introduction: Witness Testimony and Literary Production in the Later Middle Ages

Witnesses were integral to a wide range of devotional and legal practices throughout the Middle Ages. As the crowds at martyrs’ trials, the audiences of mystery plays, and the readers of saints’ lives, they were repeatedly invoked in the traditions, rituals, and texts that shaped and articulated the ideals of Christian communities to testify to the sanctity and efficacy of Christian doctrine. Likewise, in ordeal trials, last wills and testaments, and writs of complaint, witnesses attested to the integrity of a law-abiding community. This book focuses on both devotional and legal witnessing practices in the later Middle Ages, arguing for