1 - The Double Tomb: Marriage, Symbol and Society

Summary

Huc ades, o coniux, Agnes, mea cara fuisti.

Dum mundo vixi; post me sis sponsaque Christi.

Come hither, o my wife, Agnes! My beloved you were,

While I lived in this world, and after me may you be a bride of Christ.

This emotive plea from a deceased husband to his surviving wife is inscribed on the memorial to John Browne (d. 1476) and his wife Agnes Stokes (d. 1484) at the church of All Saints, Stamford (Lincs.). Rather than celebrating John’s status as a wealthy wool merchant, the Latin epitaph is entirely concerned with securing heavenly companionship for himself and his spouse: another verse even goes so far as to reason with God that He would save Himself “effort” (labor) to admit husband and wife to heaven at the same time. Two incised copper-alloy effigies stand above the inscription: John wears an alderman’s mantle over a fur-lined gown with a purse hanging from his belt in reference to his mercantile career, while Agnes is shown in the veil, barbe and mantle of a widow (Fig. 4). The two effigies figure the longed-for unity described in the epitaph; the depiction of John and Agnes standing side by side collapses the spatial and temporal boundaries between the deceased and living spouse. Yet, paradoxically, the portrayal of Agnes in widow’s garb also draws attention to her separation from her husband. Her costume seems to correspond with the appeal in the epitaph for Agnes to become a sponsa Christi, a phrase that implies celibacy and possibility even entry into a convent. Agnes remains a bride even after the death of her husband, her bridegroom merely shifting from John to Christ. Here the personal, particular qualities of marriage and its status as a symbol for the sacred union of Christ and the Church intersect. This two-fold nature of marriage – social contract and image of divine union – was often used to justify the subordination of wife to husband. If, as seems likely, the patron of the memorial was either John or his brother William, a declaration of perpetual affection may also have been an injunction to Agnes against the possibility of remarriage: an enduring public reminder of the fidelity expected by a husband after his demise.