Fiat Lux: Lumière et luminaires dans la vie religieuse en Occident du XIIIe au début du XVIe siècle (review)

Catherine Vincent is a professor of medieval history and director of the Department of History at the University of Paris X–Nanterre, who specializes in religious and social history of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. In this ample study, she explores both manufactured sources of light (oil lamps and especially wax candles) and the theme of light in religious life in the late Middle Ages.

Vincent divides the book into three parts. Part 1 studies the ministerium lucernarum. After a preliminary chapter exploring the patristic background, Vincent devotes three chapters to the practicalities of light. Although required for worship, candles and lamps are secondary elements. Vincent describes the manufacture of lights that involves oil,wax, lamps, and candlesticks; their distribution within the church building;and their maintenance by various groups. She ends with the economics of lighting churches.

Part 2 considers the sign value of the flamme ardente. Light is a sign of honor: of persons, times, seasons, and especially of the Eucharist. Light is a sign of the presence of the divine:symbolized in the Paschal Candle and in the kingdom of light (the dwelling of God, Mary, and the saints), and contrasted to the kingdom of darkness. Light is a sign of communion: candles mark the sacramental celebration of unity or reconciliation of the Christian community.

Part 3 presents those who "share in the light." Various groups shared the responsibilities for providing and maintaining light. Candles are important in individual piety, although sometimes used in superstitious or diabolical practices. Candles function in the ceremonies involving funerals and burials.

The conclusion considers the impact of the Reformation on the use of light in Christian worship and the rejection of externals such as candles by some Reformers. Modern lighting technology and Vatican II reforms enter into Vincent's final reflections.

The final material includes six medieval supporting documents and a list of sources. Three indices (organized by places, names, and themes) and lists of tables and documents round out the book.

This is an exhaustive and at times exhausting work. Vincent states several times that the use of lamps and candles is of secondary importance in Christian life and worship, although her lengthy chapters sometimes belie this fact. By using a variety of sources,Vincent presents a fascinating overview of the religious, political, and economic factors in late-medieval Europe, especially France. It is social history of a detailed and comprehensive sort. Despite the seeming narrowness of the initial focus,Vincent paints a picture of the life and times of medieval Europe that contributes to the growing body of literature on the social history of Christian worship and liturgy.

Vincent's comments on contemporary worship are less helpful. After judicious summaries and conclusions based on painstaking research, Vincent is glib in characterizing contemporary use of candles in Catholic churches with several unsubstantiated anecdotes. A single article stands for current reflection on the role of light in liturgy. The same rigor in supporting the conclusions as in the overall narrative would have increased their value.

This reservation aside,Vincent has provided an important contribution to the growing body of social history of medieval liturgy and life.