Faire croire pour faire corps : Les miracles eucharistiques dans l'Occident médiéval (XIe-XIIIe s.)

A host bleeds in the hands of the priest who raises it. The wine takes on the appearance of pitch in the chalice. An angel removes the sacred species from the hands of the celebrant. How can we explain the large number of such miracles in the sources produced by the medieval West from the 11th century onwards? Eucharistic miracles, which were fairly rare in the early Middle Ages, experienced an undeniable growth at this time, which this book seeks to understand. Accordingly, the book aims to connect the notions of faire croire and faire corps. Miracle stories were certainly intended to make people believe (faire croire): as the dogma of transubstantiation is gradually defined with precision, and as the ecclesiastical institution must combat heresies and dissidences proliferating, the miracle supports a pastoral effort aimed at regulating the beliefs and practices of the faithful. But it is also, and perhaps above all– this is the thesis defended here– a question of coming together as one body (faire corps):

ensuring the unity of the Church; defending the clerical monopoly on the sacred; guaranteeing a social order that confirms the distinction and superiority of clerics over the laity. [Publisher's text]

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