Political Liturgies in the High Middle Ages.

Beyond the Legacy of Ernst H. Kantorowicz. 

eds. Paweł Figurski, Johanna Dale, Pieter Byttebier 
(Brepols Medieval and Early Modern Political Theology Series)

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"It is really no longer possible for the mediaeval historian (...) to deal cheerfully with the history of mediaeval thought and culture without ever opening a missal." This claim, uttered in 1946, comes not from a theologian involved in the Liturgical Movement, but from a man who, according to his own words, "shot the communist in Munich," he also resisted McCarthyism, and, while his personal and political life has recently garnered much attention, he remains one of the most influential medievalists of the twentieth century. The author of the quoted statement was Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz (EKa), who in his Laudes regiae added that "the liturgy (...) is today one of the most important auxiliaries to the study of mediaeval history." However, despite EKa’s strong convictions, 70 years later his words remain wishful thinking. In the curriculum of medieval studies, as well as in the research outputs of most medievalists, liturgy still remains underappreciated.

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Even though liturgy – understood explicitly as religious ritual – was a fundamental part of medieval society, and offered powerful structures of meaning and practice to medieval communities, its actual impact on the socio-political level is lamentably under-researched; just as conversely, the influence of the political on the liturgical has been underappreciated. This disregard has its roots in divergent historiographical traditions. Liturgical manuscripts have been studied by scholars mostly interested in the evolution of worship practices rather than in political culture. Frequently their research has been influenced by the pastoral concerns of the Liturgical Movement, rather than by a desire to understand past societies through the perspective of liturgy. On the other hand, scholars interested in political culture have focused on other types of sources, mostly narrative and diplomatic materials, and have not appreciated liturgy and its impact on medieval political life. Yet, it is necessary to build a bridge between these two areas of liturgical scholarship and political theory.

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(Anticipated 2021)