The Liturgy of the Medieval Church (review)

232 Reviews Parergon 20.1 (2003) Heffernan, Thomas J. and E. Ann Matter, eds, The Liturgy of the Medieval Church, Kalamazoo, MI, TEAMS, 2001; paper; pp. xx, 778; 87 b/w illustrations; RRP US$30.00; ISBN 1580440088. This substantial volume, another in the series produced by the Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages, is dedicated to informing students about a wide range of aspects of the liturgies of the Middle Ages, a subject that Thomas Heffernan rightly acknowledges ‘is one of the least well-known sources for western culture’ (p. 5). The volume comprises some twenty individual essays, arranged, after the editors’ introduction, in sections that deal in turn with the shape of the liturgical year, particular liturgies, the physical setting of the liturgy, the liturgy and books, liturgy and the arts, and a final essay that considers liturgy as social performance. There is no general bibliography (most contributors provide their own, of varying lengths), but there is an extensive glossary of technical terms. That item is sure to be of considerable help as a quick and ready reference; it is comprehensive enough to cater both for students who are unsure what a cathedral is, and those who need to distinguish a fistula from a flabellum. Individual essays are keyed to the glossary through bold type. One of the inevitable difficulties with any compilation like this is having a clear sense of the intended readership. The editors suggest that this work is intended for teachers and advanced students (the implication seems to be that they have similar needs), and that each essay is ‘intended to be introductory but to provide the basic facts and the essential bibliography for further study’ (p. 9). The desire to ‘provide basic facts’ in each case has occasionally led to some duplication of materials, but a collection such as this will hardly be read from cover to cover, and such repetition is no disadvantage. Provision of essential further reading is more troublesome; some of the essays provide separate bibliographies – exemplary in this regard is the essay on manuscripts of the liturgy – but a number confine their bibliographical references to footnote citations, with little sense of providing guidance for students in further reading. A more pressing difficulty than that of audience, however, has to do with confronting the homogeneity implied in the volume’s title. While it makes perfect sense to write of the liturgy of the medieval church, it makes equal sense to discuss the liturgies of the medieval churches, for the public celebration of the faith varied enormously, not only across the centuries thought of as medieval, but also across the geographical areas where such celebrations were carried out. Indeed, even within a single place and time, liturgical practice showed Reviews 233 Parergon 20.1 (2003) considerable variation between, for example, Cluniac monastery and parish church. Wisely, the editors have not sought to impose a uniformity where none exists. Instead, the structure of the volume provides essays that deal with general subjects (such as liturgical time, liturgical manuscripts and horae, iconography or music), but others that exemplify liturgical practices with specific discussions of, for example, Byzantine practice, or a Swedish parish church. Ironically, perhaps, it is likely that those latter essays (predominantly in part two) will be the least read by the advanced students for whom the book is designed. While their inclusion is both required by (and witness to) the variety of cultural expressions that make up the medieval liturgy, their particularity of focus may restrict their readership. Overall, the volume seems a thoughtful and well-considered compilation, likely to be invaluable not just to the advanced students it seeks to cater for, but beyond that to any medievalist who cannot lay claim to some specialist knowledge of liturgical matters. Indeed, the variety of subjects covered, which to name but a few, include iconography, music, architecture, liturgical vessels, and liturgical manuscripts, ensures that even those who do have some such specialist knowledge will find this a convenient reference book. The final essay, however, deserves some individual comment. It deals with liturgy as ‘social performance’, and seeks (as its subtitle indicates) to ‘expand the definitions’ of what may be considered liturgical...