medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On thing I feel we didn't explore in sufficient depth in our Experience of
Worship project on medieval liturgies in practice was this question of valid
consecration - the 'priest' was actually an Anglican canon. When he
celebrated the Mass in the Sarum liturgy, in that church, on a medieval
altar, what was he actually doing? (in his own eyes and in those of other
participants)
Dear Maddy,
I attended a session at IMC Leeds this year where this project was described
and discussed.
IIRC - and I didn't take notes - the Anglican clergy who were behind the
project were determined to celebrate a "real" Mass and not just a historical
re-enactment. Therefore they chose to use an English liturgy that was
carefully dated to the reign of Henry VIII, during the period when the Latin
Mass had been replaced by an English one but before the final breach with
Rome. Thus they felt that they were doing something that was valid in both
the pre-Reformation AND in the Reformed tradition. Remember that Anglican
Orders see themselves as part of an unbroken Apostolic Succession.
So in answer to your question, the celebrants believed that they were doing
something valid, genuine and pleasing to God.
However, I also seem to remember the speaker also saying that the elements
offered *to the congregation* (who were mostly but not all Anglicans) were
from a reserved sacrament previously consecrated according to the
contemprary Anglican liturgy (probably Common Worship not Book of Common
Prayer) just in case anyone of them had scruples.
I have to admit I was a bit uneasy about the project, wondering if (whatever
the intentions) a "real" Mass would not border on the blasphemous.
Interstingly enough, I shared my feelings with the woman sitting next to me
(she turned out to be the wife of a C of E vicar) and she had been very
concerned that the Mass should be the "real thing" and would have been
deeply offended by a re-enactment.
So different people from similar backgrounds responded in very different
ways.
I am sorry if this is a bit untechnical, but I hope it is clear enough that
the celebrants on that occasion were performing in good faith and that the
congregation accepted this in the same spirit.
Brenda,
Brenda M Cook,
Independent Scholar
"I care not if you bridge the sea,
Or ride secure the cruel sky,
Or build consummate palaces,
Of metal or of masonry;
But have you wine and music still,
And statues, and a bright-eyed love,
And foolish thoughts of good and ill,
And prayers to them who sit above ?"
James Elroy Flecker: "To a poet a thousand years hence." (1915)
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