medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Apologies for reviving a thread that is nearly a year old, but I have just
been reading (probably as a penance):
Brian Repsher, The Rite of Church Dedication in the Early Medieval Era
(Edwin Mellen Press, 1998)
[As the book was published ten years ago, it is probably too late to have a
pop at the author, but it it is not too late to have a crack at the
publisher: the Edwin Mellen Press is widely regarded as the academic
equivalent of vanity publishing. There is valuable material in this book,
but it is carefully hidden. This book sorely needed an editor and referees.
The author prints English translations of the "Ordo ad benedicandam
ecclesiam" from the Romano-Germanic Pontifical, and of the contemporary
anonymous (but Amalarius-ish) exposition of it, "Quid significent duodecim
candelae" - but not the original texts, although these are liberally quoted
in footnotes. The author exhorts us to read the translations before his two
chapters devoted to "analysis" of them, but as his idea of analysis is
somewhere between summary and paraphrase, this leads to much repetition and
tediousness...]
Anyway, for our purposes it suffices to say that in neither the Carolingian
rite, nor its exposition, is there *any* mention of the heavenly Jerusalem!
There is precious little mention of the earthly one either, except for a
suggestion that the consecration rite might be replicating Jewish practices
with respect to the Temple. In fact, Repsher demonstrates that the
dedication rite is closely modelled on a baptismal rite of the sixth century
[actually a combined baptism/confirmation/first communion]. It was clearly
felt that the church *building* itself needed to be baptised and welcomed
into the Christian community, and this connection is explicitlty made by the
Carolingian expositor.
Of course, Jon was asking about Gothic churches, and if there really was any
connection to the Heavenly Jerusalem, Suger may have made it up out of whole
cloth - but the idea may not have been widely shared.
John Briggs
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