medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
John Briggs wrote:
>
> But if we stick to liturgical processions, a very early date is claimed.
> The Regularis Concordia of 970 was drawn up at Winchester, so it "must
> have" reflected the practice there. This describes the Palm Sunday
> procession proceeding to the church where the palms are blessed, and
> returning. It says nothing about the location of that church. The
> Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc (late C11 - before 1089) gives more
> elaborate instructions for the Palm Sunday procession, although it doesn't
> describe the destination where the 'statio' is made. The returning
> procession, however, halts outside the city gates before returning to the
> cathedral. The assumption is that Lanfranc's instructions were not just
> for Canterbury. The 1114 Winchester document (I haven't seen the text)
> apparently describes the combined procession making a 'statio' at the
> church of St James, then the returning procession halting outside the West
> Gate of Winchester, where the Abbot and monks of the New Minster returned
> to Hyde (presumably without entering the city) and the Prior and monks of
> the Old Minster returned to the cathedral.
I now realise what is wrong with this: although the 1114 Winchester account
is compatible with both the Regularis Concordia and the Monastic
Constitutions, they are not compatible with each other! In the Regularis
Concordia, the community walk silently to the (presumably nearby) church
where the palms are blessed, and then begin their procession. In the
Monastic Constitutions, the palms are blessed at the mother church, and the
procession then sets off for its 'statio' outside the city walls. Its
return halt outside the city gate follows the same pattern as the Regularis
Concordia specifies outside the west door of the cathedral. So the
Winchester procession is following Lanfranc, must have been adopted in the
late C11, and the palms won't have been blessed in the church of St James.
Any previous procession would have been inside the city walls, and it is
unlikely that there would have been an Easter Guild outside the West Gate
TRE.
John Briggs
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