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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture From: John Briggs <[log in to unmask]> > Christopher Crockett wrote: >> i know less than nothing about Winchester, John, but processions at Chartres will be one of the many liturgical topics discussed by Margot Fassler in her forthcomming book on Chartres > OK, how early are these processions, and how extensive (how far do they go), and how often (more than just Palm Sunday)? lister Jim Bugslag is the Expert on the Chartres liturgy and its processing here, there and roundabout, but he's about to take off for a couple of weeks in France to attend a meeting of the Corpus Vitrearum folks in Tours, so he might not have time to respond. leaving the field to me and the top of my over-pointed head. as far as i can recall, confidently dating elements of the chartrain liturgy is difficult before the second quater of the 12th c., which is the date of the earliest surviving ordinal reflecting cathedral usage --obviously, that ms. reflected older usages as well as more recent innovations, but which is which is a matter for the Specialists. actually, this ms. (called the "Veridicus") survived up until the second ww but has since been lost (the circumstances surrounding its loss are not clear). it was never publised in toto but a complete ms. transcription was made by the learned canon of the cathedral, the liturgist and art historian Yves Delaporte, and *that* ms. is to be found among his papers in the diocean archives (and there are various photocopies of it floating around, thanks to the generosity of the present archiviste, Pere Bizeau). Delaporte published an ordinal from the cathedral which dates from the first half of the 13th c. as: Yves Delaporte, ed. "L’ordinaire chartrain du XIIIe siècle", Memoires de la Soc. Arch. d'Eure-et-Loir, XIX, 1952-53. 297 p., 6 leaves of plates. my (shakey) memory is that there are several processions in that ordinal, some of which might also be found in the one of the century before. i believe that they were made to other churches in the city and its faubourgs --the Benedictine abbey of St. Peter, the collegials of St. John and St. Cheron, etc. i also think that, by the 13th c., there was a procession to the Benedictine house of St. Mary "of Josaphat", which was founded in 1119 or so by Bishop Godfrey (of Leves), below his family _castrum_ at Leves, about two miles from the cathedral, downstream on the Eure. this abbey apparently took its name (and its origin) from the topographical congruence which it had viz-a-viz the citadel of Chartres and that which is found between the citadel of Jerusalem and the tomb of the BVM in the valley of Jehosaphat in the valley below it. the local tradition (as recounted in the 17th or 18th c.) was that Josaphat was founded by Bishop Godfrey as a replacement for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem which he was unable to complete due to his election as St. Ivo's sucessor. he was in Rome on his way over-the-seas when the news reached him of his election back in Chartres and he was given a Papal dispensation releasing him from his pilgrim's vow, provided that he found this abbey (at least, that's one version of the story). frankly, it's been so long since i read Craig Wright's good article that i'll have to look at it again before i can give any more details --and the details i have given are all subject to a Reality Check by Jim or someone else. >I am a bit surprised that the Salisbury Palm Sunday procession, although very elaborate, doesn't leave the cathedral precinct. i believe that the Chartrainers were a bit more adventurous than that, hopping around to several other churches in the neighborhood. also of interest might be the question of processions in the liturgy of the Holy Sepulcher in the early Latin Kingdom. several years ago Jaroslav Folda gave a very interesting paper on this subject at the Kalamazoo conference, reflecting some serious work he was then engaged in. he may have published something on it by now. c ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join 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: leave 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/lists/medieval-religion.html