Such was the vigor of devotion to—and creation of—saints' cults during the middle and late Saxon periods that in the nineteenth century Cardinal Wiseman could refer to England as having been an “island of saints” (106). In this fascinating book, aided by over fifty black and white illustrations, John Crook traces the material expression of this phenomenon from its earliest manifestations to the Reformation. Deliberately using the term “shrine” in its loosest sense (xi), denoting any specialized monument associated with a saint's cult, Crook offers new light on devotional practices in England, with occasional pilgrimages across the border into Wales, throughout the medieval period.

Saints' cults were intensely physical, with proximity to, or even contact with, the venerated saint or artifacts pertaining to them at the heart of devotional practice. Given that, to the faithful, the saints “were in some way still alive and present at their graves” (13), the development of shrines, from early re-use of Roman sarcophagi to the high shrines of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, may be seen as manifestations of an ongoing desire to facilitate this profound relationship while at the same time preventing interference with relics. To this end, Crook addresses both material remains and a range of written sources, the latter of which he approaches with a particularly perceptive eye, teasing out relevant information from material which is often formulaic or even fabricated.

Physical evidence for early Anglo-Saxon shrines is particularly sparse, yet Crook finds evidence in contemporary writers' linguistic choices when describing structures, such as the “little house” (domuncula) employed in the Virtutes Sancti Furseii, to offer a persuasive account of the evolution of shrines from the re-used Roman work in the mid-seventh century (35). While as time progresses there are more tangible remains, destruction of shrines was of course high on the agenda of reformers wishing to stamp out “superstition,” so the thoroughness of this study is testament to Crook's wide-ranging and thorough scholarship.

The politics of saint-making are illustrated throughout, nowhere more so than in the cult of St. Swithun, a somewhat unremarkable bishop of Winchester (852–63) who, it is suggested, was promoted by Æthelwold very much because “a new saint was required as the persona of the monastic community” following tenth-century reforms (85). The form of Swithun's original “tomb-house” (tumulare sacellum) on his elevation is teased out from accounts of the elevation in 971. As with other saints discussed in the book, Crook follows the Swithun's fortunes and his successive shrines as they adapt to changing architectural fashions until the final shrine was inaugurated in 1476. Using fragments retrieved from the Cathedral Close and excavations, along with contemporary documentation, Crook offers a computer reconstruction of the probable appearance of this final shrine, as it stood in the retrochoir of Winchester Cathedral on the eve of the Reformation (287). In tracing this development, the deviation of English from Continental forms in the later twelfth century with the introduction of foramina shrines—that is, tomb-shrines with port-holes to allow suppliants to touch or kiss the tomb—is clearly delineated.

These case studies across time are of interest to both archaeologists and church historians, revealing developments in architecture, decoration—witness the fine micro-architectural detailing evident on later shrines (257)—and the devotional practices that drove them. Indeed, such was the devotion to relics that “cooking” a prospective saint's corpse in order to ease dismemberment and increase the number of relics was not uncommon (235), while narratives of “holy theft” (88) more than account for the security of later shrine designs. A desire for saints and their relics—and, one assumes, associated status and suppliants—resulted in the shrine of Thomas Cantilupe, bishop of Hereford from 1275–1282, effectively drawing pilgrims prior to his canonization, while others such as Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln from 1235–1253, were buried in tombs resembling shrines, in anticipation of canonizations which never came to pass.

Entering into the debate on the popularity of devotion to relics in the early sixteenth century, Crook offers valuable new insight. While acknowledging that images may well have become the more widespread vehicle for saints' cults by this period, he offers a convincing case for the active survival of relic cults “right up to the fateful year of 1538” (290), with accounts of visitations under Thomas Cromwell recording that almost half of the northern monasteries possessed relics of some form (295). Traditional beliefs evidently remained strong.

In an interesting coda, Crook notes that the rebuilding of shrines in St. Albans, Salisbury, Oxford, and elsewhere has led to a new focus upon the English saints: Alban, Osmund, and Frideswide, respectively (309–10). This excellent book by the acknowledged authority on English shrines carefully sifts the diffuse evidence to offer a stimulating account of how this focus manifested itself for medieval English Christians.