Cathédrale et pèlerinage is a collection of seventeen essays on pilgrimage and cathedrals. The volume is the result of colloquia organised by the CNRS-funded research group SALVÉ (Sources, Acteurs et Lieux de la Vie religieuse à l’époque médiéval) between 2001 and 2008. In the introduction to the collection Catherine Vincent asks whether it is not a curious idea to associate ‘cathedral’ and ‘pilgrimage’, given that the first is a monument and an institution, while the second is an act of devotion? Historians of the British Isles would, of course, say ‘No’, citing the shrines of Thomas Becket at Canterbury and Thomas Cantilupe at Hereford. The authors of this collection concur. The consensus is that pilgrimage should be considered broadly, with annual parish visits to the mother church of the diocese, journeys to cult sites for healing and ‘tourism’ for special feast days, all constituting forms of sacred journey. More particularly, cathedrals were frequently places of ‘classic’ pilgrimage; over time they amassed large collections of relics and devotional objects that distinguished them from other churches. The essays in this collection have as their principal focus consideration of ways in which cathedral clergy deployed their relics and facilitated pilgrimage, the people for whom they did so, and how their practices changed according to place and time. In terms of space, the essays focus mostly on north-eastern and south-eastern France, including Paris. All but three of the contributions are concerned with the Middle Ages, principally although not exclusively the period 1300–1500.

In the development of cathedrals as pilgrimage sites, three periods stand out. The tenth to the twelfth centuries saw what Vauchez describes in the conclusion as the territorialisation of the sacred, when the cult of relics was widely diffused and pilgrimage grew. Although the mother churches of their dioceses, cathedrals did not find themselves in a favourable position to attract pilgrims, for many important relics were located in abbeys. But chapters sought to overcome these limitations. For example, cathedrals emphasised Marial cults, particularly in the south of France, where relics and statues of the Virgin were used to attract the devout. In this volume the relationship between cathedrals and the cults of founder saints of dioceses are examined for the Lorraine sees of Metz, Toul and Verdun (M.-H. Colin) and for Autun, where the principal shrine was that of Lazarus the friend of Christ (J. Madignier).

One of the common interests of the authors is the architectural and liturgical development of cathedrals to accommodate pilgrimage. At Tournai, parishes were encouraged to visit the mother church by displays of relics at Pentecost and an annual feast on 14 September. One of the cathedral transepts was made into a ‘welcome’ facility, with candle stalls, donation boxes and a statue of the Virgin; chaplains were employed to provide for pilgrims' needs and a hostel was built in the city (J. Pycke). The functions of crypts in cathedrals are examined for Clermont and Chartres, although their use extended beyond pilgrimage, to burial place and provision of space for extra altars (C. Sapin). Differences in attitudes to pilgrimage and saints' cults between the cathedral and the principal abbey of Rouen are examined, using fourteenth-century sculpted reliefs of saints' lives from the two churches. While the abbey encouraged pilgrims to venerate St Ouen, the cathedral maintained a more impersonal attitude to the cult of the bishop Romain, accessed through a confraternity rather than visits to his relics (F. Thénard-Divivier). In Paris, however, the clergy of Notre-Dame were more attentive to the crown and its patronage than to ‘ordinary’ pilgrims. In the thirteenth century there were modifications to the cathedral transepts, to echo the design of the reliquary holding the relics of St Marcel; this seems to have been in competition with the construction of the nearby Sainte-Chapelle, itself a reliquary for the crown of thorns (D. Sandron). Notre-Dame attracted pilgrims to pray before the image of the Virgin, however, despite the lack of attention given to such visitors by the cathedral chapter. There were few infrastructural accommodations for them, beyond an offerings chest (M. Vincent-Cassy).

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw further serious attempts by many cathedrals to overcome their lack of ancient and prestigious relics by creating ‘modern’ saints and reviving old ones, usually former bishops. Indulgences were issued to encourage visitors. But these cults remained small scale, or popular for just a short period of time, due to the growing control over canonisation exercised by the papacy. Such attempts are examined for Langrès (L. Durnecker), Rouen and Sens (V. Tabbagh), Cambrai (M. Maillard-Luypaert), Reims (F. Collard), Autun (J. Madigner) and Vienne and Embrun, where a female beata, Philippe de Chantemilan, was venerated (P. Paravy). The rise and fall of fifteenth-century episcopal cults more generally is examined in an excellent essay by J.-M. Matz.

A third phase of cathedral pilgrimage is seen in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Although jubilees and indulgences attracted periodic crowds, Vauchez argues here that cathedral clergy sought to distance themselves from pilgrims by erecting screens for choirs and by distancing relics from the faithful. This runs counter to the conclusions of the three essays presented here, however. After Trent, the design of chancels and sanctuaries in churches changed in order to enhance the visibility of the eucharist. The impact on the display and accessibility of relics for pilgrims is considered in an excellent essay by M. Lours. Cathedrals adopted a variety of solutions; retables, exhibition cabinets and separate reliquary chapels. There was a shift from the periodic display of relics at special times of the year, to continuous visibility. The role of the cathedral in the creation of confessional identity during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is considered for Notre-Dame de Puy. Here, Jesuits and others revived previously-declining processions and pilgrimages, as well as founding a mission centre, as part of a drive to eliminate Protestantism from the region after 1600 (B. Maes). In a third essay, processional space in Toul is examined, within and without the cathedral, with differences drawn between visits, processions and pilgrimages (P. Martin).

So, to draw some conclusions, in general cathedrals remained second division players in the pilgrimage league in France, important to their dioceses and local townsfolk but less so to wider groups. This was not for want of trying, with new cults created, innovative architectural solutions and liturgical innovations all designed to attract the faithful. But many of these efforts had short-term impact. Rather, cathedrals became sites of memory for the religious and political history of towns and dioceses, rather than major devotional centres. This is an important collection of essays which should be read by all with an interest in the development of sacred space. The three essays on the early modern period are particularly welcome because the history of the post-Reformation cathedral in France remains to be written.