Green men are not in churches as subversive survivals of paganism underground, representing in the new religion the gods of the old. The green men in churches are far too many, and far too prominent, not to have been fully approved by the authorities. The penalties for heresy were severe. In the first place they probably appeared from a general sense of awareness of the presence of Spirit in nature, a doubtless only partly conscious appreciation of the immanence of God, and from this they rose to occupy a place of observation over all the events in the life of Christ. They became the eyes of God watching the divine drama. They also had another role, to help us choose the Good, to act in the world to aid us live better lives. This is not always to our taste, so many green men are fierce, or mocking, or even act the trickster or fool, the holy innocent, to convince us, often against our apparent will. Of course, many green men in the Middle Ages, as later, were no more than conventional decoration, elements in the repertoire of architectural enrichment.

Home