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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Back in October I posted a question about the theme of praying in church as opposed to praying outside of church. I cited Peter the Chanter in De penitentia to the effect that it was better to pray in church than elsewhere, and asked whether there were other examples of this theme in pastoral or normative literature. Let me now ask my question again, but in a different way. In response to my earlier posting, Bernadette Filotas kindly sent me an extract from her work discussing prohibitions in the Frankish church in the early Middle Ages of mass being said in homes and other inappropriate places. This seems to reflect tensions between Christian ideas of sacred space and persistant traditional (Roman and Germanic) associations of the sacred with the domus. More directly, the prohibitions represented tensions between episcopal authority and the authority of the secular aristocrats who owned these private chapels or oratories. In other words, Frankish bishops prohibited the saying of masses in the oratories of private homes because, in fact, priests were doing so; the question of where mass and other rites ought to be performed was a live one. When Peter the Chanter and others in the twelfth and thirteenth century asserted the superiority of praying in church, were they seeking to move into churches prayer that was in fact taking place elsewhere (homes, streets)? Was this a commonplace, or was it a live issue? Thanks, Tom Luongo ********************************************************************** 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