Corpus Christi The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture [Paperback]

A paperback edition of Miri Rubin's highly successful study of the meaning of the eucharist, c. 11501500.The eucharist was designed by the Church as its foremost sacrament in the 12th century. This study explores the context in which it was created and the cultural processes through which it was disseminated, interpreted and transformed through the 16th century.The eucharist was designed by the Church as its foremost sacrament in the 12th century. This study explores the context in which it was created and the cultural processes through which it was disseminated, interpreted and transformed through the 16th century.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.List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Designing the eucharist: new ideas and procedures in the mass from c. 1000; 2. Beyond design: teaching and reception of the eucharist; 3. A feast is born: Corpus Christi - the eucharistic feast; 4. The living feast: sermons, fraternities, processions and drama; 5. Symbols in motion: the many readings of the eucharist; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index. ...the book provides an exceptionally rich body of material and a spirited statement of a point of view important not just for eucharistlÃF