Pilgrim Badges; A Medieval Gift Shop

If you were to make a pilgrimage to Japan today and wanted to climb Mount Fuji, at the base you would receive a staff (for a small price). As you hike up the mountain your staff would be stamped at different stations to show proof to all back home that you made it all the way up the mountain. This concept is not new and was found as far back as the ancient Greeks. Pilgrimage was an important aspect of a devout believer and Pilgrim badges gave the pilgrim proof that they had indeed sojourned to a holy place and had come back home bearing proof of their adventure.






The image above is a pilgrim badge currently held at the British Museum and it depicts St. George slaying the Dragon. It is made of a lead alloy and is about an inch in size. It's estimated date of origin is anywhere from 400 to 1500 CE. A badge like this or one I have pictured below would have been bought by a pilgrim at the St. George shrine in Windsor England. The pilgrim would have traveled thousands of miles from France, would have made his or her way to the Shrine, would have purchased this badge to show their devotion and commitment, and would have then returned home. Some accounts tell us that back at home for good luck some pilgrim would then hurl their badge into a river; the badge below was found in the Seine River in France which gives some credibility to these accounts. The badge is about an inch in size and is made from pewter.

Resources

“Pilgrim badge.” British Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=47970&partId=1.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=47970&partId=1 

“Pilgrim Badge.” Medieval London, medievallondon.ace.fordham.edu/collections/show/28

https://medievallondon.ace.fordham.edu/collections/show/28

https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/artancient/218/product/french_medieval_pewter_pilgrim_souvenir__badge_of_st_george__1400_ad/563183/Default.aspx

Church of St. Denis; The Prototype

After the 11th century came an architectural style of innovation that would change everything. Adapting out of the Romanesque styles, the Gothic style would use the stone vaulting techniques developed in Romanesque architecture as well as the arches but would introduce some subtle but mostly revolutionary changes to the design including vault ribs of stone that crisscrossed the vaulted ceilings, pointed arches that permitted greater height in the vaults and arcades as well as the development of the new art of stained glass. 

The Church of St. Denis near Paris has been widely regarded as the first true Gothic church as it implemented the pointed arches and vault ribs while introducing massive pains of stained glass. The schematic provided helps to illustrate the infrastructure of the pointed arches and you can even see the horizontal ribs that would assist weight distribution allowing for thinner walls without compromising the infrastructure.

The next image illuminates for us the vault ribs as well as the massive stained glass window pains. Because of the new bracing techniques and vaulted ribs, the big and bulky walls necessary for the Romanesque style became obsolete giving way to the mere screens that the Gothic walls would become allowing the inclusion of walls of windows. Something never done before. Unlike the Romanesque style, the Gothic style would have the highest value of introducing both height and light to the buildings and the insignificance to the size or thickness of the walls.

Resources 

Bennett, Judith, et al. “Medieval Europe A Short History.” AbeBooks, McGraw-Hill Companies, The, 1 Jan. 1970, www.abebooks.com/book-search/isbn/9780073385501/.

Gratian's Decretum: Changes in the Papacy and the way we see Law

During the Middle Ages we see many evolutions of scholastics and tendencies of education within the society. The education of people came from the monasteries and cathedrals, from which many universities today are inspired by. There was teachings of grammar, mathematics, sciences, and philosophy, however, a large portion studied law. A text from the 12th century created a guiding for studying and going about Canon Law, known as the Decretum. It was a collection of 3,800 texts that showed regulations and church discipline that was by a Benedictine monk known as, Gratian. 

During the 5th and 6th century we see the Benedictine rule arise under St Benedict, himself. During his rule he created a set of regulations that were appointed by him and the church to try and clean up the behavior of the people. However, the regulations were rather intense and some even seemed to be a little absurd, like don’t be to happy. Some of the texts within the Decretum were derived from the benedictine rule, there are probably a few texts that came straight from Benedict himself. This collection of texts changed the way people studied Law and even modified the Papacy. Popes were no longer coming from just monasteries anymore, rather they started to emerge from the people who studied canon law and were highly involved in the Papal politics (Bennet 182-183). Alexander III was an example of such a feat, along with many of his successors, changing how people saw the papacy and the study of law.

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “Gratian's Decretum.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 28 Jan. 2015, www.britannica.com/topic/Gratians-Decretum.

Bennett, Judith M. Medieval Europe: a Short History. McGraw-Hill, 2011.