Why can the dead do such great things? Saints and worshippers from the martyrs to the Reformation

This massive volume by Robert Bartlett presents a formidable survey of the cult of the holy dead in Christianity and some other religions, mainly, though not exclusively, in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. It is throughout well supported by references, index and glossary; well-selected illustrations, including 10 colour plates, three maps, 10 tables and 27 figures further extend the work, and the bibliography is a model for further study in this area. This is a long and very detailed book, but the patience of the reader in encompassing nearly 800 closely printed pages will be well rewarded. It is readable, entertaining, perceptive, and theologically neutral rather than critical. It is divided into two sections: a concise and clear overview from the fourth century to the sixteenth; then a more detailed account of various topics within that era. Throughout, the changing social and economic background is carefully examined and linked to the continuing and always expanding cult of the saints. Most attention is naturally paid to the changing human needs and aspirations of the worshippers. There is then an analysis of canonisation, discussion of types of saint, kinds of relics, the variety of miracles. There is throughout discussion of the kinds of literature dealing with such matters, i.e. the positive slant of hagiography, and the alternative negative criticism of relics, both of which Bartlett approaches more as an observer than as judge. Some of his most valuable insights relate to the diversity of ways in which those who were considered to be saints were approached and what this shows of social and economic conditions of the worshippers and the fluidity of their social background. His interest is in the needs and desires of human beings in every age, and the astonishing continuity of their desires and requests. He notes that there is a continued discussion among all religions and none about the dead – what death is, what contact the living have with the dead and vice versa; the special aspect of this for Christians in discussing the meaning of death has to do with the fact that death is overcome in Christ’s resurrection. This is a marvellous book: I have one caveat only: the title is taken from Augustine of Hippo’s City of God, a book of which the 22nd chapter could be called the first miracle book of the western church. In it Augustine was considering the veneration being paid to the relics of saints which had recently been brought to Hippo and which he had heard were connected with ‘great things’. His main point is that the basis of veneration directed through the remains of the dead is in fact possible only because of the one and only miracle which is the Resurrection: