Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Illustrations ix
4. Preface xii
5. Prologue: The Making of a Martyr 1
6. CHAPTER ONE How the Christian Relic Emerged 9
7. CHAPTER TWO The Incorruptible Flesh of the Martyrs 15
8. CHAPTER THREE Creating a Christian Landscape 24
9. CHAPTER FOUR The Battle for Acceptance 29
10. CHAPTER FIVE The View from Byzantium 37
11. CHAPTER SIX Bishops, Magic and Relics in the Post-Roman World 48
12. CHAPTER SEVEN ‘A barbarous, fierce and unbelieving nation’ 61
13. CHAPTER EIGHT The Great Consolidator 69
14. CHAPTER NINE Hope and Desperation in a Disordered World 80
15. CHAPTER TEN Cults and the Rise of Anti-Semitism 89
16. CHAPTER ELEVEN Fervent Christian Pilgrims 94
17. CHAPTER TWELVE ‘The eyes are fed with goldbedecked reliquaries’ 108
18. CHAPTER THIRTEEN Looting the East 120
19. CHAPTER FOURTEEN Louis IX and the Sainte-Chapelle 131
20. CHAPTER FIFTEEN Sacred Flesh Between Death and Resurrection 139
21. CHAPTER SIXTEEN ‘Christ’s recruits . . . fight back’ 146
22. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Protectors of il Popolo 156
23. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN The Virgin Mary and the Penitent Whore 169
24. CHAPTER NINETEEN The Wondrous Blood of Christ 186
25. CHAPTER TWENTY Rescuers and Devils 197
26. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE ‘Of far-off saints, hallowed in sundry lands’ 206
27. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO ‘dead images that . . . may not . . . help any man of any disease’ 219
28. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Protestantism and the New Iconoclasm 228
29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Intimations of Reality 247
30. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Reasserting the Miraculous 254
31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Within the Community of the Supernatural 266
32. Notes 271
33. Select Bibliography 288
34. Index 297