In
Spratten Church, Northamptonshire, is a stone bench for three persons
under a plain recessed pointed arch. In Priors Hardwick Church,
Warwickshire, is a sedile for the priest, and below that one double the
size for the deacon and sub-deacon; both are under recessed arched
canopies. Quadruple sedilia occur in the churches of Turvey and Luton,
Bedfordshire; in the Mayor's Chapel, Bristol; in Gloucester Cathedral; in
the church of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire; and in Rothwell Church,
Northamptonshire: these are beneath canopies, and most of them are highly
enriched. Quintuple sedilia sometimes occur, but are very rare; in the
conventual church of Southwell, Nottinghamshire, are, however, five
sedilia beneath ogee-headed canopies richly ornamented. A single sedile
for one person only is occasionally met with, but not often.
[Illustration: Double Piscina, Salisbury Cathedral.]
Eastward of the sedilia, in the same wall, is a _fenestella_ or niche,
sometimes plain, but often enriched with a crocketed ogee or pedimental
hood moulding in front, over the arch, which is trefoiled or cinquefoiled
in the head. This niche contains a hollow perforated basin or stone drain,
called the _piscina_ or _lavacrum_[186-*], into which it appears that
after the priest had washed his hands, which he was accustomed to do
before the consecration of the elements and again after the communion,
the water was poured, as also that with which the chalice was rinsed.
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