cure. The Hundred Years’ War impeded traffic on roads, and while pilgrimage remained
an important aspect of late-medieval religion, private devotion seems to have offered
greater consolation.
The later Middle Ages witnessed a decline in the cult of saints and an increasing
veneration of the Virgin. Relics of Mary, discovered with greater frequency from the 12th
century on, stimulated pilgrimages. Relics of the Virgin’s hair were found at, or acquired
by, Coutances, Saint-Omer, Mâcon, Sainte-Chapelle, and Saint-Denis. In addition to
Mary’s tunic at Chartres (9th c.), one finds her slipper at Soissons, as well as other pieces
of clothing at Marseille, Toulon, and Arles. Relics at other sanctuaries included the
Virgin’s milk and nail parings. While pilgrimages to sites of the apparition of the Virgin
are known in the later Middle Ages (as at Rocheville, 1315), they are a much more
common manifestation of postmedieval religiosity.
Paula L.Gerson
[See also: AGDE; CHARTRES; CONQUES; COUTANCES; LE PUY; LIBER
SANCTI JACOBI; MARSEILLE; MARTIN OF TOURS; MARY, LITURGICAL
VENERATION OF; MARY MAGDELENE; MONT-SAINT-MICHEL; PARIS;
POPULAR DEVOTION; RELICS AND RELIQUARIES; ROCAMADOUR; SAINT-
DENIS; SAINTS, CULT OF; SOISSONS; TOURS/TOURAINE; TRAVEL;
VÉZELAY]
Gregory of Tours. The History of the Franks, trans. Lewis Thorpe. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.
Brown, Peter. The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1981.
Cohen, Esther. “In haec signa: Pilgrim Badge Trade in Southern France.” Journal of Medieval
History 2 (1976):193–214.
Davidson, Linda K., and Maryjane Dunn-Wood. Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages: A Research
Guide. New York: Garland, 1993.
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