Dogs and the Church

Very occasionally pets have been allowed to be buried in the shadow of the church, but frequently legal battles have been fought regarding the rights of owners to have pets lying with them at death. Dogs, though, have a long association with the church, although the attitude towards them has not always been one of righteousness.

DOGS REMAIN OUTSIDE
Noblemen were reproached for attending divine service with their greyhounds, so their reaction was to listen to mm u
Mass from outside the church doors. As a result, doors to churches began to be left open and priests actually went into the square in front of the churches to bless this important section of their congregation, eventually leading to the custom of giving a church door blessing to all animals.

Soon after, and until comparatively recent times, it was not considered irreverent to take dogs into church as many worshippers had to walk some distance to church and may have needed canine protection. If one looks carefully, evidence of this can be found in several old churches which still have their original pews. A Lincolnshire church has a pew especially for the squire's dogs, which were kept there while the service was in progress.

From time to time fights broke out amongst these church-going dogs, such as the one in Durham which took its place amongst the choir boys, bringing the entire service to a halt. Despite many attempts, a fight in a church in Scotland could not be halted — eventually the vicar was heard to say he would put his money on the yellow one, whereupon the entire congregation settled down to watch.

Keeping dogs out
As the centuries progressed dogs presented an increasing problem for church authorities. It is generally believed that altar rails, designed to keep dogs out, were invented by Archbishop Laud (1573-1645) but the rails he ordered were so widely spaced that they are unlikely to have served this purpose well. It is therefore possible that rails were used before that time. In 1636, Bishop Wren, uncle of the famous architect Sir Christopher, ordered a rail to be made in front of the communion table, with the pillars so close that dogs could not squeeze in.

DOG-WHIPPERS
By the seventeenth century, dogs had again become unwelcome in church and 'Dog drivers,' or dog-whip-pers, were employed to keep the animals away. Payment was minimal; indeed sometimes they received no more than a gift of tobacco.

In 1659, a gentleman who died left the sum of eight shillings a year for a poor man to be paid for keeping the dogs out of Claverley Church. In 1725 money was left to Trysull Church in Staffordshire, but in this case the dog-whipper was expected not only to whip the dogs out, but also keep the congregation awake during sermons. This two-fold task was not unusual. Such people often carried a long staff with a fox’s brush on one end to tickle the faces of sleeping women, while on the other end of the staff was a knob, used to rap the heads of the men folk. In Prestwick, 13 shillings was paid for the three-fold task of 'wakening sleepers in ye church, whipping out dogs, and keeping the pulpit walls clean'.

London's St Paul's Cathedral used to be home to dogs for six and a half days each week and, as a result, was often in a dreadful mess when people arrived for worship. Half an hour before the service was due to begin on Sunday mornings the dog-whipper arrived to drive out the dogs. It was said that blind and lame dogs fell out of the cathedral onto the streets, as did whole litters of puppies.

At church services it was not unusual for clogs to slip in, unnoticed, but the dog-whipper would soon dive m among people's legs to haul them out. It was situations like these which brought about the introduction of the dog tongs. These resembled old-fashioned sugar tongs, but with the appalling sight of a number of bent nails at the end. It was not unknown for dogs to be gripped so tightly with the tongs that their skulls were fractured.

In some churches, however, the clergy were thankfully more kindly disposed towards our canine friends. Sometimes, especially in Wales and Cornwall, 'dog-doors' were cut into the larger entrance doors so that dogs might leave the church to relieve themselves when necessary, and in rural areas it was quite usual for sheepdogs to be present during services.