Here are some images to look at during our talk on lay piety in the Middle Ages. We might not get to all of these subjects and items of interest in an hour, I might forget to mention some of them, or we might possibly go a little out of order.... but please enjoy regardless!
The Mass: source and summit of the faith
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| An elevation at high Mass within an illuminted initial in the Ranworth Antiphonal, 15th century |
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| Elevation with torchbearers in a window at Doddiscombsleigh, Devon. |
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| The Mass of St Giles; note the altar is fully clothed and surrounded by curtains |
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| A laywoman receiving Communion (kneeling, on the tongue), as shown in a tapestry at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| The sanctuary and quire of St Helen's, Ranworth, separated by a chancel screen |
The Divine Office: the liturgy sanctifying the day
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| The family of Saint Thomas More by Hans Holbein, all with books of hours in hand? |
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| A page from King Richard III's book of hours, with the Annunciation in the initial |
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| A book of hours produced in Bruges, Belgium. England commissioned and imported many books from the Low Countries; as a bibliophile, Richard III's protectionist trade policies from his parliament of 1484 specifically made exceptions for the importing of books |
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| Pages from the Black Book of Hours |
Cults and foci of worship
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| Pre-Gothic: Christ Pantocrator (all-powerful), judge of the world, in a Romanesque church in Sicily |
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| International Gothic: the Crucifixion is rendered in a way to emphasize the humanity of Christ |
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| Saint Louis IX, King of France, spent twice as much money to buy the crown of thorns from the Byzantine Emperor than to build the entire chapel for it: the Sainte-Chapelle, Paris |
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| The "coat of arms" of Christ: the Sacred Heart and the five wounds |
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| Catholics of the north held up the Five Wounds as banners of war when they rose up against King Henry VIII during the "Pilgrimage of Grace" to restore the monasteries and ancient observances. |
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| Saint James (in the middle column) greets pilgrims to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela |
Well done! You sounded as if you've been doing radio interviews for years. Can't wait to hear the next one!
ReplyDeletehello! I enjoy reading your posts. I am a diocesan seminarian from the Philippines. I regularly serve at the Extraordinary Form of the Mass and am an advocate of proper liturgy and decorum for the Ordinary Form as well as restoring the Divine Office in the parishes. I saw your posts on the Sarum rite as well and it got my interest and respect though my country follows more of the Spanish traditions. As an English=speaking Catholic though, I fell in love with the Catholic Church in England. I look forward to updating myself with seeing your posts. Keep up the good work!
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