beliefs and superstitions medieval graffiti · beliefs and superstitions ... the chapel of the...
TRANSCRIPT
1
Beliefs and superstitions – medieval graffiti
In medieval England, the Church was the focus of the community. The Christian
calendar was central to people’s social lives and religious belief permeated almost every
aspect of daily life. The chapel of the Guild of the Holy Cross was part of that world.
The Guild of the Holy Cross was a religious and charitable organisation which offered
members security in times of need and prayers for the salvation of the souls of the
departed to speed their passage through purgatory – for a price of course!
People believed in heaven and hell
and The Day of Judgement or
Doom painting over the Chapel’s
chancel arch gave a stark warning
of the torments you would suffer in
hell if you did not lead a good,
Christian life and have a ‘good
death’. Doom paintings were
common and Guild members
would have been in no doubt as to
the painting’s message.
The Day of Judgement or Doom painting, chancel arch.
The themes of heaven and hell feature in William Shakespeare’s plays. In Hamlet, for
instance, Hamlet avoids killing his uncle while he is praying because, if he does, his
uncle will go straight to heaven. Meanwhile, in Macbeth, Macduff cries out to his sons:
‘Up, up, and see the great doom's image! Malcolm! Banquo! As from your graves
rise up, and walk like sprites, to countenance this horror!’
Could Shakespeare have seen ‘the great doom’s image’ in the Chapel, its bright colours
showing through the thin layer of whitewash painted over it after the Reformation?
2
Making sure prayers were said for your soul after your death and living a good, Christian
life, were all ways of ensuring ‘a good death’. Being a good Christian in the medieval
period also entailed doing ‘good works’ and it is thanks to the wealthy local merchant
Hugh Clopton (1440-1496), one-time Master of the Guild and former Lord Mayor of
London, that the Chapel’s nave, tower and porch were built in stone and the walls
painted. His will contains instructions for their completion in addition to the usual pious
bequests to various other good causes.
You can still see the marks in the stone left by
the masons who built the Chapel over 500 years
ago. Neatly cut using the tools they had to hand,
masons’ marks were generally made up of a few
straight lines. Being fairly simple, they could be
reproduced quickly and easily. Masons were
allocated a mark at the beginning of each job so
that the work they did could be identified and
production monitored.
Mason’s mark. Image courtesy of Terry Galvin
The masons were not the only ones to leave their marks on the walls of the Chapel. It
was common practice to write on walls and people would carve symbols, pictures and
text onto the fabric and furnishings of churches. The graffiti left in the Chapel shines a
small light onto the beliefs and superstitions of those who have used the Chapel from
the time it was built.
Although sometimes difficult to see today without a torch, graffiti was once highly visible,
particularly as it was frequently scratched over the top of the wall-paintings that were
found in most medieval churches. Graffiti was a recognised and tolerated part of
religious life, encouraged by the Church as it offered an extra layer of protection against
the evil spirits which medieval people believed were everywhere and in everything.
These ‘ritual protection marks’ (sometimes known as ‘witch marks’) were thought to
provide protection from evil spirits for whoever created them and for the area or object
onto which they were carved.
Belief in witches and evil spirits was widespread and people blamed bad luck and
misfortune on them. The European ‘witch-craze’ was starting to escalate around the
time the Chapel’s walls were painted at the end of the fifteenth-century. This was a time
when women, and some men, were frequently persecuted for being witches. In England,
the Witchcraft Act (which made it legal to kill witches) was passed in 1563, the same
year the Chapel’s wall-paintings were covered up after the Reformation and a year
before Shakespeare was born. Audiences would have taken the witches scenes in
Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, very seriously.
Below is just a small selection of the historic graffiti found in the Chapel so far:
3
The ‘VV’ sign is one of the most common
ritual protection marks and several have
been found in the Guild Chapel. In a
medieval context, it is associated with the
Virgin Mary and is an abbreviation of Virgo
Virginum (Latin for Virgin of Virgins). It
seems to have been a call for the
intervention or blessing of the Virgin Mary.
Recent research suggests the ritual origins
of the symbol may lie in Scandinavia as the
sign appears in runic writing systems.
‘VV’, chancel arch. Image courtesy of Terry Galvin
Turned upside down, the ‘VV’ symbol looks like a
capital ‘M’, and may also have been associated
with the Virgin Mary. A number of ‘M’ marks have
been found in the Chapel. This is not surprising if
they are Marian marks as the Guild of the Holy
Cross was formally associated with the Guild of the
Blessed Virgin Mary (together with the Guild of
John the Baptist) in 1429.
‘M’, chancel arch. Image courtesy of Terry Galvin
Ritual protection marks were most often carved onto doorways, windows and archways,
anywhere through which, it was thought, evil spirits were likely to enter a building and it
is in these areas in the Chapel that the bulk of the protection marks have been found.
Unsurprisingly, the cross is one of the most
common ritual protection marks. Crosses could
be plain and barely more than simple scratches
in the stone, or they could be deeper and more
complicated. There is a cluster of lightly
inscribed crosses by the south door in the nave
of the Chapel. They are often found around the
south door like this. There are also crosses on
the chancel arch. The porch was another area
where crosses were common.
Cross, south door surround. Image courtesy of Terry Galvin
Although the stonework in the interior of the
Chapel’s porch is now very damaged, it is still
possible to see the deeply carved crosses there.
Porches had greater importance in medieval
times. Some services were held there; they also
had an administrative purpose and business was
often conducted in there too. As well as guarding
against evil spirits, the crosses may have been
carved in the hope they would give a spiritual
endorsement to the transactions made therein.
Cross, porch door surround
4
Ritual protection marks did not just reflect the mainstream beliefs of the medieval
Church, they also drew on more ancient myths and superstitions. Compass wheels may
have had pre-Christian origins and are another very common ritual protection mark.
There are many different types ranging from simple circles to rosettes or multifoils and
other even more complicated geometric designs. There is evidence of a number of
compass wheels both in the porch and the south west corner of the Chapel although
many are now little more than faint arcs in the stone.
One set of compass wheels on the
surround of the south door in the nave
appears to have consisted of three
overlapping circles. It was thought evil
spirits were attracted by lines and once
they were drawn into a compass wheel,
whose lines were never-ending, they were
trapped forever, pinned to the wall. Thus,
the area where the compass wheel was
carved was protected.
Compass wheels, south door surround. Image courtesy of Terry Galvin
Ritual protection marks were not only
carved onto the surfaces of churches. After
the Reformation, they began to appear in
domestic buildings too. Two rosettes were
carved into the timbers at the top of the
cellar staircase in Shakespeare’s
Birthplace, sometime around the 1600s,
either to protect the valuable contents of
the cellar from malevolent forces or
prevent them from entering the house.
Rosettes, Shakespeare’s Birthplace. Image courtesy (c) Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
<https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/blogs/witch-markings-magic-old-buildings/>
A zigzag symbol on the Chapel’s tower arch is
understood to be a lightning strike, a defence
against lightning which people believed was
caused by the devil. Its location might be
significant as the archway leads to the bell tower
and consecrated bells were ritualistically rung
during thunderstorms to ward off the evil spirits
causing it. Lightning was greatly feared in the days
of thatched roofs and timber-framed buildings!
Lightning strike, tower arch. Image courtesy of Terry Galvin
After the Reformation
The Reformation brought changes to the Chapel and also its graffiti. Like the wall
paintings which were whitewashed, many symbols came to be seen as superstitious.
Some ritual protection marks survived, the ‘VV’, for example, persisted even if it slowly
5
lost much of its original meaning and became more of a ‘good luck’ symbol. Dates began
to appear and graffiti gradually became more secular. People started carving more
personal, territorial memorials, perhaps wanting to record their visit or remember
someone who had died.
It was after the Reformation that ‘house-plaques’ started appearing. They are the most
noticeable and common type of post-Reformation graffiti, so-called because they are
typically shaped like little houses with pointed rooves, often with a cross on top and
nearly always a date and initials.
They are often found clustered together
and there are three house-plaques on the
Chapel’s chancel arch. The one shown
here is relatively small and simple
compared to the others in the Chapel. The
earliest house-plaques date from the mid-
sixteenth century and their presence in the
Chapel does suggest it was being used
again after a period of near redundancy
after the Guild was dissolved in 1547.
Small house-plaque. Image courtesy of Terry Galvin
This ‘house-plaque’ is larger and more
complex and looks more like a cross
between a house-plaque and a shield.
The initials appear to be ‘HE’ with a date
in the 1600s. A great deal of care and
consideration has gone into making it.
Maybe someone was commemorating a
visit – a sort of ‘I was here’ - or maybe it
is a memorial for someone who has
died? Graffiti house-plaques certainly
seem to correspond to a time when
gravestones and wall-mounted
monuments started to appear. House-plaque/shield, chancel arch. Image courtesy of Terry Galvin
The criss-cross lines may represent bricks or roof tiles but ‘mesh’ or ‘chequerboard’
designs are thought to be have been another form of ritual protection in the medieval
period. The meaning of graffiti can change depending on the context of the inscriber,
but it could suggest people continued to believe in the ‘magic’ or, at least, the ‘good luck’
of such markings well into the seventeenth century. House-plaques elsewhere have
incorporated this same ‘mesh’ design so it is not unique to the Guild Chapel.
6
There are, inevitably, many names and initials
in the Chapel although few are dated. The only
dated initials to be found in the Chapel so far
are in the nave by the south door. Scratched
through old layers of paint is ‘MW 1731’.
Despite a more critical attitude towards graffiti
in churches by this time, the often remarkably
well-cut names and initials of eighteenth and
nineteenth century visitors cover our churches
and the furnishings inside.
‘MW 1731’, south wall of the nave. Image courtesy of Terry Galvin
Historic graffiti is frequently attributed to ‘naughty school-boys’. During Shakespeare’s
lifetime, the Chapel was used as a ‘petty school’, an elementary school for both boys
and girls from the age of five. At the age of seven, the boys progressed to the grammar
school next door to the Chapel, the school Shakespeare almost certainly attended.
Since 1902, the School has held its morning assemblies in the Chapel so some of the
graffiti will, undoubtedly, have been left by boys from the school.
There is clearly an enduring need for people to leave their mark in some way as the
chapel’s growing visitor book affirms. It is through historic graffiti that we catch a glimpse
of the people who have come and gone from the Chapel for over 500 hundred years.
The walls really do talk!
Pamela Devine
December 2019
References and recommended reading:
1. Devine, Pamela, Writing on Shakespeare’s Walls: The Historic Graffiti in the Guild
Chapel, Stratford-upon-Avon (forthcoming)
2. Champion, Matthew, Medieval Graffiti, The Lost Voices of England’s Churches (London:
Ebury, 2015)
3. Norfolk Medieval Graffiti Survey (2019) <http://www.medieval-graffiti.co.uk/>