medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
That comes into it, of course, as does the diagonal or St Andrew's Cross
(chi) - but doesn't help much with A - Z :-)
John Briggs
On 30/03/2010 14:57, Andrew Larsen wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Might the use of the abcedarium be related to Christ's status as the
> Alpha and the Omega, ie the totality of the alphabet?
>
> Andrew E. Larsen
>
> On Mar 30, 2010, at 7:34 AM, John Briggs <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
>> culture
>>
>> On 30/03/2010 12:04, Cate Gunn wrote:
>>> The consecration ceremonies (in the 10th cent. Pontificale
>>> Lanaletense and the 12th century Pontifical of Magdalen college)
>>> require the 'abcdarium' to be inscribed in the corners of the church
>>> - would this be the whole alphabet? What was the significance of this?
>>
>> The abcedarium (the whole alphabet) is inscribed (in ashes or sand)
>> diagonally across the church from corner to corner, once in the Latin
>> alphabet and the other time in the Greek alphabet. What was the
>> significance of this? Well, the best guess (see John Wordsworth, On
>> the Consectration of Churches, Especially in the Church of England: A
>> Lecture [1899]) is that this is replicating the initiation ceremonies
>> (baptism, confirmation, first communion) i.e. welcoming the church
>> building as a member of the Christian community! The earliest ordos
>> have the catechism with elements (e.g. the Creed) in both Latin and
>> Greek.
>>
>> John Briggs
>>
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>
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