212
NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 s. ui. MARCH 17, wu.
.
_ _ _ ^
What we want are speGialfmonographs. such as the exceedingly good one , <m St James the Less by Kichard L P. Bed (Publications of the Gryphon Club, Bernard Quaritch, 1911), or the very interesting series of articles on St. Barbara in your columns.
The questions of ritual prayers and of
calendars have been settled by MR MONTAGE
SUMMERS, F.R.S.L. I was glad to see that,
as far as the existence of St. Barbara is
concerned, he does not consider Baring-
Gould an absolutely reliable authority.
The latter seems to have been puzzled by
the disagreement between Baronius, who
asserts that the Saint was born and mar-
tyred in Nicomedia (a town in Bithyma),
and Metaphrastes, who inclines towards
Heliopolis (in Egypt or in Syria). H<
therefore opines that "the place of her
passion is the brain of the inventor of the
legend."
But the expression in loco solis seems to suggest that owing to an error Heliopolis, i e.,civitas solis, was considered a fair trans- lation of the Latin. I take it that PRE- BENDARY DEEDES had some good reason for stating that the burial-place of the Saint in loco solis was somewhere in Nicomedia, and that therefore the above-mentioned difficulty has been satisfactorily settled. It is not possible, however, to agree with him about the popularity of the cult of bt. Barbara in England before the Reformation. It is true that there is only one church bear- ing her name, but it is well known that a great many dedications of churches were altered to suit Henry VIII.'s religious views. In many cases the uncontroversial denomination All Saints or All Hallows was adopted. This makes it difficult for us to determine the names of the original patrons, and prevents us from relying on the dedication of churches as a perfectly safe clue in the present matter.
Far more reliable evidence is to be found in the wills of the deceased, but, unfortunately, searches do not seem to have been made everywhere with the same thoroughness as in Kent by Messrs. Leland Duncan and Arthur Hussey. The latter gives, for East Kent, a list which, though it does not cover a very long period, affords nevertheless a proof that there were lights burning in honour of the Saint in the following churches : Appledore ; Ashf ord ; Canterbury, Hospital of St. John the Baptist ; Dover, St. Martin's ; Faversham ; Sandwich, bt. Clement's; Smallhythe ; Stone in Oxney.
In Sandwich the White Friars had a
chapel consecrated to " St. Barbary. In
St. Mildred's, Canterbury, there was* a
Brotherhood of St. Barbara, but it is not
known of what kind it was (' Testament*
Cantiana').
The book by Mr. F. Bond on the ' Dedica- tions of Churches ' gives illustrations of an alabaster panel in St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, of a rood-screen at Banwoi and of two different carvings inWestminst< Abbey. Both these last are reproduced , and one is of special interest (p. 144) because the Saint is holding a turreted tower, in th middle of which the portcullis of the Tudors is conspicuous (Henry VII.'s Chapel).
Dr Philip Nelson in ' Ancient Painted Glass in England' furnishes us with number of examples, though his list has no pretension to be exhaustive : Devonshire : Awliscombe Exeter- . . Hampshire : Winchester Cathedral
s' Stamford (Brown's Hospital)
Wrangle.
Norfolk : Bowburgh Kettenngham. Rutland : North Luffenham. Shropshire : Ludlow. .
Somerset : Cheddar Cuckington. Westmorland : Windermere. .
Worcestershire: Great Malvera Priory. Yorkshire : Winteringham Coxwold Almonds- buryYork (St. Martin). In Norfolk, according to Mr. F. .Bond, there are six churches, and not two, with old glass representing St. Barbara. In Kent I may supply from personal observation a half-length figure in a north window Bishopsbourne Church (early fifteenth cen- turv). She holds a tower, and is crowned with roses. Another is to be seen in a north window in the chapel at Monks Horton. This is, I venture to say, a charming ex- ample of the art of the early fifteenth century in England. I have a drawing < it, and should be delighted to send a phota graph to any reader of N . & Q. Here St. Barbara is represented holding J*J right hand a book, and in the left a sort of tower, which I think is intended for a sacramental cup, shaped like a tower, t roof forming the cover. In the same way in the alabaster panel (illustrated on p. / of Mr. Bond's book on ' Dedications of Churches') at St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, St. Barbara has a tower which I am inclii to consider as a monstrance. On the <^< tinent she is sometimes indicated by chalice.
The figure of the Saint frequently occv in manuscripts. Mr. Bond gives an I
