feretory
(ˈfɛrɪtərɪ)
Forms: 4–5 fertre, (5 fiertre, feretre, fe(e)rtir, -yr, fertur(e, feratour), 5–6 fertour, feretorye, (6 fer(t)ter, fereture, -tery, fer(r)etorie, 8–9 fer(r)etry, 8– feretory.
[The current form is a perversion (by assimilation to various names of objects used in ritual) of ME. fertre, a. OF. fiertre:—L. feretrum, ad. Gr. ϕέρετρον, f. ϕέρειν to bear.]
1. A portable or stationary shrine, often made of or adorned with costly materials, in which were deposited the remains or relics of saints; a tomb.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 36 He tok vp the bones, In a fertre tham laid. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Clement 919 Quhene þe pupule come to se His fertyre & til hyme pray. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 156/4 His bones there leyde in a worshypful fiertre or shryne. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. III. 92 Of Sanct Thomas translatit wer the bonis Intill ane ferter..fra his graif. 1593 Rites & Mon. Ch. Durh. (Surtees) 58 A most sumptuous..shrine above the High Alter, called the Fereture. 1709 Hearne Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) II. 261 Reliques belonging to St. Cuthbert's Feretory. 1762 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1765) I. i. 19 Porphyry stones for Edward the Confessor's feretory. 1844 Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1845) II. ix. 80 The coffin was then brought from the feretory. 1863 Sir G. G. Scott Glean. Westm. Abb. (ed. 2) 130 The golden feretory..was placed above the marble and mosaic base. |
2. In etymological sense: A bier.
| c 1400 Mandeville (1839) xxi. 225 Thei setten hem upon a blak Fertre. 1458 Will of Duchess Exeter (Somerset Ho.), I..forbede..any..solempne Hers or Ferture. 1513 Douglas æneis vi. xv. 68 How mony fertyris..Sall thow behald. a 1572 Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. (1846) I. 259 A barrow, called there fertory. 1848 B. Webb Continent. Eccles. 16 A relic of the patron saint was exposed on a feretry in the nave. |
3. A small room or chapel attached to an abbey or a church, in which shrines were deposited.
| 1449 Will Sir W. Bruges in Illust. Mann. & Exps. (1797) 133 In the middle of the feretorye a gret round blak corver. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. cclxi, The feratour of the abbey of Westmestre. 1593 Rites & Mon. Ch. Durh. (Surtees) 6 The shrine of the holy and blessed man Saint Cuthbert within the Feretory. 1727 J. Dart Canterb. Cathedr. 33 The lesser Armary..contain'd nothing but the Body of St. Blaise, being rather a Feretry than Store-room. 1860 Hook Lives Abps. I. vii. 382 He [Odo] was taken up in his leaden coffin, and placed in the feretry of S. Dunstan. |
4. attrib., as feretory-aisle.
| 1489 Churchw. Acc. St. Margaret's, Westminster (Nichols 1797) 3 Lady Jakes for her grave in the feretre isle 7s. 4d. 1853 Rock Ch. of Fathers III. x. 409 The feretory aisle. |