Johnston R.A. All Things Medieval: An Encyclopedia of the Medieval World

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Roads

610

See also: Cathedrals, Church, Jewelry, Pilgrims, Saints.

Further Reading

Bagnoli, Martina, ed. Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval

Europe . Baltimore: Walters Art Museum Press, 2010.

Cruz, Joan Carroll. Relics . Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 1984.

Geary, Patrick J. Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages . Trenton,

NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.

Geary, Patrick J. Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages . Ithaca, NY: Cornell Uni-

versity Press, 1995.

Manseau, Peter. Rag and Bone: A Journey Among the World’s Holy Dead . New

York: Henry Holt, 2009.

Stalley, Roger. Early Medieval Architecture . Oxford: Oxford University Press,

1999.

Roads

In the early Middle Ages, well-designed stone Roman roads were still very

much in use. They were especially dense in Italy itself and in other regions

that had been well developed by the Romans. Italy’s road system was supe-

rior to that of Northern Europe all through the Middle Ages.

In Spain, France, and England, the Roman roads gradually fell into disre-

pair. Romans only built roads that linked their forts and towns, and Europe

outgrew this infrastructure once the period of barbarian attacks ended. The

last Roman-style roads were built in northern France around 600. Until

very late in the medieval period, road building was not a priority. New cit-

ies grew where there had never been stone roads.

Roads were rarely built by planning but were developed when they led

to a destination: castle, monastery, church, market, port, bridge, or cem-

etery. They were named according to where they went or what purpose

they served. A road used to transport shipments of salt might be called

Saltsway.

Medieval roads may be best considered as strips of land where private

landowners gave people the right of way to walk and ride. In England,

some statutes stipulated that travelers could travel next to a road without

being charged with trespassing, if (and only if) the road had fallen into se-

rious disrepair. Landowners had an incentive to keep the roads repaired if

they didn’t want horses and wagons to drive onto their land. Road re-

pair in the Middle Ages generally meant leveling out the ruts and putting

gravel into swamps or other depressions.

Some roads had been in use since prehistoric times. Some had served early

medieval (such as Anglo-Saxon or Frankish) armies. Some were royal roads

Roads

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and were maintained to the king’s standards: in England, wide enough for

two wagons to pass. Wider roads developed along routes for driving cattle,

and alternate roads developed in places where travelers wished to avoid

tolls. Multiple roads developed on hills, so a traveler could choose which

path looked least steep.

Kings and other noblemen traveled frequently as they moved from

manor to manor. The English kings of the 13th and 14th centuries traveled

almost continually, and they carried baggage in up to 20 wagons. Although

the roads must have been difﬁ cult, they also must have been passable. We

see glimpses into the difﬁ culties of travel in kings’ records: shortly before

his death, King John’s wagons had an unlucky ford crossing, and his crown

and other jewels were lost.

The paving of town streets in Northern Europe came late in the Middle

Ages. Large towns such as Paris and London wanted to improve sanita-

tion and began to build cobbled streets with drains and gutters in the 12th

century. It was slow and expensive, as workmen sat in the street on three-

legged stools and pounded rocks or bricks into the dirt. The result was

easier to keep clean, and it shed rainwater into the drains.

By the late Middle Ages, cities had begun to pave roads with cobblestone or brick.

Stone paving required men on stools to ﬁ t and pound stones into the dirt roadway,

kneeling on stools and working inch by inch. It was a slow, expensive undertaking, so

at ﬁ rst they paved only the main streets in the biggest cities. Paved streets remained a

real mark of distinction until the modern age. (S. Greg Panosian/iStockphoto)

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Italian towns tended to have more paved roads, perhaps because of their

Roman traditions. Rome’s streets had been paved since antiquity. In grow-

ing commercial towns like Bologna and Milan, many roads were paved with

brick or stone. Property owners were responsible for paving the street in

front of their buildings, and the city paved main streets and plazas.

See also: Bridges, Cities, Wagons and Carts.

Further Reading

Davies, Hugh. Roman Roads in Britain. Botley, UK: Shire Publications, 2009.

Harrison, David. The Bridges of Medieval England: Transport and Society,

400–1800. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Hindle, Paul. Medieval Roads and Tracks. Princes Risborough, UK: Shire Publica-

tions, 1998.

Taylor, Christopher. Roads and Tracks of Britain. Worthing, UK: Littlehampton

Book Services, 1982.

Roland, Song of

The “Song of Roland” was the most popular epic of its time. Composed

by a Frankish minstrel named Turoldus, the poem ﬁ rst appeared in writ-

ten form around 950. Its subject matter was Charlemagne’s invasion into

Muslim Spain in 778. The oral version may have been in circulation for

years before it was written, but it was probably not composed close to the

time of the events.

In the song, Roland is the Count of Brittany and Charlemagne’s nephew.

He is guarding the rear of a triumphant departure from Spain, after a mili-

tary campaign of seven years in which the Christian Franks conquered al-

most all of Muslim Spain. The narrow pass over the Pyrenees mountains,

from Spain into France, forces the huge army to travel slowly, and the bag-

gage train at the back is miles behind. Roland’s stepfather Ganelon has

conspired with the Saracen ruler Marsile to attack Roland when he is iso-

lated. Roland compounds this disaster by ignoring his friend Oliver’s pleas

to blow an ivory horn called the “Oliphant,” which would summon help.

When he ﬁ nally blows it, help cannot arrive in time, and they are all slaugh-

tered. While this is the most famous incident in the long epic, the story

goes on to tell of Charlemagne’s vengeance against Marsile, the burial of

Roland and his companions, and an enormous battle between Muslims and

Christians. The Frankish Christians win, and their Muslim enemies either

die or convert.

In the historical events, Roland was a nobleman of Brittany, but he may

not have been related to the king; little is known about him. He guarded

the baggage in the rear, and the main army went ahead over the narrow

Roland, Song of

613

pass of Roncesvalles. Charlemagne’s campaign had not been long or vic-

torious; his army had entered at the invitation of some rebellious Muslim

rulers in northern Spain who wanted to rebel against the growing power

of Abd al-Rahman of Cordoba, who had come to rule about two-thirds of

Spain. The rebellion failed, and support melted away. A frustrated Char-

lemagne heard that the Saxons of Germany were rebelling against Frank-

ish rule and headed back to the Pyrenees to cross into France. The city of

Pamplona, home of Christian Basques, closed its gates to him, and his army

destroyed it. As the army passed over the Pyrenees, vengeful Basques, and

The “Song of Roland” was the best-seller of its time as both a song and a storybook.

This copy was lavishly illustrated, by 11th-century standards. This picture may

show the knighting of young Roland. A bishop stands by to bless him as the king

gives him a sword. Servants, possibly other knights, attach his spurs. Roland’s minor

defeat was turned into an epic of victory over the Saracens, medieval Europe’s

chronic foes. (The British Library/StockphotoPro)

Roland, Song of

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probably some Muslims, attacked Roland and stole the plunder and other

baggage the Franks were carrying out of Spain.

See also: Minstrels and Troubadours, Muslims.

Further Reading

Lewis, David Levering. God’s Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570–1215 .

New York: Norton, 2008.

Merwin, W. S. The Song of Roland . New York: Modern Library, 2001.

S S

Saints

617

Saints

Medieval Christians believed that among the perfect souls who went straight

to heaven, some had been so good on earth that they had higher standing

in heaven. These included monks who had done notable charitable works

and many martyrs who had been killed for their faith. These holy ones,

sancti in Latin and saints in English, could look down on earth and see

what people were doing. They could hear prayers and work miracles.

Dead people were certiﬁ ed as saints if they had lived saintly lives, or if

they did not smell rotten after their death (this was called “the odor of

sanctity”), and if they appeared to work miracles after death. A miracle

meant that God had listened to the saint when he or she spoke on behalf

of a humble petitioner, and it certiﬁ ed the saint’s position of inﬂ uence in

heaven. Medieval people had a low-threshold of deﬁ nition for a miracle. It

could be any improvement within a reasonable time frame, including natu-

ral recovery. It did not have to be immediate, and it was still a miracle if the

person later became sick again.

During the 10th century, the church began to control the process of

certifying dead people as saints. During the early years of Christianity, the

test had been simple: a martyr’s death. After there were fewer martyrs,

saintly lives or evidence of miracles at a tomb made people saints. By 1215,

the Fourth Lateran Council proclaimed that only the Pope could deter-

mine who was a saint. The process was called canonization, and the Papal

Court needed evidence of a saintly life and detailed evidence of speciﬁ c

miracles. The petitioner who submitted the saint’s name for consideration

had to pay the costs of the investigation, so fewer saints were named in the

later Middle Ages.

Many medieval people still venerated local, unofﬁ cial saints. As the can-

onizing process became more formal, some of these locally selected saints

were called blessed, beati, rather than saints, sancti . The local people felt

strongly about them, but they could not afford the sainthood process or

perhaps the saint would not have passed Rome’s stricter standards. One

local French saint would never have passed the Pope’s scrutiny. Saint Guine-

fort was a dog, killed by his master by mistake while protecting the master’s

baby son. The canine saint was venerated by the local people, who brought

sick babies to the dog’s grave.

Relics of saints were thought to have special power to work miracles in

the saint’s name. Most commonly these relics were slivers of bone, often

said to be the ﬁ nger of a saint. One saint’s relic was his head, pickled in a jar.

Other relics could include scraps of cloth they had worn or blessed or items

they had used. Shards of a saint’s tombstone could also carry the blessing

of the saint. Many monasteries and churches built their fame around own-

ing relics. The Crusades gave wide opportunity for relics real and false (and

Saints

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often stolen property) to be carried back to Western Europe. They were

housed in elaborate boxes called reliquaries.

The foremost saint was Jesus’s mother, Mary. During the 12th century,

devotion to her as the Mater Dei (Mother of God) grew all over Europe.

Many people believed Mary had been born without sin, and they revered

her as the perfect woman. Many churches and monasteries were dedicated

to Mary. Medieval art, both painting and sculpture, showed Mary with

her baby son and with her son cruciﬁ ed. People prayed to Mary in the be-

lief that if Mary asked Jesus to grant their petitions, he could not turn down

his mother.

Other saints included the 12 disciples, Roman Christians who had died

for their faith, and missionaries like the Anglo-Saxon Boniface. The most

famous saint of the Middle Ages was Saint Thomas à Becket, the arch-

bishop of Canterbury who was murdered at the altar of his cathedral in

1270. His tomb became a central place of pilgrimage in England.

Many people were named for saints; after the archbishop’s murder, thou-

sands of English babies were named Thomas. The calendar had saints des-

ignated for every day of the year, often more than one. Sometimes people

were named for the saint on whose day they were born. Many regions had

local saints, and those names were more popular.

Devotion to Mary, the highest saint in

the hierarchy, increased during the

Middle Ages. Her image in heaven

was of a queen in a shining crown,

but her image on earth centered on

the sorrows she felt as a mother.

Tradition said that the body of Jesus

was taken from the cross and laid on

her lap. A pieta was a sculpture of this

scene. By the late Middle Ages and

into the Renaissance, it was one of the

Further Reading

Abou-El-Haj, Barbara F. The Medieval Cult of the Saints. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1997.

Bagnoli, Martina, ed. Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval

Europe. Baltimore: Walters Art Museum Press, 2010.

Cruz, Joan Carroll. Relics. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 1984.

Salt

Salt occurs in almost every environment on earth, either as seawater or

water from a salt spring or as rock salt below the earth’s surface. Since an-

cient times, people have known that salt is necessary for human life and for

preserving food. Water that contains salt is called brine; as water evapo-

rates, the brine becomes saltier. As salinity continues to increase, salt crystals