portico. The word Porticus occurs several times in Bede, Alcuin, Heddius, and other ancient Saxon writers, and is generally translated by the English word Porch, and so misleads us to think it synonymous with Atrium, or Vestibulum, denoting a building withoutside the church, at the entrance into it: whereas this can by no means be agreeable to Bede's meaning; for in his account of king Ethelbert's interment he expresses himself in such terms as will not admit of that sense. He was buried," says Bede, "in Porticu Sti. Martini intra ecclesiam[1]; which shews that the Porticus was within the church. And likewise in relating the burial of archbishop Theodore, A.D. 690, he fays, he was buried in Ecclesiâ Sti. Petri, in quâ omnium Episcoporum Doruveniensium sunt corpora deposita[2]. In the church of St. Peter, in which all the bodies of the bishops of Canterbury were interred, though he had before said[3] that they were all interred in the north portico, except Theodore and Berctwald, whose bodies were buried in ipsa Ecclesia, in the church itself; because that portico could not conveniently hold any more[4]. To make these several passages in"Bede
- ↑ Bedæ Hist. Eccl Lib. ii. c. 5.
- ↑ Ibid. Lib. v. c. 8.
- ↑ Ibid. Lib. ii. cap. 3.
- ↑ "The better to elucidate the sense of the word Porticus, the reader will be pleased to compare the following passages from Bede, and other ancient writers. A.D. 721. obiit Johannes Ebor. Eniscopus in Monasterio suo Beverlac et 'sepultus est in porticu S. Petri.' Bede Hist. Eccles. Lib. v. cap. 6.—A.D. 726. obiit Tobias Rofsensis Episcopus, et 'sepultus est in porticu S. Pauli Apost. quam intra ecclesiam S. Andreæ sibi in locum sepulchri secerat.' Ibid. cap. 23.—A.D. 977. Sidemannus Creditoniæ Episcopus 'sepalturæ traditur in monasterio Abendonensi in parte Ecclesiæ Boreali, in porticu S. Pauli.' Chron. Saxon.—A.D. 1034. Obiit Brithwius Wellensis Episcopus; 'hic jacet in aquilonari porticu ad S. Johannem (Glastoniæ) Britwoldus Wintoniensis (l. Wiltoniensis) Episcopus obiit A.D. 1045 hic sepultus suit cum Brithwio in eadem ecclesia in parte aquilonari.' Monast. Angl. Vol. I. p. 9.
