Medieval badges, pilgrim's signs and erotic tokens from the late Middle Ages

Medieval pewter badges

Interesting facts about religious pilgrimage badges and obscene-erotic signs from the Middle Ages

In the 14th and 15th centuries, i.e. the late Middle Ages, it was common practice throughout Northern Europe for people to wear small pewter badges on their clothing or headgear - known as wearing badges or pilgrim badges.

These pewter badges, designed as bas-reliefs a few centimetres in size, were provided with pins or eyelets for sewing on so that they could be attached to clothing as desired.

The majority of medieval pewter badges come from excavations in the Netherlands and Belgium, with the oldest finds being made on the banks of the Seine in Paris in the middle of the 19th century.

In the second half of the 20th century, many more finds were made, including a large number of medieval pilgrims' badges and secular tokens marks from the Thames in London and the Weser near Bremen.

There are a large number of very well-preserved examples, as well as many pewter badges from the Middle Ages that have only survived in fragments, which today give us a very good picture of their impressively wide variety of forms.

In addition to pilgrim badges with religious references, which were purchased on pilgrimages to holy sites, monasteries and the like, and which usually featured a saint, a relic or another Christian theme, there were also a large number of profane pewter badges or obscene-erotic badges in circulation in the Middle Ages, which thematised themes of love or sexuality in a more or less drastic way.

The medieval wearing insignia, whether of a religiously edifying, profane or sexually frivolous nature, were usually made of lead or pewter or an alloy of both, but there were also pilgrimage badges made of copper alloys such as brass or bronze.

The size of pewter badges from the Middle Ages was usually around 5 cm, but they could also be significantly smaller and reach sizes of up to 10 cm.

Medieval pewter badges with profane or erotic motifs

A wide range of motifs from everyday life can be found on the profane pewter badges of the Middle Ages, ranging from a simple depiction of a pewter pot or a cat with a mouse to a scenic depiction of cannon shots on a tower. Explanatory inscriptions in the form of banners often accompany these profane signs.

The majority of the obscene-erotic signs of the Middle Ages were found in the south-west of the Netherlands. Quite a few of them came to light from villages that had sunk into the sea. Medieval pewter badges of the same type have also been found in other regions of Europe,

France, England, Germany and Norway in particular, but in much smaller numbers. So far, 2200 models from the Netherlands alone have been described and catalogued.

The role of religious pilgrimage signs in the Middle Ages is clear. Just like today, they were worn as a souvenir or proof of a journey to a religious place or as a personal reference to a saint. However, it has long been a puzzle as to how the secular, mostly erotic narratives of the profane pewter badges are to be understood and interpreted and for which audience they were intended. In what context did they relate to medieval culture?

In addition to medieval wearable badges with the inscription AMOURS, which were obviously intended as a gift of love, the obscene-erotic pewter badges of the Middle Ages predominantly feature more or less drastic erotic depictions of genitalia in all imaginable variations as a central motif. These are joined by so-called exceptional people, such as jester figures and animals with a certain proximity to sexuality.

Drastic depictions on medieval pewter badges

In addition to copulating couples, the obscene-erotic badges of the Middle Ages also feature images of a phallus or vulva in oversize or distributed all around the insignia, or phallus and vulva together, often depicted in a humorous manner.

The erotic depiction on medieval pewter badges often makes use of exaggeration, with a tendency towards the grotesque, which is particularly often expressed in an oversized penis or a penis in combination with an animal, the so-called phallic animal or the winged phallic animal.

The phallic animal is often depicted on these pewter badges as a running phallic creature in the form of an oversized penis, often with a bell or bell around the shaft, sometimes with wings, sometimes dressed in wide trousers or a kind of jumper.

Erotic miniatures and phallic depictions on pendants already existed in antiquity. One example is the so-called fascinum, which was widely used in antiquity as a lucky charm and was attached to objects or around the neck in various forms in the shape of a phallus. There were also small bronze representations of a male member with wings in antiquity.

In addition to the frequently thematised, representational connection of the member with an animal, there were also obscene-erotic symbols in the Middle Ages that showed a penis in connection with plants or objects, such as the phallus. Also one that objects, such as the phallic ship or the phallic tree, on which several penises were attached.

Other depictions on medieval pewter badges show several phalli in connection with a vulva, such as a vulva crowned with three phalli or a vulva carried by phallic beings in a kind of palanquin.

Depictions of an oversized vulva with a bow riding a horse or in the form of a pilgrim with a pilgrim's hat, rosary and phallic pilgrim's staff are also known. Other obscene-erotic symbols from the Middle Ages show depictions of copulating couples or animals associated with sexuality, such as the rooster kicking the hen or symbolising a monkey with a mortar and pestle.

Mythological figures from the world of fairy tales and legends, such as the wild man, the mermaid, the water sprite and the devil, were also thematised on the secular pewter badges of the Middle Ages.

Many of the objects depicted on the medieval wearable insignia also have a hidden sexual message that is not immediately obvious to today's observer, but would have been familiar to people in the Middle Ages.

A well-known medieval pewter badge, for example, shows a man on a horse carrying a sack and riding up the steps to a mill. Here, the mill symbolises the vulva, the man with the sack represents the male genitalia, the act itself is defined by riding and climbing the stairs symbolises the path to climax. Similar hidden sexual messages can be found in many pilgrim badges.

About the meaning of obscene-erotic pewter badges in the Middle Ages

But where and on what occasions were these more or less hidden or drastically sexualised pewter badges worn in the Middle Ages? There is no shortage of interpretations.
Certainly the obscene-erotic symbols were not worn when going to church and probably not at other public events in everyday life.

Were these pewter badges possibly worn in places where they were hidden from view, or did they serve as a curative stimulation of sexuality?  Or were the erotic symbols intended more for secret use, as a kind of pornography that only served to edify in secret?

Most likely, the secular pilgrim badges were used for amusement on appropriate occasions such as carnival and fairs, possibly also as gifts for guests at weddings.

There are five different theories about the function of the secular badges of the Middle Ages.

1) Some pewter badges may have been identification marks of family or political groups, as they represent certain unique emblems or currencies.

2) Obscene-erotic symbols could be used in the context of carnival customs in particular, as obscenities were often thematised in a humorous way.

3) The use of obscene-erotic symbols as mocking prizes in connection with crude mocking rituals is also possible in the context of Shrovetide.

4) Some sexualised pewter badges could also have had a fertility-promoting or luck-bringing function or a meaning that warded off evil.

5) pewter badges with the lettering AMOURS could be interpreted as gifts of love, similar to those motifs that refer to fidelity, such as a puppy.