The
usage of washing the hands before the communion is one of very high
antiquity, and is expressly noticed in the Clementine Liturgy, and by St.
Cyril in his mystical Catechesis[187-*]; we do not, however, find the
piscina in our churches of an era earlier than the twelfth century, and
even then it was of uncommon occurrence; but in the thirteenth century the
general introduction is observable. In Romsey Church, Hampshire, is the
shaft and basin (the latter cushion-shaped) of a curious Norman piscina:
this is now lying loose, in a dilapidated state. In the south apsis of the
same church is another Norman piscina, consisting of a quadrangular-shaped
basin projecting from the south wall; and on the south side of the chancel
of Avington Church, Berkshire, is a plain Norman piscina within a simple
semicircular arched recess. The churches of Kilpeck, Herefordshire,
Keelby, Lincolnshire, and Bapchild, Kent, also contain Norman piscinae.
Those of all the various styles of later date are common; they exhibit,
however, an interesting variety in design and ornamental detail. The drain
of the piscina communicated with a perforated stone shaft, commonly
enclosed in the wall, through which the water was lost in the earth; as in
the case of the piscina with its shaft taken out of the south wall of the
chancel of the now destroyed church of Newnham Regis, Warwickshire.
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