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XV. An illustration from the Church of St. John, Syracuse, to accompany Mr. Gage's Dissertation on the Anglo-Saxon Ceremonial of the Dedication and Consecration of Churches; in a Letter from Sydney Smirke, Esq. F.S.A., to Sir Henry Ellis, Secretary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2012

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Extract

On hearing lately read at the Society a very able and interesting Paper by Mr. Gage, on the Consecration of the Anglo-Saxon Churches, a passage in it, intimating his belief that crosses cut on the face of the walls marked the spots touched by the Chrism at the ceremony of the Consecration, brought to my recollection a case bearing much on the subject, and affording corroborative evidence of the correctness of Mr. Gage's supposition.

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Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1832

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References

page 277 note a Since the above was written Mr. Gage has done me the favour to refer me to a Pontifical, printed at Rome in 1595, and now preserved in the British Museum, where the ceremony of Consecrating a Church is set forth at length: the Bishop is enjoined to mark with his thumb, dipped in the chrism, twelve crosses on the walls of the Church and others on the door, altar, &c. &c. The prints embellishing this Pontifical show the Bishop so engaged, mounted on a moveable stage six steps high, the rubric requiring that the said crosses shall be 10 palms (7 feet 5 inches English measure) above the floor.