medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
But the expansion of Christianity is likely to be irrelevant for areas that entered the Middle Ages already very largely Christian and that then suffered severe population declines. As populations shrunk in the early Middle Ages some late antique churches would become redundant. Many of those, one imagines, would cease to be maintained. Certainly the hagiographic topos of an Inventio in and/or a Translatio from a fully ruinous church suggests that abandoned churches also existed in actuality. Perhaps their altars were assumed to remain consecrated until the dissolution of their physical fabric.
Best,
John Dillon
On Friday, November 21, 2008, at 4:02 pm, Maureen Tilley wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> Thanks to all who replied on- and off-list to my question regarding
> any medieval rites for the deconsecration of a church. Seems that
> there are none or at least none surviving. I guess with Christianity
> expanding thither and yon in the Middle Ages, the issue would not have
> arisen.
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