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PULPIT (from Lat. pulpitum, a staging...

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 644 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PULPIT (from See also:Lat. pulpitum, a staging, See also:platform: equivalents are Fr. chaire d'eglise, Ital. pulpito, Ger. Kanzel)  , a raised See also:platform with enclosed front, whence sermons, homilies, &c., were delivered . Pulpits were probably derived in their See also:modern See also:form from the ambones in the See also:early See also:Christian See also:Church (see AMSo) . There are many old pulpits of See also:stone, though the See also:majority are of See also: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 See also:rich, and ornamented with See also:colour and See also:gilding . A few also have See also:fine canopies or See also:sounding-boards . Their usual See also:place is in the See also:nave, mostly on the See also:north See also:side, against the second See also:pier from the See also:chancel See also:arch . Pulpits for addressing the See also:people in the open See also:air were See also:common in the See also:medieval See also:period, and stood near a road or See also:cross . Thus there was one at Spital See also:Fields, and one at St See also:Paul's, See also:London . See also:External pulpits still remain at Magdalen See also:College, See also:Oxford, and at Shrews-See also:bury . Pulpits, or rather places for See also:reading during the meals of the monks, are found in the refectories at See also:Chester, See also:Beaulieu, See also:Shrewsbury, &c., in See also:England; and at St See also:Martin See also:des Champs, St Germain des Pres, &c., in See also:Paris; also in the cloisters at St See also:Die and St Lo .

Shortly after the See also:

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 See also:time of See also:Elizabeth and See also:James . Many of them are very beautifully and elaborately carved, and are evidently of Flemish workmanship . The pulpits in the See also:Mahommedan mosques, which are known as " mimbars " are quite different in, form, being usually canopied and approached by a straight See also:flight of steps . These have a See also:doorway at the See also:foot, with an enriched See also:lintel and boldly moulded See also:head; the whole of the See also:work to this and to the stairs, See also:parapet and See also:pulpit itself being of wood, richly inlaid, and often in See also:part gorgeously painted and gilt .

End of Article: PULPIT (from Lat. pulpitum, a staging, platform: equivalents are Fr. chaire d'eglise, Ital. pulpito, Ger. Kanzel)
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