Figure 1 The Marienschrein

Figure 2 Virgin and Child

Figure 3 Virgin and Child with two Apostles

Figure 4 The Marienkleid

Figure 5 Christ Pantocrater

Figure 6 Charlemagne

Figure 7 Pope Leo III

The Karlsschrein, Workshop of the Aachen Master, 1215

Figure 8 Length of the Karlsschrein

Figure 9 Charlemagne flanked by Pope Leo III and Bishop Turpin of Reims, with bust of Christ above

Figure 10 Frederick II

Figure 12 Pope Leo III

Figure 13 Model of Aachen Chapel in the hand of Charlemagne

Figure 14 Virgin and Child during Conservation

Figure 15 Virgin and Child flanked by Archangels

Figure 16 Roof Relief showing Charlemagne Donating the Chapel at Aachen to the Virgin

Charlemagne Window at Chartres Cathedral, c. 1225

Figure 17

Figure 18

Figure 19 Panel 3 Constantine’s Dream

Figure 20 Panel 4 Battle Against the Saracens in Jerusalem

Figure 21 Panel 6 Constantine Offering Gifts to Charlemagne

Figure 22 Panel 7 Charlemagne Donating Relics to Aachen

Figure 23 Donation Panel

Image List

Slide 1, Photographs of Four Great Relics of Aachen and Unknown Painting, all from the Aachen Cathedral website http://www.heiligtumsfahrt2007.de/index47-0.aspx

Slide 2, Marienschrein, Workshop of the Aachen Master, 1239

Slide 3, Marienkleid, Robe of the Virgin. Pilgrimage Badge showing the Marienkleid, Aachen, 1375-1450.

Slide 4, Charlemagne, Agostino Cornacchini, 1720-1725, Basilica di San Pietro, Vatican and Saint Charlemagne, Theodoric of Prague, 1360-1364, paint and gold on panel.

Slide 5, Marienschrein, Workshop of the Aachen Master, 1239

Slide 6, Details of Mary and Pope Leo III, Marienschrein, Workshop of the Aachen Master, 1239

Slide 7, Detail of Charlemagne, Karlsschrein, Workshop of the Aachen Master, 1215. Charlemagne flanked by Pope Leo III and Bishop Turpin of Rheims, with bust of Christ Pantocrater above, Karlsschrein, Workshop of the Aachen Master, 1215.

Slide 8, Lateral wall, Karlsschrein, Workshop of the Aachen Master, 1215. Detail of Otto IV, Karlsschrein, Workshop of the Aachen Master, 1215.

Charlemagne presenting model of Aachen Cathedral to the Virgin, roof relief, Karlsschrein, Workshop of the Aachen Master, 1215.

Slide 9, Throne of Charlemagne at Aachen and Dome of Aachen Cathedral

Slide 10, The coronation of Charlemagne by God’s hand. Charlemagne shown as an idealized king, flanked by Popes Gelasisus I. and Gregory I,

Sacramentary of Charles the Bald (c. 870)

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, ms. Latin 1141, fol. 2v

Emperor Charlemagne, Albrecht Durer, 1512

Emperor Charlemagne, Anonymous artists, woodcut, published 20 March    1475

Jean Fouquet, Grandes chroniques de France: ms. fr. 6465: fol. 96: Charlemagne supervises building of Palatine Chapel, Aachen, 15^th century

Slide 11, Marienschrein showing Christ and Charlemagne, Workshop of the Aachen Master, 1239

Marienschrein, Workshop of the Aachen Master, 1239.

Slide 12, Letter “A” Reliquary of Charlemagne, before 1107, Abbey Ste. Foy, Conques, Workshop of Abbot Begon III

Slide 13, Two parts of the Veil (chemise) of the Virgin at Chartres: Embroidered Wrapping (Byzantium, 8^th century, Empress Irene?), White Silk (1^st century), and current reliquary (19^th century)

Slide 14, Charlemagne window at Chartres Cathedral, c. 1225

Slide 15, Panels 3 (Constantine’s dream of Charlemagne), 4 (Battle in which Charlemagne delivers Jerusalem from the Saracens), and 13 (Charlemagne orders the foundation of a church)

Slide 16, Panels 6 (Charlemagne receives relics from Constantine) and 7 (Charlemagne donates relics to Aachen Cathedral)

Slide 17, Panel 1 (Donation Panel)

Slide 18, Postcards from the Aachen Pilgrimage

Karl, Workshop of the Aachen Master, 1239

Slide 19, Detail of Charlemagne, Marienschrein, Workshop of the Aachen Master, 1239

Bibliography

Belting, Hans. Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image Before the Era of Art. Edmund Jephcott trans. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.

Boss, Sarah Jane. Empress and handmaid: on nature and gender in the cult of the Virgin Mary. London: Continuum International Publishing, Ltd., 2000.

Burns, E. Jane. “Saracen Silk and the Virgin’s Chemise: Cultural Crossings in Cloth.” Speculum 81 (2006): 365-397.

Burns, Jane E. Sea of Silk: A Textile Geography of Women’s Work in Medieval French Literature. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009, 159.

Carroll, Michael P. The Cult of the Virgin Mary: Psychological Origins. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.

Chaganti, Seeta. “The Medieval Poetics of the Reliquary: Enshrinement, Inscription, Performance.” New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

Ciresi, Lisa Victoria. “Of Offerings and Kings: The Shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne and the Aachen Karlsschrein and Marienschrein in Coronation Ritual.” Reliquiare im Mittelalter. Bruno Reudenbach and Gia Toussaint eds. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2005. 165-186.

Ciresi, Lisa Victoria. Manifestations of the Holy as Instruments of Propaganda: The Cologne Dreikonigenschrein and the Aachen Karlsschrein and Marienschrein in Late Medieval Ritual. Ph.D. Dissertation. New Brunswick: Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, 2003.

Cottrell, Donna M. “Unraveling the Mystery of Jan van Eyck’s Cloths of Honor: The Ghent Altarpiece.” Encountering Medieval Textiles and Dress: Objects, Texts, and Images. Désirée G. Koslin and Janet E. Snyder eds. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Cunningham, Lawrence S. and John J. Reich. Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities. Florence, Kentucky: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 2002.

Fulton, Rachel. From judgment to passion: devotion to Christ and the Virgin Mary, 800-1200. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.

Gabriele, Matthew and Jace Stuckey, eds. The Legend of Charlemagne in the Middle Ages: Power, Faith, and Crusade. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

Geary, Patrick J.  Phantoms of Remembrance: Memory and Oblivion at the End of the First Millennium. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.

Gem, Richard. “Towards an Iconography of Anglo-Saxon Architecture.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 46 (1983): 1-18.

Hahn, Cynthia. “Seeing and Believing: The Construction of Sanctity in Early-Medieval Saints’ Shrines.” Speculum 72.4(Oct., 1997): 1105.

Hayes, Dawn Marie. Body and Sacred Place in Medieval Europe, 1100-1389. Oxford: Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2009.

Heller, Sarah Grace. “Fashion in French Crusade Literature: Desiring Infidel Textiles.” Encountering Medieval Textiles and Dress: Objects, Texts, and Images. Désirée G. Koslin and Janet E. Snyder eds. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Kisch, Herbert. “Growth Deterrents of a Medieval Heritage: The Aachen-area Woolen Trades before 1790.” The Journal of Economic History 24.4 (Dec., 1964): 517-537.

Klein, Holger A. “Eastern Objects and Western Desires: Relics and Reliquaries between Byzantium and the West.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 58 (2004): 283-314.

Koslin, Désirée G. “Value-Added Stuffs and Shifts in Meaning: An Overview and Case Study of Medieval Textile Paradigms.” Encountering Medieval Textiles and Dress: Objects, Texts, and Images. Désirée G. Koslin and Janet E. Snyder eds. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Le Goff, Jacques and Janet Lloyd. The Birth of Europe: 400-1500. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2006.

Maines, Clark. “The Charlemagne Window at Chartres Cathedral: New Considerations on Text and Image.” Speculum 52.4 (Oct., 1977): 801-823.

McKitterick, Rosamond. Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Morrissey, Robert. Charlemagne and France: A Thousand Years of Mythology. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003

Nickell, Joe. Relics of the Christ. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2007.

Remensnyder, Amy Goodrich. Remembering Kings Past: Monastic oundation Legends in Medieval Southern France. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995.

Rickard, Marcia R. “The Iconography of the Virgin Portal at Amiens.” Gesta 22.2 (1983): 147-157.

Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Crusades: A History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.

Rubin, Miri. Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.

Shortell, Ellen M. “Dismembering Saint Quentin: Gothic Architecture and the Display of Relics.” Gesta 36.1 (1997): 32-47.

Smith, Julia M. H. “Rulers and Relics c. 750-c. 950: Treasure on Earth, Treasure in Heaven.” Past and Present Supplement 5 (2010): 73-96.

Sullivan, Richard E. Aix-la-Chapelle In the Age of Charlemagne. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.

Von Simson, Otto Georg. The Gothic Cathedral The Origins of Gothic Architecture & the Medieval Concept of Order. New York: Pantheon Books, 1956.

Winston, Richard. Charlemagne: From the Hammer to the Cross. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc., 1954.

Belting discusses the Byzantine mantle of the Virgin and the meaning of textile relics. He says that it only appears at the Church of the Virgin at Blachernae during the reign of Leo I, and not much is known of its early history. The mantle was a palpable symbol of her role as mother and provided concrete evidence to support the legend of the empty tomb, in which the mantle had supposedly been left behind. Clothing relics, as could authentic portraits, could take the place of a missing body as evidence of a life. The mantle of Mary substituted for both her absent body and for her empty tomb, whose location was disputed. This absence of her body fostered universal veneration because it kept her presence from being claimed by one location. The Virgin was used by Constantinople as a protectress and almost as a warrior goddess against the Avars, the Persians, and Islam. The icon of the victorious Virgin was carried into war and for this reason the Crusaders were sure to seize it in 1203. Mary’s clothing relics turned churches into cult centers.

Boss, Sarah Jane. Empress and handmaid: on nature and gender in the cult of the Virgin Mary. London: Continuum International Publishing, Ltd., 2000.

Boss traces the dominant characterization of Mary throughout several centuries in Europe that are helpful in understanding the meaning of relics of the Virgin at the time of the production of the Marienschrein. Romanesque images of the Virgin often showed her in majesty. The Virgin in Majesty conveys a sense of divinity in the physical world. The material world was thought to be the bearer of divine essence or grace and the material object which is the supreme example of such God-bearing, is or course the body of the Virgin who carried the incarnate Lord. At the Carolingian court in the ninth century, an empress would be crowned as such only after giving birth to a child, thus making motherhood, and not marriage alone, the condition for the emperor’s wife to hold full imperial status. The rites of crowning for the empress made reference to Mary as queen in virtue of her motherhood. After the 13^th century, Mary was seen less as a powerful queen and more as a tender mother. She is credited with the power to save souls from damnation and has an overriding influence on Christ’s judgment upon a soul.

Burns, E. Jane. “Saracen Silk and the Virgin’s Chemise: Cultural Crossings in Cloth.” Speculum 81 (2006): 365-397.

This article by Burns contains a lot of interesting ways of looking at textile relics of the Virgin and even textile relics in general. Burns situates the holy chemise at Chartres within the context of eastern and western textile exchange. Although this Marian relic was known to have come from the east, it had been represented throughout the Middle Ages as a simple Western linen garment. There were competing narratives circulating about the chemise being a western garment and a decorated, costly fabric from the Eastern Mediterranean. The reliquary was sealed until 1712, and when it was open no chemise was found; instead there were two white pieces of silk and a wrapping. The Virgin at Constantinople was thought to have a mantle of silk. Chartres’ treasury was full of silks and clothes from Byzantium and the East, received as gifts and as spoils of Crusade. She details Chartres history as a center of textile production and legends of the Virgin as a cloth maker. Burns characterizes the Virgin of Chartres as mix of both French and Saracen, and this mix is found in narratives about her sacred chemise.

Carroll, Michael P. The Cult of the Virgin Mary: Psychological Origins. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.

Carroll gives a history of the origin and development of the cult of the Virgin in which Charlemagne’s interest in her relics and the construction of the Marienschrein can be situated. Popular devotion to Mary increased rapidly in the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries. The earliest Marian shrine was apparently a sanctuary near Constantinople, where there is a record that the veil of the Virgin was venerated from about the middle of the sixth century onward. The cult of the Virgin was most popular in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Chaganti, Seeta. “The Medieval Poetics of the Reliquary: Enshrinement, Inscription, Performance.” New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

Chaganti explains the rise of the cult of Mary in the medieval period. In the early Christian East, meanwhile the cult of Marian relics comprised clothing and contact relics as an acknowledgement of her bodily absence. In Western Europe the cult of Mary gained prominence later because cults of the late antique and early medieval period depended so strongly on the presence of bodily relics. Marian pilgrimages began in the west in the 10^th century.

Ciresi, Lisa Victoria. “Of Offerings and Kings: The Shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne and the Aachen Karlsschrein and Marienschrein in Coronation Ritual.” Reliquiare im Mittelalter. Bruno Reudenbach and Gia Toussaint eds. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2005. 165-186.

Ciresi’s dissertation is an excellent resource on the topic of the Marienschrein. She gives information on Charlemagne’s policies and reforms of the Church that related to relics and on the construction of the chapel of the Virgin at Aachen. Frederick II decided to give a quarter of the revenues of an offering to the chapter for repairs of damaged furnishings, with the stipulation that work be done on the Marienschrein. Frederick II was also ruling during the completion of the Karlsschrein in 1215. It is not known if the Marienschrein was under production before this. Ciresi raises the question of why the relics were exposed for a year before being housed in their new shrine. She details the rituals of the Heiligtumsfahrt pilgrimage. She notes the rivalry between the Aachen and Chartres, who both claimed to have a textile relic of the Virgin. Ciresi gives detailed descriptions of the iconography of the Marienschrein and relates it to the program of the Karlsschrein. The architecture of the Marienschrein sets it apart from earlier sarcophagus-shaped shrines (epitomized by the Karlsschrein). Stylistic parallels exist between the figures on the Marienschrein and monumental French Gothic prototypes, including Chartres and Reims Cathedrals.

Cottrell, Donna M. “Unraveling the Mystery of Jan van Eyck’s Cloths of Honor: The Ghent Altarpiece.” Encountering Medieval Textiles and Dress: Objects, Texts, and Images. Désirée G. Koslin and Janet E. Snyder eds. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Cottrell argues generally that sumptuous textiles were associated with the divine in the Middle Ages. A cloth of honor is a curtain of precious fabric suspended behind a saint or the Virgin as a sign of veneration. Reverence was bestowed upon luxurious textiles in the Middle Ages, which initially seems to have been the result of contact with Byzantium. Because the clergy adapted these luxury textiles into ecclesiastical garments and because relics were wrapped in costly silks, majestic textiles “became inseparably associated with Christ, the saints, sacred events, and sacred places” (175). Exotic textiles were thought to contain special properties of light. Textiles were connected to the divine in apocryphal and biblical stories of special cloths. Mary was said to have clothed Christ in her womb and to have been a curtain revealing the divine.  Special textiles could be used to enhance the divine right to rule. Displays of cloth became symbols of divine kingship.

Cunningham, Lawrence S. and John J. Reich. Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities. Florence, Kentucky: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 2002.

Cunningham discusses relics at Aachen in the time of Charlemagne. The most important relic of the kingdom at the time was the cape of Saint Martin of Tours, a textile relic. Charlemagne’s throne was on the second floor of the cathedral, opposite the Savior chapel and at the same time could view the Virgin chapel with its rich collection of relics, already associating Charlemagne to the relics of the Virgin.

Gabriele, Matthew and Jace Stuckey, eds. The Legend of Charlemagne in the Middle Ages: Power, Faith, and Crusade. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

This book consists of essays examining aspects of the legend of Charlemagne throughout history and so contains much valuable material. Immediately following his reign, Charlemagne was criticized for political and personal reasons and was considered to be suffering punishment in purgatory for his licentiousness and for a supposed incestuous relationship with his sister. Charlemagne’s reputation gradually began to assume a positive light following Einhard’s Vita Karoli, written in 820s. In 887 Notker the Stammerer of St Gall wrote the Gesta Karoli Magni which showed Charlemagne as a priest-king. In the 1020s Ademar of Chabannes wrote an account of the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher by al-Hakim in 1009. The destruction of the church holding the True Cross was widely interpreted as a sign of the Last Days. He identifies al-Hakim as the Antichrist and Charlemagne as the Last Emperor whose role is to defend Christendom before the Apocalypse. When Otto III opened Charlemagne’s tomb at Aachen in 1000, he supposedly found the body uncorrupted and seated upright, ready to rise from the dead as the Last Emperor. Reticence about Charlemagne’s canonization and his reputation for sinfulness and the Charlemagne window at Chartres are discussed by Elizabeth Pastan. She interprets Charlemagne’s presence in such a prominent window as being related to his legendary gift of the Veil of the Virgin to Chartres.

Geary, Patrick J.  Phantoms of Remembrance: Memory and Oblivion at the End of the First Millennium. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.

Geary discusses examples of monasteries, including Montmajour monastery, that incorporated Charlemagne into their founding myths many years after his death. He says that by claiming to have been founded by Charlemagne these communities attempted to return to a “mythic world, that of the Carolingian age.” Often places founded by Charlemagne’s descendants would later be credited to Charlemagne and subsumed into his legend. His descendants often used Charlemagne’s acts as models for their own.

Gem, Richard. “Towards an Iconography of Anglo-Saxon Architecture.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 46 (1983): 1-18.

Richard writes that the rotunda form of chapel construction was associated with chapels dedicated to the Virgin. He notes the architectural relations between the chapel at Aachen where her relic was housed, the church at Blachernae where her mantle was kept, and the church outside Jerusalem that sheltered her empty tomb where the robe was left. All of these were rotundas. (11)

Hayes, Dawn Marie. Body and Sacred Place in Medieval Europe, 1100-1389. Oxford: Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2009.

Hayes gives the provenance of the Veil of the Virgin at Chartres: Irene of Constantinople sent it as a gift to Charlemagne, whose grandson, Charles the Bald, donated it to the Chartres Cathedral in 876. She recounts miracles performed by the Veil at Chartres. Hayes writes that Veil functions as evidence of the birth of Jesus and as invoking the image of Mary as flesh-giver. She argues that the presence of the Veil makes Chartres into a place of the body. She specifics that it is clear that touching the body of Mary was enough to sanctify the tunic and that the residual fluids from the birth were not necessary to give the relic value.

Heller, Sarah Grace. “Fashion in French Crusade Literature: Desiring Infidel Textiles.” Encountering Medieval Textiles and Dress: Objects, Texts, and Images. Désirée G. Koslin and Janet E. Snyder eds. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Heller writes on the place of eastern textiles in the western imagination by focusing on descriptions of textiles given in crusade literature. Exposure to eastern textiles has widely been cited as the source for the development of western fashion but Heller argues that fashion systems already present in Europe laid the groundwork for the desire of the new eastern textiles. Dazzling descriptions of textiles are found in conjunction with descriptions of booty.

Kisch, Herbert. “Growth Deterrents of a Medieval Heritage: The Aachen-area Woolen Trades before 1790.” The Journal of Economic History 24.4 (Dec., 1964): 517-537.

Aachen was the Rhineland’s main center of wool and textile production, with a tradition supposedly reaching back to the time of Charlemagne. The city was situated at the crossroads of a Roman-built east-west road system and thus was an important center of trade of fabrics from all over. During the twelfth century, Aachen cloth was already being sold as far north as the fairs of Osnabrfick and Hildesheim. During the next three centuries, Aachen’s woolen trades achieved international stature. I found the knowledge that Aachen had been a center of textile production especially interesting given the fact that it has four textiles as its Four Great Relics. Chartres was also a major center of textile production and also had as its primary relic a piece of the Virgin’s clothing.

Klein, Holger A. “Eastern Objects and Western Desires: Relics and Reliquaries between Byzantium and the West.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 58 (2004): 283-314.

Besides investigating the movement of Byzantine holy objects into Western Europe, as we talked about in class, Klein specifically mentions the passage westward of textile relics that appear to be the ones that come to rest at Aachen. He notes that the swaddling clothes of Jesus, the linen with which he girded himself at the last supper, and the girdle of the Virgin were sent to Henry of Hainault’s brother Philip of Namur, in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade. They had formerly been kept in the Boulokleon palace in Constantinople.

Koslin, Désirée G. “Value-Added Stuffs and Shifts in Meaning: An Overview and Case Study of Medieval Textile Paradigms.” Encountering Medieval Textiles and Dress: Objects, Texts, and Images. Désirée G. Koslin and Janet E. Snyder eds. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

In medieval Europe, the textile industry was the lifeblood of the economic system and the industry around which large cities grew up. Many levels of society were involved in textile production. Koslin considers the finishes, colors, and design novelty that brought value to fabrics and the meaning of specific types of dress. The majority of medieval fabrics were woolen. Different colors had symbolic spiritual significance and orders of monks would have specific types of garments. Koslin mentions the eleventh-century Aachen Elephant Silk, woven in the Imperial Looms of Constantinople, was found in the tomb of Charlemagne (d. 814). This piece epitomizes the technical sophistication of polychrome silks woven in Byzantium.

Le Goff, Jacques and Janet Lloyd. The Birth of Europe: 400-1500. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2006.

The part of this large text in which I am interested is the section on the importance and rise of the cult of the Virgin in Europe. The cult rose between the 11^th and 13^th centuries, though the cult had been prominent during the Carolingian period. After the 11^th century, the cult of the Virgin was at the center of Church reforms. It was linked to an increasing devotion to Christ and to the Eucharist. Mary began to assume a more important role as intercessor between humans and Christ. The Virgin acquired a quite exceptional status, almost becoming “a fourth element in the Trinity” (76). Mary was known to be especially merciful and forgiving of sins, and this is interesting in the context of the narrative of Charlemagne’s ‘sin’ needing to be redeemed before he could achieve sainthood.

Maines, Clark. “The Charlemagne Window at Chartres Cathedral: New Considerations on Text and Image.” Speculum 52.4 (Oct., 1977): 801-823.

Maines provides a detailed explanation of the iconography of the Charlemagne window at Chartres, panel by panel, and argues for their relationship to certain textual sources. First cycle of six panels draws upon the probably late eleventh-century Desctiptio qualiter Karolus Magnus clavum et coronam Domini a Constantinopoli Aquisgrani detulerit, a chronicle of Charlemagne’s legendary Jerusalem crusade. Charlemagne is shown delivering Jerusalem from the Saracens. Panel 6 shows Charlemagne refusing any reward from Constantine except relics. Panel 7 closes Jerusalem cycle and shows Charlemagne offering a crown reliquary to his chapel at Aachen. The three-gabled reliquary incorporated into the architectural motif above the altar is similar to one depicted in the preceding panel. Panel 22 depicts the Mass of St Giles through which, according to the Vita sancti Aegidii, Charlemagne was forgiven by saintly intervention for a “sin too terrible to confess.”

McKitterick, Rosamond. Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

McKitterick discusses the importance of Aachen for the generations following the reign of Charlemagne and the role of relics in Charlemagne’s rule. Charles the Bald evoked his grandfather as model when he founded the new church dedicated to the Virgin Mary at his palace of Compiegne. Aachen was originally created by Charlemagne as a sacred site, enhanced by the relics of the Virgin. It formed the principal focus of the king’s sacred itinerary, symbolized in the growing use of the church at Aachen for the royal celebration of Christmas and Easter. The reign of Charlemagne was a period of liturgical experimentation, especially at the chapel dedicated to Virgin at Aachen. McKitterick outlines an interesting strategy of the Carolingian rulers for enhancing the reputation of Frankish saints: the association of Frankish saints with Roman and Gallo-Roman saints in the relic collections and church dedications increased the status of the Frankish saints.

Morrissey, Robert. Charlemagne and France: A Thousand Years of Mythology. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003.

Morrissey’s book considers the religious, political, and national mythologies of Charlemagne from the time of his death up to the time of Napoleon. The first half of the book focuses on the myths of Charlemagne up to the end of the Middle Ages. He writes on the transformation of Charlemagne’s image through the development of chansons de geste. Philippe Mousket’s Chronicle creates an image of a Christ-like Charlemagne. Charlemagne was in some cases a synthetic figure combining many different Charleses (Charles Martel, Charles the Bald). The symbolic image of Charlemagne as a knight defending Christendom against the infidels was used well into the sixteenth century.

Nickell, Joe. Relics of the Christ. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2007.

Nickell writes on the distribution and history of Christological relics throughout Europe. Charles the Bald, grandson of Charlemagne, presented a shroud of Jesus in 877 to St Cornelius Abbey in Compiegne France, where it was venerated as the Holy Shroud of Compiegne for nine centuries. It perished in the French Revolution. Textile relics of Christ were extremely popular as relics: there were forty-three True Shrouds of Christ in medieval Europe alone.

Rickard, Marcia R. “The Iconography of the Virgin Portal at Amiens.” Gesta 22.2 (1983): 147-157.

The figures of Mary and John the Baptist, both of whose relics were included in the Marienschrein and who were included in the iconography decorating it, were both symbols of purity. John was not conceived without sin but was born without it. St Bernard says “the burning and shining light who was lit with a heavenly fire even before his birth.”

Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Crusades: A History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.

I am interested here in the history of the crusades leading up to the production of the Marienschrein (commissioned 1220, finished 1239).  This text discusses the popular crusades, the children’s crusade and the Albigensian Crusade; enthusiasm for crusading prevailed at every level of society. Fifth Crusade, (1213-1221, embarked 1217). Pope Innocent’s mind turned to the idea of a crusade to the East once the truce made there in 1211 ended in 1217. He proclaimed his intentions in 1213 and went preaching for support. Innocent died in 1216, and was succeeded by Honorius III, who continued his intentions to crusade. German troops arrived in the Holy Land in May 1221. The crusade of Frederick II, the new Holy Roman Emperor, who styled himself as based on antiquity, and who used Charlemagne as a model, follows.

Rubin, Miri. Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.

Rubin includes a section on the history of Mary’s robe at Constantinople and its miracles. She also details the history of the girdle of the Virgin supposedly dropped during the Assumption of Mary. She recounts the legend of the two veils of the Virgin, one of which became Constantinople’s protective relic. One version of the story claims the veil bore breast milk stains. Rubin also discusses the symbolism of textile relics of Mary: she says that the theology of Mary’s bearing of the Son of God has been images in metaphors of clothing. In a Hymn on Paradise Mary weaves a new robe for Adam, symbolizing the flesh with which she clothed her son. This way it was symbolized that she undid the harm caused by her older sister Eve. (38)

Shortell, Ellen M. “Dismembering Saint Quentin: Gothic Architecture and the Display of Relics.” Gesta 36.1 (1997): 32-47.

Shortell writes on the practice, common in the decades around 1200, of translating existing relics out of underground crypts up to new sanctuaries inside the church. Relics were moved to places of honor in which they were both displayed and at the same time concealed within reliquaries behind choir screens. Architectural historians have long looked to relic translations as possible clues for dating a building. St Quentin’s relics were elevated in 1228 from their tomb, and exposed in their new containers until construction on the church finished in 1257. They were moved up to establish superiority for that chapter in the context of an ecclesiastical political struggle. The great relics at Aachen were exposed for one year prior to being re-housed (1239) in a way that links to the general practice of translating relics in the first half of the thirteenth century outlined by Shortell.

Smith, Julia M. H. “Rulers and Relics c. 750-c. 950: Treasure on Earth, Treasure in Heaven.” Past and Present Supplement 5 (2010): 73-96.

Smith discusses the relationship between rulers of the Carolingian dynasty and relics, the politic function of relics in this dynasty, and the association of specific rulers with specific saints. After 888, relics functioned as tokens of legitimacy for claims to empire and were redolent of Charlemagne. Charlemagne’s father Pippin was known to have dedicated Prüm to Christ and Mary and to have donated to it the sandals of Christ and unspecified (likely textile) relics of the Virgin.  Because Charlemagne’s diplomatic reach stretched to Constantinople, Baghdad, and Jerusalem, he was included in a vast network of political communication through which diplomatic gifts and relics circulated.

Charlemagne’s legendary reputation as a donor of fabulous relics far exceeds knowledge about his actual gifts. Already in the time of his grandson Charles the Bald, Charlemagne was believed to have stockpiled a massive relic collection. After 881, Charles the Fat commissioned a grand and lavish architectural shrine, meant to be a miniature Aachen, to house Aachen’s greatest relics after they were rescued from Viking raiders. I have not seen mention of this shrine elsewhere, and it is an interesting precedent to the architectural form of the Marienschrein.

Sullivan, Richard E. Aix-la-Chapelle In the Age of Charlemagne. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.

Sullivan writes an interpretation of the symbolic role of Aachen or Aix-la-Chapelle in identity and thought during the reign of Charlemagne (764-814). Aix-la-Chapelle was a center of events that changed course of western European civilization. It was the site of encounters between two segments of European society: the French/Gallic/Latin and the German/Germanic/Teutonic. It was conceived of both as a second Rome and a New Jerusalem. Aix-la-Chapelle.

Winston, Richard. Charlemagne: From the Hammer to the Cross. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc., 1954.

Charlemagne reinvigorated contacts with the East – Constantinople, Bagdad, and the Holy Land – and East-West trade. Winston traces the development of mythology surrounding Charlemagne in the years after his death. He looks at popular ballads in which Charles performs miracles and prophesies. Charlemagne was transformed into a mythic figure symbolizing an ideal Crusader during subsequent Crusades. He explains how Charlemagne became associated with relics from and deeds in the Holy Land that were stretches of the truth. When Christianity set out to rescue the Holy Sepulcher from the hands of the infidel, the idea came about that Charlemagne must have once ruled over the Holy Land. Out of the few brief references in Einhard to Charlemagne’s cordial relations with Harun al-Rashid and the Patriarch of Jerusalem was fashioned the image of a crusading emperor who had himself visited the Holy City. Winston also outlines the obstacles to, problems with, and irregularities in Charlemagne’s sainthood. Charlemagne had a reputation for licentiousness. He was only canonized in 1165 and his cult was never widely popular.

After the Karlsschrein was finished, there was an attempt to popularize the cult of Charlemagne, and this seems to have been done by linking his cult to that of the Virgin. All of the relics in the Marienschrein were supposedly procured by Charlemagne, and this fact is underscored by the inclusion of his figure on the side of the shrine opposite that of the Virgin and Child figures and by the visual similarity between the Karlsschrein and the Marienschrein, and by painting cycles in the Cathedral. The cult of Charlemagne was augmented by visually linking him to the cult of the Virgin through the iconography of the Marienschrein.

The architecture of the shrine is interesting as well. It broke with the styles used for earlier architectural shrines, and shows marked similarities to the architecture of Chartres Cathedral. Chartres holds another very important textile relic, the sancta camisia, or Veil of the Virgin. The similarity in form shared between Chartres and the Marienschrein at Aachen, both of which are dedicated to textile relics of the Virgin, suggest a link of some sort.

These are the main issues I have been interested in or have come across during my research into the Marienschrein at Aachen. I do not know yet which of these I would like to focus on or whether to tie them together somehow.

Another unusual thing about the Marienschrein is that there is evidence that it was displayed on a rotating platform.

The Lindentuch, or Loin cloth of Christ, worn during the Crucifixion

The Windel Jesu, swaddling clothes of the baby Jesus

The Johannestuch, the cloth that preserved the head of John the Baptist

Ciresi, Lisa Victoria. Manifestations of the Holy as Instruments of Propaganda: The Cologne Dreikönigenschrein and the Aachen Karlsschrein and Marienschrein in Late Medieval Ritual. 2003, Graduate School-Rutgers University.

Ciresi, Lisa Victoria. “ Of Offerings and Kings: The Shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne and the Aachen Karlsschrein and Marienschrein.” Reliquaire im Mittelalter. Berlin: Academie Verlag, 2005. 165-185.

Crumbach, J. and P. Lentz. “The box ‘Do not touch me!’ in the Aachen Cathedral. Aachen: The Episcopal Diocesan Archive Publications, 1937.

Fitshcen, Jurgen. Die Goldshiedeplastik des Marienschreins in Aachener Dom.

Gunther, Ernst. Grimme Der Karlschrein und der Marienschrein in Aachener Dom

Ludwig. P. “The Aachen Cathedral.” Aachener Works on Paper 42 (1972): 7-5-76.

Rickard, Marcia R. “The Iconography of the Virgin Portal at Amiens.” Gesta 22.2 (1983): 147-157.

Tresor d’Aix-la-Chapelle ou court description des saintes reliques. Aix-la-Chapelle: Vlieckx, 1825.

Weynands, Dieter P.J. Der Aachener Marienschrein : eine Festschrift. Aachen: Einhard, 2000.

Weynands, Dieter P.J. The history of Aachen Pilgrimage; Einhard, 2000.

Textile relics are of high importance to the practices of devotion to Jesus and Mary. Both mother and son were assumed into heaven at the end of their lives, leaving behind no tomb or bodily remains. The veneration of Jesus and Mary through relics gained prominence relatively late in the development of the cult of relics. Their relics became popular in the 10^th-12^th centuries as people began to seek the help of more powerful, universal mediators in place of their local saints. Jesus and Mary were not the only figures to be venerated through textile relics, but they have by far the largest number of textile relics devoted to them and are unique in that most of their relics are textiles. Because, Jesus and Mary were such important mediators between human beings and God, textile relics were thus some of the holiest, most ancient, and most precious of all relics.

A proliferation of textile relics surrounding a saint signals very strongly the absence of their physical body. As objects intimate to the corporeal life of Jesus and Mary, clothing both recalls their bodies and makes their absence more apparent. The emphasis on the body calls to mind the humanity of Christ and the role of Mary as a mother. The empty clothing also serves to remind of their divinity and place in heaven.

Textile relics can take forms other than clothing. Strips of linen, or brandea, could be used to create new and portable contact relics by collecting and absorbing oil, blood, or other fluids from the body that could then be taken back with the pilgrim, allowing him or her to acquire a personal relic and bring some of the saint’s power home. Especially in the case of Christ and the Virgin, textiles could serve as a method for maintaining traces of the bodily fluids of a body that was no longer on earth. Textiles containing the blood of Christ or the breast milk of the Virgin preserve their corporeal presence on earth and remind of their one-time humanity.

In a Hymn of Paradise, Mary is described as weaving a new garment for fallen Adam, and in this way undoing the harm caused by the first woman, Eve. The image of the Virgin sewing is symbolic of her clothing her son Jesus in flesh. Mary gave the divine a bodily form in which to cloth itself on earth. The story of the garment Mary made for Jesus as an infant that miraculously grew as he did, and which he wore his entire life, is reminiscent of this clothing-as-flesh symbolism that surrounds Mary. A statue of Mary sewing is included in Chartres Cathedral where her veil is venerated.

The Virgin sewing at Chartres

The Veil of the Virgin, or Sancta camisia in Chartres

This silk relic kept at Chartres is believed to have been worn by Mary when she gave birth to Jesus. Byzantine Empress Irene of Constantinople sent it as a gift to Charlemagne, whose grandson Charles the Bald donated it t Chartres Cathedral in 876. The presence of the Holy Cloak began the cult of the Virgin at that site, although Chartres was reportedly originally a site dedicated to a pregnant pagan virgin. The Veil of the Virgin is associated with many medieval miracles at Chartres. Through the sancta camisia, Mary is said to have spared Chartres from the invasion of Rollo army. The miracles affected by the holy tunic are often associated with protection of her believers.

During a fire in 1145 the church burnt down. A few clerics fled from the flames carrying the shroud into the crypt. They emerged safely after three days, having been sustained miraculously by the intercession of the Virgin. This was declared a miracle by a papal legate, and interpreted as a sign that the Virgin wished for a new and grander church to built for her veneration, and so the cathedral as it currently stands was built. The cathedral now has stained glass and sculpture that heavily emphasizes the life of the Virgin, and the Sancta camisia now is housed in a reliquary.

The Veil of the Virgin gained its sanctity through touching Mary’s body. It was not necessary for there to be any residual breast milk for the tunic to have such power. There were even stories of shirts gaining protective power by touching the chasse of the tunic of the Virgin.

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The Veil of the Virgin in its Reliquary

The church at Autun also claimed to have the Veil of the Virgin in the twelfth century, and featured a walnut statue of the Virgin enthroned with a back aperture that might have been intended to hold this relic.

The Shrine to the Virgin at Aachen

Aachen Cathedral also claims to have a shroud of the Virgin, as well as the swaddling clothes worn by Jesus as an infant, the loincloth worn by him on the cross, and the cloth on which John the Baptist’s head was laid after his beheading. These Four Great Relics of Aachen are housed in one collective reliquary, the Shrine to the Virgin. This gold reliquary was completed in 1238 and has architectural forms including gables and a roof. In the mid-14^th century it became custom to show the Four Relics every seven years, and this is still practiced.

The Marian Robe at Aachen

The Shrine of the Virgin at Aachen, 1238

The Holy Girdle, Sacra cintola

The Holy Girdle is a camel hair belt believed to have been made and worn by Mary. She supposedly dropped it as a gift for the apostles to remind of her earthly presence as she ascended into heaven. Mary’s Girdle was originally believed to be held in the chuch of Chalcoprateia in Constantinople, but by the late Middle Ages had been translated to Westminster Abbey, where it became a popular object of veneration. It is supposedly held now in Prato, where Angiolo Gaddid painted a fresco cycle depicting the history of the girdle.

The Holy Belt Reliquary, open

The Pope with Holy Belt at Prato

As with the Virgin, the relics of Christ demonstrated the absence of the holy body, but also recall to mind Jesus’s humanity, suffering, and self-sacrifice. Relics of Jesus often contain some sort of trace left by the physical body, such as the imprint of an image or blood stains, and this emphasis on the trace of the physical body of Jesus both recalls his exalted position and suggests that his physical form, not just his place in heaven, is important to Christian doctrine.

Relic of the Holy Blood

The Basilica of the Holy Blood in Bruges, Belgium houses a rock crystal vial containing a piece of cloth stained with Christ’s blood. The blood was collected from Christ’s body by Joseph of Arimathea and brought to Bruges during the Second Crusade by Dirk Van de Elzas, the Duke of Flanders. It arrived in Bruges in 1149. The vial has its own reliquary.  Beginning in 1303, an annual procession is conducted in which the relic is carried through the city.

Read more: http://www.worldtravelguide.net/bruges/holy-blood-procession#ixzz1DIVUtKSf

The Relic of the Holy Blood

The Holy Blood Reliquary

The Holy Coat

There are two competing claims for the Holy Coat, or Seamless Robe of Jesus. This robe was supposedly worn by Jesus at his crucifixion. After he died, the Roman legionaries divided up his belongings amongst themselves, but since this robe had no seams they cast lots for it rather than cutting it into pieces.

Trier, Germany

The robe kept at the cathedral in Trier was traditionally found by Saint Helena, along with various other relics from the crucifixion, in Jerusalem around the year 327.

In 1196 the Holy Coat of Trier was moved onto the High Altar. But it was not until 1512 when it was displayed for 23 consecutive days under the orders of Maximilian I that it gained a large pilgrimage.

The veneration of the Holy Coat is depicted in a c. 1512 woodcut made by Albrecht Dürer and also in one by Hans Burgkmair.

The Holy Coat of Trier

The Holy Coat of Trier Reliquary in its chapel

Argenteuil, France

The Holy Coat of Argentueil is first mentioned in 1156 in the Charta Hugonis. This record lists among the churches possessions a garment that Mary wove for Jesus as an infant, which then grew as he grew. He wore this garment his entire life. The Empress Irene of Constantinople gave this coat to Charlemagne around the year 800, who gave it to his daughter Theocrate. She was an abbess of Argenteuil. The coat displayed there now is made of wine-colored wool.