Eilward of Westoning, panel 3

Window: nIII (Miracle Window: Pilgrimage and Healing)
Panel: 19
The third scene is bloodcurdling. Eilward lies on the ground in the seconds before he is blinded and castrated for theft. A seated judge points at a man who is about to blind Eilward with a pointed stake. This man straddles a large green plank placed across Eilward's chest to hold him down. To the right, the man about to castrate Eilward holds up a knife and reaches for Eilward's privates. In the middle of the panel, a man holds onto the ropes binding Eilward's hands, and in the background are four witnesses who look on in horror.

Panel details

  • CVMA identificationnIII.19
  • Creation dateca.1213-1220
  • Known conservations2023

Source text

Benedict of Peterborough, Miracles of St Thomas Becket

book IV, chapter 2

He was taken to the place of punishment, deprived of his eyes, and his genitals were mutilated. They tore out the entire left eye right away, but they were hardly able to extract the right eye, lacerating it and cutting it into pieces. They buried the members that had been cut off under the turf […] leaving him half dead. Not a small crowd of people had come to the spectacle, some compelled there in the name of public power, some by the tug of curiosity.

Inscription in glass

[Ecce ei]cta sunt lumina membra resecta
Look, his eyes are put out and members cut off

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