Vision For The Sufferer

Home Studio production by Dag Rune Simensen

Sufferer  (Cover)

Situated in St Peter and St Paul’s Church Chaldon, it is possibly the oldest Doom painting in the UK, painted sometime around 1200 AD. It is unique, there is nothing to compare it with. Some people have suggested that it is part of the original mural but no-one has found any evidence to support this theory and looking around with my amateur eye, I couldn’t see anything that could be interpreted as being even a small bump in the white paintwork that could be concealing a fragment of another painting. The painting is believed to have been produced by an unnamed travelling monk who went from church to church. The painting is over 17 feet wide and 11 feet high. Only red and yellow ochre paints were used in the painting which again, makes it unusual. It is said to have been whitewashed when Cromwell and the puritans were in power and rediscovered in 1869. Protestants and their more extreme cousins, Puritans, believed this was a “Popish” distraction and should be whitewashed over. They did not believe in “Purgatory”, along with bishops and the Pope, Purgatory was not mentioned in the Bible. The Reformation brought about the idea that mural paintings, stained glass windows, priests in colourful garments and statues in church, were distractions and that people should simply sit in church and listen to the readings from the Bible.
The painting shows the Biblical Day of Judgement with, in the middle, the “Ladder of Salvation” where souls of the “good” can climb up to heaven having to go through “Purgatory” where they are judged and then allowed into heaven. On the other hand “sinners” go from Purgatory back down to Hell where they stay, suffering for eternity. From this it is often given the title of a “Purgatorial Ladder” or “ Ladder of Souls”. The bottom half of the painting is devoted to scenes from hell and focuses on the “Seven Deadly Sins” which will be explained in the commentary below.

www.seeingthepast.com/blog/chaldon-doom-painting

bevel the soul spindle

an extension of suciogami unto 6petals;

torment or tease (someone) with the sight or promise of something that is unobtainable.

Seeking the renewal of all things in Jesus Christ.

Retired engineer and Home Studio enthusiast. Making own music, and Cover songs of Old Hits.

New tracks tagged #sufferer