# Rood screen
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{{Short description|Partition found in medieval church architecture}}
[[File:Ripon Cathedral Rood Screen, Nth Yorkshire, UK - Diliff.jpg|thumb|Rood screen from [Ripon Cathedral](/source/Ripon_Cathedral), [England](/source/England)]]
thumb|300x300px|Usual location of a rood screen
The '''rood screen''' (also '''choir screen''', '''chancel screen''', or '''jubé''') is a common feature in late [medieval](/source/medieval) [church architecture](/source/church_architecture). It is typically an ornate partition between the [chancel](/source/chancel) and [nave](/source/nave), of more or less open [tracery](/source/tracery) constructed of wood, stone, or [wrought iron](/source/wrought_iron). The rood screen was originally surmounted by a '''rood loft''' carrying the Great [Rood](/source/Rood), a sculptural representation of the [Crucifix](/source/Crucifix)ion.{{sfnp|Friar|1996|p=386}} In English, Scottish, and Welsh cathedrals, monastic, and collegiate churches, there were commonly two transverse screens, with a rood screen or '''rood beam''' located one bay west of the [pulpitum](/source/pulpitum),{{sfnp|Friar|1996|p=369}} but this double arrangement nowhere survives complete, and accordingly the preserved pulpita in such churches is sometimes referred to as a rood screen. At [Wells Cathedral](/source/Wells_Cathedral) the medieval arrangement was restored in the 20th century, with the medieval [strainer arch](/source/strainer_arch) supporting a rood, placed in front of the pulpitum and organ.
Rood screens can be found in churches in many parts of Europe; however, in [Catholic](/source/Roman_Catholic) countries they were generally removed during the [Counter-Reformation](/source/Counter-Reformation), when the retention of any visual barrier between the laity and the high altar was widely seen as inconsistent with the decrees of the [Council of Trent](/source/Council_of_Trent). Accordingly, rood screens now survive in much greater numbers in [Evangelical-Lutheran](/source/Lutheranism) and [Anglican](/source/Anglicanism) churches; with the greatest number of survivals complete with screen and rood figures in Lutheran [Scandinavia](/source/Scandinavia).[''Roman Catholic worship''; White and Mitchell; page 2] A number of rood screens continued to be built in Evangelical-Lutheran churches, such as that of [Trondenes Evangelical-Lutheran Church](/source/Trondenes_Church), which was built in the 18th century.[{{cite web |title=Définition de jubé |trans-title=Definition of jubé |url=https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/jub%C3%A9 |website=Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales |language=fr}}][{{cite web |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Gospel in the Liturgy |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06659a.htm |website=www.newadvent.org}}]}} and ''doksaal'' all suggest a screen platform used for readings from scripture, and there is plentiful documentary evidence for this practice in major churches in Europe in the 16th century. From this it was concluded by Victorian liturgists that the specification ''ad pulpitum'' for the location for [Gospel](/source/Gospel) lections in the rubrics of the [Use of Sarum](/source/Use_of_Sarum) referred both to the cathedral pulpitum screen and the parish rood loft. However, rood stairs in English parish churches are rarely, if ever, found to have been built wide enough to accommodate the Gospel procession required in the Sarum Use. The specific functions of the late medieval parish rood loft, over and above supporting the rood and its lights, remain an issue of conjecture and debate. In this respect it may be significant that, although there are terms for a rood screen in the vernacular languages of Europe, there is no counterpart specific term in liturgical Latin. Nor does the 13th century liturgical commentator [Durandus](/source/Guillaume_Durand) refer directly to rood screens or rood lofts. This is consistent with the ritual uses of rood lofts being substantially a late medieval development.
==History==
===Early medieval altar screens and chancel screens===
[[File:Santa Maria in Cosmedin Interior.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|left|East end of the 8th-century Roman basilica of [Santa Maria in Cosmedin](/source/Santa_Maria_in_Cosmedin) in [Rome](/source/Rome), showing the altar, under a 13th-century [ciborium](/source/ciborium_(architecture)) behind a [templon](/source/templon) screen of columns. The foreground forms the liturgical choir, surrounded by low [cancelli](/source/cancelli) screens, to which are attached two [ambo](/source/pulpit)s, left and right.]]
Until the 6th century the altar of Christian churches would have been in full view of the congregation, separated only by a low [altar rail](/source/altar_rail) around it. [citation needed] Large churches had a [ciborium](/source/ciborium_(architecture)), or canopy on four columns, over the altar, from which hung [altar curtains](/source/altar_curtains) which were closed at certain points in the liturgy. Then, however, following the example of the church of [Hagia Sophia](/source/Hagia_Sophia) in [Constantinople](/source/Constantinople), churches began to surround their altars with a colonnade or [templon](/source/templon) which supported a decorated architrave beam along which a curtain could be drawn to veil the altar at specific points in the consecration of the [Eucharist](/source/Eucharist); and this altar screen, with widely spaced columns, subsequently became standard in the major churches of [Rome](/source/Rome). In Rome the ritual choir tended to be located west of the altar screen, and this choir area was also surrounded by [cancelli](/source/cancelli), or low chancel screens. These arrangements still survive in the Roman basilicas of [San Clemente](/source/basilica_di_San_Clemente) and [Santa Maria in Cosmedin](/source/Santa_Maria_in_Cosmedin), as well as [St Mark's Basilica](/source/St_Mark's_Basilica) in [Venice](/source/Venice).{{sfnp|Bond|1908|p=3}} In the Eastern Church, the templon and its associated curtains and decorations evolved into the modern [iconostasis](/source/iconostasis). In the Western Church, the cancelli screens of the ritual choir developed into the [choir stalls](/source/choir_stalls) and [pulpitum](/source/pulpitum) screen of major cathedral and monastic churches; but the colonnaded altar screen was superseded from the 10th century onwards, when the practice developed of raising a canopy or [baldacchino](/source/baldacchino), carrying veiling curtains, over the altar itself.
Many churches in Ireland and Scotland in the early Middle Ages were very small which may have served the same function as a rood screen. Contemporary sources suggest that the faithful may have remained outside the church for most of the mass; the priest would go outside for the first part of the mass including the reading of the gospel, and return inside the church, out of sight of the faithful, to consecrate the Eucharist.[{{cite book |last1=Adamnán of Iona |author-link1=Adamnán |translator-last1=Sharpe |translator-first1=Richard |orig-year={{Circa|697|700}} |title=[Vita Columbae](/source/Vita_Columbae) |trans-title=Life of St Columba |language=la |location=Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England |publisher=Penguin Books |date=1995 |pages=368–369 |isbn=978-0140444629}}]
Churches built in England in the 7th and 8th centuries consciously copied Roman practices; remains indicating early cancelli screens have been found in the [monastic churches of Jarrow and Monkwearmouth](/source/Monkwearmouth%E2%80%93Jarrow_Abbey), while the churches of the monasteries of [Brixworth](/source/All_Saints'_Church%2C_Brixworth), [Reculver](/source/St_Mary's_Church%2C_Reculver) and St Pancras Canterbury{{sfnp|Bond|1908|p=6}} have been found to have had arcaded colonnades corresponding to the Roman altar screen, and it may be presumed that these too were equipped with curtains. Equivalent arcaded colonnades also survive in 10th-century monastic churches in Spain, such as [San Miguel de Escalada](/source/San_Miguel_de_Escalada). Some 19th-century liturgists supposed that these early altar screens might have represented the origins of the medieval rood screens; but this view is rejected by most current scholars, who emphasize that these screens were intended to separate the altar from the ritual choir, whereas the medieval rood screen separated the ritual choir from the lay congregation.[[File:Gotland-Oeja kyrka 06.jpg|thumb|Rood and beam of 1275, but no screen, at [Öja Church](/source/%C3%96ja_Church) on the island of [Gotland](/source/Gotland) in Sweden, where many exceptional roods have survived.]]
[[File:Rood Screen 4.JPG|alt=Rood screen with painted saints|thumb|Rood screen in [St. Helen's church, Ranworth](/source/Ranworth_rood_screen), Norfolk]]
===Great Rood===
The Great Rood or [Rood cross](/source/Rood_cross) itself long preceded the development of screen lofts, originally being either just hung from the chancel arch or also supported by a plain beam across the arch, and high up, typically at the level of the capitals of the columns (if there are any), or near the point where the arch begins to lean inwards. Numerous near life-size crucifixes survive from the [Romanesque](/source/Romanesque_art) period or earlier, with the [Gero Cross](/source/Gero_Cross) in [Cologne Cathedral](/source/Cologne_Cathedral) (965–970) and the [Volto Santo of Lucca](/source/Volto_Santo_of_Lucca) the best known. Such crosses are commonly referred to in German as ''Triumphkreuz'' or [triumphal cross](/source/triumphal_cross). The prototype may have been one known to have been set up in [Charlemagne](/source/Charlemagne)'s [Palatine Chapel](/source/Palatine_Chapel_in_Aachen) at [Aachen](/source/Aachen), apparently in gold foil worked over a wooden core in the manner of the [Golden Madonna of Essen](/source/Golden_Madonna_of_Essen). The original location and support for the surviving figures is often not clear; many are now hung on walls - but a number of northern European churches, especially in Germany and Scandinavia, preserve the original setting in full – they are known as a "Triumphkreutz" in German, from the "triumphal arch" (chancel arch in later terms) of Early Christian architecture. As in later examples a Virgin and Saint John often flanked the cross, and [cherubim](/source/cherubim) and other figures are sometimes seen.{{sfnp|Schiller|1972|pp=141–46}}
===Parochial rood screens===
For most of the medieval period, there would have been no fixed screen or barrier separating the congregational space from the altar space in parish churches in the Latin West; although as noted above, a curtain might be drawn across the altar at specific points in the [Mass](/source/Eucharist). Following the exposition of the doctrine of [transubstantiation](/source/transubstantiation) at the fourth [Lateran Council](/source/Lateran_Council) of 1215, clergy were required to ensure that the [reserved sacrament](/source/eucharist) was to be kept protected from irreverent access or abuse; and accordingly some form of permanent screen came to be seen as essential, as the parish [nave](/source/nave) was commonly kept open and used for a wide range of secular purposes. Hence the origin of the chancel screen was independent of the Great Rood; indeed most surviving early screens lack lofts, and do not appear ever to have had a rood cross mounted on them. Nevertheless, over time, the rood beam and its sculptures tended to become incorporated into the chancel screen in new or reworked churches. Over the succeeding three centuries, and especially in the latter period when it became standard for the screen to be topped by a rood loft facing the congregation, a range of local ritual practices developed which incorporated the rood and loft into the performance of the [liturgy](/source/liturgy); especially in the [Use of Sarum](/source/Use_of_Sarum), the form of the [missal](/source/missal) that was most common in England. For example, during the 40 days of "Lent" the rood in England was obscured by the [Lenten Veil](/source/Lenten_Veil), a large hanging suspended by stays from hooks set into the chancel arch; in such a way that it could be dropped abruptly to the ground on [Palm Sunday](/source/Palm_Sunday), at the reading of Matthew 27:51 when the Veil of the Temple is torn asunder.
===Monastic rood screens===
{{globalize|date=August 2010|discuss=Talk:Rood screen#English bias|1=section}}
The provisions of the Lateran Council had less effect on monastic churches and cathedrals in England; as these would have already been fitted with two transverse screens; a [pulpita](/source/pulpitum) separating off the ritual choir; and an additional rood screen one bay further west, delineating the area of the [nave](/source/nave) provided for lay worship (or in monastic churches of the [Cistercian](/source/Cistercian) order, delineating the distinct church area reserved for the worship of lay brothers). The monastic rood screen invariably had a nave altar set against its western face, which, from at least the late 11th century onwards, was commonly dedicated to the [Holy Cross](/source/Christian_cross); as for example in [Norwich Cathedral](/source/Norwich_Cathedral), and in [Castle Acre Priory](/source/Castle_Acre_Priory). In the later medieval period many monastic churches erected an additional transverse [parclose screen](/source/parclose_screen), or fence screen, to the west of the nave altar; an example of which survives as the '''chancel screen''' in [Dunstable Priory](/source/Dunstable_Priory) in [Bedfordshire](/source/Bedfordshire). Hence the ''Rites of Durham'', a detailed account of the liturgical arrangements of [Durham Cathedral](/source/Durham_Cathedral) Priory before the Reformation, describes three transverse screens; fence screen, rood screen and pulpitum.{{sfnp|Bond|1908|p=161}} and the triple same arrangement is also documented in the [collegiate church of Ottery St Mary](/source/St_Mary's_Church%2C_Ottery_St_Mary). In the rest of Europe, this multiple screen arrangement was only found in Cistercian churches, as at [Maulbronn Monastery](/source/Maulbronn_Monastery) in southern Germany,{{sfnp|Bond|1908|p=165}} but many other major churches, such as [Albi Cathedral](/source/Albi_Cathedral) in France, inserted transverse screens in the later medieval period, or reconstructed existing choir screens on a greatly increased scale. In Italy, massive rood screens incorporating an [ambo](/source/pulpit) or pulpit facing the nave appear to have been universal in the churches of [friars](/source/friars); but not in parish churches, there being no equivalent in the Roman Missal for the ritual elaborations of the Use of Sarum.
===The screen and Tridentine worship===
The decrees of the [Council of Trent](/source/Council_of_Trent) (1545–1563) enjoined that the celebration of the Mass should be made much more accessible to lay worshippers; and this was widely interpreted as requiring the removal of rood screens as physical and visual barriers, even though the council had made no explicit condemnation of screens. Already in 1565, Duke Cosimo de' Medici ordered the removal of the ''tramezzi'' from the Florentine friary churches of [Santa Croce](/source/Santa_Croce%2C_Florence) and [Santa Maria Novella](/source/Santa_Maria_Novella) in accordance with the principles of the council. In 1577 [Carlo Borromeo](/source/Carlo_Borromeo) published {{lang|la|Instructionum Fabricae et Sellectilis Ecclesiasticae libri duo}}, making no mention of the screen and emphasizing the importance of making the high altar visible to all worshippers; and in 1584 the [Church of the Gesù](/source/Church_of_the_Ges%C3%B9) was built in Rome as a demonstration of the new principles of Tridentine worship, having an altar rail but conspicuously lacking either a central rood or screen. Almost all medieval churches in Italy were subsequently re-ordered following this model; and most screens that impeded the view of the altar were removed, or their screening effect reduced, in other Catholic countries, with exceptions like [Toledo Cathedral](/source/Toledo_Cathedral), Albi Cathedral, the church of Brou in [Bourg-en-Bresse](/source/Bourg-en-Bresse); and also in monasteries and convents, where the screen was preserved to maintain the [enclosure](/source/Enclosed_religious_orders). In Catholic Europe, parochial rood screens survive in substantial numbers only in [Brittany](/source/Brittany), such as those at [Plouvorn](/source/Plouvorn), [Morbihan](/source/Morbihan) and [Ploubezre](/source/Ploubezre).
==Symbolic significance==
[[File:Jube Saint-Etienne-du-Mont.jpg|thumb|The rood on a rood screen: a crucifix on the elaborate 16th-century jube in the church of [Saint-Étienne-du-Mont](/source/Saint-%C3%89tienne-du-Mont), Paris|alt=]]
The rood screen was a physical and symbolic barrier, separating the [chancel](/source/chancel), the domain of the clergy, from the nave where [laity](/source/laity) gathered to worship. It was also a means of seeing; often it was solid only to waist height and richly decorated with pictures of saints and [angel](/source/angel)s. Concealment and revelation were part of the mediaeval [Mass](/source/Mass_(liturgy)). When kneeling, the congregation could not see the priest, but might do so through the upper part of the screen, when he [elevated](/source/Elevation_(liturgy)) the [Host](/source/Host_(Holy_Communion)) on the [Lord's Day](/source/Lord's_Day) (Sundays). In some churches, 'squints' (holes in the screen) would ensure that everyone could see the elevation,{{sfnp|Duffy|1992|p=111}} as seeing [the bread made flesh](/source/Transubstantiation) was significant for the congregation.
Moreover, while Sunday Masses were very important, there were also weekday services which were celebrated at secondary altars in front of the screen (such as the "Jesus altar", erected for the worship of the [Holy Name](/source/Holy_Name), a popular devotion in mediaeval times) which thus became the backdrop to the celebration of the Mass.{{sfnp|Duffy|1992|p=113}} The [Rood](/source/Rood) itself provided a focus for worship according to the medieval [Use of Sarum](/source/Use_of_Sarum), most especially in [Holy Week](/source/Holy_Week), when worship was highly elaborate. During [Lent](/source/Lent) the Rood was veiled; on [Palm Sunday](/source/Palm_Sunday) it was revealed before the procession of palms and the congregation knelt before it. The whole [Passion](/source/Passion_(Christianity)) story would then be read from the Rood loft, at the foot of the [crucifix](/source/crucifix) by three priests. In the 1400s the rood screen in [Dovercourt](/source/Dovercourt), became a shrine when it gained a reputation for speaking.
==Post-Reformation, in England==
[[File:Détail jubé statues 7 martyrs cathédrale Saint-Alban.jpg|alt=Masonry screen with painted statues|thumb|left|A surviving English monastic rood screen at [St Albans Abbey](/source/St_Albans_Cathedral)]]
At the time of the [Protestant Reformation](/source/Protestant_Reformation) in England, the Calvinist Reformers sought to destroy ''abused images'', i.e. those statues and paintings which they alleged to have been the focus of superstitious adoration.{{sfnp|Duffy|1992|p=454}}[{{cite book |last1=González |first1=Justo L. |title=A History of Christian Thought: From the Protestant Reformation to the twentieth century |date=1987 |publisher=Abingdon Press |isbn=978-0-687-17184-2 |language=en|quote=It is clear that, in rejecting Roman Catholic doctrine on this point, Cranmer has also rejected Luther's views and adopted Calvin's position. The sacrament is not merely a symbol of what takes place in the heart, but neither is it the physical eating of the body of Christ. This must be so, because the body of Christ is in heaven and therefore our participation in it can only be spiritual. Only the believers are the true partakers of the body and blood of Christ, for the unbelievers eat and drink no more than bread and wine—and condemnation upon themseves, for the profanation of the Lord's Table. These views are reflected in the Thirty-nine articles, of which the twenty-eighth says that "the Body of the Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavently and spiritual manner. The next article says of the wicked that "in no wise are they partakers of Christ," although "to their condemnation [they] do eat and rink the sign or Sacrament of so great a thing." This marked Calvinistic influence would prove very significant for the history of Christianity in England during the seventeenth century}}] Thus not a single mediaeval Rood survives completely intact in Britain.{{sfnp|Duffy|1992|p=157}} They were removed as a result of the 1547 Injunctions of [Edward VI](/source/Edward_VI_of_England){{sfnp|Duffy|1992|p=450}} (some to be restored when [Mary](/source/Mary_I_of_England) came to the throne and removed again under [Elizabeth](/source/Elizabeth_I_of_England)). Of original rood lofts, also considered suspect due to their association with superstitious veneration, very few are left; surviving examples in Wales being at the ancient churches in [Llanelieu](/source/St_Ellyw's_Church%2C_Llanelieu), [Llanengan](/source/Llanengan) and [Llanegryn](/source/Llanegryn).{{sfnp|Friar|1996|p=384}} The rood screens themselves were sometimes demolished or cut down in height, but more commonly remained with their painted figures whitewashed and painted over with religious texts. Tympana too were whitewashed. English cathedral churches maintained their choirs, and consequently their choir stalls and pulpita; but generally demolished their rood screens entirely, although those of [Peterborough](/source/Peterborough_Cathedral) and [Canterbury](/source/Canterbury_Cathedral) survived into the 18th century.
[[File:St Margaret Lothbury Church, London, UK - Diliff.jpg|thumb|A 17th-century chancel screen by Christopher Wren originally from [All-Hallows-the-Great](/source/All-Hallows-the-Great), Thames Street, [City of London](/source/City_of_London) (now in [St Margaret Lothbury](/source/St_Margaret_Lothbury)). At right is a low [parclose screen](/source/parclose_screen) separating the south aisle from the [nave](/source/nave)|alt=]]
In the century following the [English Reformation](/source/English_Reformation) newly built [Anglican](/source/Anglican) churches were invariably fitted with chancel screens, which served the purpose of differentiating a separate space in the chancel for communicants at [Holy Communion](/source/Holy_Communion), as was required in the newly adopted [Book of Common Prayer](/source/Book_of_Common_Prayer).{{sfnp|Addleshaw|Etchells|1948|p=111}} In effect, these chancel screens were rood screens without a surmounting loft or crucifix, and examples survive at St John [Leeds](/source/Leeds) and at [Foremark](/source/Foremark). New screens were also erected in many medieval churches where they had been destroyed at the Reformation, as at [Cartmel Priory](/source/Cartmel_Priory) and [Abbey Dore](/source/Abbey_Dore). From the early 17th century it became normal for screens or tympanums to carry the [royal arms of England](/source/Royal_coat_of_arms_of_the_United_Kingdom), good examples of which survive in two of the London churches of Sir [Christopher Wren](/source/Christopher_Wren), and also at [Derby Cathedral](/source/Derby_Cathedral). However, Wren's design for the church of [St James, Piccadilly](/source/St_James's_Church%2C_Piccadilly), of 1684 dispensed with a chancel screen, retaining only rails around the altar itself, and this ''auditory church'' plan was widely adopted as a model for new churches from then on.{{sfnp|Addleshaw|Etchells|1948|p=55}} In the 18th and 19th centuries hundreds of surviving medieval screens were removed altogether; today, in many British churches, the rood stair (which gave access to the rood loft) is often the only remaining trace of the former rood loft and screen.
In the 19th century, the architect [Augustus Pugin](/source/Augustus_Pugin) campaigned for the re-introduction of rood screens into [Catholic](/source/Roman_Catholic) church architecture. His screens survive in [Macclesfield](/source/Macclesfield) and [Cheadle, Staffordshire](/source/Cheadle%2C_Staffordshire), although others have been removed. In Anglican churches, under the influence of the [Cambridge Camden Society](/source/Cambridge_Camden_Society), many medieval screens were restored; though until the 20th century, generally without roods or with only a plain cross rather than a crucifix. A nearly complete restoration can be seen at [Eye, Suffolk](/source/Ss_Peter_and_Paul_Church%2C_Eye), where the rood screen dates from 1480.{{sfnp|Friar|1996|p=385}} Its missing rood loft was reconstructed by Sir [Ninian Comper](/source/Ninian_Comper) in 1925, complete with a rood and figures of saints and angels, and gives a good impression of how a full rood group might have appeared in a mediaeval English church - except that the former tympanum has not been replaced. Indeed, because tympanums, repainted with the royal arms, were erroneously considered post-medieval, they were almost all removed in the course of [19th-century restorations](/source/Victorian_restoration). For parish churches, the 19th-century [Tractarians](/source/Tractarians) tended, however, to prefer an arrangement whereby the chancel was distinguished from the nave only by steps and a low-gated screen wall or [septum](/source/septum) (as at [All Saints, Margaret Street](/source/All_Saints%2C_Margaret_Street)), so as not to obscure the congregation's view of the altar. This arrangement was adopted for almost all new Anglican parish churches of the period.
Painted rood screens occur rarely, but some of the best surviving examples are in [East Anglia](/source/East_Anglia).[[https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/dec/27/east-anglian-rood-screens-decay East Anglian rood screens decaying as churches struggle for funds]
][[http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norfolkroods.htm Norfolk roods]
]
== Notable examples ==
===Nordic-Baltic region===
[[File:Trondenes kirke - no-nb digifoto 20160511 00153 NB MIT FNR 09313.jpg|thumb|300px|The rood screen of [Trondenes Evangelical-Lutheran Church](/source/Trondenes_Church), the world's most northernmost church]]
[[File:Fotothek df ps 0005138 Kirchen.jpg|thumb|300px|The rood screen of Stankt Johannes Evangelical-Lutheran church in [Schaprode](/source/Schaprode), [Rügen](/source/R%C3%BCgen)]]
The rood screen remained a part of churches built in the medieval era in the Nordic-Baltic region. These [Evangelical-Lutheran](/source/Lutheranism) churches have preserved this structure. [Trondenes Evangelical-Lutheran Church](/source/Trondenes_Church), the world's most northernmost church, has a rood screen that was built in the 18th century.[{{cite web |last1=Hansvold |first1=Knut |title=Trondenes Church is the world's northernmost medieval church |url=https://nordnorge.com/en/artikkel/trondenes-church-is-the-worlds-northernmost-medieval-church/ |publisher=Nord Norge |access-date=16 February 2026 |date=9 November 2021}}]
===Britain===
{{multiple image
| align = left
| image1 = Llanelieu rood loft.jpg
| alt1 = Brightly-painted rood screen
| caption1 = 14th-century painted rood loft in [St Ellyw's Church, Llanelieu](/source/St_Ellyw's_Church%2C_Llanelieu), Powys
| image2 = All Saints Margaret Street interior.jpg
| alt2 = Painted rood loft
| caption2 = [All Saints, Margaret Street](/source/All_Saints%2C_Margaret_Street), London
| direction =
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The earliest known example of a parochial rood screen in Britain, dating to the mid-13th century, is to be found at [Stanton Harcourt](/source/Stanton_Harcourt), [Oxfordshire](/source/Oxfordshire); and a notable early stone screen (14th century) is found at [Ilkeston](/source/Ilkeston), [Derbyshire](/source/Derbyshire). Both these screens lack lofts, as do all surviving English screens earlier than the 15th century. However, some early screens, now lost, may be presumed to have had a loft surmounted by the Great Rood, as the churches of [Colsterworth](/source/Colsterworth) and [Thurlby](/source/Thurlby_by_Bourne) in [Lincolnshire](/source/Lincolnshire) preserve rood stairs which can be dated stylistically to the beginning of the 13th century, and these represent the earliest surviving evidence of parochial screens; effectively contemporary with the Lateran Council. The majority of surviving screens are no earlier than the 15th century, such as those at [Trull](/source/Trull) in [Somerset](/source/Somerset) and [Attleborough](/source/Attleborough) in [Norfolk](/source/Norfolk). In many [East Anglia](/source/East_Anglia)n and [Devon](/source/Devon)ian parish churches, original painted decoration survives on wooden screen panels, having been whitewashed over at the [Reformation](/source/English_Reformation); although almost all have lost their rood beams and lofts, and many have been sawn off at the top of the panelled lower section. The quality of the painting and [gilding](/source/gilding) is, some of it, of a very high order, notably those from the East Anglian [Ranworth](/source/Ranworth) school of painters, of which examples can be found in [Southwold](/source/Southwold) and [Blythburgh](/source/Blythburgh), as well as at Ranworth itself. The magnificent painted screen at [St Michael and All Angels Church, Barton Turf](/source/St_Michael_and_All_Angels_Church%2C_Barton_Turf) in Norfolk is unique in giving an unusually complete view of the heavenly hierarchy, including nine orders of angels. [Nikolaus Pevsner](/source/Nikolaus_Pevsner) also identified the early-16th-century painted screen at [Bridford](/source/Bridford), Devon, as being notable. The 16th-century screen at [Charlton-on-Otmoor](/source/Charlton-on-Otmoor), said by Pevsner to be "the finest in Oxfordshire", has an unusual custom associated with it, where [the rood cross is garlanded with flowers and foliage](/source/Rood) twice a year, and until the 1850s the cross (which at that time resembled a large [corn dolly](/source/corn_dolly)) was carried in a [May Day](/source/May_Day) procession. A particularly large example can be found at the [Church of St Mary the Virgin, Uffculme](/source/Church_of_St_Mary_the_Virgin%2C_Uffculme), Devon, which is nearly 70 feet in length.
==See also==
* {{anl|Altarpiece}}
* {{anl|Altar screen}}
* {{anl|Dossal}}
* {{anl|Iconostasis}}
* {{anl|Reredos}}
* {{anl|Retable}}
*{{Portal-inline|Christianity}}
==References==
===Notes===
{{Reflist}}
===Bibliography===
*{{cite book |last1=Addleshaw |first1=G. W. O |last2=Etchells |first2=Frederick |year=1948 |title=The Architectural Setting of Anglican Worship |publisher=Faber}}
*{{cite book |last=Bond |first=Francis |year=1908 |title=Screens and Galleries in English Churches |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/screensgalleries00bonduoft}}
*{{cite book |last=Duffy |first=Eamon |year=1992 |title=The Stripping of the Altars |publisher=Yale |isbn=0-300-05342-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/strippingofaltar00duff |url-access=registration}}
*{{cite book |last=Friar |first=Stephen |year=1996 |title=A Companion to the English Parish Church |publisher=Bramley Books |isbn=1-85833-738-0}}
*{{cite book |last=Schiller |first=G. |year=1972 |title=Iconography of Christian Art |type=English translation from German |publisher=Lund Humphries |isbn=978-0-85331-324-3}}
==Further reading==
*{{cite thesis |last=Williams |first=Michael Aufrère |year=2008 |title=Medieval English Roodscreens with special reference to Devon |publisher=University of Exeter |url=https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10036/89276}}
* Williams, Michael Aufrère, 'Medieval Devon Roodscreens from the Fourteenth Century to the Present Day', ''The Devon Historian'', 83, 2014, pp. 1–13
* Williams, Michael Aufrère, 'The Iconography of Medieval Devon Roodscreens', ''The Devon Historian'', 84, 2015, pp. 17–34.
* Williams, Michael Aufrère, 'Devon Roodscreens after the Reformation: Destruction and Survival', ''The Devon Historian'', 87, 2018, pp. 11– 24.
==External links==
{{Commons category|Rood screens}}
* [http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/screens/screens.htm Norfolkchurches.co.uk/screens Painted screens in Norfolk churches]
* [http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norfolkroods.htm Norfolkchurches.co.uk/norfolkroods More about the painted rood screens of East Anglia]
* [https://archive.org/stream/screensgalleries00bonduoft#page/n11/mode/2up Open Library of Francis Bond's standard work 'Screens and Galleries in English Churches']
* [http://ranworthroodscreen.wordpress.com/ Hi-res images of Ranworth rood screen, Norfolk, UK]
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Category:Architectural elements
Category:Church architecture
Category:Catholic liturgy
Category:Christian religious objects
Category:Rood screens
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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Rood screen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rood_screen) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rood_screen?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.