Matthew Paris’ view of the ‘secular’ (i.e. non-monastic) church and its leadership by the Roman papacy and prelates in the kingdom of England.

Matthew Paris’ representation of and reporting on Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Canonization proceedings underwent dramatic changes during the early modern period in response to scathing external criticism and a growing internal demand for new saints. This chapter explores how these stringent new rules shored up papal authority and redefined Catholic practices of veneration, by complicating the path to sainthood for centuries to come.

Devotional objects, such as rosaries, medals, and relics, have always stood at the heart of the Catholic veneration of saints. Using two Bavarian rosaries as a case study, this chapter examines how such material objects allowed individual believers to tailor their faith in tactile ways, linking their devotions to wider trends within global Catholicism.

A reflective account of the project to digitise for open access the best-known of Matthew Paris’ surviving manuscripts, the so-called Book of St Albans now held in the library of Trinity College, Dublin.

A study of Matthew Paris’ approach to the design of manuscript books and the presentation of text and image and its influence on subsequent reproductions both in manuscript and print.

Following the 1578 rediscovery of Roman catacombs, thousands of relics of alleged early martyrs were transported to Catholic communities across the globe. Using Bavaria as a case study, this chapter investigates how these often fragmentary remains were transformed into catacomb saints, complete with names and identities, who served as patrons and protectors for localities far from Rome.

An introduction to Matthew Paris’ early and well-informed recording of the coats of arms adopted and used by aristocracy in thirteenth-century England.

As with other aspects of the cult of the saints, relics faced increasing official scrutiny during the early modern period. Drawing on legal cases and a new and burgeoning genre of relic manuals, this chapter examines the evolving but ultimately vexed methods of identifying and authenticating relics in response to Protestant attacks and Catholic reform.

The cult of the Virgin Mary went global during the early modern period, as Catholics embraced her with renewed fervor in the wake of Protestant attacks. Using one of Mary’s most famous advocations as a case study, this chapter investigates the origins, spread, and reinvention of the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Extremadura, Mexico, and in the Philippines, demonstrating both the causes and limitations of her success across different parts of the Spanish empire.

When Catholicism went global during the early modern period, it did so through the practices, idioms, and procedures of sanctity, in an uneven, messy, embodied process that often escaped control. Well beyond the papacy’s formal processes of beatification and canonization, the worldwide early modern Catholic community was united by belief in the continued immanence of the sacred and the supernatural in everyday life, especially through the cult of saints. The quest for and defense of sanctity defined early modern Catholicism. Every aspect of its pursuit also refuted the new Protestant dogmas of sola fide, sola Scriptura, and sola gratia. This Companion therefore offers sanctity as a new prism through which to envision the Catholic Church in the early modern era.

An introduction to Matthew Paris’ illustrations for the passion of Alban and Amphibalus in Trinity College, Dublin, MS 177.