Eilward of Westoning, panel 5
Window: nIII (Miracle Window: Pilgrimage and Healing)
Panel: 16
The fifth panel is a marvelous, multi-layered image that shows Eilward on pilgrimage to Canterbury. He points at his new eyes with his left hand. With his right hand, he gives a disabled man a coin. The inscription reads “With the right hand he distributes, with the left he points out the renewed” (this inscription has been restored with backplating).
It was when Eilward was on pilgrimage to Canterbury that he found that his testicles were regrowing. Though this part of his miracle is not mentioned in the inscription, the glaziers signaled that it was happening in a number of ways. On the left is a cluster of three wealthy men dressed in long tunics and cloaks. The wealthy man closest to Eilward points his finger at Eilward’s genital region.
On the far left, another wealthy man has spread his legs, revealing his red leggings, white underpants, and a distinctly scrotum-shaped money bag. Benedict writes that when Eilward discovered he had testicles again, “they were very small, but they grew bigger, and he did not deny those who wished to feel them.” The way the man has thrust his hand into his money bag may be meant to evoke the fact that Eilward would allow people to feel his regrown testicles, or that Eilward first discovered the regrowth by attending to an itch on his scrotum.
The tree at the center of the panel makes an unmistakable allusion to Eilward’s testicular miracle. Eilward’s body is twisted around such that his back is to the viewer, a very unusual posture in the miracle windows. Behind him and between his legs, passing up along his genital region, is the wavy trunk of a tree. The tree ends well above Eilward’s head, with a larger pink central lobe and two smaller green lobes – green for growth – on either side. There is no other tree like this in the miracle windows.
The highly suggestive tree, the scrotum-shaped moneybag, and the finger pointing at Eilward’s privates must refer to the regrowth of Eilward’s chopped-off testicles. Medieval people liked bawdy humour at least as much as we do. Were the glaziers giggling as they made this panel?
It was when Eilward was on pilgrimage to Canterbury that he found that his testicles were regrowing. Though this part of his miracle is not mentioned in the inscription, the glaziers signaled that it was happening in a number of ways. On the left is a cluster of three wealthy men dressed in long tunics and cloaks. The wealthy man closest to Eilward points his finger at Eilward’s genital region.
On the far left, another wealthy man has spread his legs, revealing his red leggings, white underpants, and a distinctly scrotum-shaped money bag. Benedict writes that when Eilward discovered he had testicles again, “they were very small, but they grew bigger, and he did not deny those who wished to feel them.” The way the man has thrust his hand into his money bag may be meant to evoke the fact that Eilward would allow people to feel his regrown testicles, or that Eilward first discovered the regrowth by attending to an itch on his scrotum.
The tree at the center of the panel makes an unmistakable allusion to Eilward’s testicular miracle. Eilward’s body is twisted around such that his back is to the viewer, a very unusual posture in the miracle windows. Behind him and between his legs, passing up along his genital region, is the wavy trunk of a tree. The tree ends well above Eilward’s head, with a larger pink central lobe and two smaller green lobes – green for growth – on either side. There is no other tree like this in the miracle windows.
The highly suggestive tree, the scrotum-shaped moneybag, and the finger pointing at Eilward’s privates must refer to the regrowth of Eilward’s chopped-off testicles. Medieval people liked bawdy humour at least as much as we do. Were the glaziers giggling as they made this panel?
Inscription
Visible in the panel
- InscriptionDistribuit dextra monstrat rediviva sinistra
- TranslationWith the right hand he distributes, with the left he points out the renewed
Panel details
- CVMA identificationnIII.16
Source text
Benedict of Peterborough, Miracles of St Thomas Becket
book IV, chapter 2
He then left and took up the journey to Thomas, the author of his salvation. Wherever he went, a great multitude of the people followed him, for his fame preceded him and roused everyone to meet him. Whatever gifts were given to him, he distributed to the poor for the love of the martyr. When he had gone about four miles, he put his hand down to scratch an itch on the scrotum of his testicles, and he discovered that his members had also been restored to him.
