268 KEMPLEY CHURCH, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 



ends of white, with a fringe on each, as on the stole of St. Thomas of 

 Canterbury at Sens. It is worn on the wi-ist, instead of being held in 

 the hand, as was the more ancient custom, thus showing that this 

 painting is not much earlier than the year 1100 A.D., as the change 

 seems to have taken place in the latter half of the eleventh centuiy. In 

 early times the maniple was simply a napkin, and was used for 

 wiping the priest's hands at the celebration of the mass. The mitre 

 is pale red, not white as it generaUy is, and of the earliest form, 

 exactly resembhng those shown in Byzantine MSS. of the eighth 

 to the tenth centuries ; it seems to be worn over a sort of veil, which 

 hangs do-«Ti behind. At the feet of the bishop, on his right side, is a 

 sort of cup or vase, probably intended for a chalice. On the left is a 

 yellow roundel enclosing a blue cross, which may be a dedication cross ; 

 or again, this object may represent a paten. 



The coloured decoration is carried over the chancel arch, which is in 

 two plain square orders. The outer order is ornamented with a pattern 

 of interlacing zig-zags, the inner one has ten yellow roundels bordered 

 with red. 



Considerable damage has been done to the side walls by two priest's 

 doors, which have been broken through the wall, and by the insertion of 

 a rude arch-headed recess, which was either an aumbry or an Easter 

 sepulchre. 



The only painting in the nave which appears to be con- 

 temporaneous with those in the chancel is the large one over the 

 chancel arch, representing Christ in Majesty, and the Last Judgment. It 

 is much damaged, and the upper part of it is still concealed by the 

 modern ceiling. The figure of Christ, however, and of Archangels 

 Mowing trumpets, are still to be distinguished. 



The other paintings are probably not earlier than the fifteenth and 

 sixteenth centuries. On the jamb of the small Norman window, in the 

 north wall, there are figures of St. Michael and a female saint. Between 

 it and the next window there is a curious sort of wheel, enclosing ten 

 circles, the meaning of which is not easy to make out. 



On one of the jambs of the southern perpendicular window there is 

 the figure of an Archbishop, and the wall west of it has a number of 

 coarse paintings, which are of a still later date. Paintings like these later 

 ones are far from rare in English cluu-chcs ; but I beheve we might 

 search in vain for another instance of paintings like those in the chancel 

 and over the chancel arch, of a date so early as the beginning of the 

 twelfth century, and with their unity of motive and completeness of 

 design. The nearest to these in date are, I believe, the paintings on tlio 

 chancel walls of Chaldou Church, in Surrey, representing the Scahi 

 humaiue mlvationis, but they are, at least, half a century later than the 

 examples before us. 



It will be worth our wliile to compare a very interesting passage in 

 Duraudus' " Katio Divinorum Ofticiorum," I.,iii., 7 — 12, which, omitting 

 the twenty-four elders, might almost bo a description of these paintings. 

 The great work of Durandus was perhaps better known and more 



