188 SUPPOSED INSCRIPTION UPON THE FONT AT WILNE. 
by prayer, in which the altar was spoken of as the place for 
spiritual sacrifices, where prayers were to be made, and oblations 
were to be offered ; but there is a marked absence of any statement 
or implication that on this altar itself as a surface the divine 
mysteries were to be celebrated. ‘Then follows the blessing of 
the ‘ table,” described as a stone prepared for the sacraments of 
life, on which the victim of the Son was to be placed and the 
mysteries of the sacred Body were to be consecrated, ‘‘a stone to 
be fitted on to the altar.” This “table” we may take as corres- 
ponding to the little plaque which the itinerant celebrant brough 
with him where there was no church, while the locality provided 
the ‘‘altar” on which the ‘‘ table” was to be placed. Ecgberht’s 
Pontifical specially emphasises the fact that the prayers of the 
people were prayed at the “altar,” and this may serve to suggest 
that where there was no church the ‘‘altar” provided by the 
locality was the praying-place of the district when no missionary 
was present, and that this was its ordinary use. We may be sure 
that all the energy of the Christian art of the district would be 
devoted to the beautification of the permanent “altar.” The 
stone altar which survived the burning of King Edwin’s vill at 
Campodunum, and was preserved in Bede’s time at the Abbot 
Thriduulfs monastery in Elmete Wood, was presumably a hand- 
some sculptured stone, worthy of so much care and such special 
mention. Subjects so favourite and telling as the victory of 
Christianity over the powers of evil, and the submission of the 
works of nature, would be among the first to present themselves 
to the mind of the designer. The lower tier of the Wilne pillar 
is an admirable pictorial rendering of the triumphant song, 
‘‘ Praise the Lord, ye . . . worms and feathered fowls.” 
There are no “ dragons,” in the sense of sea monsters, and there 
are no ‘“‘beasts and all cattle.” 
It will be seen that from the bottom of this lower tier to the 
band or base on the upper side of which the six pairs of feet stand, 
is about 18 inches, the actual height of the figures in the panels 
being 12 or 13 inches. The men’s feet are two inches long, some 
of them rather more than that, and taking the man to be six times 
