The sepulchre of Christ and the medieval West : from the beginning to 1600 / Colin Morris.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Morris, Colin, 1928-2021.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Holy Sepulcher--History.

Holy Sepulcher.

Middle Ages.

History.

Physical Description:

xxii, 427 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2005.

Summary:

The tomb of Christ has been surprisingly neglected in histories of the Church. Colin Morris's book begins with a discussion of the character of Christ's memorial at Jerusalem and its discovery and development by Constantine, but the focus is not on the development of the architecture there. The centre of interest is the significance of the Sepulchre as a vital influence in the making of Western Europe. The wish to visit the tomb set on foot a long-lasting pilgrimage which helped to make Europe familiar with the Greek and Islamic East, and which influenced the development of Western society and its structures. The desire to 'bring the Holy Sepulchre to the West' by providing copies or memorials shaped architecture, sculpture and painting, and was central to the worship and liturgy of the Church. More dramatically, the ambition to conquer the Sepulchre, to defend it and recover it, was a central objective of the crusades, and formed the pattern of hostility which developed between the Latin and Muslim worlds. Even with the final loss of the Holy Land in the thirteenth century, Latin interest did not disappear. Travel took the new form of a 'great pilgrimage' of the late Middle Ages which reflected the changing character of the devotion of the period and gave rise to a major genre of literature. Late medieval society responded to the loss of the Holy Land by creating national kingdoms as 'holy lands' in the West, and responded in turn to the collapse of the Mediterranean pilgrimage by creating Calvaries and 'holy mountains' to act as new pilgrim centres at home. This book brings together a variety of social, political, and religious themes which have more often been considered in isolation.

Contents:

1 Beginnings, to 325 1

The Ministry and Death of Christ 1

From Jerusalem to Aelia 4

Was there a Cult of the Tomb of Jesus in the First Centuries? 7

Jerusalem Lost 13

2 Consequences of Constantine, 325-350 16

Discoveries: The Holy Sepulchre 16

Discoveries: The Wood of the Cross 21

Discoveries: Calvary 24

Authenticity 28

The Buildings 31

Visitors to the Holy Sepulchre 38

3 Dissemination: The Spread of Interest in Western Europe, 350-600 41

Pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre under the Christian Empire 41

Holy Places in Christian Thinking 47

Bringing the Holy Sepulchre to the West 58

The Holy Sepulchre and Christian Symbolism 67

The Wood of the Cross Comes to the West 77

The Influence of Liturgy 85

4 The Frankish Kingdoms and the Carolingians, 600-1000 90

Jerusalem under Muslim Supremacy 90

Expectation 99

Pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre, 600-1000 102

Jerusalem and the Carolingian Liturgy 107

Buildings 115

Commemorations of the Holy Sepulchre 120

Relics of the Cross and Passion 128

5 Towards the First Crusade 134

The Consequences of Caliph al-Hakim 134

'An innumerable multitude' 139

Relics, the Wood of the Cross, and Personal Devotion 146

New Versions of the Sepulchre 153

War against Saracens 165

The First Crusade 172

6 Latin Jerusalem, 1099-1187 180

The Liberation of the Holy Sepulchre 181

'A new day' 184

Rebuilding Zion 189

Pilgrims 200

The Development of Crusading Ideas 205

'Mixing knighthood with religion' 209

7 Christendom Refashioned 219

The Sense of Christendom 219

Memorials in the West: Relics 223

Commemorations of the Holy Sepulchre 230

The Internal Pilgrimage 245

The Threat to the Holy Sepulchre 252

8 Failure and Endeavour, 1187-1291 254

Jerusalem Lost 254

The Thirteenth-Century Reassessment 260

The Passion and Sepulchre in the Holy Nation 283

9 The 'Great Pilgrimage' in the Later Middle Ages, 1291-1530 295

The Way of War and the Way of Peace 295

The 'Great Pilgrimage', 1330-1530 306

The Literature of Pilgrimage 310

Centre and Circumference 323

10 Sepulchres and Calvaries, 1291-1530 328

'A long way from Jerusalem' 328

Sacred Societies 336

'The exact design and measurement of the Holy Sepulchre' 345

Stations of the Cross and Holy Mountains 359

11 The End of the Pilgrimage, 1530-1630 363

'The pilgrimage in danger' 363

The Pattern of Decline 366

The Survival of Pilgrimage Literature 369

Spiritual Pilgrimage 371

Kingly Powers and the End of the Crusades 376.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [384]-409) and indexes.

ISBN:

0198269285

OCLC:

57186251