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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Meg, I have no doubt you are on to something here. Such seemingly innocuous items as keys and bells and staffs seem to have had a very powerful resonance in the Middle Ages. I haven't made a systematic study of this, but as has been pointed out, St Peter was from a very early time associated with keys, which became his attribute long before attributes of saints were at all common, and I have come across a couple of stories (legends, in hagiographic terms) that involve keys. The first, I am sure, will be of particular interest to you. It involves the foundation legends of Evesham Abbey in the 7th century. St Egwin, who was the bishop of Worcester at the time, was forced to become a hermit on the banks of the Avon, near the future site of Evesham. When called to Rome, he determined to travel as a penitent, and shackled his legs, throwing the key into the Avon before setting out. When he arrived in Rome, he celebrated Mass in St Peter's Basilica and then settled in to a fish dinner. Inside the fish he was eating, he found the key he had thrown in the Avon. On his return, after apparitions of the Virgin Mary, Evesham was founded. I haven't been able to determine yet if the key was among the relics of Evesham, though. Another story involves the church of Notre-Dame la Grande in Poitiers and supposedly took place at the beginning of the 13th century. The mayor of Poitiers had an ambitious clerk who in 1202 found himself in the city of Perigueux, which was then held by the English. He made a deal with the English to deliver Poitiers to them in exchange, I believe, for a pot of wine (obviously, he was a fairly inept traitor!). To this effect, he sneaked into the mayor's bedroom one night, where he usually kept the keys above his bed, but couldn't find them. So, he woke up the mayor and trumped up an excuse for asking him for the keys. But the mayor couldn't find them either. Shortly later, the English were discovered outside the gates of the city, and the mayor prayed to Notre-Dame la Grande to put the city in her care. And when in front of the statue, he saw the keys in her hand. She was afterwards sometimes known as Notre-Dame des Clefs. I doubt whether these are isolated stories, and I wonder whether others have come across similar ones, or of keys that functioned, in recognition of such miracles, as relics. Cheers, Jim On 17 Mar 2009 at 10:21, Cormack, Margaret Jean wrote: > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and > culture > > Greetings all, > I´ve been reading a lot of archaeological reports recently, and the > topic of keys, as > possible indications of Christianity, has come up. So far, I´m > skeptical, but here are my specific queries: 1) what kind of pilgrim > badges or other souvenirs might one bring from Rome? Are any in the > form of keys, and if so, is there a standardized form? 2) do studies > exist of keys in female graves - I have in mind the Anglo-Saxon and > Scandinavian worlds in which women have household keys (or at least, > keys to a chest to which she therefore has sole access). I´d be > interested in hearing about any studies that might bear on this > question, especially if they discuss actual surviving keys. Meg > > ********************************************************************** > To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME > to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it > to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the > message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order > to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: > [log in to unmask] For further information, > visit our web site: > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html > ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html