Apologia ad Guillelmum  

"Some ecclesiastics, indeed, inveighed bitterly against the introduction of similar grotesques into a church. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, in an "Apology" addressed to William, Abbot of St. Thierry, in the twelfth century, expresses his indignation very strongly. "What is the use, "he asks," of that ridiculous monstrosity placed in the cloisters before the eyes "of the brethren when occupied with their studies, a wonderful sort of " hideous beauty and beautiful deformity ? What is the use there " of unclean apes ? of ferocious lions ? of fighting soldiers ? of hunters " sounding their horns ? Sometimes you may see many bodies under one head; at others, many heads to one body ; here is seen the "tail of a serpent attached to the body of a quadruped; there, the " head of a quadruped on the body of a fish. In another place appears an animal, the fore- half of which represents a horse, and the hinderparts a goat. Elsewhere you have a horned animal with the hinderparts of a horse ; indeed, there appears everywhere so multifarious " and so wonderful a variety of diverse forms, that one is more apt " to con over these sculptures than to study the scriptures, to occupy " the whole day in wondering at these, rather than in meditating upon " God's law. " The pious writer concludes : "For God's sake ! if people are not ashamed of the extravagance of these follies, why should they not, at least, regret the expense required to produce them. ". The Archæological Album, edited by Thomas Wright, 1845 , p. 91."--Choir Stalls and Their Carvings (1896) by Emma Phipson