Contents

List of illustrations

Introduction: Royal Books and Holy Bones

BOOKS

1Early Christian Impresarios

2Books Held by Kings

3The Golden Legend

4Secret Knowledge – or a Hoax?

5The Psalms and Lay Piety

CRISES AND MOVEMENTS

6Plague and Historical Memory

7The Rise of Sacred Song

8Holy Terror

9The Cradle Will Rock: Histories of Childhood

SAINTS

10Blood Libel: The Murder of William of Norwich

11Sacred Bones and Blood

12Treasures of Heaven: Saints and their Relics

13St Erkenwald

14The Cult of ‘St’ Henry VI

15The Dynamics of Pilgrimage in the Late Middle Ages

16‘Lady, Pray Thy Son for Me’: Prayer to the Virgin in the Late Middle Ages

ON THE EVE OF THE REFORMATION

17Provision Against Purgatory: Wingfield College, Suffolk

18Monasticism and the Religion of the People: Crowland Abbey

19The Four Latin Doctors in the Late Middle Ages

20The Reformation and the Alabastermen

21Brush for Hire: Lucas Cranach the Elder

Acknowledgements

Notes

Index

A Note on the Author

Plate Section