The Rite of Church Dedication in the Early Medieval Era (review)

The Rite of Church Dedication in the Early Medieval Era. By Brian Repsher. (Lewiston, New York: The Edwin Mellen Press. 1998. Pp. iv, 204. $89.95.)

Medieval dedications of churches were dramatic liturgical ceremonies, high points in the history of many communities, and opportunities to affirm the relation of the Christian community to its saints, its locale, and its clerical hierarchy. Brian Repsher's study is a detailed analysis of two important early witnesses to the medieval dedication ceremony, the Ordo ad benedicendam ecclesiam (eds. Vogel and Elze, Pontificale romano-germanicum, Ordo 40), which provides a guide for the conduct of the ceremony, and the treatise Quid significent duodecim candelae (ibid., Ordo 35), which comments on the allegorical significance of the ceremony.

Repsher's first contribution is to demonstrate that Quid significent duodecim candelae is a commentary on the ceremony contained in the Ordo ad benedicendam ecclesiam. The association of the texts is significant because it allows Repsher to date the composition of the Ordo, which is found in manuscripts of the Roman-German Pontifical of the tenth century, to shortly before the composition of Quid significent duodecim candelae, which first appears in manuscripts of the mid-ninth century. Together, therefore, the texts provide a liturgical glimpse into the rich world of Carolingian ecclesiological and religious thought. The remainder of Repsher's study consists of detailed analyses of the texts, a brief assessment of their place in the program of the Carolingian reform, and useful translations of both. Repsher's general conclusion is that the Ordo and commentary were typical elements of the Carolingian program to reform Christian society. In consecrating the physical church through ceremonies of cleansing and anointing, the Ordo reminded the laity of their personal reformation through baptism. In order to instruct the clergy in how they were to interpret the message of the liturgy to the laity, Carolingian liturgists wrote allegorical commentaries such as Quid significent duodecim candelae, which developed the baptismal imagery of renewal present in the dedication ordo.

Although there is much that is useful and insightful in Repsher's study, especially the establishment of the relation between the texts and the dating of the Ordo ad benedicendam ecclesiam, there are important issues that are underdeveloped or imprecise. To equate all Carolingian or late Carolingian ecclesiology with Charlemagne's program, as Repsher does, ignores the potential of the texts and the shifting views of generations of Carolingian rulers and clergy. It is possible that the Ordo and commentary were products of Charlemagne's court, but it is also possible, by Repsher's own admission, that they were products of the mid-ninth century, the era of Charles the Bald and Hincmar of Rheims, who would have been conveying different messages through their use of the liturgy. The question of audience is treated with a similar imprecision. Although Repsher assumes from the general use of Carolingian commentaries in clerical education that Quid significent duodecim candelae was intended for a similar use, his conclusion does not take into account the circulation of the commentary almost exclusively in pontificals, books of episcopal ceremonies, nor does he consider the role of bishops in the Carolingian and post-Carolingian church. It is possible that the commentary was originally intended to educate clerics, but the point needs to be made with reference to the manuscript tradition.