The different agricultural operations, the signs of the zodiac, and occupations of various kinds, sometimes found on the _outside_ of Norman doors, signify that we must turn our backs on, and leave behind us, all worldly cares and employments, if we would enter into the Kingdom of God. In later porches, true love knots are sometimes found on the bosses: because part of the service of Holy Matrimony was performed there. The serpent, in which the handle is so universally fashioned, has probably reference to that text, 'They shall lay their hands upon serpents,' to signify that God's arm will protect us, when engaging, or about to engage in, His service. For the serpent with his tail in his mouth is not a Christian, and indeed by no means a desirable, emblem of eternity, and therefore the door handle cannot be so interpreted.
The doors are of course placed near the west end: for it is only by way of the Church Militant that we can hope to enter the Church Triumphant. One door, indeed, the priest's door, conducts at once into the chancel. Durandus is probably right in interpreting this of Christ's coming into the world; though it involves a little confusion of symbolism, inasmuch as the chancel, properly speaking, denotes the blessed place which He left: not the abode to which he came. It is to be noted as an instance of the decline of symbolism in the Perpendicular age, that in churches which have aisles to the chancel of that date, we sometimes, as at Bitton, Gloucestershire, Godalming, Surrey, and Wivelsfield and Isfield, Sussex, find an entrance at the east end of the south aisle. Though used as a priest's door, this is entirely to be blamed: what shall we say then of modern churches, which have two doors at the east end, one on { cii} each side of the altar, as Christchurch, Brighton? In Seville cathedral, a late, although fine flamboyant building, there are large doors at the east end of each choir aisle.
Porches are usually on the south side. For as the east was considered in an especial manner connected with the Kingdom of Heaven, so was the north imagined to be under the Prince of the Power of the Air. It is curious how diametrically opposed in both these ideas were Christianity and Paganism. For as by the latter the west was known as 'the better country, where lay the Isles of the Blest in their abundant peace,' so in the north dwelt the deathless and ageless Hyperboreans: whose state was the model of good government and secure happiness. That the belief of our ancestors is not yet extinct, a very slight knowledge of our country churchyards will prove: the north side of the churchyard has generally not more than one or two graves. To be buried there is, in the language of our eastern counties, to be buried _out of Sanctuary_: and the spot is appropriated to suicides, unbaptised persons, and excommunicates. A particular portion is, in some churchyards of Devonshire, separated for the second class and called the _chrisomer_. Where the contrary is the case, it may be worth inquiring how far it does not arise from the accidental position of the Churchyard Cross on the north side. There the spell seems broken: and the villagers' graves cluster around it, as if the presence of that sacred symbol were a sufficient protection to the sleeping dust. A remarkable instance of this occurs at Belleville, between Dieppe and Abbeville, in Normandy.