medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Here is a bit more about the Sainte Ampoule (once
identified by one of my students as someone's wife).
My source is Patrick Demouy (agrege d'histoire et
docteur en histoire, charge de cours d'histoire
medievale a l'Universite de Reims-Champagne-Ardenne).
These are his observations: it was Pepin the Short
who, by adopting the biblical rite of unction,
intended to demonstrate the legitimacy of the new
dynasty he was founding, indeed that it was God's will
that it be so. The first sacres took place at
Soissons, Noyon and Saint-Denis. It was to ensure the
legitimacy of the new dynasty and its continuity with
the Merovingians that Louis the Pious chose Reims as
the venue for his receiving the imperial crown from
the pope in 816. In fact Louis (the new Clovis)
determined that his name was derived from Clovis via
Clodovecus. A gesture was not sufficient to begin a
tradition. Archbishop Hincmar (845-882) wrote in his
_Vie de saint Remi_ of the miracle of the Sainte
Ampoule which existed in a liturgical tradition of
Reims: Flodard in his _Histoire de l'Eglise de Reims_
I, 13 relates the miracle of the dove flying the
missing holy oil in his beak into the hands of Remi.
The vial (fiole) existed; it had been found in Remi's
tomb (probably dried embalming oil was in it). Despite
great efforts by the "Remois" clergy to maintain Reims
as the ONLY proper site for the sacre, only three took
place there from 848 to 1017 and these at the Abbey of
Saint-Remi, not at the cathedral.
Demouy also identifies the Abbey of S-R as the burial
site of the last Carolingians. Apparently it took a
lot of shaking out and to-and-fro to establish both
the sacre site and the royal necropolis at their
"traditional" places.
Finally, Demouy adds this bit of info: From Henri I
(1027) to Charles X (1825) all anointed kings were
sacred at Reims except Louis VI and Henri IV.
MG
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