FIFEHEAD NEVILLE MEETING. Ixxiii. 



A rumour was current that the tomb of the founder of the 

 church had also been removed ; the architect states that no 

 tomb was removed. The tomb of the founder had certainly 

 disappeared from the church before 1866, and at that time there 

 seems to have been no tradition of the date when this barbarous 

 act was perpetrated. 



In the vestry INIr. Bartelot pointed out an incised stone slab 

 with a head flanked on the one side by a figure of the sun and 

 on the other the moon. "These figures," the Hon. Sec. said, 

 '•' are especially interesting as an instance of the application of 

 emblems originally pagan to Christian purposes. Thus the 

 Solar God, under the auspices of Christianity, signifies the Sun 

 of Righteousness and the moon the Virgin IMary, instead of 

 Juno or Diana. In modern Roman Catholic pictures the Virgin 

 is sometimes represented standing on the moon." 



The introduction of the sun symbol into Christianity may 

 have been due to Constantine, who, before his conversion to 

 Christianity, as a follower of Mithras, was a worshipper of the 

 sun. 



Leaving the church, the party drove to 



Okeford Fitzpaine, 



where the Rev. C. A. Phillips, son of the Rev. J. H. Phillips, the 

 Rector, read a paper on and showed some fragments of the 

 ancient font, of which a full drawing had been prepared ; and 

 some portions of the fine rood screen, of which "each panel was 

 ornamented with tracery, a central quatrefoil, whose inner 

 featherings coalesce to form square paterce." 



j\Ir. Phillips stated that the Rev. Duke Butler, rector, made 

 an entry in the register in 1766 to the effect that at the time of 

 some considerable restoration to the roof, a pulpit of Damory 

 oak was erected, and the former one of stone converted into a 

 font for baptism. 



' ' This refers to the upper part of the present pulpit. It was used as a font, 

 standing close to the west pier of the north arcade till the last restoration of 18U5, 



