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



135 



Notwithstanding these early examples I cannot venture to assume 

 that the remains of decorative painting" within the ap?e of Manning- 

 ford Bruce Church are so early as the tenth century or the shell of 

 the Church. It seems just possible that the primitive-looking red 

 crosses may be coeval with the consecration, marking the spots 

 touched with chrism hy the officiating bishop, and that the de- 

 corative quatrefoils, circles, &c, may have been added at a later date. 



The consecration or dedication of Churches was a most elaborate 

 and prolonged process, even at a very early date, both in the Greek 

 and Latin branches of the Church, as may be seen in the Euchologion 

 and the Pontificals. 



The Greek and Latin services are not identical, but there are 

 many points of similarity between them. Much information re- 

 specting this ceremony is given in Mr. Gage's paper on " The 

 Anglo-Saxon Ceremonial and Consecration of Churches illustrated 

 from a Pontifical in the Public Library at Rouen/' in the twenty- 

 fifth volume of Archseologia. 



The MS. is numbered 362, and is believed to be of the tenth 

 century. 



In the Greek service it is directed that one of the priests or arch- 

 priests shall make crosses with the ointment on each pillar and pier 

 of the Church, 1 and in Byzantine architecture we find a cross 

 sculptured above the capital or abacus, apparently to receive this 

 unction and to be a memorial of it. 2 



In the Houen Pontifical is this rubric : ce Delude in circuity, ecclesia 

 per parieies a dextro et a sinistra faciens crucem cum pollice de ipso 

 crismate, dicens," &c. From the context it appears that these crosses, 

 made by the Bishop with his thumb dipped in chrism, were inside 

 the Church. From Durandus, writing in the fifteenth century, we 

 learn that the number of crosses was twelve. We may, therefore, 

 suppose that three crosses were made on the eastern wall, as at 

 Manningford Bruce; three on the north wall; three on the south 

 wall ; and three on the west wall. 



1 Euchologion, p. 321 ; Venice, 1862. Cf. below, N.B., p. 137. 

 2 Cf . Texier, three plates of St. Demetrius, Thessalouica, following* p. 128. 



