This handsome little squirrel can be found in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.

Squirrels could represent friendship or diligence, thrift and caution – they could also be symbolic of greed and worse (medieval monks liked jokes of their own and the association of squirrels and nuts produced some rather rude ones and the occasional eyebrow raising illustration in a psalter). The jest remained so popular that there are many 14th and 15th century seals in existence featuring a squirrel and the words ‘I crack nuts’ which, put politely, has a bawdy overtone. 

In some medieval bestiaries squirrels were described as small angry creatures who died from rage. The Lost Language of Symbolism suggests the reason why the squirrel features in the cathedral window. Medieval belief suggested that squirrels kept to the tops of trees so that they could not be hunted. For humanity to be safe from the wiles of treacherous devils they should be like squirrels staying on the high ground – i.e. keeping our eyes and thoughts on heaven.

I now think I know why there was a squirrel on the unstitched coif – a Catholic would have to be cautious in the 17th century and of course, they were keeping their mind on their beliefs while all around them various officers of the state sought them out.

Bayley, Harold, The Lost Language of Symbolism (2013)