PULPIT (from

See also:

• LAT

Lat. pulpitum, a staging,

See also:

• PLATFORM (Fr. plateforme, i.e. ground plan)

platform: equivalents are Fr. chaire d'eglise, Ital. pulpito, Ger. Kanzel)  , a raised platform with enclosed front, whence sermons, homilies, &c., were delivered . Pulpits were probably derived in their modern form from the ambones in the early Christian Church (see AMSo) . There are many old pulpits of stone, though the majority are of wood . Those in churches are generally hexagonal or octagonal; and some stand on stone bases, and others on slender wooden stems, like columns . The designs vary accordingly to the periods in which they were erected, having panelling, tracing, cuspings, crockets, and other ornaments then in use . Some are extremely rich, and ornamented with colour and gilding . A few also have fine canopies or sounding-boards . Their usual place is in the nave, mostly on the north side, against the second pier from the chancel arch . Pulpits for addressing the people in the open air were common in the medieval period, and stood near a road or cross . Thus there was one at Spital Fields, and one at St Paul's, London . External pulpits still remain at Magdalen College, Oxford, and at Shrews-bury . Pulpits, or rather places for reading during the meals of the monks, are found in the refectories at Chester, Beaulieu, Shrewsbury, &c., in England; and at St Martin des Champs, St Germain des Pres, &c., in Paris; also in the cloisters at St Die and St Lo .

Shortly after the

Reformation the canons ordered pulpits to be erected in all churches where there were none before . It is supposed that to this circumstance we owe many of the time of Elizabeth and James . Many of them are very beautifully and elaborately carved, and are evidently of Flemish workmanship . The pulpits in the Mahommedan mosques, which are known as " mimbars " are quite different in, form, being usually canopied and approached by a straight flight of steps . These have a doorway at the foot, with an enriched lintel and boldly moulded head; the whole of the work to this and to the stairs, parapet and pulpit itself being of wood, richly inlaid, and often in part gorgeously painted and gilt .