15 Facts About Rood screen

Rood screen is a common feature in late medieval church architecture.

Commonly, to either side of the Rood screen, there stood supporting statues of saints, normally Mary and St John, in an arrangement comparable to the Deesis always found in the centre of an Orthodox iconostasis.

Latterly in England and Wales the Rood screen tended to rise above a narrow loft, which could occasionally be substantial enough to be used as a singing gallery ; but whose main purpose was to hold candles to light the rood itself.

The panels and uprights of the screen did not support the loft, which instead rested on a substantial transverse beam called the "rood beam" or "candle beam".

The passage through the rood screen was fitted with doors, which were kept locked except during services.

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Terms pulpitum, Lettner, jube and doksaal all suggest a Rood screen platform used for readings from scripture, and there is plentiful documentary evidence for this practice in major churches in Europe in the 16th century.

Hence the origin of the chancel screen was independent of the Great Rood; indeed most surviving early screens lack lofts, and do not appear ever to have had a rood cross mounted on them.

Provisions of the Lateran Council had less effect on monastic churches and cathedrals in England; as these would have already been fitted with two transverse screens; a pulpitum screen separating off the ritual choir; and an additional rood screen one bay further west, delineating the area of the nave provided for lay worship.

The monastic rood screen invariably had a nave altar set against its western face, which, from at least the late 11th century onwards, was commonly dedicated to the Holy Cross; as for example in Norwich Cathedral, and in Castle Acre Priory.

In 1577 Carlo Borromeo published, making no mention of the screen and emphasizing the importance of making the high altar visible to all worshippers; and in 1584 the Church of the Gesu was built in Rome as a demonstration of the new principles of Tridentine worship, having an altar rail but conspicuously lacking either a central rood or screen.

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.

The Rood screen itself provided a focus for worship according to the medieval Use of Sarum, most especially in Holy Week, when worship was highly elaborate.

However, Wren's design for the church of St James, Piccadilly of 1684 dispensed with a chancel Rood screen, retaining only rails around the altar itself, and this auditory church plan was widely adopted as a model for new churches from then on.

Rood screen's screens survive in Macclesfield and Cheadle, Staffordshire, although others have been removed.

In many East Anglian and Devonian parish churches, original painted decoration survives on wooden screen panels, having been whitewashed over at the Reformation; although almost all have lost their rood beams and lofts, and many have been sawn off at the top of the panelled lower section.