A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book
Sacramentals, relics, healing and superstition in the late Middle Ages
Authors: Välimäki, Reima
Editors: Hella, Anni; Korhonen, Anu
Edition: 1st Edition
Publisher: Routledge
Publication year: 2026
Book title : Cultural Perceptions of Health, Illness and the Body in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Series title: Premodern Health, Disease, and Disability
First page : 12
Last page: 31
ISBN: 978-90-4855-920-6
eISBN: 978-1-003-69351-2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003693512-2
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: No Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : No Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003693512-2
Abstract
Benedictions and exorcisms were popular late medieval thaumaturgic practices whose rituals and objects were approved by the Church. Called ‘sacramentals’ to distinguish them from sacraments proper, they nevertheless remained poorly defined in the popular imagination. This chapter discusses debates around acceptable use of sacramentals and the increasing scrutiny of licit devotion, piety and healing. Dismissal of sacramentals was associated with Waldensian and Hussite heresies; conversely, excessive reliance on them could prompt accusations of superstition, even idolatry. This is shown by two distinct but related cases: the anti-Waldensian inquisition in Brandenburg and Pomerania (1393–94), balancing dissident criticism against clerical expectations of sacramental use, and a controversy over thaumaturgic use of wine in Vienna (1436), which pitted St Stephen’s Cathedral and the university theology faculty against a Franciscan preacher.
Benedictions and exorcisms were popular late medieval thaumaturgic practices whose rituals and objects were approved by the Church. Called ‘sacramentals’ to distinguish them from sacraments proper, they nevertheless remained poorly defined in the popular imagination. This chapter discusses debates around acceptable use of sacramentals and the increasing scrutiny of licit devotion, piety and healing. Dismissal of sacramentals was associated with Waldensian and Hussite heresies; conversely, excessive reliance on them could prompt accusations of superstition, even idolatry. This is shown by two distinct but related cases: the anti-Waldensian inquisition in Brandenburg and Pomerania (1393–94), balancing dissident criticism against clerical expectations of sacramental use, and a controversy over thaumaturgic use of wine in Vienna (1436), which pitted St Stephen’s Cathedral and the university theology faculty against a Franciscan preacher.
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