See also FALDISTORY. [ad. med L. faldistoli-um, ad. OHG. faldstuol lit. ‘a folding seat or campstool,’ f. faldan to fold + stuol seat, chair: see FOLD and STOOL. Cf. FAUTEUIL. The OE. fyldestól appears to be from Lat. or Rom., as the vowel of the first syll. has umlaut due to the euphonic i prefixed in Romanic to a syllable beginning with st-.]
1. Eccl. An armless chair used by bishops and other prelates when they do not occupy the throne or when officiating in any but their own church.
c. 1050. Abbo Glosses, in Ztsch. f. dtsches Alt., XXXI. 10. Forbuh ðu twyhweolne siȝe onfoh þu fyldestol [c. 1100, fældestol].
[fl. 1340. Dan Michel of Northgate, The Ayenbite of Inwyt, 239. Þer he yzeȝ ane gratne dyeuel þet zet ope ane uyealdinde stole and al his mayne aboute him.]
1849. Rock, Ch. of Fathers, II. vi. 256. In later times in this country the faldstool was ‘a chair of woode covered with crymsen velvet, and the pomells and handells thereof garnished with silver.’
2. A movable folding-stool or desk at which worshippers kneel during certain acts of devotion; esp. one used by the sovereign at the ceremony of coronation.
1603. Ceremon. at Coron. Jas. I. (1685), 3. A Fald-stool, with Cushions for the King to pray at.
1685. St. George’s Day, 6. The King kneeled at a fald-stool.
a. 1693. Ashmole, Antiq. Berks. (1719), I. 10. A Judge in his Robes, kneeling at a Faldstool.
1838. Form Coronation, in Maskell, Mon. Rit. (1847), III. 86. She [the Queen] makes Her humble Adoration, and then kneeling at the Faldstool set for Her before Her Chair, uses some short private Prayers.
1851. Kingsley, Yeast, ii. As she knelt and prayed at her velvet faldstool, among all the nicknacks which nowadays make a luxury of devotion, was it strange if, after she had prayed for the fate of nations and churches, and for those who, as she thought, were fighting at Oxford the cause of universal truth and reverend antiquity, she remembered in her petitions the poor godless youth, with his troubled and troubling eloquence?
1862. Goulburn, Pers. Relig. (1864), 66. When we fail to derive from Prayer comfort and satisfaction, we become cowards, and run away from the faldstool.
3. A small desk at which the Litany is appointed to be said or sung; a Litany-stool.
a. 1626. Bp. Andrewes, in W. Nichols, Comm. Bk. Com. Prayer, Notes (1710), 23. The Priest … (at a low Desk before the Chancel-door, called the Fald-stool) kneels and says or sings the Litany.
1838. Form Consecration, in Maskell, Mon. Rit. (1847), III. 90. Then followeth the Litany to be read by two Bishops, vested in Copes, and kneeling at a Faldstool above the Steps of the Theatre.
1869. Daily News, 22 Dec. The Litany was chanted by two of the minor canons at a faldstool.
1874. Micklethwaite, Modern Parish Churches, 45. The small desk for the Litany to be said from, generally miscalled the Faldstool.
