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Course
Outline |
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| THE STUDY OF LITURGY | ||||||||
LECTURE
SEVEN
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Background
Recall Charlemagne and Alcuin and the call to Rome for a ‘Book’. Books became part of the means by which authority was enforced.
Susan White talks in terms of the ‘first revolution in information technology’ being the monastic scriptorum, the ability to copy texts in bulk which was made possible by cheep paper and dedicated labour.
Books were important for the liturgy in the Medieval West but they were still expensive and the use of books reflected liturgical roles and not the complete texts of each rite.
Sacramentaries
The most important, or most widely discussed texts, are the sacramentaries which give the celebrant’s part of the eucharist and other rites.
There are various ‘families’ of sacramentaries but for the early medieval period we need to understand the distinctions between the Leonine, the Gelasian, the Gregorian and the Hadrianum. These texts are given the names of popes who clearly contributed to liturgical development in different ways but who were not responsible for the texts as we have them.
All the sacramentaries find their roots in the series of variable prayers (or Libelli) that different Popes collected for different masses throughout the year. The Leonine (or Verona) sacramentary is little more than such a list. The Gelasian finds its roots in France and is a mixture of the Roman and the Gallican (although more Gallican than Roman in its eucharistic form). The Gregorian, which is the main form, existed as a sparse Roman text to which many different Gallican additions were made (different ones in different places). The Hadrianum is a later version of the Gregorian.
Other Liturgical Books
There were many other books, many of which changed their names over the centuries or were combined or invented depending on liturgical fashions. Some of the most important that you might come across are:-
| Antiphonal or Gradual | Ordines Romani | ||
| Cantatorium | Pontifical | ||
| Troper Customary | Ordinary | ||
| Exultet Scrolls | Processional | ||
| Psalter | Ceremonial, Rituali | ||
| Hymnal | |||
| Book of Gospels (Capitulare Evangeliorum, Evangeliary) | Collectar | ||
| Captulare Lectionum, Epistolary | Martyrology | ||
| Lectionaries | Necrology, Obituary |
These slowly came together to form the Missal, the Breviary and the Ritual
Local Uses
While there was clearly a greater uniformity within medieval liturgy than there had been under the Gallican/Mozarabic/Celtic etc. there were still local variations and particular adaptations of the rites for different regions.
These local ‘Uses’ were generally focussed on particular dioceses and in Britain there were the uses of Salisbury (Sarum), Hereford, York, Bangor and Aberdeen.
The different religious orders also had their own Uses and so Westminster Abbey followed the Benedictine Use and St Augustine’s Monastery in Canterbury, the Augustinian Use.
The principal variations were in ritual practices, particularly colours, but there were also minor differences in texts.
Most ordinary parish churches in Britain followed the Sarum Use but clearly had to adapt it for parish worship.
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