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The Easter Sepulchrum in its Relation to the Architecture of the High Altar
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
By the term ‘sepulehrum’ is designated that device or structure employed in churches—especially in the middle ages—to symbolize, or in more complete manner to represent, the tomb of Christ. This sepulchrum, so named in the liturgy, first appears in connection with the ancient office of the Depositio Crucis, or burial of the cross, which after mass on Good Friday typified the burial of Christ. Complementing and completing the Depositio was another office, privately celebrated by the priest and clergy before matins on Easter Sunday, typifying the resurrection, and called the Elevatio Crucis. When, after the tenth century, troping of the Introit for Easter morning—the famous Quem Quaeritis—developed into a little liturgical play with the impersonation of the angel or angels, and of the three Maries coming to anoint the body of the Lord, there was naturally a development of the heretofore symbolic sepulchrum in the altar, into what resulted finally in a separate structure.
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References
1 See Karl Young, Officium Pastorum: A Study of the Dramatic Developments within the Liturgy of Christmas, in Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, Vol. xvii, Part i.
2 H. J. Feasey, Ancient English Holy Week Ceremonial, London, 1897.
3 The Easter Sepulchre, in Ecclesiastical Review, Vol. xxxii, Nos. 4 and 5, Philadelphia, 1905.
4 E. K. Chambers, The Mediœval Stage, Oxford, 1903, Vol. ii, p. 22.
page 668 note 1 Karl Young, Some Texts of Liturgical Plays, Pub. of Modern Language Assoc., Vol. xxiv, No. 2; Observations on the Origin of the Mediœval Passion-Play, ib., Vol. xxv, No. 2.
page 668 note 2 Carl Lange, Die Lateinischen Osterfeiern, Munich, 1887, p. 110.
page 668 note 3 Ibid., p. 29.
page 668 note 4 Ibid., p. 47.
page 668 note 5 Karl Young, Officium Pastorum [See Note 1, p. 665.]
page 668 note 6 Carl Lange, Op. cit., [Note 2, p. 669]; hereafter referred to simply as “Lange.”
page 668 note 7 N. C. Brooks, in Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. viii.
page 668 note 8 Copy of original ms. made by Dr. Karl Young.
page 668 note 9 N. C. Brooks, in Zeitschrift für Deutsches Altertum, Vol. l. (After this I shall refer to this publication simply as Zeitschrift).
page 668 note 10 Karl Young, The Harrowing of Hell, Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, Vol. xvi, ii, p. 903.
page 668 note 11 Karl Young, Some Texts of Liturgical Plays, Publications of the Modern Language Association, Vol. xxiv, p. 313.
page 668 note 12 Karl Young, The Harrowing of Hell, l. c, p. 909. The same text is inaccurately given by Lange, p. 99.
page 668 note 13 cum, in the more accurately reproduced text given by Young: Harrowing of Hell [see note 10, p. 672], p. 905. cum sepulchro … surgentes de loco ostendant Sepulchrum esse uacuum.
page 668 note 14 In Zeitschrift, Vol. xli, p. 82.
page 668 note 15 Some Texts, etc., l. c, p. 322, date of ms. given, p. 318.
page 668 note 16 Karl Young, Observations on the Origin of the Mediœval Passion-Play, Publ. of the Mod. Lang. Assoc., Vol. xxv, p. 343.
page 668 note 17 Observations on the Origin of the Mediœval Passion Play, p. 346.
page 668 note 18 Harrowing of Hell, p. 913.
page 668 note 19 In Zeitschrift, Vol. xli, p. 82.
page 668 note 20 Brooks, in Journ. Eng. and Ger. Philol., Vol. x, p. 192.
page 668 note 21 Young, Harrowing of Hell [see note, p. 672], p. 943.
page 668 note 22 Du Meril, Les Origines Latines du Théâtre Moderne, Leipzig and Paris, 1897, p. 89.
page 668 note 23 Young, Some Texts … p. 312.
page 668 note 24 Harrowing of Hell, p. 900.
page 668 note 25 Brooks, in Journ. Eng. and Ger. Philol., Vol. viii, p. 468.
page 668 note 26 Apparently the chief altar serves as the sepulchrum in this highly elaborate play. One angel is above—possibly on the canopy itself—two are within the pillars of the canopy.
page 668 note 27 Young, Harrowing of Hell, p. 919 and p. 922.
page 668 note 28 Young, Harrowing of Hell, p. 930.
page 668 note 29 See also, for accurate transcript of this whole text, Young, Mod. Philol., Vol. vi, No. 2.
page 668 note 30 In Zeitschrift, Vol. xli, p. 81.
page 668 note 31 In Zeitschrift, Vol. l, p. 297.
page 668 note 32 In Zeitschrift, Vol. xli, p. 78.
page 682 note 1 H. J. Feasey, Ancient English Holy Week Ceremonial, London, 1897, p. 139.
page 682 note 2 The Easter Sepulchre, in Ecclesiastical Review, xxxii, Nos. 4, 5.
page 682 note 3 Ancient English Holy Week Ceremonial, p. 141.
page 682 note 4 Ibid., p. 151.
page 682 note 5 The holy sepulchre being duly set up, its adornment was proceeded with. Hangings and curtains of rich brocade, silks, velvets, tapestries and cloths stained and painted with sacred story, were hung round about it, a canopy suspended over it, rich palls of work thrown over the sepulchre itself, while a veil of lawn or gossamer was drawn before it, to shield it in a measure from the view. Ibid., pp. 151, 152.
page 682 note 6 Ibid., pp. 142-145.
page 682 note 7 I. e., the great Easter candle, and the lights to be extinguished on Good Friday.
page 682 note 8 Ancient English Holy Week Ceremonial, p. 147.
page 682 note 9 Alfred Heales, Easter Sepulchres, in Archœologia, Vol. xlii (1868), p. 288.
page 682 note 10 Ibid., p. 296.
page 682 note 11 In Ecclesiastical Review, Vol. xxxii, Nos. 4 and 5.
page 682 note 12 Ancient English Holy Week Ceremonial, p. 153.
page 682 note 13 Ancient English Holy Week Ceremonial, pp. 166, 167.
page 682 note 14 Ibid., pp. 170, 171. (Durham Rites, Surtees Society, pp. 10, 11).
page 682 note 15 Ibid., pp. 155, 156.
page 682 note 16 Ecclesiastical Review, Vol. xxxii, Nos. 4 and 5.
page 691 note 1 Ancient English Holy Week Ceremonial, p. 176.
page 691 note 2 Walter Lowrie, Monuments of the Early Church, New York, 1901, p. 332.
page 691 note 3 Gilbert Scott, Essay on the History of English Church Architecture, London, 1881.
page 691 note 4 For full discussion of the canopies and their evolution see: Wilhelm Lübke, Ecclesiastical Art in Germany (transl.), London, 1871, pp. 124 et seq.
Yrjö Hirn, The Sacred Shrine, Macmillan, 1912, p. 27 et seq.
page 691 note 5 Lübke, op. cit., p. 24.
page 691 note 6 Yrjö Hirn, op. cit., p. 27.
page 691 note 7 Michel, Histoire de l'Art, Vol. i, p. 106.
page 691 note 8 Lübke, op. cit., p. 124.
page 691 note 9 Fresco in Cathedral Library, Siena; painted between 1502 and 1509.
page 691 note 10 Numerous examples of Gothic canopies (he calls them ciboria.) are to be found represented in Venturi. Almost any work on ecclesiastical architecture will give examples.
page 691 note 11 Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire Raisonné de l'Architecture, Vol. ix, p. 55 (article, Tombeau, Fig. 25).
page 691 note 12 Frothingham, Monuments of Christian Rome, p. 251.
page 691 note 13 Venturi, Storia dell' Arte Italiana, Vol. iv, passim.
page 691 note 14 See Heales, Easter Sepulchres, and Father Feasey, Ancient English Holy Week Ceremonial, for full evidence as to the ‘Sepulchre Lights,’—the great ‘Paschal’ and the ‘tenebrae candles.‘
page 691 note 15 Paul Lacroix, Military and Religious Life in the Middle Ages, New York, 1876, p. 495.
page 691 note 16 W. H. St. John Hope, English Altars from Illuminated Manuscripts, London, 1899, plate xiii.
page 691 note 17 Viollet-le-Duc, op. cit., Vol. ix, p. 64. (Tombeau, Fig. 29.)
page 700 note 1 W. Meyer, Wie ist die Auferstehung Christi dargestellt worden? in Nachrichten der K. Gesell. der Wissen., Philol.-histor. Klasse, 1903, Heft 2, pp. 236-254 (Göttingen).
page 700 note 2 Didron, Christian Iconography, translated from the French by E. J. Millington, and completed … by Margaret Stokes, Vol. ii, London, 1891.
page 700 note 3 St. John mentions Nicodemus also with Joseph of Arimathea (John xix, 39).