The brass serpent tombstone

One of the more interesting tombstones in the churchyard dates from the 17th century and is elaborately carved with a biblical scene from the Old Testament which has been described as the plague of snakes, no doubt a reference to Exodus which recounts the events resulting in Moses leading the Israelites out of slavery through the Red Sea which parted to allow them cross and so on to Palestine and freedom.

To secure their release, he sought the help of God to impose a series of abominable occurrences on the Egyptians “to let my people go” until the resistant and stubborn Pharaoh relented, a tale much favoured in Sunday school which was so horrific as to be the stuff of childhood nightmares and is therefore indelibly etched into my memory, namely the story of the ten plagues.

The tombstone can be found in the churchyard quite near to the railings alongside the footpath in Church Walk and a reference to it can also be found in a booklet called The Story of the Abbey Church which was written by Charles Pask Matthews (1886-1956) soon after he retired after 25 years as headmaster of Bourne Grammar School and included an architectural description of the church by H F Traylen of Traylen & Lenton, the Stamford architects and surveyors who were also consultant architects to the Abbey Church.

Pask Matthews was a worshipper at the Abbey Church where he took a particular interest in the building and this short history which appeared in 1951, became so popular that it ran to five editions and remains the starting point today for historians researching the 12th century church. It included several pen sketches by Mrs A E Macleod, among them one of this carved tombstone which he quite clearly identifies as “representing The Plague of Snakes” although this is not exactly correct. The bible describes ten plagues which came in two waves, the first five being the Nile turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies and the death of all livestock, but when Pharaoh refused to budge, there followed five more, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and the death of the first born and when this came to pass, as the bible reports, “the Pharaoh finally sent the Israelites away”.

There is a widespread belief that snakes were among the ten plagues but closer examination of the text in Exodus Chapters 7-12 will reveal that this was not so and that this manifestation occurred before the visitation of the plagues when Moses first approached Pharaoh seeking permission for the Israelites to leave Egypt. When he refused, Moses showed him a miraculous sign of warning by turning his staff into a serpent at which the Pharaoh’s sorcerers also turned their staffs into serpents which were immediately swallowed by Moses’ serpent before it turned back into a staff and it is this event which is clearly depicted in the carving on the tombstone.

In fact, the picture is almost certainly a representation of another biblical story, that of the archaic brass serpent associated with Moses which is described in the Book of Numbers 21.6-9:

6. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. 7. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. 8. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 9. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

This narrative is the subject of many illustrations, particularly engravings, oil paintings and stained glass windows which compare favourably with the carving on the tombstone and depicting the brass serpent on the pole with Moses looking on and several people who had come to be saved recovering from their snake bites.

Unfortunately, wind and weather have taken their toll on the stonework over the centuries and so we are unable to find out who is buried below or the exact date of death which would provide a clue to further research and perhaps establish why a picture from this particular story was used as a memorial. There must have been a very good reason to do so, perhaps because the person who occupies the grave was bitten by an adder and died as a result. Who knows?

WRITTEN JULY 2010

See also

An architectural history of the church     The churchyard      Epitaphs