33& On the Consuetudinary of 8. Osmund. 



the senior canons the archdeacons, the sub-dean, the sub-chanter, the 

 priest-vicars, and by special privilege a few of the deacon-vicars. The 

 "terminal" stalls were occupied by the Dean and Chancellor on the 

 south side; by the Precentor and Treasurer on the north side. Each 

 canon had his place either on the " Decani-" or "Cantoris 31 side,as they 

 came to be called from the Dean and Precentor who respectively occu- 

 pied the terminal stalls. Indeed in course of time the fifty- two canons 

 came to be ranged in four divisions (each of thirteen) called re- 

 spectively the " quarterium " or quarter of the Dean, the Precentor, 

 the Chancellor, the Treasurer. There is nothing here to lead us to 

 think that in earliest days there were any " return-stalls " at the 

 western end of the choir. There was probably a low screen between 

 the choir and nave, 1 as we read of the " choir-gates/'' over which, or 

 possibly on one side of which, was a cross, in front of which the 

 Treasurer was bound to provide a large light. On either side of the 

 screen were " pulpits " — at all events there was one, which is called 

 " pulpitum in aquila " (from the lectern, or eagle, which at an early 

 date served instead of the pulpit) — from which were read the epistles 

 and gospels. 2 The Treasurer was bound to provide five lights u super 

 murum post pulpitum lectionum" an arrangement hardly consistent 

 with return-stalls. It is true there is another pulpit named, from 

 which the gospel was to be read (§ xcv.) on the second day in 

 Advent, which was placed in the south side of the presbytery 

 for the occasion — a moveable one in fact — for the words of the 

 Consuetudinary are "Evangelium in presbyterio, super pulpito ad 



1 On this point we have an important testimony in a work of Durandus 

 which is especially valuable, as lie died in 1296 and so witnesses to contemporary 

 custom. He tells us that in primitive churches the screen enclosing the choir 

 was only elbow-height — usque ad appodiationem — and that such custom was 

 more or less observed in his own time. The whole passage is as follows : — " In 

 primitiva ecclesia peribolus, id est, paries, qui circuit chorum non elevabatur nisi 

 usque ad appodiationem, quod adhuc in quibusdam ecclesiis observatur, quod 

 ideo fiebat, ut populus videns cleruin psallentem inde bonum sumeret exemplum," 

 &c. "Rationale divinorum officiorum 1518" (fol. xl.) 



2 The reader stood at the lectern which was placed just within the western 

 entrance to the choir, the clerics being directed to turn towards him. Thus in 

 § xvii. we read, " Chorus ad altare se inclinet antequam ad lectorem evangelii se 

 convertat." 



