English Medieval ShrinesThe cult of saints is one of the most fascinating manifestations of medieval piety. It was intensely physical; saints were believed to be present in the bodily remains that they had left on earth. Medieval shrines were created in order to protect these relics and yet to show off their spiritual worth, at the same time allowing pilgrims limited access to them. English Medieval Shrines traces the development of such structures, from the earliest cult activities at saintly tombs in the late Roman empire, through Merovingian Gaul and the Carolingian Empire, via Anglo-Saxon England, to the great shrines of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The greater part of the book is a definitive exploration, on a basis that is at once thematic and chronological, of the major saints cults of medieval England, from the Norman Conquest to the Reformation. These include the famous cults of St Cuthbert, St Swithun, and St Thomas Becket - and lesser known figures such as St Eanswyth of Folkestone or St Ecgwine of Evesham. John Crook, an independent architectural historian, archaeological consultant, and photographer, is the foremost authority on English shrines. He has published numerous books and papers on the cult of saints. |
Contents
1 RELICS SHRINES AND PILGRIMAGE | 1 |
2 GRAVES SHRINES AND CRYPTS | 25 |
3 BUT LO THERE BREAKS A YET MORE GLORIOUS DAY | 41 |
4 THE ISLAND OF SAINTS | 71 |
5 ENGLISH SAINTS AND THE NEW ENGLISHMEN | 107 |
6 INTO THE TWELFTH CENTURY | 133 |
7 GIVING LIGHT TO THE WHOLE HOUSE | 170 |
8 THE LEGACY OF THOMAS BECKET | 213 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abbot Æthelthryth Ailred Anglo-Saxon church apse Archbishop Architectural Bede Bishop body bones burial buried canonisation Canterbury chapel choir Chronicle coffin Colgrave and Mynors crypt cult of St decorated Durham Eadmer early east end Edward the Confessor elevated England English evidence Excavations feretrum foramina fragments Goscelin grave Gregory H. R. Luard Henry Hexham high altar holy ibid images incorrupt John King Lanfranc late later Libellus Liber Eliensis Lincoln located London marble martyrs Matthew Paris Medieval Minster miracles monastery monks monument Norman Old Minster OMT Oxford Oswald Paulinus perhaps pilgrims PLATE presumably Prior reconstruction reliquary remains Rollason Roman royal saintly Sancti sarcophagus shrine of St shrine-base side slab St Albans St Cuthbert St Dunstan St Hugh St Osmund St Swithun St Thomas stone survived Symeon theca thirteenth century Thomas Cantilupe tomb of St tomb-shrine translation twelfth century veneration Vita vols William of Malmesbury Winchester Cathedral Worcester Wulfstan