Issues in Medieval Liturgy
2003 Indianapolis, Indiana
2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002
Convener 2003
James Donohue, C.R. (associate professor of theology at Mount Saint Mary’s College, Emmitsburg, Maryland)
Seminar Participants 2003
Seminar members: Gerard Austin, O.P.; David Chatford-Clark; James Donohue, C.R.; Michael Driscoll; Frank J. Henderson; Jan Michael Joncas; Donald LaSalle, S.M.M.; John Leonard; Gary Macy; Nathan Mitchell; Joanne Pierce; Richard Rutherford, C.S.C.; and Michael Witczak
Visitor: Heather Josselyn-Cranson
Seminar Report 2003
The paper “Who and How: Debates about Consecration in the Twelfth Century” was presented by Gary Macy of the University of San Diego. The paper argued that a qualitative separation of clergy and laity did not occur in the Western Church until the twelfth century. During that century sacramental ordination was redefined to exclude all but the orders of sub-deacon, deacon, and priest. Further, it was only during that century that the words of consecration were definitely accepted as the effective means of consecration during the Mass. The result of these developments was the creation of those who served as the altar as a separate caste with powers available to no other ministry of the Church.
Frank Henderson showed the wide variety of places and occasions on which vernacular general intercessions (bidding prayers, prières de prone) were used in the medieval liturgy and the influence of such varied usage on their content. Though most commonly used in parish churches on Sundays, they were also used in monasteries, hospitals, beguinages, parish guild halls, universities, at synods, pilgrimage sites, royal chapels, and private homes. In addition to the Sunday Mass they were also used within Mass at weddings, funerals, during pilgrimages, and for benefactors. Outside Mass they might be used at vespers, at night prayer (following compline), in hospitals, at guild meetings, and at preaching services.
In “The Stavelot Portable Altar: Eucharistic Theology through a Liturgical Artifact,” Jan Michael Joncas shared a work in progress on an artifact originally part of the treasure at the men’s Benedictine monastery of Stavelot (Belgium), presently held in the Brussels Cinquantennaire Museum of Art and History. Analysis began by raising questions of poietics (the process of fabrication). Joncas situated the work of gilt copper and enamelwork in the Mosan artistic tradition by unknown fabricator(s) c. 1150-60 C.E. and posed questions about the purpose of such an artifact. Lively discussion raised questions about whether or not we have the entire artifact; if it were a product of the monastery’s workshop (presuming it had one) or came from elsewhere; how this artifact related to others in the Stavelot treasury; if it might have been employed as a substitute for a privileged altar by an important abbot; if it was used by chaplains to royalty or aristocrats whose courts were “on the move”; what relics it held; whether or not it might enshrine material relating to a eucharistic miracle; and if it was a votive-offering objet d’art presented to the monastery after the death of the owner. The bulk of the presentation formally considered the interaction of texts and images in five zones: fifteen panels on the rectangular top surface evidencing a complex set of OT and NT images read in multiple patterns expressing a heavily sacrificial understanding of the Eucharist; two sets of four Latin hexameters that seem to connect the typological readings of the top surface to twelve square panels encircling the object depicting the deaths of the eleven apostles and Paul; and four three-dimensional corner figures representing scribes writing. Discussion emphasized the separation of the eucharistic elements, the influence of the Roman Canon on the OT images chosen, and the negative depiction of the Jews in the top surface panels. Esthetical concerns included determining by whom and why the title “portable altar” was given to the artifact; how it might have been received by monks/clergy of its era who may have found in the images a “mental map” of developing eucharistic theology; how it might have been received by laity of its era in terms of the preciousness of the materials employed and the brilliance of the colors.
David L. Chatford Clark made a powerpoint presentation on the completion of the archaeological excavation in Aqaba, Jordan (the Roman Aqaba Project). For the past three years Chatford Clark has acted as consultant for the project and is co-authoring the final report on Area J: what is believed to be an early Christian church. In fact, the data suggests that this putative mudbrick structure would be the earliest example of a purposely built church (not merely a modified house-church) and probably the second church to date we have, after Dura Europos (240-90 A.C.E., first phase). The church excavation was a part of the larger project which was to discover the economic and urban development of ancient Alia from Roman to Islamic periods. This church seems to have been a transitional structure in the ancient city of Alia. Its first phase dates from 296 to 303 A.C.E. as an assembly, domestic church. After the imperial persecutions the second and third phases suggest the expansion of an ecclesial complex with hierarchically ordered spatial overtones. It collapsed in an earthquake ca. 363 A.C.E. Of particular interest was the discovery near the end of the project of a large residence for we know that there was a bishop from Alia to the Council of Nicaea in 325. This presentation provided an update, with more conclusive data, from the material that Chatford Clark first presented to our seminar group in 2001.