented had really paid the debt of mortality. complish this purpose, the first symbol which they recurred to, as the nearest approach to the Gothic pinnacle, was the pyramid or obelisk-no unfitting emblem of eternity. At the same time, as if to give this eternity a due degree of instability, they contrived to rest the pyramid upon four round balls. Instead of the whole skeleton exposed under the same tomb with the gorgeously-attired effigies, they were content with scattering about a few death'sheads, cross-bones, and hour-glasses. And, as if to exhaust every possible contingency, while the sarcophagus, on which the figure lies, implies that the body is contained within it, the spectator is informed, by means of a number of urns, that the re mains have been burned, in defiance of the practice of Christians; while the inscription takes care to inform us that it was neither burned nor entombed, but buried in a vault underneath.

✦ An useful Handbook to Westminster Abbey imals during the purer period of Gothic has just been published by Mr. Peter Cunningham, son of the Poet. The index to this little volume is taste. But the recumbent figure was still carefully done, a rare case now-a-days,-and thus the actual representative of the real figure the date of any monument may be easily ascertained.

† See Cotman, p. 13.

VOL. LXX.

31

Lib. xxxiv. c. 8.