Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture

by Miri Rubin

• ISBN13: 9780521438056
• ISBN10: 0521438055
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1992-10-30
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book studies later medieval culture (c. 1150-1500) through its central symbol: the eucharist. From the twelfth century onward the eucharist was designed by the Church as the foremost sacrament. The claim that this ritual brought into presence Christ's own body, and offered it to believers, underpinned the sacramental system and the clerical meditation upon which it depended. The book explores the context in which the sacramental world was created and the cultural processes through which it was disseminated, interpreted and used. With attention to the variety of eucharistic meanings and practices, the book moves from the "design" of the eucharist in the twelfth century to its redesign in the sixteenth--a story of the emergence of a symbol, its use and interpretation and final transformation.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	ix
Acknowledgements	xi
List of abbreviations	xiv
Introduction	1	(11)
Designing The Eucharist: New Ideas and Procedures in The Mass from C. 1000	12	(71)
The theological discussions on the nature of the eucharist	14	(21)
Matter and performance: bread and wine	35	(14)
The ritual: elevation and participation	49	(14)
Elevation, communion and substitutes	63	(20)
Beyond Design: Teaching and Reception of the Eucharist	83	(81)
Dissemination of eucharistic knowledge to the clergy	83	(15)
Teaching the laity	98	(10)
Teaching the eucharist with miracles	108	(21)
Further imaging of the eucharist	129	(18)
Biblical correlations	129	(2)
Elevation scenes	131	(3)
Historic Communions	134	(1)
The Child in the host	135	(4)
Grail imagery	139	(3)
Mary of the eucharist	142	(5)
Communion and its substitutes: frequency, meaning and participation	147	(8)
Exchange and encounter: Prayer at elevation and communion	155	(9)
A Feast is Born: Corpus Christ--The Eucharistic Feast	164	(49)
Liege --the birthplace	164	(12)
Rome - the feast's early spread	176	(5)
A vignon - the feast established	181	(4)
The liturgy of Corpus Christi	185	(11)
The entry into liturgical books and iconographic development	196	(3)
The feast's arrival in England	199	(5)
Images of a new feast	204	(4)
Funding and administering the new feast	208	(2)
Dedications and indulgences for Corpus Christi	210	(3)
The Living Feast: Sermons, Fraternities, Processions and Drama	213	(75)
Preaching on Corpus Christi	213	(19)
Corpus Christsi fraternities	232	(11)
Corpus Christi Processions	243	(28)
Corpus Christi drama	271	(17)
Symbols in Motion: The Many Readings of the Eucharist	288	(59)
Exposition of the eucharist	288	(6)
Para-liturgical Practices and images	294	(8)
Easter sepulchres	294	(3)
Hours of the sacrament	297	(1)
The Last Supper	298	(4)
Christ's suffering humanity	302	(14)
Christ's body and wounds	302	(4)
The Charter of Christ	306	(2)
The Man of Sorrows	308	(2)
The pelican	310	(2)
The Mill of the Host and the Mystic Wine Press and the Holy Blood	312	(4)
Mysticism	316	(3)
Heresy	319	(15)
Uses and abuses: the economy of the eucharist	334	(8)
Fantasy	342	(3)
Parody	345	(2)
CONCLUSION	347	(15)
Bibliography	362	(58)
Manuscripts	362	(7)
Printed sources	369	(14)
Secondary Works	383	(37)
Index	420