Within church and in relation to
Carbrooke Church Tour
Aisle – The spaces along the sides of the nave or chancel, and separated from it by an arcade. Aisles differ from transepts in being longer E-W than N-S.
Alb – A white linen vestment with close fitting sleeves, reaching nearly to the ground and secured round the waist by a girdle (cincture). Worn by clergy.
Altar – The holiest part of a church. In the medieval period the altar was a table or rectangular slab made of stone or marble, often set upon a raised step. After the Reformation the stone altars were replaced by wooden communion tables.
Angel roof – Type of late medieval roof in which the ends of the beams were carved to look like angels.
Antiphoner – An antiphon consists of one or more psalm verses or sentences from Holy Scripture which are sung or simply recited before and after each psalm and the Magnificat during Matins and Vespers. Hence an antiphoner is a book containing a selection of these. The domed or vaulted east end of the church.
Apse – The domed or vaulted east end of the church. In Britain the apse is generally squared off, while on the continent, rounded apses were common.
Arcade – A series of arches supported by piers or columns.
Aumbry Bell – A cupboard, often lockable, used for storing church books, plate and equipment.
Bell Tower – tower where the church bells were installed. This could be separate from the church, or, more usually, attached. Sometimes called a campanile.
Boss – Decorative sculpture at the intersection of two vault ribs.
Buttress – A structure (of stone, brick, or wood) built against a building to strengthen it by resisting the thrust of arches, roofs and vaults. A flying buttress uses arches or halfarches to transmit the thrust to a buttress standing clear of the wall.
Chancel – The area of a parish church at the east end, where the altar was located. Also known as the choir in larger churches.
Chancel Arch – The arch separating the chancel from the nave or crossing.
Chancel Screen – A screen dividing the chancel and the nave and crossing.
Chapel – A small building, room or area with its own altar set aside for worship. Large churches or cathedrals might have many chapels dedicated to different saints. A chantry chapel is a special chapel where prayers for the dead are said.
Chasuble – The principal and most conspicuous Mass vestment, covering all the rest. It consisted of a square or circular piece of cloth in the centre of which a hole was made; through this the head was passed. With the arms hanging down, this garment covered the whole figure of the priest. Like the other sacred vestments the chasuble, before use, requires to be blessed by a priest who has faculties for that purpose. When assumed in vesting for Mass, the act is accompanied with a prayer which speaks of the chasuble as the “yoke of Christ”.
Choir – 1) The part of a cathedral, monastic church or collegiate church where services are sung. Often spelled Quire in older books. 2)
Clerestory – The uppermost row of windows or upper story of a church where it rises above the aisle roof. So-called because it stands clear of the aisle roof. The Window openings allow extra light into the interior of the church
Column – A vertical support, usually round or polygonal.
Corbel – A projecting bracket often carved with grotesque monster heads.
Crossing Cusps – The area where the choir, nave, and transepts meet. The projecting points formed by partial curves within an arch.
Decorated – The style of Gothic architecture popular in England c.1260c.1360. Characterised by all-over use of decoration, especially small-scale architectural motifs like arches and gables.
Diocese – The area of territory, with its parishes, under the religious jurisdiction of an individual bishop. An archdiocese is a larger area, including several dioceses, controlled by an archbishop. There are two archdioceses in England— Canterbury and York.
Early English – The earliest style of Gothic architecture in England, common from c.1180-c.1250. Known in the 19th century as Lancet style because of its use of lancets; also characterised by stiff-leaf ornament and the use of contrasting Purbeck or other dark, English marble.
Elevation – A vertical wall face of a building.
Font – A container, generally of stone, which contained holy water for baptism. Usually located near the entrance or west door, sometimes the fonts had elaborately carved wooden canopies.
Known in the 19th century as Lancet style because of its use of lancets; also characterised by stiff-leaf ornament and the use of contrasting Purbeck or other dark, English marble. – The vertical, triangular-shaped end of a roof.
Gallery – A balcony or mezzanine overlooking the main interior space of a building. In a church the gallery is an upper storey directly above the aisle, with arches looking down into the nave.
Gothic – The dominant architectural style in the Middle Ages, used primarily from the later 12th century until the mid 16th century. It is characterised by pointed arches, rib-vaults, and large tracery windows.
High altar – The main altar, usually located towards the east end of the choir.
Lady Chapel – A chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
Lancet – A tall, narrow, pointed window.
Lantern – The windowed upper stage of a tower or dome.
Lay – A lay person was anyone who was not a priest, monk, or otherwise in religious orders.
Lectern – A reading desk, often in the shape of an eagle, made to hold the Bible during services. Usually made of brass.
Liturgy – The words and music of a religious service.
Mass – The main rite of the Christian Church, at which the Last Supper is commemorated through the consecration of bread and wine, which is then shared by the priest and the people. Sometimes it is known as Communion or Eucharist in the modern Anglican Church.
Misericord – A folding seat which has a shelf on its underside to support a standing person. The bracket supporting the shelf was usually carved. This term comes from the Latin word for “mercy” and refers to pivoting wooden brackets in choir stalls which lifted up to provide relief for clergy who had to stand during long church services. Misericords are often ornately carved and decorative.
Nave – The body of the church west of the chancel arch or crossing. The place where lay people stood during themass.
Niche Vertical recess in a wall, often for a statue.
Norman A common name for the type of Romanesque architecture used in England in the 11th and 12th centuries after the Norman Conquest in 1066.
Ogee A sweeping S-curve commonly used for arches and in tracery from c.1300.
Orientation The compass alignment of the church. The altar is usually oriented to the east.
Parish A parish is a portion of a diocese under the authority of a priest legitimately appointed to secure in virtue of his office for the faithful dwelling therein, the helps of religion. The faithful are called parishioners, the priest parochus, curate, parish priest, pastor
Paschal Candle – The blessing of the “paschal candle”, which is a column of wax of exceptional size, usually fixed in a great candlestick specially destined for that purpose, is a notable feature of the service on Holy Saturday of Easter. The blessing is performed by the deacon, wearing a white dalmatic. A long Eucharistic prayer, the “Præconium paschali” or “Exultet”, is chanted by him, and in the course of this chanting the candle is first ornamented with five grains of incense and then lighted with the newly blessed fire. At a later stage in the service, during the blessing of the font, the same candle is plunged three times into the water with the words: Descendat in hanc plenitudinem fontis virtus Spiritus Sancti” (May the power of the Holy Spirit come down into the fulness of this fountain). From Holy Saturday until Ascension Day the paschal candle is left with its candlestick in the sanctuary, standing upon the Gospel side of the altar, and it is lighted during high Mass and solemn Vespers on Sundays. It is extinguished after the Gospel on Ascension Day and is then removed.
Perpendicular – A style of Gothic architecture popular in England from the mid 14th to the mid 16th century. Characterised by tracery with patterns of intersecting horizontal and vertical lines.
Pew – Wooden seats or benches in the church. Pews only appeared at the end of the medieval period. Often pews had carved bench-ends and were carved with animal or foliage designs.
Pier A support (usually made of masonry or brick) for an arch. Generally larger and heavier than a column.
Piscina A niche with a drain (like a sink) used to wash liturgical vessels after the mass. It was constructed near the altar, at the south wall of the sanctuary or other similar place.
Pre-Conquest Before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. Synonymous with Anglo-Saxon.
Pulpit A raised platform from which the preacher addresses the congregation. Usually reached by steps or stairs, often covered by a carved canopy. A two-decker pulpit also incorporated a reading-desk, while a three-decker pulpit had a reading desk and also a parish clerk’s desk.
Purbeck A dark-coloured, shelly limestone from the Isle of Purbeck (Dorset) that can be polished to a high sheen.
Quire Archaic term for the chancel or choir.Renaissance The 15th- and 16th-century intellectual and artistic revival of forms from Ancient Greece and Rome.
Reredos A decorative screen behind the altar, usually highly carved.
Retable A ledge behind, or attached to, the high altar, where ornaments were placed.
Reticulated – A type of window tracery which has a net-like pattern formed by a series of inter-linked ogee arches. It was common in the early 14th-century Decorated style (from Latin opus reticulatum: net or lace-work).
Romanesque – The architectural style common in Western Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries. It is characterised by massive masonry and round-headed arches inspired by ancient Roman models, and by the use of stylised ornament. In England it is often called Norman.
Rood – A representation of Christ on the Cross erected at the entry to the chancel. Roods often had figures of the Virgin Mary on one side and St. John on the other. Almost all medieval roods were destroyed at the Reformation.
Rood Loft – The gallery upon which the rood is supported.
Rood screen – A screen built beneath the rood loft. Sometimes called the Chancel Screen.
Sacristy – A separate room for storing sacred vessel.
Sanctuary – The area immediately surrounding the high altar. The holiest part of the church.
Secular – Not sacred. Of, or pertaining to, the world. Secular clergy were priests, not monks.
Sedilia – The name given to a row of one or more seats near the altar on the south side of the sanctuary, used by the officiating clergy during the liturgy. It is the plural of the Latin word sedile meaning seat.
Sexton – One who guards the church edifice, its treasures, vestments, etc., and as an inferior minister attends to burials, bell-ringings and similar offices about a church. In ancient times, the duties of the modern sexton, who is generally a layman, were part of the functions of the clerical order of ostiariatus. The clerics called ostiarii had the keys of the church committed to them and were responsible for the guardianship of the sacred edifice, the Holy vessels, books, and vestments. They opened the church and summoned the faithful to the Divine Mysteries.
Shaft – The body of a column or pillar between the base and the capital. It is especially used for the small columns found around a window, door, or other opening. Shafts are generally round, but may also be polygonal.Shaft ring A characteristically Early English-style moulded band around a shaft. Used to cover the joints between the sections of a detached shaft, but also as a decorative feature.
Shrine – A repository for the relics of a saint. Often in the form of an elaborate tomb embellished with gems and precious metals.
Spire – The pointed top of a tower.
Stoup – A container for holy water near the main entrance or west door. Can be built into the wall or free-standing
String course – A horizontal moulding projecting from the surface of the wall. Used to visually separate different parts of the elevation.
Tabernacle – A canopied frame like a miniature building, used around an image or over a statue.
Tierceron – A type of ornamental vaulting rib.
Tithe – A tax of 10 per cent of all income which was given to the parish church to support the priest and the work of the church. Tithes were taken on agricultural produce such as grain and newly born animals, on manufactured goods such as woollens, and on money income. In the Middle Ages and early modern period the payment of tithes was compulsory.
Tracery – The open-work pattern within an opening, especially the upper part of a window. Blind tracery is applied to a solid wall. Plate tracery has a decorative pattern of shapes cut through a solid surface, while in bar tracery the patterns are formed by shaped intersecting bands of stonework.
Transepts – The crossing arms of the church, generally aligned northsouth.
Vault – A curved stone ceiling. A barrel vault is simply an arched stone tunnel. A groin vault is formed from intersecting barrel vaults. The edges (groins) where the vaults meet do not have ribs or other strengthening. A rib vault is similar to a groin vault but the vault surface (or webbing) is supported by diagonal ribs at the intersections of the compartments. Tierceron and lierne vaults are rib vaults with added decorative ribs. A fan vault was constructed of intersecting conical shapes, usually covered with blind tracery motifs.
Vestments – By liturgical vestments are meant the vestments that, according to the rules of the Church or from ecclesiastical usage, are to be worn by the clergy in performing the ceremonies of the services of the Church, consequently, above all, at the celebration of the Mass, then in the administration of the sacraments, at blessings, the solemn recitation of the canonical hours, public services of prayer, processions, etc. The liturgical vestments of the Latin Rite are: the amice, alb, cincture, maniple, stole, tunicle, dalmatic, chasuble, surplice, cope, sandals, stockings (or buskins), gloves, mitre, pallium, succinctorium, and fanon. The vestments of the priest are the amice, alb, cincture, maniple, stole, chasuble—vestments which the priest wears at the celebration of the Mass—then, in addition, the surplice and the cope.
Vestry – 1) A room in a church where the clergy and choir changed into their vestments, which were sometimes also stored there, especially in smaller churches 2) A group of parishioners who oversaw the secular functions of the parish.