medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> > Yet the *assumption* of a bishop's consistory court of some kind in the
> church is very frequently made in England, and their existence
> immediately post-Reformation is a certainty.
>
> *where*, "in the church"?
>
> i'm just curious about the architectural setting for suchlike a proceding,
> esp. if it were part of an on-going Institutional activity.
Dear Jon and Christopher,
The answer to that, at least sometimes, is that courts were conducted in porches. I
quote from Paul Williamson, Gothic Sculpture 1140-1300 (New Haven, 1995), p. 4:
"The deep porches of the more ambitious churches would have provided shelter for
large numbers of people and could be used in a variety of ways. The ubiquitous
subject of the Last Judgement on Gothic portals, often with the supporting figures of
Virtues and Vices and Wise and Foolish Virgins, would serve as an especially
appropriate backdrop to the dispensation of justice, as was the case at Leon
Cathedral. Here, from an early date, a column set on the front of a Gothic canopied
tabernacle was placed between the piers to the left of the Judgement portal. Its
function is literally spelt out by the inscription LOCUS APPELLACIONIS carved on
its front face, and the arms of Leon and Castile appear below. Presiding over this
symbol, in the niche behind, is the seated figure of King Solomon, and a later
personification of Justice, holding a sword and scales, has been inserted among the
jamb figures of the adjacent doorway. Leon was not an isolated case, and it is
known that trials were also conducted in the area of the south transept of Strasbourg
Cathedral, in the west porches of the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau, Saint-Urbain
at Troyes, and elsewhere."
See also Barbara Deimling, "Le portail d'eglise au Moyen Age et sa signification
juridique historique," in Rolf Toman, ed., L'Art roman (Cologne: Konemann, 1996),
pp. 324-27 [also available in German and English editions], who gives a number of
other examples, mostly from the 12th and 13th centuries, although where it is
stipulated, the justice rendered seems to have been secular rather than episcopal.
Church doors before which justice was rendered were often painted red, as in the
Porte rouge at Notre-Dame in Paris.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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