The Use of the Rood Screen

[OrbisNonSufficit]

Thank you, that was very informative.

 

[CRM_Brother]

Neither. They have different origins and functions.

They actually do have a common origin and function which evolved in different routes simultaneously. Until the legalization of Christianity, altars were a specific type of table used in the peristyle (colonnaded garden courtyard) of the house Church. The Eucharist was usually reserved (if it was reserved at all) in a carved niche along one of the walls behind the altar.

When Christianity was legalized under Constantine, permanent free-standing altars were constructed. Over these altars were constructed ciboria (free standing pillared roofs) which officially denoted the area underneath it as an altar to a god (any god as pagans also used this). The Eucharist was reserved upon the altar and curtains were hung to obscure the Blessed Sacrament from view outside of Mass. These curtains and ciboria were the origin of both the Iconostasis and the rood screen. Gradually, both in the East and the West, the pillars and curtains were brought to the front of the sanctuary to give the priest more space when saying mass.

At this point (6th-12th centuries) the Eastern and Western architectures diverged. The West began to do away with the curtains all together whereas the East began to hang icons over the spaces between the pillars, creating the iconostasis. In the early days of this period in the Eastern Church, the icons were removed for Mass. Over time, the icons became permanent. There are still early medieval iconostasis (9th-12th cent.) which preserves the curtain and hung icon motifs and many of the late medieval (13th-14th cent.) preserve the ability to remove the icons from the iconostasis.

In the West, the curtains and ciboria became the rood screen and then eventually evolved into the altar rail after the Council of Trent. This was primarily because the Council decreed that there could be no impediment for the faithful to view the Eucharist during the elevation. Allowances were made for high altars in historic churches, but directed that the primary masses of the day to be held in side chapels so that the elevation of the Eucharist would not be obstructed.

God Bless

 

[Jbrady]

They actually do have a common origin and function which evolved in different routes simultaneously.

Actually, not quite. The source you are using is not accurate, and mixes up dates and architectural developments to the point where it is fanciful, especially the claim that ciboria developed into rood screens or iconostases. Neither case is true,

 

[Gyro]

That’s an interesting observation. Is it vestigial, like the Kyrie Eleison being sung in Greek in the Latin Mass?

 

[HomeschoolDad]

Buks:

I’ve seen similar in Byzantine Rite churches.

Yes it looks a lot like Byzantine iconostasis. I wonder if their evolved from ours or vice-versa…

I’ve thought the same thing. Rood screens seem basically to be “iconostases without the icons”.

I am all in favor of anything that marks off the sanctuary as something private and reserved to the priest and acolytes. I was scandalized one time to see the butcher-block-like altar at my former parish being used by a woman as a table to stack her papers on, while she stood there after Mass, chattering like a magpie to someone in front of her about a matter that was evidently of great importance.

 

[CRM_Brother]

While I admit, the century dates may be a little off since it has been a few years since I studied this topic, I stand by my process of evolution. I have had full courses in the evolution of liturgical architecture and the evolution of iconostasis and rood screens from the ancient veils of the ciboria are taught in seminaries. I have seen the evidence of this with my own eyes in images in which icons were removed for restoration from ancient iconostasis for cleaning and they look exactly like the pillared sanctuary barriers which are present in the West at the same time. They even have metal hooks still installed where they hung the veils. All of the wooden armatures which have been constructed over them all date from after the iconoclasm.

Add to this all of the testimonies throughout the early centuries of benefactors donating jeweled “sanctuary veils” in both the East and the West (we have records from both St. John Lateran and Hagai Sophia in the 6th century) whose dimensions match the dimensions of the iconostasis and pillared sanctuary divisions of the time.

If you look at a rood screen and an ancient iconostasis without its wooden armature and icons, they look almost identical in their basic details.

While I don’t rely on wikipedia for my source information, the “Rood Screen” page even lays out the development I stated above.

 

[Jbrady]

First of all, rood screens are not sanctuary or altar screens. They do not demarcate the sanctuary. They demarcate the chancel as a whole, and specifically the quire, from the nave. They are not there to give the priest celebrating Mass privacy. They are there to give the canons or choir monks praying the hours privacy. And to keep non-clerics out of the chancel as a whole, not only the sanctuary.

Sanctuary screens did exist in the West, but mostly, but not entirely, fell out of use or were scaled back once pulpita and rood screens started to make them redundant.

Any similarities between iconostases and rood screens or pulpita is entirely coincidental and derives solely from them both being screens of sorts. They share no common history, not did the idea of one influence the idea of the other. Nor did they serve the same function. They are independent developments that superficially resemble each other.

While I don’t rely on wikipedia for my source information, the “Rood Screen” page even lays out the development I stated above.

You mean the article that specifically says, " The iconostasis in Eastern Christian churches is a visually similar barrier, but is now generally considered to have a different origin, deriving from the ancient altar screen or templon." ??

 

[CRM_Brother]

rood screens started to make them redundant.

They never “started to make them redundant”. They were never constructed at the same time. The only time you see both together is when the choir is removed from the sanctuary or had been added afterward. There is even archaeological evidence denoting that some rood screens throughout Europe used to be the old Sanctuary division and was moved back to include the choir. It wasn’t until you began to see a choir separate from the sanctuary that you begin to see rood screens because, traditionally canons of a church sat behind the altar and were already within the bounds of the sanctuary divisions. Those divisions had already provided separation between the canons and the laity. The rood screen was created separate from the sanctuary division purely because they were not sitting behind the altar anymore and needed a similar barrier.

 

[CRM_Brother]

deriving from the ancient altar screen or templon."

Yes, the ancient altar screen or templon which evolved from the ancient altar veil.

The templon was the Eastern term for the sanctuary divisions that predated the iconoclasm. While the rood screen and iconostasis split from the sanctuary divisions at different times, it still is derived from a common root.

 

[Jbrady]

Really, why don’t you actually read the Wikipedia article you seem to be relying on. It’s actually quite well written, for a Wikipedia article. And also pretty much agrees with what I have been saying.

Sorry, but I’m not going to argue with you about this.

 

[CRM_Brother]

Really, why don’t you actually read the Wikipedia article you seem to be relying on. It’s actually quite well written, for a Wikipedia article. And also pretty much agrees with what I have been saying.

It also agrees with what I have been saying. Below is a picture of a 8th century templon from a church in Rome which was built by Byzantine builders. Other than the pennants and two icons which have been set on the rail, it is exactly as it was 1300 years ago. (Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

It too, has holes where the veils used to be hung.

 

[Jbrady]

It too, has holes where the veils used to be hung.

It also has nothing to do with rood screens.

 

[Symphorian]

Bear in mind that in the Medieval period the laity were not always separated from the ministers by the Rood screen. In Medieval England even small churches had side altars and it wasn’t uncommon to find side altars set up against the Rood screen on the laity’s side of the screen. Whilst the high altar would be used for high masses on Sundays and other holy days the side altars would be frequently used during the week for low masses such as requiem masses, votive masses, masses in honour of the BVM or some other saint. The priest and laity would then often be in arms reach of each other.

The laity often controlled or even owned these side altars. They provided the altar coverings, statues, ornaments and lights which furnished them and had significant involvement concerning the liturgies celebrated at them. Surviving wills attest to this.

 

[Jbrady]

Bear in mind that in the Medieval period the laity were not always separated from the ministers by the Rood screen. In Medieval England even small churches had side altars and it wasn’t uncommon to find side altars set up against the Rood screen on the laity’s side of the screen.

The side altars were also screened and cordoned off, if only by curtains, especially after 1215.

 

[CRM_Brother]

It also has nothing to do with rood screens.

You say that the wikipedia article supports you, and yet the article states that the rood screen developed from Roman choir architecture. The templon above was common in Roman architecture at the time. I know, I studied liturgical architecture in Rome. This specific church has its original choir along the apse but was expanded in the 11th century to include an area in front of the altar. In Rome, the wall around the choir was never known as a “rood screen”. It still is not. It is known as the choir templon. Same word. Same object used in a slightly different way. Over time, they eventually lost their pillars. You cannot say that the rood screen evolved from the choir templon and reject that it is related to the original templon.