This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Bynum, C. W. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Bleeding Hosts and their Contact Relics in Late Medieval Northern Germany

Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA, cwbynum{at}ias.edu

About 100 cases of bleeding host miracles have been reported for Germany between 1300 and 1550. Received opinion asserts that these are Bavarian and overwhelmingly anti-Semitic. In fact there are a number of northern German cases, not all of them anti-Jewish libels. In several of these cases not only the miraculous hosts but also objects associated with them were displayed in churches, and some of the associated objects (cooking pots, nails, etc.) survived the Reformation, during which the hosts themselves were destroyed. Exploring several cases in which such associated objects figured prominently, this article suggests a number of reasons why they survived, and argues that their survival sheds light on the late medieval desire for, and ambivalence about, ‘holy matter.’

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?