The Political Message of the Shrine of St. Heribert of Cologne

In this book, Carolyn M. Carty makes an important argument about the political valence of the Heribert shrine in Cologne-Deutz and sets it in context among a group of similar Rhenish treasury objects.

Of noble birth and one-time chancellor to the Holy Roman Empire, Archbishop Heribert is portrayed on the shrine as a humble ecclesiastic and champion of the church in the ongoing controversies of the investiture conflict. In the narrative medallions, as Carty explicates, Heribert is portrayed as a saint, embedded in the works and powers of the church, as for example, when he exorcises a possessed man while delivering a sermon.[...]

This is one of two images upon which Carty focuses in making her argument. The other, in direct contradiction of contemporary historical reports, pictures the emperor expressing fealty to the archbishop, acknowledging his saintly power. As Carty argues, these scenes are selected to put a certain “spin” on the life of Heribert, who is portrayed, not as the man of power, but as the man of the church and founder of Deutz Abbey.

-- Cynthia Hahn * Speculum 100, no. 3 (July 2025): 791-