0:00:13 > 0:00:20Every Sunday as a child, my parents would bring my brothers and I to St Michael's Church in Highgate.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24And as I sat here in the pews, I'd be looking up at this.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26The Great East Window.
0:00:26 > 0:00:31I'd have known enough, probably, to know that the figure in the middle is Jesus,
0:00:31 > 0:00:34but I wouldn't have understood much else about the scene.
0:00:34 > 0:00:40Who that is stealing away at the bottom of the scene, or what he's got in his hand.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44And above it, there's an array of symbols and images.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47Firewood, urns, sheep...
0:00:47 > 0:00:51They all clearly mean something, but what?
0:00:51 > 0:00:54Questions spring at you from all around the church.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56What's the letter M?
0:00:56 > 0:01:02Why is the font at the west end of the church and the altar at the east end?
0:01:02 > 0:01:05In fact, why an altar at all?
0:01:05 > 0:01:12There are hundreds of years of faith and history that pour in to a place like this.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15But there's nothing special about this church.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19The same questions are asked by every church that you might visit.
0:01:21 > 0:01:22What's this?
0:01:22 > 0:01:24We seem to have forgotten
0:01:24 > 0:01:31how to read the language of these buildings, with the result that they can seem baffling and obscure.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35As an author of books that unravel the meaning of churches,
0:01:35 > 0:01:38I've made it my mission to rediscover that language.
0:01:38 > 0:01:44The fact that you can find something like this is just extraordinary.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47Because churches shouldn't be a mystery.
0:01:47 > 0:01:52Built to the glory of God, they also tell us a lot about ourselves.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55Golly, the Normans built to impress.
0:01:55 > 0:02:01In this series I'm going to explain 1,000 years of British Christian art and symbolism,
0:02:01 > 0:02:07giving a fresh perspective on the hopes, fears and beliefs of our ancestors.
0:02:07 > 0:02:13Someone has come along and poked through the face of God Himself.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16I want to overturn the cliches that reduce churches
0:02:16 > 0:02:20to little more than dusty museums, or codes for Dan Brown to crack.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23They're so much more than that.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27There's tremendous beauty in churches,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30and it's there in the colours,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33in the space and in the form,
0:02:33 > 0:02:40and it's people trying, using every skill to create a heaven on earth.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58In the beginning there were no churches.
0:02:58 > 0:03:04Our story starts in the seventh century, when the country was dominated by the pagan cultures
0:03:04 > 0:03:08of the Anglo-Saxons, Jutes, Britons and Picts.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12They seem to have tolerated the tiny Christian communities
0:03:12 > 0:03:15that survived the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18But there were no church buildings.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22Early Christians worshipped in their own homes.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25In the sixth century, Celtic Christian missionaries
0:03:25 > 0:03:28from Ireland had begun to convert the pagan tribes,
0:03:28 > 0:03:34but it's the arrival of missionaries sent by Pope Gregory the Great in 597
0:03:34 > 0:03:37that marks the true re-establishment of Christianity in Britain.
0:03:39 > 0:03:45The missionaries brought with them the most recognisable of all Christian symbols.
0:03:52 > 0:03:57As they moved through Britain, some would erect a wooden cross
0:03:57 > 0:04:00to mark a site where they had preached the Gospel.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04The early Christians had avoided the cross as a symbol of their faith,
0:04:04 > 0:04:09because it was an instrument of execution reserved for the lower orders.
0:04:09 > 0:04:15In time, this association faded, as this was now an empty cross, a symbol of hope.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19Jesus had conquered death.
0:04:19 > 0:04:24The missionaries chose the sites for their crosses very carefully.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28Their marketing of the faith was highly astute.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32They deliberately chose pagan standing stones and temples
0:04:32 > 0:04:35to show that there was a new faith in town.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38It was part of a plan.
0:04:38 > 0:04:43The missionaries were under specific instructions from Pope Gregory
0:04:43 > 0:04:46not to destroy the pagan temples that they found.
0:04:46 > 0:04:54Purify them with holy water, set up holy relics, and transform them into temples of the true God.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56This was a brilliant strategy,
0:04:56 > 0:05:02because people could then come to the sites that they had always come to.
0:05:02 > 0:05:08Only this time, they were coming to a Christian site, to worship the Christian God.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13Evidence of Gregory's plan still survives.
0:05:13 > 0:05:19You can see examples of pagan worship close to some of our parish churches.
0:05:20 > 0:05:28Here at Iffley, the church was built in the shadow of this 1,200 year-old sacred tree.
0:05:28 > 0:05:36And at Rudston, the church was built next to this impressive standing stone,
0:05:36 > 0:05:38the largest in Britain.
0:05:38 > 0:05:43It's one thing to build your church by a pagan sacred site.
0:05:43 > 0:05:49It's quite another to take pagan symbols and import them into the church.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53But the extraordinary thing is that for the next several hundred years,
0:05:53 > 0:05:56whenever a new church was built,
0:05:56 > 0:06:01it was filled with images that, to our eyes, just shouldn't be there.
0:06:01 > 0:06:07I'm going to enter this confusion of faiths and try and make sense of it.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12The history of British churches
0:06:12 > 0:06:19can be understood only by first recognising the significance of this - the altar.
0:06:19 > 0:06:25Perhaps because they're usually at the far east end of the church and covered with ceremonial cloths,
0:06:25 > 0:06:28their importance is often overlooked, but it's vital
0:06:28 > 0:06:33to understand that the altar is not built for the church.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36The church is built for the altar.
0:06:38 > 0:06:44The early Christian missionaries had set up altars in the open air next to their preaching crosses,
0:06:44 > 0:06:48but they needed protection from the weather,
0:06:48 > 0:06:50and so the first churches were built.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57The ceremony that took place around the altar was the Eucharist or mass,
0:06:57 > 0:07:01and to pagans used to the idea of sacrificing animals to the gods,
0:07:01 > 0:07:05the altar must have seemed strangely familiar,
0:07:05 > 0:07:11as would the words of the ceremony, with its talk about a body and blood.
0:07:11 > 0:07:17In the same night that he was betrayed, took bread and gave you thanks.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26You get a great sense of Anglo-Saxon worship here,
0:07:26 > 0:07:31in this little chapel of St Laurence in Bradford on Avon.
0:07:33 > 0:07:39The people would have stood here, in the less holy part of the church, what would later become known as
0:07:39 > 0:07:42the nave, from the Latin navis, meaning ship,
0:07:42 > 0:07:46as if everybody is sailing together towards God.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50While the ceremony of the mass took place there,
0:07:50 > 0:07:53in the chancel, in a far more holy space.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58The Eucharist is a re-enactment of the final meal
0:07:58 > 0:08:04that Jesus had with his disciples before his trial and crucifixion.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06We break this bread to share in the body of Christ...
0:08:06 > 0:08:11The Bible says he gave some bread to his disciples, saying,
0:08:11 > 0:08:15"This is my body, which is given for you."
0:08:15 > 0:08:18He then gave them some wine, saying,
0:08:18 > 0:08:21"This is my blood, which is shed for you."
0:08:21 > 0:08:23The blood of Christ.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25The cup of salvation.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45It was quite deliberate that the altar should be built of stone,
0:08:45 > 0:08:48like the altars on which animals had been sacrificed to God,
0:08:48 > 0:08:53as Jesus's sacrifice was being re-enacted here.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56When the priest performed the rite,
0:08:56 > 0:09:01the bread and the wine became the actual body and actual blood of Christ.
0:09:01 > 0:09:07The people may not have understood the Latin liturgy of the priests
0:09:07 > 0:09:13nor even received the bread and wine, but they knew that Christ was in their midst.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17It was that moment that made the church so important.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22Because of the significance of the Eucharist,
0:09:22 > 0:09:27churches have always been more than just a shelter for the altar.
0:09:27 > 0:09:33Each generation developed new ways to decorate and design churches to the glory of God.
0:09:33 > 0:09:40The earliest examples are by the Anglo-Saxons, who built thousands across England and Wales.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44The few survivors are worth seeking out.
0:09:51 > 0:09:57Their churches show a puzzling mix of God's kingdom and the animal kingdom,
0:09:57 > 0:10:01but also a desire to make sure all eyes are drawn heavenwards.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05One of the first things that hits you in an Anglo-Saxon church
0:10:05 > 0:10:08is this great whoosh of space,
0:10:08 > 0:10:14this huge void over your head
0:10:14 > 0:10:17that just pulls you upwards.
0:10:17 > 0:10:24The arches, are semi-circular and round and deep and thick,
0:10:24 > 0:10:29that's simply, partly because building techniques were quite primitive then.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34And even behind me here, it's even more primitive - just two stones,
0:10:34 > 0:10:38one balanced against another into a triangle.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45Either side of the west door,
0:10:45 > 0:10:48and either side of the arch that would have led to the Anglo-Saxon altar,
0:10:48 > 0:10:53are these magnificent beasts, carved out of stone.
0:10:53 > 0:10:58Originally, these would have been painted in yellow and black and red.
0:10:58 > 0:11:04And we believe that their eyes and their nostrils and their ears would have been filled in with jewels.
0:11:04 > 0:11:12The effect, if you were in the church, in candlelight, must have been vividly alive.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16What they are doing inside the church is hard to say.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19Perhaps they're guarding the entrance to the altar
0:11:19 > 0:11:25or are a warning against the dark evil of the outside world.
0:11:25 > 0:11:32And there's further evidence of the need for protection - this time above the main door.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36For the past 1,200 years, congregations have passed
0:11:36 > 0:11:40under this intriguing depiction of the Virgin Mary.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43It looks so modern, in its carving, to us now.
0:11:43 > 0:11:49We know from residue of paint that the face would have been painted on.
0:11:49 > 0:11:54And what she's holding is a shield, on which an image of Jesus would have been portrayed.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01I love the way her slippered toes are peeping over the edge of the frame.
0:12:01 > 0:12:07In 816, the Synod of Chelsea told bishops that when they dedicated a new church to a saint,
0:12:07 > 0:12:10they should include an image of the saint in the church,
0:12:10 > 0:12:14the idea being that the saint will then be the protector of the church,
0:12:14 > 0:12:20while the church repays the compliment by each year holding a feast on the saint's day.
0:12:24 > 0:12:29On the outside of the sanctuary, at Deerhurst, were carved more images,
0:12:29 > 0:12:33marking the holiness of the spot where the Eucharist took place.
0:12:33 > 0:12:38Only one survives, and to get a glimpse, you have to work for it,
0:12:38 > 0:12:43by climbing into the attic of the old farmhouse next door.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46There he is.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50This is the the Deerhurst Angel, and there would once have been
0:12:50 > 0:12:5512 of them, standing guard around the sanctuary at Deerhurst.
0:12:55 > 0:12:59Different ages imagined angels in different ways.
0:12:59 > 0:13:05Emissaries from God, warriors, comforters, messengers.
0:13:05 > 0:13:11But no-one imagined them quite like the Anglo-Saxons,
0:13:11 > 0:13:13with such softness, gentleness,
0:13:13 > 0:13:16you could even say love.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26But the Anglo-Saxon way of worship came to a swift end
0:13:26 > 0:13:32soon after William the Conqueror landed at Pevensey in 1066.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36He didn't just bring with him a few hundred French barons and the feudal system,
0:13:36 > 0:13:40he also imported a more extravagant style of worship,
0:13:40 > 0:13:44with more ritual, more music, and more processions.
0:13:44 > 0:13:49What all that demanded was a new type of church.
0:13:49 > 0:13:54CHOIR SINGS
0:14:00 > 0:14:04The Pope had been swift to bless William's triumph,
0:14:04 > 0:14:07and the new king responded by building hundreds of new churches,
0:14:07 > 0:14:12designed also to impress the defeated people of England.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15An 11th century historian wrote,
0:14:15 > 0:14:20"It was as though the very world had cast off her old age,
0:14:20 > 0:14:26"and was clothing herself everywhere in a white robe of new churches."
0:14:45 > 0:14:50The Normans may have brought a brand-new style of church to the British landscape,
0:14:50 > 0:14:54but strangely, their builders didn't relinquish the old pagan images.
0:14:54 > 0:14:59I'm on the border of England and Wales, heading for a church
0:14:59 > 0:15:06that I hope will explain why it sometimes looks as if the Normans were hedging their spiritual bets.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10William the Conqueror gave this land to his relative, William Fitznorman.
0:15:10 > 0:15:16His family built the twin symbols of Norman power, the castle and the church.
0:15:16 > 0:15:21The castle is long gone but the church is still here, and it's a gem.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35I've seen this doorway in pictures,
0:15:35 > 0:15:39but I've never seen it in the flesh before.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42It's really weird.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45There's so much going on here.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48You've got these birds.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50Fishes.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53I'm not sure I can work out quite what they all are.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57You've got something with two dragons coming out of its mouth.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59Phoenix?
0:15:59 > 0:16:04I don't know. How you could interpret what's going on here is...
0:16:05 > 0:16:07..is beyond me.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11But one of the things that is extraordinary
0:16:11 > 0:16:16is actually how little recognisably
0:16:16 > 0:16:19Christian imagery there is here.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21You've got an angel.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24Well, I suppose the Tree of Life, maybe.
0:16:24 > 0:16:30But outside of that, it's birds and beak heads and monsters.
0:16:31 > 0:16:36Just below the arch is a character very familiar to British churches,
0:16:36 > 0:16:41but who resolutely refuses to be explained -
0:16:41 > 0:16:43the famous Green Man.
0:16:43 > 0:16:48There are over 1,000 Green Men in British churches,
0:16:48 > 0:16:50and you only find them in churches.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54I think there's two records of Green Men that aren't in churches.
0:16:54 > 0:17:00And they're always recognisable by the human face, from which plants are growing,
0:17:00 > 0:17:04or else he's peeping out of thick shrubbery.
0:17:11 > 0:17:17No-one, in truth, knows what they are or what they are really meant to be about.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20There have been some pious explanations.
0:17:20 > 0:17:27When Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden of Eden, for disobedience to God,
0:17:27 > 0:17:33the story grew up that they took with them some seeds from the Tree Of Good And Evil,
0:17:33 > 0:17:38and when Adam died, his son Seth planted them in his mouth,
0:17:38 > 0:17:43where they sprouted and grew into the tree
0:17:43 > 0:17:47which was used to make the cross on which Jesus was crucified.
0:17:47 > 0:17:52And one interpretation of the Green Man is that he is Adam.
0:17:52 > 0:17:57It doesn't really hold much water, in truth, as an explanation.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59It's all a bit pious. It's all a bit safe.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03For one thing, this isn't dead Adam.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06This Green Man is thoroughly, vividly alive.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09And the Green Men that you'll find in British churches are screaming
0:18:09 > 0:18:15or they're laughing or they're looking blankly,
0:18:15 > 0:18:20as if they don't particularly care about how we might like to interpret them.
0:18:25 > 0:18:31Around the church are a collection of corbels - brackets that help support the roof.
0:18:31 > 0:18:36But the vivid designs suggest they have another purpose.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39Close to the south door is an immodest lady
0:18:39 > 0:18:44sometimes seen in churches across the British Isles.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48This character here was described by a Victorian commentator
0:18:48 > 0:18:52as being a fool holding open their heart to the devil,
0:18:52 > 0:18:56which shows that they had no real sense of anatomy,
0:18:56 > 0:19:01because this is a Sheela na Gig, a woman holding open her vagina to the viewer.
0:19:01 > 0:19:03And one interpretation of this
0:19:03 > 0:19:08is that it's a warning against sexual sin and sexual promiscuity.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13As much as anything, holding your genitals open in the 12th century
0:19:13 > 0:19:16was no more polite than it is in the 21st,
0:19:16 > 0:19:20and it could be that these are nothing more than a rude joke.
0:19:31 > 0:19:36The church reflected life in Kilpeck back at itself.
0:19:36 > 0:19:42The fairs that were held here are portrayed up here on the wall, with a man playing an instrument,
0:19:42 > 0:19:46a pair wrestling, and an entertainer tumbler.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49Or, if you prefer, you've got a demon,
0:19:49 > 0:19:52tempting people away with musical sin,
0:19:52 > 0:19:55a pair caught in a lecherous embrace
0:19:55 > 0:19:58and a man tumbling from sin.
0:19:58 > 0:20:00Is it a celebration of life?
0:20:00 > 0:20:04Are they a warning against the evils of the fair?
0:20:04 > 0:20:06Or are they a just a bit of fun?
0:20:09 > 0:20:12Just when you think you can impose some sort of meaning,
0:20:12 > 0:20:16the church throws some even stranger carvings at you.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21Why is this animal's head placed upside-down?
0:20:21 > 0:20:26And this Agnus Dei, an ancient image which symbolises Jesus
0:20:26 > 0:20:31as a sacrificial lamb holding a flag of victory over death, is all wrong.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34Here, in a charming muddle,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37the carver, rather than the sacrificial lamb,
0:20:37 > 0:20:41what he's actually carved is a sacrificial horse.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47But in typical Kilpeck style, this most holy Christian symbol
0:20:47 > 0:20:51is surrounded by a demon,
0:20:51 > 0:20:53a fish man,
0:20:53 > 0:20:55a lion man.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00Do you see the shape? What do you think it is?
0:21:00 > 0:21:05Such is the fascination with Kilpeck that a group of first-time dowsers
0:21:05 > 0:21:11have come to the church, convinced that its pagan past is literally just below the surface.
0:21:11 > 0:21:12That's good.
0:21:12 > 0:21:18They believe that the church is built on a sacred spring that bubbles up beneath the altar.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21I've got to tell you, I'm a dowsing sceptic.
0:21:21 > 0:21:22Oh, good. That's fine.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25Hold them like that, right.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27You think there's a stream running...
0:21:27 > 0:21:29..the length of the church.
0:21:29 > 0:21:31- The full length of the church?- Yes.
0:21:31 > 0:21:33- Down the middle of the Church?- Yes.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37So you've got the significant place under, around the altar,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41and the water coming up from underneath and then spreading out.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43So this would have been a holy spring?
0:21:43 > 0:21:46My belief would be that it was, yes.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48If you'd like to come and stand up here.
0:21:49 > 0:21:55And what I'd like you to do is to imagine a stream of water 30 or 40 feet down,
0:21:55 > 0:21:58really damp and dark.
0:21:59 > 0:22:04I've very rarely come across anybody that can't do it.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06- Ah, now! - LAUGHTER
0:22:06 > 0:22:08Now!
0:22:08 > 0:22:10Ah...
0:22:11 > 0:22:13I'm not sure what I think about that.
0:22:17 > 0:22:19Hello, I'm Richard.
0:22:19 > 0:22:24I'm meeting James Bailey, churchwarden here for over 20 years and understandably passionate
0:22:24 > 0:22:28about Kilpeck's extraordinary collection of carvings.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33You've had a good look at some of these corbels, but one of the things I'd like to perhaps point out.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37The fourth one along here, you see, is a snake devouring its own tail.
0:22:37 > 0:22:39- Oh, yes.- You see, it's very like a Celtic knot.
0:22:39 > 0:22:41- What do you think that is? - An elephant?- An elephant.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45The strange thing is, you've got a whole human head in its mouth.
0:22:45 > 0:22:50- Oh, yes.- And I'm sure you'll be pleased to find there are two more Green Men here.
0:22:50 > 0:22:52Yes. You've got a scene.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55You've got a Green Man convention going on.
0:22:57 > 0:22:59Wonderful. Wonderful.
0:23:01 > 0:23:06James, this place is so full of mystery.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10I've been around it and peered and prodded
0:23:10 > 0:23:15and I feel no wiser now than I did before I came.
0:23:15 > 0:23:16Is it still mysterious for you?
0:23:16 > 0:23:19I don't think that matters,
0:23:19 > 0:23:25because I feel that the whole of faith anyway is a total mystery.
0:23:25 > 0:23:31We are led to believe certain things but we can't actually find perhaps chapter and verse for that.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35And so I don't think that matters.
0:23:38 > 0:23:43Kilpeck is a mystery, as James says, but I still want to have one last go
0:23:43 > 0:23:45at trying to understand its carvings.
0:23:45 > 0:23:51And to do that I have to track down a rare book.
0:24:01 > 0:24:07This is the Bodleian Library in Oxford, which I hope will help me not only unravel Kilpeck's imagery
0:24:07 > 0:24:10but also that of many other churches.
0:24:15 > 0:24:20The gold leaf on these images is just glorious.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23Every page that you turn
0:24:23 > 0:24:25glints and glitters at you.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29This is a medieval bestiary.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33These books, which became hugely popular in the Middle Ages,
0:24:33 > 0:24:35first appeared in the ninth century.
0:24:35 > 0:24:41They contain stories of animals and their curious habits.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45Nature programmes were as popular then as they are now.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48Some of those stories have stayed in the language.
0:24:48 > 0:24:55If you've ever been licked into shape, the expression comes from the bestiaries, which told of bears
0:24:55 > 0:24:58and how they were born as shapeless blobs of flesh,
0:24:58 > 0:25:02before being licked into the shape of bear cubs by their mothers.
0:25:02 > 0:25:09The bestiaries also contain parallels between the animals they describe and Christian virtues.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14One of the corbels at Kilpeck that intrigued me
0:25:14 > 0:25:18was a horned creature with its head upside-down.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21There's a story here that could explain it.
0:25:23 > 0:25:29This describes how the ibex, that mountain goat, when it falls from the mountain,
0:25:29 > 0:25:35supports itself on its horns, like some crash helmet, as it comes falling to earth.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38Well, the bestiaries also say that the learned man
0:25:38 > 0:25:43uses the Old and the New Testaments in the same way,
0:25:43 > 0:25:47to save himself from falling into error.
0:25:49 > 0:25:54Many of our churches have an eagle lectern, the stand which holds the Bible.
0:25:54 > 0:26:00If you've ever wondered why an eagle was chosen, the answer is here.
0:26:00 > 0:26:05The bestiaries said that the eagle was not only king of the birds,
0:26:05 > 0:26:07but he was the only one of God's creatures
0:26:07 > 0:26:11that was able to look directly into the light of the sun.
0:26:11 > 0:26:18What better creature, they reasoned, to hold the Bible, which looks directly into the light of God?
0:26:27 > 0:26:29That's fabulous.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33This is an image of the pelicans.
0:26:33 > 0:26:38Pelicans were said to peck at their breasts to feed their young with their own blood.
0:26:38 > 0:26:43Or in another story, their young would die
0:26:43 > 0:26:49and they would peck at their breasts to cover them in their blood, and bring them back to new life.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53They were seen as forming a direct link with Jesus,
0:26:53 > 0:26:57who used his own blood to bring humankind back to life.
0:27:08 > 0:27:13Not many people will have the privilege, as I'm having,
0:27:13 > 0:27:16of opening and looking into a medieval bestiary.
0:27:16 > 0:27:22But anybody can go into a church and see the legacy of these bestiaries
0:27:22 > 0:27:24on the walls around them.
0:27:27 > 0:27:33Looking at the bestiary has given me a valuable insight into the early medieval mind.
0:27:33 > 0:27:38They believed that God had put meaning in every aspect of the world,
0:27:38 > 0:27:41and that included the mythical, pagan world.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44So why not put those images in your churches?
0:27:46 > 0:27:51That's not to say that the people of Kilpeck saw these images as having equal power.
0:27:51 > 0:27:57They certainly believed that evil had been defeated by Jesus, as celebrated in the Eucharist,
0:27:57 > 0:28:01but it was still a force to be reckoned with.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05In the next episode, I'll show how the medieval Church created buildings
0:28:05 > 0:28:11that drew people in by their beauty, life and its offer of protection from evil,
0:28:11 > 0:28:14from cradle to grave.
0:28:14 > 0:28:19As communities grew, the church became the undisputed focus of their lives.
0:28:19 > 0:28:24It was their theatre, their schoolroom, their comfort, their celebration.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27For churches, this was a golden age.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:55 > 0:28:58E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk