The Sepulchre of Christ and the Medieval West: From the Beginning to 1600

The tomb of Christ has been surprisingly neglected in histories of the Church. Colin Morris's book begins with a discussion of the character of Christ's memorial at Jerusalem and its discovery and development by Constantine, and then focuses on the significance of the Sepulchre as a vital influence in the making of Western Europe. The desire to 'bring the Holy Sepulchre to the West' by providing copies or memorials strongly influenced architecture, sculpture and painting, and was central to the workship and liturgy of the Church. More dramatically, the ambition to conquer the Sepulchre, to defend it and recover it, was a central objective of the crusades, and formed the pattern of hostility which developed between the Latin and Muslim worlds. With the final loss of the Holy Land in the thirteenth century, travel took the new form of a 'great pilgrimage' which reflected the changing character of the devotion of the period and gave rise to a major genre of literature. Late medieval society responded to the loss of the Holy Land by creating national kingdoms as 'holy lands' in the West, and responded in turn to the collapse of the Mediterranean pilgrimage by creating Calvaries and 'holy mountains' to act as new pilgrim centres at home. This book brings together a variety of social, political, and religious themes which have more often been considered in isolation.

About the Author:
Colin Morris is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History, Southampton University, and Emeritus Fellow, Pembroke College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the British Academy