OME Years Ago Mr. Gerish Suggested to Me the Idea of Writing Some Notes on the Ancient Fonts of Hertfordshire
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Hertfordshire Fonts. BY THE REV. HARRY P. POLLARD. OME years ago Mr. Gerish suggested to me the idea of writing some notes on the Ancient Fonts of Hertfordshire. I commenced this work S under the impression that very few months would suffice to see the end of my labours, since I could visit several places myself, and with regard to places I could not visit, there were always the invaluable collections of Mr. W. F. Andrews; the County Histories, and, as a final resort, the clergy of the various parishes to apply to; but hope, indeed, told a very flattering tale. Mr. Andrews' Collection was really remarkable from the fact that very few among the number of those who had written a description of a church had taken any notice at all of the font. We found the heating apparatus and similar interesting objects constantly mentioned, but strict silence preserved as to whether the church possessed a font. We found architects, the clergy—in one case a clergyman describing his own church—even the " ecclesiastical reporter" describing a re-opening, all omitted reference to the font; the County Histories were about equally useful. I could find no description in Chauncy; but one or two in Salmon, an illustration of six in Clutterbuck, and a few mentioned by Cussans. It was obvious, therefore, that as far as Hertfordshire was con- cerned, the subject was untouched practically, and it became evident that the only course was to personally visit each font. This, however, is a work of time, and in spite of the help I have received from three or four friends, I am still seeking information; if the Members of this Society would assist me with regard to fonts in this district, about which I have not been able to obtain any information, I shall be very grateful. As my search for information extended, I found that the subject of fonts was an unexplored one, not only in regard to Hertfordshire, but in regard to England generally. Five years ago there were only two books dealing with English fonts—Simpson's " Series of Bap- tismal Fonts," and Paley's "Fonts." Within the last 176 ST. ALBANS AND HERTS ARCHITECTURAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. few months a work has appeared on the Sussex fonts, with a general introduction and a book on fonts, by Mr. Bond,1 has just been issued. In the course of my visits to the various churches there have been two or three comical incidents—in two cases the guardians of the keys accompanied me to their churches, apparently thinking that the parish would shortly be mourning the loss of its font if I went un- attended. When we arrived at the church of the first village, the good man asked if I had come to clean the font. At the second place, the Rector, having presumably discovered that I was not a burglar in disguise, unlocked his church and favoured me with a discourse on the modern font in the style of " A poor thing, sir, but mine own." At one unlocked church, I pointed out a rather unusual detail of the font to a man in the church. He brought his wife to look, and said, " Look here, my dear, I have never seen this before." His family had been in the place for generations. At one place I found a very early font, decorated for Christmas, I think, in such a manner that I was obliged to remove the decoration in order to see and measure the font. Unfortunately before I had finished my notes, the lady who had " done " the decorations came into the church! I will now give you in as short a form as possible the results of my labours. The Sacrament of Baptism was administered by the early British Church in rivers (following its institution in the River Jordan), springs, or sacred wells; but when oratories or churches came to be erected, they were pro- vided with a vessel for baptising. This vessel was supplied with water from a spring or well near the church, and retained the name of " fount," a term by which it is known to the parishioners of Datchworth at the present time. One of these early oratories is still standing at Trillo in Rhos, Denbighshire. The entrance is at the west end and at the entrance is a perennial spring. In the church of St. Andrew, Bramfield, there is a well under the tower; at Hexton the well of St. Faith is but a short distance south of the church; and Emma's Well at Amwell is about two hundred yards north of the church. These probably mark the site of early oratories in Hertfordshire. When Augustine arrived in England in 597, his com- 1 " Fonts and Font Covers," by Francis Bond, 1908. HERTFORDSHIRE FONTS. 177 panion, Paulinus, baptised in rivers in Yorkshire and Northumberland, " for as yet oratories, or fonts, could not be made in the early infancy of the Church in those parts " (Bernicia and Deira). There was a considerable difference between the way Augustine and his companions baptised and the method by which the British Church administered that rite; Augustine immersed the candi- dates three times; the British Church once. This was one of the points of divergence discussed at the " Synod of the Oak," held at an uncertain period between the years 599 and 603 at a place probably near Aust, Gloucestershire. There is a form for the dedication of a font in an Anglo-Saxon Pontifical, and in the Pontifical of Edmund Lacey, Bishop of Exeter, it is directed that crosses are to be made on the font with the oil of the chrism. The crosses graven upon the altar were intended to mark the spots anointed with chrism. A leading authority on the subject suggests that the crosses on fonts were cut with a similar intention. The only instances of such crosses on a font in Hertfordshire—as far as I am aware—are at Much Hadham, Stanstead Abbots, and (possibly) Elstree, in each case in roughly the same posi- tion on the south side of the font. As there is no mention of Baptism in the Ten Articles of Archbishop Theodore at the Council of Hertford, 24th September, 673, it may reasonably be assumed (as this Council was a most important one) that a satisfactory working arrangement had by that time been arrived at. The practice of immer- sion continued in use till the time of Henry VIII., if not later, for a Missal published in 1528 directs three immer- sions ; but by the time of Elizabeth the sprinkling method seems to have gained ground, as in " A Book of Certaine Canons, etc.," printed by Day, 1571, on p. 19, is the following :—" Last of all (the churchwarden) shall see that in every church there be a holy founte, not a bason, wherein baptism may be ministered, and it be kept comely and clean."2 3 From " Victoria County History of Herts," Vol. IV., p. 346 : — "One of the articles of inquiry of 1668 was whether there was 'a decent Font of stone with a cover' standing 'at or near the neather end of your Church, in such manner as anciently and usually Fonts have stood for the baptizing of children,' or whether it had ' been removed and converted to any profane or private use.'" (Footnote)—Articles to be enquired of within the Archdeaconry of St. Albans . 1662, p. 1. 178 ST. ALBANS AND HERTS ARCHITECTURAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The original position of the font was at the west end of the nave, just inside the principal entrance (generally the south door), to symbolise the truth that Holy Baptism is the Sacrament of admission to the Christian Church. Although some writers assert that fonts were placed in the porch, there is no evidence whatever to show that this was the case, and as Mr. Paley points out, " Norman churches very seldom had porches, and as later buildings often retain their original fonts in their original positions in the interior of the nave, we must conclude that though some part of the baptismal rite was performed before entering the church, the font itself was never placed in so inconvenient a place; especially as no vestige seems ever to have been observed of such having been the fact." The font at Westmill has one side of its bowl plain, which stood against a pier, coeval with it. One of the earliest directions relating to the font is that of the 37th Canon of Elfric, contained in a collection of Ecclesiastical Laws, A.D. 957 : " Let no oil be put into the font except a child be there baptised." The oil men- tioned here is that of the chrism. From the early ages of the Church a small quantity of simple oil was poured on the head of the person baptised. The Council of Durham, A.D. 1220, ordered that the chrism should be kept secure in a similar manner to the font. In the year 1297, the Church of Furneaux Pelham possessed a tin chrismatorium with a lock; in the time of Edward VI., Braughing had " a crismatorrie of silluer," Sarrat one of latten, while Chipping Barnet had a chrismatory of, or rather as Mr. Cussans suggests, covered with, silk. The early fonts will, with scarcely an exception, be found with a lining of lead; the reason for this was that they were kept filled with water. Archbishop Edmund, A.D. 1236, ordered that the water should not remain more than seven days after the baptism of an infant, and that a font of stone or other competent material3 should be 3 Leaden fonts, and in some cases fonts of wood, were allowed as "competent material." St.