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18 BYGONE SUSSEX.
Ckeski7'e. These enormous grants of indulgence are stigmatised by Dr. Rock as "spurious and imaginary." #
It is greatly to be regretted that there is no known sketch of the Manchester brass, nor a description sufficiently detailed to show whether it was a " Mass of St. Gregory " or some form of the " Image of Pity." Indulgences in the form of broadsides, printed from wooden blocks, were very popular at the close of the fifteenth century and early part of the sixteenth. These curious relics of Christian art have been described by the late Henry Bradshaw, who says : "In the cuts found in Holland, Belgium, France, and Germany, there is a certain amount of similarity. St. Gregory is kneeling before the altar; our Lord appears on the altar; and all around the background is filled with the symbols of the passion scattered around. In many copies of the Primer, or Book of Horce, written in England, a picture of the 'Imago Pietatis' or ' Arma Crucifixi' is prefixed to the Psalms of the Passion. St. Gregory does not appear, but a half-length figure of our Lord appearing above a tomb or altar, with the symbols
* Church of our Fathers, p. 77. |
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