Abstract

The question of whether relics which were part of the historical body of Jesus could exist, arose in the first decades of the 12th century, as the monks of St. Medard des Soissons claimed to have a tooth of Jesus. Based on historical and theological reasoning it seemed to Guibert of Nogent impossible that this kind of relic could exist or that they could mediate the redemption which Christ attained on the Cross. According to him, the prize of salvation could only be mediated through the eucharist. Guibert perceived a twofold mediality of the eucharist which at the same time reprents the holy body of Christ and mediates salvation. This medial dimension of the eucharist is denoted with the term figura. Since the Second Eucharist Debate and as a result of the criticism of Berengar of Tours the term figura became precarious. The discussion between Berengar and his opponents such as Durandus of Troarn, Guitmund of Adversa, Alger of Liège about the term figura can be viewed as a debate concerning mediality.