Friday, April 30, 2004 AD
Only an hour this week, vicar?
Still on Owen Chadwick (see previous post), a lovely detail from Chadwick's assessment of the effects of Reformation and Counter-Reformation on the church's ministry and worship, in this case one practical outcome of the growing emphasis on preaching:
The churches of the sixteenth century acquired a new article of furniture, the hour-glass by the pulpit ... Many sensible men regarded an hour as the limit which their congregation should be asked to bear, though on special occasions like Lutheran funerals sermons of three hours were not unknown ... Most church orders demanded the full hour, at least on Sundays. But printed sermons prove that there were many shorter. The humane Melanchthon thought that half an hour was enough, as the ear is the first of the senses to tire. Half-hour glasses are known; and the makers, not always accurate, sometimes erred in favour of the congregation. There is a surviving hour-glass which unwaveringly completes its hour in forty-eight minutes. (p.420)
