If so, the practice may have been a post-Reformation resurgence of ancestor worship or veneration of the saints in a degenerate form. The latter concludes that the effigy may have been targeted and ‘adopted’ by the bereaved as a personal ‘guardian’ or intercessor for the deceased. Several studies have highlighted the phenomenon of graffiti concentrations on or around the effigies of notable local figures (Binding 2015, Perkins 2020). Ralph Merrifield, ‘The Cult of the Blessed Dead’ (1987:79). These great Christians would act as patrons of the less perfect dead that surrounded them and ensure that they too shared the blessings of Paradise, as a powerful earthly patron could ensure that his clients received their share of worldly benefits.’ ‘In Christian cemeteries there was a strong tendency for graves to be clustered around the burial place of a particularly holy person, preferably a martyr, but failing that, a Church leader or someone well known for the holiness of his or hers life. ‘We pray not to instruct God but to get our will in line with Heaven’
1ĭoes the graffiti represent an attempt by the bereaved to attach the name of a deceased person to a particularly ‘notable’ or ‘ennobled’ individual – one whom was possibly regarded as a ‘folk’ saint within the community – or was it simply the desire to be affiliated with the ‘symbolism of the ideal’ in the post-Reformation world? In the Medieval world, intercessors were sought in every avenue of life as a way to ‘fast track’ the soul to heaven.
A good body of evidence now exists which supports the theory that such motifs are examples of ‘memorial’ graffiti. Although a range of apotropaic symbols are often present, the majority of the graffiti seems to consist of names and dates, often within cartouches. Why have effigies and monuments to the dead historically attracted graffiti ? It is phenomenon that seems to be particularly prevalent during the 16 th and 17th centuries.
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