On Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 12:48 PM, John Briggs
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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I have now waded through (Pfaff's own words: p.xiv) nearly another 200 pages (chapters 5-9) dealing with the various monastic orders (after an introduction, the first 150 pages dealt with the Anglo-Saxon and immediate post-Conquest Norman period.) This has been much harder going, as there is a much more detailed commentary on the various liturgical manuscripts, although still nothing in the way of history. Liturgical issues are not explained: I am still baffled as to what is actually meant by the 'doubling' of saints in the Litany (I can guess, but that isn't the point.) A waspish commentary on modern scholars is conducted in the footnotes, often with irrelevant biographical details. The unfortunate Archdale A. King is treated somewhat harshly. Pfaff is an inveterate, if rather unlucky, bibliographer: in the absence of an actual bibliography, no-one has spotted that he cited two different editions of the same book. The hapless indexer has conflated two wildly different E.M. Thompsons. As the general index is the only practical entry point into the bibliography, it is distressing to find the note: "Modern scholars mentioned in the text are included, as are those named in the footnotes if there is analytical or qualitative comment as distinct from mere bibliographical reference." There are some astonishing lacunae in his bibliography: for example, he includes discussion of Constance Berman's "The Cistercian Evolution", but not of Chrysogonus Waddell's three volumes of editions of early Cistercian documents! (Incidentally, reviewers have lamented that they did not engage with each other's work. Berman has responded that she shared her work with Waddell; he did not share his with her.)
It has belatedly dawned on me what Pfaff is really doing in his book. His interest has always been in calendars and saints (his book of collected essays was entitled "Liturgical calendars, saints and services in medieval England" [Variorum, 1998]); as far as he is concerned entries for saints' feasts in the calendar and sanctorale, together with the proper texts employed, are the only aspects of the liturgy that anyone could possibly be interested in! (Which might also explain why Sherry Reames, who has similar interests, finds the book so valuable.) The entire book consists of a commentary, arranged chronologically and thematically (secular by use, monastic by order), on the surviving liturgical texts from medieval England, discussing *only* that aspect of the various texts.
To me, that is the tail wagging the dog. Correct me if I am wrong, but the liturgy has three elements: words (texts: ordinary and proper), music, and ceremonial (what action is performed, and who performs it.) It covers all services (mass and office, and occasional services both priestly and pontifical) throughout the day, and throughout the liturgical year (temporale and sanctorale.) Yes, the inclusion of particular feasts and their relative status is an important aspect of what makes individual liturgies distinctive (although distinguishing individual Uses by focussing on those features has not proved in practice either particularly easy or particularly fruitful.) But it is the liturgy considered as a totality that is important, not just that particular aspect. Pfaff, by contrast, regards the English Premonstratensians as having a different liturgy from their Continental colleagues simply because they include different saints in their calendar (p.303)!
I have another 250 pages (and 5 chapters) on the secular Uses to go - I may then be in a position to give a final verdict.
John Briggs
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