Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-02-06
LAMPS IN CHURCHES.
Ancient Contrivances for Preserving Sacred
Fires Periodically.

Preserving
Fires PerpetuaIly.
Among the legends of the early Celtic
saints nothing is more common than
the story of the saint being sent to
borrow fire and carrying it in his lap
without the fire burning his garment.
In ireland, before st. Patrick intro
duced Christianity, there was temple
at Tara where fire burned ever and was
on no account suffered to go out.
When Christianity became dominant,
it was necessary to dissociate the ideas
of the people from the central idea of
fire as mixed up with the old gods; at
the same time some central fire was in
absolute need. Accordingly the church
was converted into the sacred depos-
tory of the perpetual fire, and lamp
was kept in it ever burning, not only
that the candles might be ignited from
it for the services, without recourse being
had to friction or finder, flint and steel,
but also that the parish, the village, the
town, might obtain thence their fire.
There exists a few-a very few-con-
trivances for this perpetual fire in our
churches; they go by the name of
cresset stones. The earliest known is
not in England, but is in the atrium
outside the remarkable church of Saint
Ambrogio at Milan. 1t is a block of
white marble on a nodded base, now
broken but banded together with iron.
1t stands 3 feet 10 inches high and is
feet & inches in diameter at the top. 1t
consists of a fiat surface in which are
depressed nine cup-like hollows.
These were originally filed with
oil, and wicks were placed in them
and ignited. In England one is still in
stu, in the church of Lewannick, in
Cornwall. There it is not far from the
door. 1t consists of a circular block
containing on its fiat upper surface.
which is % inches across, seven cup
like hollows, Az inches deep. The
stone stands on a rudely-molded base,
octagonal, and is in all about feet 6
inches high. In Furness Abbey, among
the ruins, has been found another, with
five cups in it; at Calder Abbey another
with sixteen such cups for oil and wiclzs.
At York is another with six such fire.
cups, and at Stockholm another with
the same number in square stone
table. At Wool Church, Dorset, is again
another example built into the south
wall of small chapel on the north side
| of the chancel. 1t is block of Pur-
| beck marble, and has in the top five
cup-shaped cavities quite blackened
with the oil and smoke. In some Of
the examples there are traces of a metal
pin around which the wick was twisted.
In addition to these, in several
churches are to be found lamp inches.
Some have chimneys or fues, which
pass upward, in some cases passing into
the chimneys of fireplaces. Others
have conical hollows in the heads or
roofs in order to catch the SCOT and pre-
vent it passing out into the church.
Now, although these lamps and cres-
sets had their religious Specification,
yet this religious Specification was an
afterthought. The origin of them lay
in the necessity of there being in every
place central light, from which light
at any time could be borrowed, and the
reason why it was put in the middle OF
the church was to dissociate heathenish
IDEAS with it.-Cornhill Magazine.