| Home Making |
Chapter 9 |
Page 16 |
It has been pointed out that the upper half of the panels in our common doors represents the cross. If the panels are taken out of the cross appears in true and exact proportions. Many persons may have noticed this, but not many know perhaps that this form was purposely adopted in the Middle Ages, and that it is no mere accident of architecture. Dr.Phelps, speaking of this, says: “It was no fortuitous circumstance or geometric convenience in domestic building. It had its origin in the religious fervor of the Crusades, which make everything that could be thus employed and emblem of the central truths and forms of Christian worship. The same religious tastes which constructed the ancient cathedrals in the form of the cross, and scattered crosses and the instruments of our Lord’s passion everywhere by the roadside, gave structure to windows and doors. Windows in mediaeval castles, and in the upper class of humbler homes as well, were divided by the Roman cross, the pillar running perpendicularly through the centre and the cross beam near the top; so that every eye that looked out upon the outside world should look through the type of the central thought of the Christian faith… With the same design the paneling of doors was so constructed as to form the same device.
“From that day to this, this usage of household architecture has remained – a silent witness to the devotion of another age. To mediaeval piety it must have been an impressive circumstance of daily life that every time one passed through a doorway one faced the emblem of the great Christian tragedy. Entering the room where the daily meals were served, or going to the chamber of repose at night, every inmate of the home looked upon the sign of the sacrifice on which the salvation of all depended; and the same token was one of the first images to greet the eye in the morning. The Christian home, however lowly, if it rose to the dignity of paneled doors and transom windows, was thus crowded with reproductions of the symbol which the sensitive religious temperament of the age made sacred to all, and which often brought tears to the eyes of many. By such expedients did our fathers strive to make the great thoughts of the Christian faith a pervasive presence with themselves and their children.”
Page 16
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