with a diamond in the midst." In 1510, at St. Margaret's, Westminster, £10 was left "towards making a new roodloft"; and the work was still apparently going on in 1516, when another donor left £38 for the same object. Lastly, in the churchwardens' accounts of St. Edmund's, Salisbury, there are entered expenses for the light kept burning before the rood; at which place, for example, in 1480 the candlemaker was specially employed in making "the rood-light." A curious entry in the accounts of the parish church of St. Petrock's, Exeter, shows how this light at the rood was kept up: "Ordinans made by the eight men for gathering to the wax silver for the light kept before the high cross, which says, that every man and his wife to the wax shall pay yerely one peny, and every hired servant that takes wages a half peny, and every other persons at Easter, taking no wages, a farthing." In some places, as, for example, Cratfield, there was a "rowell," or wheel or corona of candles, kept burning on feast-days before the rood.

The special destruction of the roods of the English churches in the early stages of the Reformation under Edward VI., and again under Elizabeth, causes many to think that the reverence shown to this representation of our Crucified Lord, probably the most prominent object visible in the churches, was not only excessive, but mistaken in its kind. If that were so, it must at least be allowed that the Church's teaching on the matter was clear and definite. The author of Dives and Pauper, for example, says that the representations of the Crucified Christ

"ben ordeyned to steryn men's mynds to thinke on Crist's Incarnation and on hys passyon and on his levyng . . . for oft man is

more sterryed be syght than be heryng or redyng-also thei ben ordeyned to ben a tokne and a boke to the lewyd people that thei mon redyn in ymagery and peyntour that clerkes redyn in boke."

Then, after describing what thoughts the sight of the crucifix should bring to the mind of the beholder, Pauper goes on

"In this manner I pray thee read thy boke and fall down to the ground and thank thy God that would do so much for thee, and worship him above all things-not the stock, stone nor tree, but him that died on the tree for thy sin and thy sake: so that thou kneel if thou wilt afore the image, not to the image; do thy worship afore the image, afore the thing, not to the thing; make thy prayer afore the thing, not to the thing, for it seeth thee not, heareth thee not, understandeth thee not. Make thy offering if thou wilt afore the thing, but not to the thing; make thy pilgrimage not to the thing nor for the thing, for it may not help thee, but to him and for him that the thing representeth. For if thou do it for the thing or to the thing thou doest idolatry."

We now pass from the chancel to the body of the church. The nave and aisles-if there were any-were in a special way under the care of the wardens chosen by the people. There seems to be little doubt that very generally, although perhaps not universally, the walls of the parish churches were painted with subjects illustrating Bible history, the lives of the saints, or the teaching of the sacramental doctrine of the Church. In the same way, although of course in a lesser degree, the windows were often filled with glass stained with pictures conveying the same lessons to the young and the unlettered. These were, as they were called, "the books of the poor and the illiterate," who, by looking at these

representations, could learn the story of God's dealings with mankind, and could draw encouragement to strive manfully in God's service, from the example of the deeds of God's chosen servants.

The work of beautifying the parish churches by wall decorations and painted windows was the delight of the parishioners themselves, for it all helped to make their churches objects both of beauty and interest. To take but one example: the church of St. Neots possesses many stainedglass windows, placed in their present positions between 1480 and 1530. The inscriptions inserted below the lights testify that most of them were paid for by individual members of the parish, but in the case of three it appears that groups of people joined together to beautify their church. Thus, a Latin label below one says that "the youths of the parish of St. Neots" erected the window in 1528; a second says that, the following year, the young maidens emulated the example of their brothers; and the "mothers" of the parish finished the third window in 1530.

Besides the high altar in the chancel, there were, from early times, few churches that did not have one or more, and sometimes many smaller or side altars. These were dedicated to various saints, and from the fifteenth century, and even earlier, they were used as chantries or guild chapels. The priests serving them were supported by the annuity left by some deceased benefactor to the parish church, or by a stipend paid by the guild to the priest who acted as its chaplain, or again by the private generosity of some benefactor. These chapels were frequently richly decorated, furnished with hangings, and supplied with their own vestments and altar furniture

by their founders or by the guilds that supported them. To take an example: In 1471 an indenture or agreement was made between Mr. William Vowelle, master of the town of Wells, and the two wardens of our Lady's altar in St. Cuthbert's Church, and John Stowell, freemason, for making the front of the Jesse at the said altar. The work was to cost £40 (probably more than £500 of our money), and the mason was to be paid 40s. a week, with £5 to be kept in hand till the completion of the work. To take another example: at Heydon, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, the south aisle was dedicated to St. Catherine, and there is an item of expense in the churchwardens' accounts showing the existence of a painted altar, an image of the saint, and a kneeling-desk in front of it.

In the accounts of St. Mary-at-Hill, where there were many such side chapels, there is an order of the wardens, made in 1518, "that every priest shall sing with his founder's vestments, and that their chest is to be at the altar's end, next where they sing." In some of these small chapels there were statues, before which lights were kept burning by the devotion of various members, or groups of members, of a parish. Thus at Henley-on-Thames there were seven chapels and two altars in the nave, besides the high altar in the chancel. Lights were kept burning before the rood, the altar of Jesus, and the altar of the Holy Trinity. In 1482 the warden and the commonalty ordained that the chaplain in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary say Mass every day at six o'clock, and the chantry priest of St. Katherine's chapel at eight o'clock. In these accounts are entered the receipts and expenses of the Guild of the Holy Name, and