Pilgrimage and Relics, 1497

When we approach the Reformation, it's important for me that we see both points of view. Typically the Reformation has been approached by one point of view (Catholic or Protestant), and in most high school classes the Reformation is seen only through the lens of Luther. To get out of that mode, we will examine other reformers and contrast them with Luther. It may be hard to believe that Luther was criticized for being too Catholic!

 Keeping in the world of the 1500s, I am posting the following image from Josse Lieferinx, the Master of St. Sebastian from 1497: "The Pilgrims at the church of St. Sebastian." This is an image in Rome today, and one that would have been painted pre-Reformation. It shows the various people at a church at the altar. Many of the people have health issues, including a cripple and someone carried in in a box. All are facing the devotional space, and all are praying.  While generally city magistrates, city folks, and nobility went for the Reformation in Germany, the poor and the peasants did not last. This is not simply a class divide but thinking about what each offered and why. For many of the urbanites, as you saw in the decrees of the city guilds, they were tired of favoritism towards priests. Everyone in the city should pay a tax, guard the walls; priests should not be exempt. For this reason, cities were interested in controlling their own religion. But always keep in the back of your mind the ways that medieval devotion permeated society. What happens when it disappears? Pilgrimage, monasticism, relics, saints are all criticized. These will be major changes for society and create an "age of anxiety."

Here is an relic of St. Valentine that is in Rome today: 

Here is an image of a pilgrimage church in  Chimayo, New Mexico that I have been to; and also one in Quebec. Important to remember that many of these things are in existence today.