WE MAY BEGIN this chapter with an unusual literary image from a period well before the Reformation. A seventh-century bishop is being addressed by a well-dressed and well-preserved anonymous, but apparently ancient, corpse found in St Paul's cathedral. When conjured to do so by Saint Erkenwald, the corpse explains that Christ had somehow neglected to redeem his soul at the time of the Harrowing. As a result the corpse has had to remain

However, the corpse goes on to explain, Erkenwald is in far better case than he is, because although also born in guilt, Erkenwald lives sub gratia:

In fact, Erkenwald does now baptize the corpse, which promptly decays into loathsome fungus while the soul of the dead man is redeemed. The picture is a complicated one: the sinfulness of man is stressed, and original sin is clear, as indeed is the corruptible nature of the human form. Luther would have approved the imagery, for all that he referred to Legende as Lügende, legends as lying.