The two achievements of this book are that it makes the relic-world display a kind of sense and it begins to explain why it came into being.
This is not a world that is logical in any modern way, and ample material is presented that is almost surreal in its absurdity. The three bodies of Mary Magdalene (plus an additional seven arms, in various locations) and the theological ramifications of Christ’s foreskin (several known examples, including one in the Vatican) challenge numeracy at the very least. It also seems hard to reconcile the numerous thefts and counter-thefts of saintly bodies with ‘thou shalt not steal’ or to accept blithely the uncanny ability of relics to be discovered at politically expedient times. This is without even beginning to consider the actual miracles…
Nonetheless, taken on its own terms there is a kind of internal consistency. I certainly felt that as I progressed through the book I moved from a scoffing attitude (Saint Zebedee’s fingernail clippings! Ha!) to accepting the norms and forms of the times described and understanding the potency of these artefacts and accepting that people could be holding numerous, not entirely aligned, views about relics, but believing them all deeply. Louis IX spent astonishing amounts of money on relics and was in no way humble about flaunting the status they bought him, or basking in their reflected power. On the other hand, every indication suggests that he deeply believed in their power.
In the middle ages this power is vital. God and Jesus are a very long way away – even a king like Louis cannot get an audience with the Lord. Whatever his temporal power he still lives in a world full of temptations and demons, where mankind is damned to an eternity of suffering (or, at least, a long stretch in purgatory). For much of the rest of Christendom there are also more mundane issues such as injustice and grinding poverty. The saints, through their relics, provide the link between heaven and earth. These local, tangible connections to the divine provide what may be the only hope for the earthly cure of disease or an afterlife in heaven.
It is hard to avoid the image of a heavenly court with humanity like a beggar outside. Their cries will not reach the presiding lord. But… They do have a ‘man on the inside’, perhaps a local saint who knows of their family. Just maybe they can get a word in to him and he will be able to intercede on their behalf.
Overall, relics are portrayed as neutral, but very powerful, tools. Sometimes they used by central authority against local uprisings, sometimes the other way around. The lay population periodically rally around a relic in defiance of the church. The church co-opts folkloric Saints into the canon to control the lay people. Underlying all there is a desperate belief that the relics can do something to provide solace in this world or salvation in the next. It is a fascinating story, related with a wry humour.
Moritasgus 