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Rotherfield, E. Sussex (!Chichester) : St. Michael Weighing Souls C.15?

[Photo:T.Marshall] Rotherfield, St. Michael Weighing Souls [83KB]
The Weighing of Souls is integral with the Doom (above and to the right of this detail and newly on the site)
St. Michael is fairly clear, although his facial features have gone, and so is the left-hand pan (i.e. the one on the right in the picture) of the balance. There are some faint confused details to the right of this pan - they may have shown devils trying to interfere with the balance. Michael wears a long robe and cloak here, but he is often found in armour, or/and with feathered legs signifying his angelic status, as at South Leigh (link in the table below).

The symbolic arrangement shown here, with the scalepan at Michaels right weighing heavier to signify the souls salvation seems to be the natural one, given the traditional associations of dexter and sinister in medieval art. Many Weighings of Souls conform to it. One such is the finest example of the subject in England, at Wenhaston in Suffolk - not technically a wall painting but now included here (see table below). But the arrangement is not invariable - the painting at Pickworth, for example, reverses the positioning.
Also at Rotherfield is the very rare Incredulity of Thomas, possibly once part of a Passion Cycle, but equally possibly a detached and separate subject from the first.

Website for St Denys, Rotherfield

Woman Donor, Doom at North Cove
Ashampstead, Berkshire Attleborough, Norfolk (Christ in Majesty) Bacton, Suffolk Bartlow, Cambridgeshire (Weighing) Beckley, Oxfordshire Bishopsbourne, Kent (Weighing)
Blyth, Nottinghamshire Bradfield, Norfolk Broughton, Bucks. Broughton, Cambs Catherington, Hampshire (Weighing) Chelsworth, Suffolk
Chesterton, Cambs. Corby Glen, Lincs Coventry (Holy Trinity Church), Warwickshire Croughton, Northants (Weighing) NEW Dauntsey, Wiltshire NEW Flamstead, Herts.
Great Harrowden, Beds Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire Houghton Conquest, Beds (Christ in Majesty) Ickleton, Cambs. Lenham, Kent (Weighing) NEW Marston Moreteyne, Beds
Marton, Cheshire Newington-next-Sittingbourne, Kent North Cove, Suffolk Oddington, Gloucestershire Pickworth, Lincs Potter Heigham, Norfolk
Rotherfield, E.Sussex (Doom) Rotherfield, E. Sussex (Weighing) Salisbury, Wilts Slapton, Northants (Weighing) South Leigh, Oxon (Doom)
South Leigh, Oxon (Weighing) Stoke-by-Clare, Suffolk Stratford-On-Avon, the Guild chapel, Warwickshire NEW Wenhaston, Suffolk West Somerton, Norfolk Widford, Herts
Wissington, Suffolk Yaxley, Suffolk

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© Anne Marshall 2000