5. A burial scene. Two men are laying the body, wrapped in a winding
sheet, in an open grave; a priest, holding a torch in his hand, and two
attendants stand near; mattock and spade are beside the grave.[739]
On either side of the central carving Death is represented leading a
mortal--in this case the pope--by the hand.
6. A man is being stripped of his shirt, symbolical perhaps of the fact
that in dying we must relinquish all worldly possessions. A cripple,
whom by the irony of fate Death has spared, watches the process of
unclothing. The side subject has been cut off, but Death's companion is
a bishop; see the outline of his mitre.
7. A death-bed scene; the sick person is in bed, his friends surround
him.
8. The tree of Jesse. "The Word was made flesh."
9. The Last Judgment.
10. Grotesque.
11. The chaining of Satan.
12.
13. Grotesque.
14.
The church terminates in a five-sided apse, with five large, slightly
pointed windows. The modern coloured glass of the three central ones
is a miracle of ugliness, but the two outer ones are composed of
fragments of ancient stained glass, out of which it is impossible,
however, to distinguish any connected group. Figures of the cherubim
standing on wheels are scattered about the various lights, still in
fair preservation. Other fragments show the Apocalyptic Lamb, the kiss
of Judas, and the description of the Trinity beginning, "Pater est
Deus," etc.[740] In the clear-story windows may also be seen more of
these beautiful, but sadly fragmentary remnants of ancient glass. In
one of these on the south side, the scissors, which were the mark of
the tailors' and sheremen's company, are conspicuous.
The chancel roof is lower than the nave, and the two levels are
connected by a cove on which was once a fresco of the Archangel
overcoming Satan,[740] fragments of which are preserved though not _in
situ_.
Painted on the beam above the cove which spans the nave between the
rood piers are traces of an old Latin hymn on the nine orders of angels
(a facsimile will be found in the vestry):
"Archangeli presunt ciuitatibus.
Potestates presunt demonibus.
Dominaciones presunt spiritibus angelicis.
Cherubyn habent omnem scienciam.
Principalitates presunt bonis hominibus.
Virtutes faciunt mirabilia.
Seraphyn ardent in armore dei.
Troni eorum est judicare.
Angeli sunt nuncii domini."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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