Rachel Fulton

Department of History

The University of Chicago

 

Autumn 2007

 

SACRAMENT AND LITURGY IN THE MEDIEVAL WEST

 


Sacrament stands at the center of Christian experience as both revelatory and obscure, an obligation and a gift, a rupturing and a making whole.  Few modern theories of ritual have been able to capture this mystery in its entirety; this course seeks to explain why by concentrating on the history of sacrament and sacramental theology from the patristic period through the Reformation.  Particular emphasis will be given to the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist in their liturgical and theological contexts.  Sources will include theological writings from Ambrose, Hugh of St. Victor, Peter Lombard, and Martin Luther, as well as liturgical commentaries, liturgical formulae, meditations and prayers.

 


Books Available for Purchase from the Seminary Co-op Bookstore

 

Philippe Buc, The Dangers of Ritual: Between Early Medieval Texts and Social Scientific Theory (Princeton University Press, 2001) ISBN 0691016046

Nathan D. Mitchell, Liturgy and the Social Sciences (Liturgical Press, 1999)  ISBN 0814625118

Eric Palazzo, A History of Liturgical Books: From the Beginning to the Thirteenth Century, trans. Madeleine Beaumont (Liturgical Press, 1998) ISBN 081466167X

Peter Cramer, Baptism and Change in the Early Middle Ages c. 200-c.1150 (Cambridge University Press, 2003) ISBN 0521526426

Hugh of Saint Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith: De sacramentis, trans. Roy J. Deferrari (Wipf and Stock, 2007) ISBN 1556354479

Guilelmus Durandus, Rationale Officiorum Divinorum: The Foundational Symbolism of the Early Church, its Structure, Decoration, Sacraments and Vestments (Fons Vitae, 2007) ISBN 1887752927

Thomas J. Heffernan and E. Ann Matter, The Liturgy of the Medieval Church (Medieval Institute Publications, 2005) ISBN 1580440916

Miri Rubin, Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture (Cambridge University Press, 1992) ISBN 0521438055

RB1980: The Rule of St. Benedict in English, ed. Timothy Horner (Liturgical Press, 1982)  ISBN 0814612725

Martin Luther, Three Treatises (Augsburg Fortress Press, 1990) ISBN 0800616391

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, trans. John Saward (Ignatius Press, 2000) ISBN 0898707846

 


Course Requirements

 

The purpose of this course is to help students prepare to write a substantial research paper (15-20 pages) on a topic of their choice.  The assigned readings are therefore geared towards introducing the principal source materials and interpretive structures for the study of sacrament and liturgy.  A number of shorter assignments will be given each week over the course of the quarter in order to assist in the process of researching the paper.  For students taking the course as a doctoral seminar, the primary written requirement for this quarter will be a detailed proposal with bibliography of sources and appropriate scholarly literature.  Grading will be weighted towards the final paper/proposal (60% of final grade), but participation in class and performance on the weekly research assignments will likewise be taken into account.

 


Reading and Research Assignments

 

September 26  Ritual, Liturgy, Sacrament

Philippe Buc, The Dangers of Ritual: Between Early Medieval Texts and Social Scientific Theory (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), pp. 161-261 [BL600 .B76 2001]

Nathan Mitchell, Liturgy and the Social Sciences (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1999) [BX1970 .M583 1999]

Gerard Lukken, “Liturgy and Secularization,” in Per visibilia ad invisibilia: Anthropological, Theological, and Semiotic Studies on the Liturgy and the Sacraments, eds. Louis van Tongeren and Charles Caspers (Kampen, The Netherlands: Kok Pharos, 1994), pp. 45-64 [BX2200.L844 1944]

Fenella Cannell, “The Christianity of Anthropology,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute n.s. 11.2 (2005): 335-356  [electronic resource]

Joseph Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, trans. John Saward (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000), pp. 13-50  [BX1970 .R37 2000]

 

October 3  Baptism

Peter Cramer, Baptism and Change in the Early Middle Ages c. 200-c.1150 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 1-8, 46-220  [BV803.C730 1993]

Ambrose of Milan, On the Mysteries, in Select Documents of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, 2nd series, vol. 10: Ambrose: Select Works and Letters (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, [1900]), online at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf210.iv.v.html

Susan A. Keefe, Water and the Word: Baptism and the Education of the Clergy in the Carolingian Empire, 2 vols. (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002), vol. 1, pp. 1-21, 41-51, 80-99, 116-31  [BR200.K44 2002 v. 1-2]

Le pontifical romano-germanique du dixième siècle, eds. Cyrille Vogel and Reinhard Elze, Studi e testi 226, 227, 269 (Vatican: Bibliotheca apostolica vaticana, 1963-1972), vol. 2: 93-112 [BX2030.A2 1963 v. 1-3]

Martin R. Dudley, “Sacramental Liturgies in the Middle Ages,” in Thomas J. Heffernan and E. Ann Matter, The Liturgy of the Medieval Church (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, 2001), pp. 215-43 [BX1973 .L58 2001]

 

Assignment: Choose one of the baptismal instructions from Keefe, Water and the Word, vol. 2, and translate it from the Latin.

 

October 10  Sacrament and Symbol

Hugh of Saint Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith: De sacramentis, book 1, parts 1-3, 6-10, and book 2, part 1, trans. Roy J. Deferrari (Cambridge, Mass.: Medieval Academy of America, 1951), pp. 1-61, 93-182, 205-53 [BX2200.H891]

Elizabeth Frances Rogers, Peter Lombard and the Sacramental System (Merrick, N.Y.: Richwood Publishing, 1976), pp. 78-87  [BX2200.R65 1976]

Gulielmus Durandus, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum: The Foundational Symbolism of the Early Church, its Structure, Decoration, Sacraments and Vestments (Fons Vitae, 2007), pp. TBA [Not yet in Regenstein Collection]

Eric Palazzo, A History of Liturgical Books: From the Beginning to the Thirteenth Century, trans. Madeleine Beaumont (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1998), pp. xxv-xxx, 3-18 [BX1973 .P3513 1998]

Jeanne E. Krochalis and E. Ann Matter, “Manuscripts of the Liturgy,” in Heffernan and Matter, Liturgy, pp. 433-72

Cyrille Vogel, Medieval Liturgy: An Introduction to the Sources, trans. and rev. by W.G. Storey and N.K. Rasmussen (Washington, D.C.: Pastoral Press, 1986), pp. 1-29 [BX1973.V63 1986]

 

Assignment: Find one of the works of the medieval liturgists listed by Vogel, pp. 12-16, and make a list of its contents.  Compare this list with the items in Le pontifical romano-germanique, vol. 1, “Eléménts constitutifs”

 

October 17  Mass

Hugh of St. Victor, On the sacraments, book 2, part 8, pp. 304-15

Rogers, Peter Lombard, pp. 119-50

The Sarum Missal in English, trans. Frederick E. Warren, 2 vols. (London: A. Moring, 1911), vol. 1, pp. 20-56[BX5143.5.A3 1911 v. 1-2; Special Collections MSS reading room, on hold]

The Lay Folks Mass Book, ed. Thomas Frederick Simmons, Early English Texts Society o.s. 71 (London: Oxford University Press, 1879, 1968), pp. 90-117 [PR1119.A2 no.71]

Palazzo, History of Liturgical Books, pp. 19-110

John Harper, The Forms and Orders of Western Liturgy from the Tenth to the Eighteenth Centuries: A Historical Introduction and Guide for Students and Musicians (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), pp. 24-42, 109-26 [BV186.5.H370 1991; 3rd floor reference collection]

Richard L. Crocker, An Introduction to Gregorian Chant (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), pp. 111-27 [ML3082.C73 2000 including Audio CD]

Elizabeth Parker McLachlan, “Liturgical Vessels and Implements,” in Heffernan and Matter, Liturgy, pp. 369-429

Miri Rubin, Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 1-11, 35-82  [BV823.R780 1991]

 

Assignment: Find a manuscript associated with the celebration of the Mass and describe it.  You may use an actual manuscript in Regenstein Special Collections, a microfilm, a facsimile edition or a critical edition.  Check Andrew Hughes, Medieval Manuscripts for Mass and Office: A Guide to their Organization and Terminology (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982, 1995) [BX1973.H83 1995; 4th floor reference collection] for sources and structures of these books.

 

October 24  Divine Office

Palazzo, History of Liturgical Books, pp. 113-72

Crocker, Introduction to Gregorian Chant, pp. 128-47

Harper, Forms and Orders, pp. 73-108

RB1980: The Rule of St. Benedict in Latin and English with Notes, ed. Timothy Fry (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1981) [BX3004.A2 1981]

Rebecca Baltzer, “The Little Office of the Virgin and Mary’s Role at Paris,” in Margot Fassler and Rebecca Baltzer, eds., The Divine Office in the Latin Middle Ages: Methodology and Source Studies, Regional Developments, Hagiography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 463-84  [ML3080 .D58 2000]

The myroure of Oure Ladye, containing a devotional treatise on divine service, with a translation of the offices used by the sisters of the Brigittine Monastery of Sion, at Isleworth, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, ed. John Henry Blunt, Early English Text Society e.s. 19 (London: N. Trübner, 1873), pp. 1-71 [PR1119.E5 v.19]

Anne Bagnall Yardley, Performing Piety: Musical Culture in Medieval English Nunneries (New York: Palgrave, 2006), pp. 203-27  [ML3031.2 .Y37 2006]

Jonathan Black, “The Divine Office and Private Devotion in the Latin West,” in Heffernan and Matter, Liturgy, pp. 45-71

Edmund Bishop, “On the Origins of the Prymer,” in Liturgica historica: Papers on the Liturgy and Religious Life of the Western Church (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1918), pp. 211-237 [BX1970.B6]

 

Assignment: Find a manuscript associated with the performance of the office and describe it.  You may use an actual manuscript in Regenstein Special Collections, a microfilm, a facsimile edition or a critical edition.  Check Hughes, Medieval Manuscripts for sources and structure of these books.

 

October 31 Sanctorale and Temporale

Palazzo, History of Liturgical Books, pp. 173-240

Abbot Guéranger, The Liturgical Year, trans. Dom Laurence Shepherd, 15 vols. (Powers Lake, N.D.: Marian House, 1983), 1: 1-19, 9:277-335, 15: 57-92 [BX1970.A3 1983 v. 1-15]

Jacobus de Voragine, Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints, trans. William Granger Ryan, 2 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 1: 299-308, 2: 272-80 [BX4654.J3340 1993 v. 1-2]

Ratzinger, Spirit of the Liturgy, pp. 92-111

Stephan Borgehammer, “A Monastic Conception of the Liturgical Year,” in Heffernan and Matter, Liturgy, pp. 13-44

Harper, Forms and Orders, pp. 45-57

 

Assignment: Choose a saint from the Golden Legend and find his or her Mass and/or Office.  Compare the texts that you find with those discussed in Guéranger, Liturgical Year, for your saint.  Hint: Go back to the books that you described for October 17 and 24.

 

November 7  Holy Week

Herman A.P. Schmidt, Hebdomada Sancta, 2 vols. (Rome: Herder, 1956-1957), 2:590-601, 791-796 [BX2010.S34 v. 1-2]

Sarum Missal in English,  trans. Warren, 1:265-90

Rogers, Peter Lombard, pp. 88-104

Hugh of St. Victor, On the sacraments, book 2, part 6, pp. 282-302

O.B. Hardison, Christian Rite and Christian Drama in the Middle Ages: Essays in the Origin and Early History of Modern Drama (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1965), pp. 109-77 [BX1970.H28]

Richard Kieckhefer, Theology in Stone: Church Architecture from Byzantium to Berkeley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 10-19, 24-37, 102-114, 135-43 [NA4800.K53 2004]

C. Clifford Flanigan, Kathleen Ashley, and Pamela Sheingorn, “Liturgy as Social Performance: Expanding the Definitions,” in Heffernan and Matter, Liturgy, pp. 695-714

Craig Wright, “The Palm Sunday Procession in Medieval Chartres,” in Fassler and Baltzer, Divine Office, pp. 344-71

Harper, Forms and Orders, pp. 139-52

Yardley, Performing Piety, pp. 113-58

 

Assignment: Visit a church in Chicago that you have not been to before, preferably during a service.  Describe the experience.

 

November 14  Penance and Death

Rogers, Peter Lombard, pp. 151-223

Hugh of St. Victor, On the sacraments, pp. 401-51

Jacobus, Golden Legend, trans. Ryan, 2:280-90

Frederick S. Paxton, Christianizing Death: The Creation of a Ritual Process in Early Medieval Europe (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990), pp. 162-200 [GT3242.P390 1990]

Paul Binski, Medieval Death: Ritual and Representation (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996), pp. 29-69 [BT825.B4740 1996]

Roger Wieck, “The Death Desired: Books of Hours and the Medieval Funeral,” in Death and Dying in the Middle Ages, eds. Edelgard E. DuBruck and Barbara I. Gusick (New York: Peter Lang, 1999), pp. 431-476  [HQ1073.D395 1999]

Michael S. Driscoll, “The Seven Psalms of Penitence: Their Designation and Usage from the Middle Ages Onwards,” Ecclesia Orans 17.2 (2000): 153-201  [BX1970.A1E25]

Thomas Tentler, Sin and Confession on the Eve of the Reformation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977), pp. 3-53 [BV840.T3]

 

Assignment: Short proposal (1-2 pages) for your final paper, with bibliography of sources and scholarship (1-2 pages).

 

November 21 Magic, Heresy and Parody

Robert Mathiesen, “A Thirteenth-Century Ritual to Attain the Beatific Vision from the Sworn Book of Honorius of Thebes,” in Claire Fanger, ed., Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998), pp. 143-62 [BF1593 .C66 1998]

Richard Kieckhefer, “The Devil’s Contemplatives: The Liber Iuratus, the Liber Visionum and Christian Appropriations of Jewish Occultism,” in Fanger, Conjuring Spirits, pp. 250-65

Liber iuratus, or The Sworne Booke of Honorius, ed. Joseph H. Petersen, online at Esoteric Archives http://www.esotericarchives.com/juratus/juratus.htm

Martha Bayless, Parody in the Middle Ages: The Latin Tradition (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996), pp. 338-53 [PA8030.P35 B39 1996]

Walter L. Wakefield and Austin P. Evans, Heresies of the High Middle Ages (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), pp. 465-94 [BT1315.2.W320 1991]

Rubin, Corpus Christi, pp. 319-46

 

Assignment: TBA

 

November 28 The Spirit of the Liturgy

Martin Luther, “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church,” in Three Treatises (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1947), pp. 123-260 [BR331.5.E5 1947]

Ann Astell, Eating Beauty: The Eucharist and the Spiritual Arts of the Middle Ages (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006), pp. 26-61, 227-53 [BV823 .A77 2006]

Ratzinger, Spirit of the Liturgy, pp. 115-224

 

Assignment: TBA

 

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