From: "Christopher Crockett" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 10:34:30 AM
Subject: Re: [M-R] "Deconsecrate" (WAS: Re: [M-R] Feasts and Saints of the Day: November 25 (part 2))

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

From: Thomas Izbicki <[log in to unmask]>

> I went through the De consecratione in Gratian's Decretum this morning.
There is material on reconsecration of a church that has been defiled,

desecrated

and, therefore, deconsecrated.

temporarily.

until it is reconsecrated (or undeconsecrated?)

>but only one reference to not giving over churches to non-religious uses. I
suspect it was not until fairly late that the Curia, possibly the Congregation
of Rites, had to consider such measures as we are discussing here.

yes, it wasn't until "fairly late" that there was any need --the earlier
middle ages were (at least in France & the Western Fringe) a Boom Time for
church building (and consecration/dedesecration/undeconsecration).

during that period there was no more need for a formal deconsecration liturgy
than there was for a ritual when shuttering a factory in [what is now known
as] the "rustbelt" of the U.S. during the 1950s.


From: John Briggs <[log in to unmask]>

> Chris Crockett's imagined ritual of desecration was as follows:
 
> "--let's see, the bishop and priests of the cathedral systematically and
liturgically go around the place trashing the relics in all the altars,
defecating in the corners of all the chapels, while singing the Te Deum
backwards...


being severely Liturgiacally Challenged, i'm sure i could not have just
"imagined" such an elaborate ritual all by myself.

such a thing does not, after all, Suck itself out of its Own Fingers.


i don't even know what the Te Deum sung forward sounds like.

i must have read it somewhere in Martene.

perhaps in an edition which has since been suppressed.

i forget.

(say, Tom, why did you go to Gratian rather than to Martene?)

c

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