^62 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2n-i S. V. 122., May 1. '68. 



sise in medio murum 'cancellorum, quibus separantur h 

 mulieribus viri, totura solidum sine forarainibus vel fenes- 

 tris, unde non possunt mulieres altare videre nisi per 

 nnum ostium in medio in parvis ecclesiis, in majoribus 

 vero per tria ostia quae ciim necesse fuerit, possunt 

 claudi valvis, celebratis officiis." — Anonymus Ticinensis, 

 A. D. 1330, apud Rer. Italic. Scriptores, ed. Muratori, t. xi. 

 p. 19. Milan, 1727. 



Some two centuries later, we find St. Charles 

 Borromeo striving his best to put down, among 

 other abuses, which had arisen in ecclesiastical 

 discipline, that of the non-observance, in some 

 places of his province, of this same old Italian 

 church-custom. To bring back again this ancient 

 and becoming practice wherever it had been al- 

 lowed to fall away, that truly great, good, holy 

 bishop had the following canon framed in one of 

 the several provincial councils which he held, of 

 the bishops and clergy of the Milanese arch- 

 diocess : — 



" Ubi vetus ilia consuetudo cum ab aliis tam ab S. 

 Chrysostimo in primis testificata, eaque non sine aliqua 

 mystica significatione imbuta, ut separatim scilicet in 

 ecclesia viri a mulieribus essent, in provincia nostra in- 

 tromissa aut nulla est, episcoporum cura plane restituatur 

 quemadmodum et adhuc in compluribus ejusdem provin- 

 ciae ecclesiis retinetur et olira in usu fuisse cognoscitur 

 ex antiquis earundem ecclesiarum exaedificationibus, in 

 quibus separationis et destinctionis hujus vestigia, his 

 etiam temporibus extant." — Acta Heel. Med'wlanensis, 

 Actorum, pars i. Concil iv. t. i. p. 134. Milan, 1843. 



Besides the above enactment there are others, 

 among the decrees of the same councils promul- 

 gated by St. Charles, for duly keeping up this 

 liturgical rite. An Italian author of no small 

 weight, Doraenico Magri, who was canon of the 

 cathedral of Viterbo, affords us some valuable 

 information on this subject, from which we learn 

 that, in his time, this separation of the sexes was 

 observed in this rural churches of Malta: — 



" Adhuc inter Orientales Graecosque Christianos, et in 

 ruralibus Melitae ecclesiis locus pro utroque sexu sepa- 

 ratus observatur, qui tamen laudabilis usus in hac insula 

 parochorum incuria sensim deperditur." — Maori Hiero- 

 lexicon, verbo " Diaconissa," Venice, 1735, p. 203. 



Sarnelli, too, in his Antica Basilicografia, p. 44., 

 assures us that when he wrote, c. a. d. 1686 : — 



" Anche a' nostri di nelle chiese ben regelate si osserva 

 questa divisione ; se bene in diverse maniere, usando 

 alcuni un riparo di legname, detto steccato, non divisivo 

 di tutta la chiesa, ma tanto grande quanto fe capace delle 

 donne che a maggior numero sogliono concorrervi." 



To get nearer to our own times, it may be ob- 

 served that Moroni, a living Italian author, tells us, 

 in \Aa Dizionario Ecclesiastico, t. xx. p. 211., that 

 this very custom may still be seen in some places, 

 for the women to be separated in church from 

 the men : — 



" II pic costume in alcuni luogi h ancora in vigore che 

 le donne stieno in essa (la chiesa) divise dagli uomini." 



To the partial observance of this usage at Rome 

 and its neighbourhood at present, I myself can 



bear witness ; for in the Pope's chapels, as well 

 as in St. Peter's, whenever stands are put up on 

 grand occasions for distinguished personages when 

 the Pontiff sings high mass or is present, the 

 ladies, however exalted their rank, are invariably 

 placed by themselves : in all processions out of 

 church which I have ever beheld at Albano, 

 Frascati, and the villages round about, the men 

 and women always walked in separate bodies ; 

 and the same thing I have observed in Lombardy 

 and Piedmont. 



2nd. Leaving Italy, we will go to other parts 

 of the Western Church, and there too shall we 

 find this same separation of the sexes insisted on, 

 and spoken of by Durandus himself and the other 

 ritualists. We will begin with Amalarius, a priest 

 of the church of Metz, c. A. d. 812. This scholar 

 of our own Alcuin says ; — 



" In conventu ecclesiastico seorsum masculi, et seorsum 

 fceminas stant. Quod accepimus a veteri consuetudine, 

 &c. — Masculi stant in australi parte, et foeminas in boreali, 

 &c."—De Ecc. Off. lib. iii. cap. 2. 



So, too, Honorius of Autun, A. d. 1130 : — 



" In ecclesia masculi in australi parte stant — •fceminae 

 vero in boreali parte stant." — Gemma AninuB, lib. i. 

 cap. 145. 



Let us now hear what Durandus, at the very 

 beginning of his work, has to say upon the 

 matter : — 



" In conventu ecclesiae mulieres et viri seorsum habi- 

 tant. — Masculi autemin australi, fceminae autem in boreali 

 sive in aquilonari parte manent." — Rationalis, lib. i. 

 cap. i. n. 46. 



3rd. While looking back on the old liturgical 

 usages of England, we see that in some places the 

 custom was for the men to be towards the east, the 

 women towards the west end of the church, since 

 we read in an Exeter Pontifical this rubric : — 



" Ad includendum anchoritam. — Si laicus, jacet extra 

 hostium chori : si femina, jacet in occidentali parte ec- 

 clesie, ubi mos est feminis orare." — Lib. Pontif., of Ed- 

 mund Lacy, Bishop of Exeter, ed. Barnes. Exeter, 

 p. 131. 



The syfaibolism of this separation of the sexes 

 at church showed itself in other observances of 

 our old English liturgy ; at baptism, by the rubric 

 of the Salisbury Manual : — 



" Masculus autem statuatur a dextris sacerdotis, 

 foemina vero k sinistris." 



At offering time, during mass, the men went 

 up first, the women after, as was done abroad 

 {Gemma Animce, lib. i. cap. 28.); hence was it 

 that Chaucer said of the Wife of Bath : — 



" In all the parish wif ne was ther non, 

 That to the offring before hire shulde gon." — 



And the following passage from Sir Thos. More's 

 Life, by his grandson Cresacre More, incidentally 

 proves that, till late in the reign of Henry VIII,, 



