Page - 49 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/01

Thus runs a brief account of the rise and fall of one of the many Catholic relics venerated in Europe. With the physical object gone, or at least untracea- ble, the end of its fame and its eventual disappearance from collective memory might have been expected (as was certainly the intention of the National Con- vention). Instead, as a result of a noteworthy media presence, it has remained to this day one of the textile relics regularly mentioned within many-faceted sindonology discourses. Since the middle of the 15th century, there had been particular interest in the cult of the shroud, in the veneration of an image-relic of the martyred body of Jesus. The shroud of Besançon was one of several textile objects that ex- perienced, as a result, a period of intense veneration and public debate, in the course of which various texts and, maybe even more influential, many images of the winding sheet were produced and circulated: life-size and large paint- ings, embroideries and jewels, as well as small prints and protective medals for the many pilgrims.6 A hagiography of this particular cloth was developed and carried forward, elaborating on its history and authenticity as well as on its rela- tionship with other textile touch relics. With the publication of De linteis sepul- chralibus Christi servatoris crisis historica (About a historical decision on the burial shrouds of Christ the Savior) in the early 17th century, the Besançon physician and scholar Jean-Jacques Chifflet (1588–1660) sought to bring about a decisive moment in perceptions of the local shroud and its reception, as the last part of the title of his Latin tract boldly suggested. In it he discussed the Besançon linen extensively, presenting the reading public with a thesis that, though not undis- puted, would be referred to well into the 18th century.7 Chifflet’s was an erudite author’s work, quoting contemporary influential scholars and publications as well as older sources, both religious and secular. The author gave singular im- portance and a role of its own to the winding sheet, arguing that while the Turin shroud had received the body of Christ at the moment of the deposition from the cross, the shroud in Besançon was the linen that had subsequently envel- oped the corpse in the tomb. Chifflet was a scholar, but at the same time he was also a citizen of Besançon and a man with an overt loyalty to the Habsburgs.8 He was also a Catholic with strong family links to the church, and more particularly to the Jesuits.9 Quite obviously, his treatise was intellectually and conceptually 6 The earliest reproductions were painted copies by the Besançon artist Pierre d’Argent from the second half of the 16th century. The production of prints is known from the 17th century on. For an overview and a discussion on the iconography of the shroud of Besançon, see Gauthier 1883 and Marcelli 2004. 7 Cf. for instance Latendresse 2015 for an interesting discussion of two source documents arguing for and against the authenticity of the shroud of Besançon respectively. 8 The Chifflet were a lineage of civil servants and learned men from Besançon. They were loyal protégés of the Habsburgs and the court in Brussels. At the time the region was under Spanish dominion and as a result of old dynastic relationships was ruled from Brussels. Cf. Vregille 2007. 9 One of Jean-Jacques Chifflet’s brothers, Pierre-François, was a Jesuit. Between Erudition and Faith | 49www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/1