Stained glass windows were the medieval equivalent of the 35mm slide show or the modern Powerpoint presentation. They were used by preachers as visual aids to explain bible events and expound various points of view, but they also depicted things of topical interest such as the 15th century image of a golfer in the east window of Gloucester Cathedral. In those days, like now, church services were not just about listening to words but were also about seeing pictures.
Recently, I was sitting in the choir at Dymock during a service during at which a Suffragen Bishop was speaker. I know that on these occasions most people have eyes only for the Bishop, but that they are also keen to hear what he has to say. However, as the Bishop rose to speak I glanced at the flagstones and saw a lonely woodlouse ambling towards the raised choir stalls. As it got closer, a small spider dashed out and punched it on the nose. The woodlouse swung a left hook and the spider skulked back to its lair. Confident in his success, and with a little swagger, our woodlouse then continued on its way.
Within a few moments, however another spider rushed out, but this one tackled the woodlouse from behind. I couldn’t see clearly what it was up to but it was certainly very busy and energetic. All was revealed however, when suddenly the rear-end of the woodlouse was hoisted into the air.
I watched transfixed. How had the spider, which had remained on the floor, managed to raise the heavier creature off the ground. Had it constructed the arachnid equivalent of a block and tackle? Whatever it had done there was no doubting that the rear end of the louse was off the ground.
The spider then ascended an unseen rope and quickly pulled the luckless louse an inch or so higher. Left dangling, the Oniscidae was quickly cocooned in fine silk to become an item in the spider’s larder for later attention.
These events lasted the entire length of the sermon and to be honest, I do not remember a single thing the Bishop said. I shall not however forget the scenes of life and lingering death my eyes had witnessed that Sunday Morning.
The power of pictures cannot be overstated, and who is to say that there is not, somewhere in an English Church, a stained glass window depicting the ecclesiastical exertions of woodlice and spiders?
View from the Pew 