Parergon

Much ink has been spilled on medieval hagiography, and rightly so given that the cults of the saints were so important to European culture and spirituality. However, too little research exists regarding the large and complex problem of the process of medieval canonization and its documentary heritage. This book offers first steps in redressing that gap. Building upon the work of Michael Goodich, André Vauchez, Gábor Klaniczay (who is also one of the contributors), and others, the volume asks such questions as: On what evidence were saints canonized? To what extent was there a formalized process, or was it idiosyncratic? What changes took place over the period? On what grounds did assessors distinguish ‘true’ saints’ miracles from ‘false’ ones?

The book begins with an administrative, but necessary, introduction that traverses the relevant terminology and broad changes that took place as the canonization process became more and more formalized, particularly between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. From there, the book dives into a series of exciting papers that will be of varying interest to varied readers. Without wishing to detail each paper (since the contents page should be available online), [End Page 223] broadly speaking they are concerned with the idiosyncrasies of miracle collecting, recording, and proof. There was a swirling maelstrom of factors that influenced a pope’s decision as to whether or not to canonize a saint: politics, the miracles’ nature and epistemological foundations, distance, cultural affinity, international relations, and the personalities of the different popes and cardinals involved. In addition, the vast majority of the miracles pertain to the healing of ailments, so the collection may be of interest to scholars of medieval medicine and the body.

Canonization in the Middle Ages was a serious business. It involved the intersection of lay and ecclesiastical cultures, which included layers of epistemology and issues around the oral and the written. Sometimes there were processions into the lands from which the alleged saints came (processus in partibus) and these functioned like a sort of happy inquisition. The process of canonization is also important for legal history, since, as Fröjmark observes (pp. 139–40), the articles of interrogation ‘were carried out in a manner that resembles the examination of witnesses at a trial’. Overall, the proofs used to justify miracles include wide reporting, the probity of informants, and the provision of post-factum physical evidence, with a preference for interviewees who had witnessed the events. Even then, as Didier Lett observes, there was much scepticism about saints’ miracles, for various reasons.

Overall, the book offers a welcome contribution to a difficult, sometimes dry topic that is nevertheless of much importance to medieval European society. But I would like to raise a few minor quibbles that do not overshadow the important contribution this book makes. The vast majority of personalities and situations under discussion pertain to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, so the book could more correctly have been titled Miracles in Late Medieval Canonization Processes. There are, of course, logistical reasons for this late focus, given that the documentary inheritance is much stronger for later centuries, though there is certainly enough from earlier centuries to build discussions on. I felt that more of the papers could have dived deeper into manuscript study, given that the documentary heritage of canonization processes is one of the book’s primary focuses. The highlight in this regard was Fröjmark’s chapter on Swedish miracle collections. Finally, more comparison between earlier and later canonization processes could have been useful to establish the extent to which medieval norms were unique, though admittedly the logistics of this are difficult.

These issues do not override the strength of this work in broad terms. Perhaps the largest contribution of the book is to bring to the study of the saints a new focus on the important and multifaceted issues...