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



137 



There seems to have been a group of figures on the left ; a nimbed 

 figure with seraphs in the upper part of the centre ; and a large 

 sitting- figure on the right. 



I have thought the early features enumerated sufficient ground 

 for supposing that this Church was built before the Norman Con- 

 quest, but I have met with no proof that it is older than the tenth 

 century, although preserving the traditionary type of very primitive 

 Churches. In Wiltshire we are naturally inclined to try and connect 

 early Church work with the personal effort or influence of St. 

 Aldhelm, who died Bishop of Sherborne, A.J). 709, but there is no 

 mention in his diffuse biographies of any visit to Manningford. It 

 seems more reasonable to conjecture that the building of this Church 

 was owing to the influence of the Bishops of Ramsbury, twelve 

 miles distant, of whom three became Archbishops of Canterbury, viz., 

 St. Odo, Siric, and Aelfric. St. Odo, the Dane, in particular, was a 

 proficient in Greek and Latin, 1 became Bishop of Ramsbury A.D. 

 926, and Archbishop of Canterbury, A.D. 942, over which see he pre- 

 sided seventeen years. 2 He is recorded, among other works, to have 

 raised the walls of his Cathedral at Canterbury, 3 which shows that 

 he was an admirer of loftiness in Church building. 



Attention has been attracted to the Church of St. Peter, Man- 

 ningford Bruce, by the restoration now in progress. The architect 

 is J. L. Pearson, Esq., B.A., F.S.A. 



1 Osbernus de Vita Odonis Arch. Cant., Wharton Anglia Sacra, vol. i., p. 79 ; 

 London, 1691. 



2 Cf. Fasti Eccl., Sarisb. W. H. Jones, M.A. F.S.A., part 1., pp. 36, 76 ; 

 Salisbury, Brown, 1879. 



3 Canterbury Cathedral, Willis, p. 3 ; London, Longman, 1845. 



[N.B. — At the close of the Pontifical celebration which followed the consecra- 

 tion of the Orthodox Greek Church of St. Sophia, London, 5th February, 1882, 

 the antidoron was distributed, with eulogia, by the Archbishop of Corfu, standing 

 in front of the throne, holding in his left hand a staff similar to the cainbutta of 

 a Saxon bishop, and each recipient kissed the right hand of the archbishop. Cf. 

 Laws of King Ethelred, quoted above, p. 132. In the consecration service the 

 chrism crosses were made at a great height by means of a long rod. Sec Illus- 

 trated London News, 11th February, 1882. Part of the foregoing paper was 

 read by the author at an ordinary meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, London, 

 8th December, 1881, and an abstract was supplied for the Proceedings.] 



