medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Hello,
I´m trying to find out if there have been any studies done on altar-stones (mensae) especially portable ones. Icelandic churches seem to have rather a lot of them (excluding those on the actual altar) which could, of course, be due to the needs of priests to travel. Some of them are described as in a 'setting', for example I have one example of what appears to be an alabaster altar-stone surrounded by enamel. I have seen many of these (not alabaster or enamel, but with some sort of frame around the stone) in museums in Italy and Germany. Second question, would Lutherans have any marked opinions for or against the use of such stones?
Third question: In the case of a fire in the church, the church will have to be rebuilt and consecrated, but what about the altar? I have an archaeological article which claims an altar that was 1) built of piled up stones, old testament style, and 2) eventually had the whole thing, including the altar-stone, just pushed over so it because part of the under-flooring. This strikes me as desecration, but maybe the fire had already done that job?
I note that the stone also lacked a cavity for relics, and I wonder when these were first required. The altar in question would have been a very early one for that part of the world (Denmark, 10th c.) but the question is whether the archaeologist was correct that he in fact found the remains of an altar.
Any suggestions and bibliography will be greatly appreciated,
Meg
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion
|