Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Map
- Preface
- In the Name of Saints Peter and Paul: Popes, Conversion, and Sainthood in Western Christianity
- I Papal Administration
- The Cost of Grace: The Composition Fees in the Penitentiary, c. 1450-1500
- Career Prospects of Minor Curialists in the Fifteenth Century: The Case of Petrus Profilt
- A Criminal Trial at the Court of the Chamber Auditor: An Analysis of a Registrum from 1515-1516 in the Danish National Archives
- II Saints and Miracles
- The Power of the Saints and the Authority of the Popes: The History of Sainthood and Late Medieval Canonization Processes
- Velut Alter Alexius: The Saint Alexis Model in Medieval Hagiography
- Judicium Medicine and Judicium Sanctitatis: Medical Doctors in the Canonization Process of Nicholas of Tolentino (1325): Experts Subject to the Inquisitorial Logic
- Heavenly Healing or Failure of Faith?: Partial Cures in Later Medieval Canonization Processes
- III Crusades and Conversion
- Servi Beatae Marie Virginis: Christians and Pagans in Henry’s Chronicle of Livonia
- Holy War – Holy Wrath!: Baltic Wars Between Regulated Warfare and Total Annihilation Around 1200
- The Swedish Expeditions (‘Crusades’) Towards Finland Reconsidered
- Index
The Power of the Saints and the Authority of the Popes: The History of Sainthood and Late Medieval Canonization Processes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Map
- Preface
- In the Name of Saints Peter and Paul: Popes, Conversion, and Sainthood in Western Christianity
- I Papal Administration
- The Cost of Grace: The Composition Fees in the Penitentiary, c. 1450-1500
- Career Prospects of Minor Curialists in the Fifteenth Century: The Case of Petrus Profilt
- A Criminal Trial at the Court of the Chamber Auditor: An Analysis of a Registrum from 1515-1516 in the Danish National Archives
- II Saints and Miracles
- The Power of the Saints and the Authority of the Popes: The History of Sainthood and Late Medieval Canonization Processes
- Velut Alter Alexius: The Saint Alexis Model in Medieval Hagiography
- Judicium Medicine and Judicium Sanctitatis: Medical Doctors in the Canonization Process of Nicholas of Tolentino (1325): Experts Subject to the Inquisitorial Logic
- Heavenly Healing or Failure of Faith?: Partial Cures in Later Medieval Canonization Processes
- III Crusades and Conversion
- Servi Beatae Marie Virginis: Christians and Pagans in Henry’s Chronicle of Livonia
- Holy War – Holy Wrath!: Baltic Wars Between Regulated Warfare and Total Annihilation Around 1200
- The Swedish Expeditions (‘Crusades’) Towards Finland Reconsidered
- Index
Summary
Thinking of the power of the saints, let me first recall the final chapter, entitled Potentia, of Peter Brown's magnificent book on the cult of the saints, written in 1981. After reviewing how the praesentia of the saints in their relics allowed the emergence of a new type of episcopal power which claimed to be the visible representative of these invisible patrons, thus providing a redefinition of late Roman patron-client relations and the boundaries of the civic community, Peter Brown concludes with observations on the nature of the power of the saints. The quintessence of this power, he states, is to be found in the ‘noisy and frightening experience of healing’ at their shrines, where their ‘clean power’ triumphs over demons, magicians, illness, and death. They act, according to the expression of Gregory of Tours, as ‘the healing right hand of the divine power’ (medicabilis divinae potentiae dextera).
On closer examination, the exorcism of the possessed stands out as the most paradigmatic of this power. The potentia of the saint confronts the unclean power of the demon, who is submitted to an interrogation with ‘heavy judicial overtones’. In this spectacular drama of healing, after being constrained to reveal his true identity, the demon is forced to recognize the saint's superior potentia and leave the convulsing body of the possessed, who is thus reintegrated into the human community. Such a delivery from possession may be performed by a living ‘holy man’, but the possessed can also be healed in a similar manner near a shrine where a martyr-saint is claimed to be present. This second case allows further insight. The martyr was originally the victim of an unclean power, and by virtue of his passio he now becomes a judge invested with divine power. An oppressive judicial mechanism is thus transmuted into its reverse: In the exorcism of the possessed the demons will be tortured, forced to confess and repent, and the domination of divine power will be secured. And the power of the saints not only stands against that of the demons, but also corrects the evils of unjust secular power. It frees the prisoners and the condemned and prevents further persecution of the just.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Church and Belief in the Middle AgesPopes, Saints, and Crusaders, pp. 117 - 140Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2016