squint
Some medieval churches may sometimes be found with a hole or slit cut through the wall which would enable someone to see the altar from outside the church. It is usually believed that this device was made in order that a leper might attend Mass without mixing with other people, but there is no evidence for this. A hole in a pier, or even in an interior wall, was sometimes made to enable the altar to be seen for the elevation of the Host. The device is also known as a ... ...
Access to the complete content on Oxford Reference requires a subscription or purchase. Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter without a subscription.
Please subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code.
For questions on access or troubleshooting, please check our FAQs, and if you can''t find the answer there, please contact us.
