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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?

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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:

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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

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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

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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.

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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/>