ABSTRACT
What makes things holy? This may be primarily a theological question, but in the later Middle Ages it was also intimately connected with sensory perception. Perception was a two-way process, and much more open and wide-ranging in what might pass between perceiver and perceived than we might now expect. Attributes might pass by touch, or something closely akin to it. Among the qualities transmitted in this way was sacrality. This chapter looks at the physical process of making ‘things’ holy and at the ways in which sacred things were kept, used, or disposed of. The holy was essential in an individual’s long journey towards eternal life: to be continually associated with it, to touch it, kept the powers of evil at bay, and brought recurring benefits to the soul.
