But very remarkable, in the mid-roof, is the boss of the pentacle[16] of Solomon. This was the five-angled figure which was engraven on an emerald, and wherewith he ruled the demons;[17] for they were the vassals of his mighty seal: the five angles in their original mythicism, embracing as they did the unutterable name, meant, it may be, the fingers of Omnipotence as the symbolic Hand subsequently came forth in shadows on Belshazzar’s wall. Be this as it may, it was the concurrent belief of the Eastern nations that the sigil of the Wise King was the source and instrument of his supernatural power. So Heber writes in his “Palestine”—
“To him were known, so Hagar’s offspring tell,
The powerful sigil and the starry spell:
Hence all his might, for who could these oppose?
And Tadmor[18] thus and Syrian Balbec rose.”
FIG. 1
THE SHIELD OF DAVID
ON A BOSS IN THE CHANCEL ROOF AT MORWENSTOW
Hence it is that we find this mythic figure, in decorated delineation, as the signal of the boundless might of Him whose Church bends over all, the pentacle of Omnipotence! Akin to this graphic imagery is the shield of David, the theme of another of our chancel-bosses. Here the outline is six-angled: Solomon’s device with one angle more, which, I would submit, was added in order to suggest another doctrine—the manhood taken into God, and so to become a typical prophecy of the Incarnation. The framework of these bosses is a cornice of vines. The root of the vines on each wall grows from the altar-side; the stem travels outward across the screen towards the nave. There tendrils cling and clusters bend, while angels sustain the entire tree.
“Hearken! there is in Old Morwenna’s shrine,
A lonely sanctuary of the Saxon days,
Reared by the Severn Sea for prayer and praise,
Amid the carved work of the roof a vine.
Its root is where the eastern sunbeams fall
First in the chancel, then along the wall,
Slowly it travels on—a leafy line
With here and there a cluster; and anon
More and more grapes, until the growth hath gone
Through arch and aisle. Hearken! and heed the sign;
See at the altar-side the steadfast root,
Mark well the branches, count the summer fruit.
So let a meek and faithful heart be thine,
And gather from that tree a parable divine!”