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The Medieval Church · c. 1119–1125
On the Relics of Saints
Guibert of Nogent · c. 1055–c. 1124
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What it is
An attack on fraudulent relics and invented saints, prompted by a monastery claiming to own one of Christ's milk teeth, and asking how anyone could verify such a thing.
Why it lasted
A rare piece of medieval source criticism, arguing that popular devotion needs evidence and not merely enthusiasm.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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