ABSTRACT
This book was born as a byproduct of my interest in the social aspects of the miraculous in the central Middle Ages. In the course of reading miracle tales with an eye to what they could tell us about such themes as family structure, child-rearing, violence and other themes, I have been struck by the growing legalistic desire of those entrusted with their composition to ensure accuracy and credibility. A tension appeared to exist between the desire to exalt the Faith through a record of miracles performed through the agency of the Christian saints and the need to guarantee believability in the face of the opposition of heretics, Jews and other sceptics. The aim of this volume has been fourfold: to explore the relationship between reason and revelation in the medieval understanding of miracles; to link the desire to provide a more rational foundation to the Christian belief in miracles with the rise of heresy and other forms of disbelief; to compare and contrast ‘popular’ and learned understanding of the miraculous; and to trace the application of the rules of evidence in the examination of miracles in the central Middle Ages. It has been based largely on the exploitation of four kinds of primary sources: canonization dossiers and contemporary hagiographical Vitae and miracle collections; philosophical/theological treatises dealing with miracles attributed to God, the prophets, angels, saints, Satan and others; sermons which reflect both the learned perspective on miracles and the attempt to communicate this theology to a wider audience; and canon law and ancillary sources dealing largely with the procedure of canonization. The learned understanding of the miraculous has often been effectively transmitted to a wider public through the great flourishing of devotional art that characterized the central Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Its iconography has not been dealt with in this volume, although it continues to provide inspiration to both believers and scholars.
