Abstract
This chapter discusses the combined uses of several media in medieval church rituals. Assessing the application of a (modern) notion of ritual to medieval liturgical ceremonies, it points out how these 'rituals' worked through a sensory combination of words, music, architectural setting, and movement within that setting. Also visual artefacts and in some cases, the 'sacramental' use of material objects were involved. In a particular ceremony, carried out since Antiquity on the basis of John 13:1-17, the narrative of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, the singing of chants was combined with the actual washing of the feet of either monks or poor people. The combination of words and melodies with elaborate melismas, and the further sensorial staging and setting of the ceremony produced a 'polyphony' of media, which can be analysed by way of early medieval notions of sacrament. The chapter also demonstrates how this sacramental 'polyphony' of media remained important for medieval ceremonies, even when the notion of sacrament was theologically narrowed during the twelfth and the following centuries.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Saturated Sensorium : Principles of Perception and Mediation in the Middle Ages |
| Editors | Hans Henrik Lohfert Jørgensen, Henning Laugerud, Laura Katrine Skinnebach |
| Number of pages | 26 |
| Place of Publication | Aarhus |
| Publisher | Aarhus Universitetsforlag |
| Publication date | 2015 |
| Pages | 180-205 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978 87 7124 313 0 |
| Publication status | Published - 2015 |