page_title: Rood screen
section_title: Symbolic significance
hierarchical_section_title: Rood screen / Symbolic significance
caption_attribution_description: English: Jubé (rood screen) at Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, Paris, ca. 1530. Français&#160;: Jubé de Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, Paris. Le jubé (de l'invocation latine Jube, Domine, benedicere&#160;: «&#160;ordonne, Seigneur, de bénir&#160;» commençant la lecture des Évangiles) est une tribune séparant le chœur de la nef sur laquelle chantres et lecteurs montent pour être vus et entendus des fidèles. Celui-ci est le dernier de Paris, les jubés ayant été détruits parce qu'ils gênaient la visibilité du chœur. Édifié vers 1530, il aurait été dessiné par l'architecte Antoine Beaucorps.
context_page_description: The rood screen is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, or wrought iron. The rood screen would originally have been surmounted by a rood loft carrying the Great Rood, a sculptural representation of the Crucifixion. In English, Scottish, and Welsh cathedrals, monastic, and collegiate churches, there were commonly two transverse screens, with a rood screen or rood beam located one bay west of the pulpitum screen, but this double arrangement nowhere survives complete, and accordingly the preserved pulpitum in such churches is sometimes referred to as a rood screen. At Wells Cathedral the medieval arrangement was restored in the 20th century, with the medieval strainer arch supporting a rood, placed in front of the pulpitum and organ.
  Rood screens can be found in churches in many parts of Europe, however, in Catholic countries they were generally removed during the Counter-reformation, when the retention of any visual barrier between the laity and the high altar was widely seen as inconsistent with the decrees of the Council of Trent.
context_section_description: The rood screen was a physical and symbolic barrier, separating the chancel, the domain of the clergy, from the nave where lay people gathered to worship. It was also a means of seeing; often it was solid only to waist height and richly decorated with pictures of saints and angels. Concealment and revelation were part of the mediaeval Mass. When kneeling, the congregation could not see the priest, but might do so through the upper part of the screen, when he elevated the Host on Sundays. In some churches, 'squints' (holes in the screen) would ensure that everyone could see the elevation,  as seeing the bread made flesh was significant for the congregation.
  Moreover, while Sunday Masses were very important, there were also weekday services which were celebrated at secondary altars in front of the screen (such as the "Jesus altar", erected for the worship of the Holy Name, a popular devotion in mediaeval times) which thus became the backdrop to the celebration of the Mass.  The Rood itself provided a focus for worship according to the medieval Use of Sarum, most especially in Holy Week, when worship was highly elaborate. During Lent the Rood was veiled; on Palm Sunday it was revealed before the procession of palms and the congregation knelt before it. The whole Passion story would then be read from the Rood loft, at the foot of the crucifix by three priests.
caption: The rood on a rood screen: a crucifix on the elaborate 16th-century jube in the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, Paris
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