Misericords of Whalley

Misericords are little seats often found on the underside of another, folding seat, inside medieval church chancels. They could be lifted up into place allowing an individual to discreetly lean his derrière upon it while giving the appearance of standing up. Such features often bear carvings, some of which are humorous. At the nearby church of St Mary at Whalley, a fine set of misericords exist, and well reward the visitor with time and patience enough to inspect them. There are the usual examples which misericord makers seemed to employ, like the Trinity:

And, at the opposite end of theological orthodoxy, a Green Man, a relic of our pagan past:

...as well as angels, dragons and armorial symbols. One stall, reserved for the Abbot of Whalley, below, shows carvings of grapes, and is accompanied by some words:

Semp[er] Gaudentes sint ista sede sedentes, which, translated: 'joyful be they who sit here.’ I suspect that the grapes tell us just how the good abbot was to procure his joy after service in the church. Other examples imply moral lessons. How about the warrior, for example, who comes home with sword and shield, but these fall about the floor as his wife proceeds to beat him with a frying pan?

We sometimes require more courage and fortitude in our own homes as we need in the battles without. And then there is the carving of the blacksmith who appears to be trying to shoe a goose:

The accompanying text reads: 

Who so melles hy[m]of y al dos let hy[m]cu[m] heir & shoe ye ghos which the patient person behind the misericords.co.uk site sums up thus:

‘Whoever meddles in other people’s affairs is sure to make a failure of it.’

There is sometimes greater wisdom next to the backside than that which comes from the mouth.