From the commencement of the thirteenth century
up to the Reformation sedilia became a common appendage to a church, and
the styles are easily distinguished by their peculiar architectonic
features. Some are without canopies, and are excessively plain. On the
south side of the chancel of Minster Lovel Church, Oxfordshire, is a
stone bench without a canopy or division, and plain stone benches thus
disposed are found in the chancel of Bloxham Church, Oxfordshire, and of
Rowington Church, Warwickshire. In Sedgeberrow Church, Gloucestershire,
are two sedilia without canopies; and in Standlake Church, Oxfordshire,
the sedilia, three in number, are without canopies or ornament. 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. 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 uncommo