By Hie Rev, J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A. 



115 



official singers. Some chancels are so very small, as at Stockton, 

 that they can hardly be said to have any choir space at all. Cer- 

 tainly no singers, however well trained, could sing to good effect 

 through a massive wall, with a mere doorway and two small per- 

 forations. In such small villages it seems highly probable that our 

 forefathers were recurring to the Greek type, like St. Theodore, as 

 more suitable for a sparse population in those times than the San 

 Clemente and Basilican type, which, doubtless, for grand Churches, 

 has had great influence throughout the world, and in some degree 

 for small ones. 



It seems probable that in these small chancels the intention was 

 to provide room merely for the altar, credence, vestry, the officiating 

 priests with his assistants, and perhaps for the communion of the 

 faithful. The singers, if any, would be placed outside the screen, 

 north and south, so as to give antiphonal effect, as in the Greek 

 Church ; not, as indicated by Dr. Neale, under the centre of the 

 dome. 



The blending of the Latin rite with Greek Churches was abun- 

 dantly exemplified in Italy itself long before the Norman Conquest 

 of England. Very notably in St. Mark's, Venice, which was built 

 from designs of the best architects of Constantinople, A.D. 976 5 

 and took about one hundred years for its completion. The present 

 screen, which divides the sanctuary of St. Marias from the body of 

 the Church, was constructed in 1394 by two brothers, who were 

 natives of Venice. An excellent view is given by Gaily Knight. 

 It is very instructive as showing how the JLdy/ceXa of the Greek 

 Church was modified to suit the Latin rite. It consists of twelve 

 pillars, each surmounted by the statue of an apostle, with curtains 

 that can be drawn or undrawn between the pillars. On the north 

 side is a pulpit, pleasingly combined with the screen, and on the 

 south side an ambon or reading desk. It is curious that " Kanzel " 

 in German means a ptdpit, and a rood-loft was called in French 

 "jube," from the " jube domne benedieere," or solemn asking for 

 blessing at the reading of the holy gospel therefrom. 



In the Pontifical celebration of the liturgy by the Archbishop of 

 Corfu, at the consecration of the Orthodox Greek Church of St. 



