What are Misericords?
So what the heck, you ask yourself, is a misericord? Well, he answers, helpfully.
In cathedrals (or priories, abbeys, Minster churches, collegiate churches and similar
bodies) that started off as monastic foundations, the monks, canons and other clergy
were not supposed to sit down for the duration of long services, however, in great
human tradition they cheated! They added a small carved shelf to the underside of
the choir stall known as a misericord or sometimes a mercy seat or pity seat or
even miserere, so that when the seat was tipped up, they could park their bums on
the shelf. This is actually far more prevalent than you would at first imagine, mainly
due to anyone with any spare money would make an endowment for several monks or canons
to perform masses for their souls , this of course required choir stalls with misericords.
All this sounds boring, but, if you’re a nutter, like me, you’ll see that a lot
of them are great fun! Incredibly, the wood carvers were, very often, given a free
rein and so came up with humorous and profane carvings for the main bracket and supporters.
Subjects for misericords vary widely, much is medieval folklore, such as Aesop’s
fables or musical pigs - which had an allegorical relationship to lust, apes with
urine flasks - which is taking the mickey out of the medical profession, mermaids,
the Green Man - relating to earlier pagan beliefs and wives beating their husbands,
which may relate to reminding the clergy that they had not lost out badly by celibacy,
unfortunately much of the meaning behind this folklore has been lost. The woodcarvers
did, however, seem to like this proof that the monks were merely frail humans, like
themselves.
Whilst you may assume that misericords are going to be a purely medieval phenomena,
this is untrue; the UK got its latest misericords in May 2010!
You may find it surprising just how many churches do have misericords and also some
of the locations, we forget in our hubris that some quiet backwaters were of great
importance before the industrial revolution.
It’s also worth noting that some churches may have gained misericords at a much later
date, sometimes due to the Victorian love of the medieval, sometimes due to a small
church needing new choir stalls at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries
and being able to snaffle them cheaply from a building that was either due to be
demolished or turned to secular use.
For those of you who already know this - sorry, but hope you enjoy the site anyway.
Some of the most attractive (in my opinion) examples of medieval misericords in the
UK are at Manchester Cathedral, St George’s, Stowlangtoft and New College, Oxford.
Post war examples, such as the misericords at Breda Grote Kirk, in Holland show wonderful
contemporary scenes and are well worth a look.
