The
stoup is sometimes found inside the church, close by the door; but the
stone appendage appears to have been by no means general, and probably in
most cases a movable vessel of metal was provided for the purpose; and in
an inventory of ancient church goods at St. Dunstan's, Canterbury, taken
A. D. 1500, we find mentioned "a stope off lede for the holy wat^r atte the
church dore." We do not often find the stoup of so ancient a date as the
twelfth century; one much mutilated, but apparently of that era, may
however be met with inside the little Norman church of Beaudesert,
Warwickshire, near to the south door.
The porch was often of a considerable size, and had frequently a groined
ceiling, with an apartment above; it was anciently used for a variety of
religious rites, for before the Reformation considerable portions of the
marriage and baptismal services, and also much of that relating to the
churching of women, were here performed, being commenced "ante ostium
ecclesiae," and concluded in the church; and these are set forth in the
rubric of the Manual or service-book, according to the use of Sarum,
containing those and other occasional offices.
Having entered the church, the font is generally discovered towards the
west end of the nave, or north or south aisle, and near the principal
door; such, at least, was in most cases its original and appropriate
position: this was for the convenience of the sacramental rite there
administered; part of the baptismal service (that of making the infant a
catechumen) having been performed in the porch or outside the door[156-*],
he was introduced by the priest into the church, with the invitation,
_Ingredere in templum Dei, ut habeas vitam aeternam et vivas in saecula
saeculorum_; and after certain other rites and prayers the infant was
carried to the font and immersed therein thrice by the priest, in the
names of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity.
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