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St. Martin Dividing his Cloak : Chalgrave, Bedfordshire (‡St. Albans) c.1400

Photo:T.Marshall
St. Martin dividing his cloak, Chalgrave [78KB]
St. Martin, like St. Nicholas a worker of wonders¹, was once as least as popular in the English church, but there are very few paintings of him left now. The moralizing story of his cutting his cloak in half to share it with a beggar has obvious appeal and here the scene is painted over the south door at Chalgrave. Martin, astride his horse and wearing his cloak, turns backwards in his saddle to slice through it with his large sword. The lower half drapes itself over his horse’s rump and is hard to see, but the upper half flies dramatically upwards. The beggar is probably standing just to the right of the horse - there is a patch of pigment that seems to be his head, but the rest of the figure is gone completely.

Chalgrave is very fully painted, but the paintings are of various dates from the late 13th to the 18th centuries. There is much painted heraldry (one painted shield is visible in the photograph) and texts superimposed on earlier paintings.

There is another, very early, painting of St. Martin at Wareham in Dorset, and a rather faint example of Martin dividing his cloak at Martley in Worcestershire (on here soon). Another, said to be dilapidated but of about the same date as Chalgrave, is recorded at Nassington in Northamptonshire, although I doubt if it is still visible. There may be others, but the eight examples recorded by Keyser in 1888² have certainly dwindled to a fraction of that number now.

¹And a moraliser himself according to the Knight de la Tour-Landry in his plentiful advice to his daughters on behaviour. He gives St. Martin as his source for stories about the dangers of gossiping in church (as various women are pictured doing in these pages). [The Book of the Knight of the Tower, 1371, Early English Texts Society, 41]. Martin, as Bishop of Tours in central France, was certainly renowned as a great visitor of the churches in his Diocese and a rooter-out of vestigial paganism, so the attribution may be well-founded.
²(see Bibliography)

St. Andrew Martyred, Stoke Dry, Rutland St. Anne teaching the Virgin to read-Corby Glen, Lincolnshire St. Antony and the Pig, Barton, Cambridgeshire St. Barbara : Hessett, Suffolk St. Bartholomew : Selling, Kent St.Catherine of Alexandria, life of : Castor, Cambs St.Catherine of Alexandria : Hardley Street, Norfolk
St.Catherine of Alexandria : Old Weston, Northants St.Catherine of Alexandria : Pickering, N. Yorks St.Catherine of Alexandria, life of : Sporle, Norfolk St. Clement : South Leigh, Oxon. St. Dunstan holding the Devil by the nose : Barton, Cambs St.Edmund : Boxford, Suffolk St. Edmund : Lakenheath, Suffolk
St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Bishopsbourne, Kent St.Edmund, Martyrdom of : Fritton, Norfolk St. Edmund (or St. Walstan) : Gisleham, Norfolk St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Pickering, N.Yorks St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Stoke Dry, Rutland St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Troston, Suffolk St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Weare Giffard, Devon
St.Eloi, Broughton, Bucks St. Eloi and the possessed horse, Slapton, Northants St. Eloi, as bishop & blacksmith, Wensley, N.Yorks St.Erasmus, Martyrdom of : Chippenham, Cambs St. Etheldreda : Willingham, Cambs St.Francis Preaching to the Birds : Wissington, Suffolk St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata, Slapton, Northants
St. George & Dragon : Banningham, Norfolk St. George & Dragon : Broughton, Bucks St. George & Dragon : Earl Stonham, Suffolk St. George & Dragon : Fritton, Norfolk St. George & Dragon : Hornton, Oxon St. George dedicating himself to the Virgin : Astbury, Cheshire St. George, with the princess : Little Kimble, Bucks
St.Helena, Broughton, Bucks St. Hubert, Miracle of : Idsworth, Hants St.James the Great : Hales, Norfolk Life of St. James, Stoke Orchard, Gloucestershire St. James the Great, meeting pilgrims : Wisborough Green, Sussex St. John the Baptist, Martyrdom of : Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks St. John the Baptist, Martyrdom of : Heydon, Norfolk
St. John the Baptist, Martyrdom of : Idsworth, Hampshire St. John the Baptist, Martyrdom of : Old Weston, Northants Life of St. John the Baptist : Cerne Abbas, Dorset NEW St. John the Evangelist, Selling, Kent St. John the Evangelist, Weston Longville, Norfolk St. Margaret of Antioch : Old Weston, Northants St. Margaret and the dragon : South Newington, Oxfordshire NEW
St. Margaret of Antioch Martyred, Stoke Dry, Rutland St. Margaret of Antioch, Life of : Charlwood, Surrey Life of St. Margaret, Wendens Ambo, Essex St. Martin dividing his cloak, Chalgrave, Beds St. Martin dividing his cloak, Wareham, Dorset St.Nicholas of Myra, life of : Little Horwood, Bucks St. Nicholas of Myra, two miracles of : Wissington, Suffolk
St.Paul : Black Bourton, Oxon St. Paul : Beckley, Oxon St. Peter : Beckley, Oxon St.Peter : Black Bourton, Oxon St. Peter, Martyrdom of : Chacombe, Northants St. Roch : Pinvin, Worcs St. Sexburga? : Willingham, Cambs
St. Stephen, Stoning of: Black Bourton, Oxon St. Stephen, Stoning of: Catfield, Norfolk St.Swithun (?) enthroned : Old Weston, Northants Scenes from the life of St. Swithun : Corhampton, Hampshire NEW St. Thomas Becket, blessing, Hauxton, Cambs. St. Thomas Becket, Murder of, Marston Magna, Somerset St.Thomas Becket, Murder of : South Burlingham, Norfolk
St. Thomas Becket, Murder of : South Newington, Oxfordshire St. Walstan of Bawburgh? or St. Edmund : Gisleham, Norfolk St. Zita : Horley, Oxon St. Zita : Shorthampton, Oxon Unidentified female saint : Heydon

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16/12/00