medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> I read yesterday a papal bull authorizing the offering of
> pre-dawn mass for the pilgrims of Montserrat. Several
> moanstic historians at Montserrat have metioned this bull.
> However, none of them explain why such a bull was needed?
> Was there a rule forbidding the celebrations of the mass at
> night, or let us say, in the dark? If so, can anybody offer
> me information on when such prohibitions were put in place?
Might this have something to do with the 1565 stricture of the Council of Trent
against spending the night in pilgrimage shrines? The point of this was apparently
both to try to stamp out the "pagan" practice of incubation and to prevent the
"indecorous mingling of men and women overnight". Many of the Counter-
Reformation attempts to reform populist religious practice were both extremely
unpopular and largely ineffectual, but a common compromise position was a clerical
dispensation for carrying on as usual, thus at least marginally placing popular
practice under the auspices of the church hierarchy.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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