What is Romanization?: Roman Authority, Recontextualization, and Reform in Carolingian Liturgical Expositions

In the mid-ninth century, Amalarius of Metz (775-850), Hrabanus Maurus (780-856), and Walahfrid Strabo (808-849) wrote treatises on the liturgy and used examples from the Liber pontificalis to promote their ideas of liturgical reform. Analysis of five specific passages provides a lens through which...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Phelan, Owen M. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brepols 2023
In: Revue bénédictine
Year: 2023, Volume: 133, Issue: 2, Pages: 436-459
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Liber pontificalis / Reception / Amalarius, Metensis 775-850 / Hrabanus, Maurus 780-856 / Walahfrid, Strabo, Reichenau, Abt 808-849 / Liturgy / Frankish Empire
IxTheo Classification:KAD Church history 500-900; early Middle Ages
KBA Western Europe
RC Liturgy
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Summary:In the mid-ninth century, Amalarius of Metz (775-850), Hrabanus Maurus (780-856), and Walahfrid Strabo (808-849) wrote treatises on the liturgy and used examples from the Liber pontificalis to promote their ideas of liturgical reform. Analysis of five specific passages provides a lens through which to see connections between Roman authority, Romanization, and the Frankish contexts of Carolingian approaches to renewal and to liturgical practice. Viewing Roman influence through the Liber pontificalis reveals a nuanced approach to apostolic example. Roman authorization for Frankish liturgical activities was prioritized, yet none of the authors advocated Romanization in the sense of exactly following Roman practice. Roman example certainly served as an ideal, but not a monolithic one. It is at once aspirational, but not restrictive or determinative. On a general level, the works underscore the intensity of Carolingian Renewal efforts under Louis the Pious, in continuity with and building upon the foundation laid by Charlemagne. The treatises also expand and nuance our understanding of the textual community within which Carolingian intellectuals worked and the scope of their conception of walking in vestigia patrum. More specifically, this study offers insight into the nature and importance of "Roman" in the work of Carolingian Renewal. Roman authorization was meaningful to Carolingian thinkers, who sought after and worked with data from the Liber pontificalis with which they reflected on reform. Moreover, Romanization was not a simplistic or even all that straightforward a process, but one of negotiation and recontextualization for our Carolingian authors as they tried to balance what they observed in the present with what they knew about the practices of the Roman church past and present, imagined or real. While these examples reveal how Carolingian thinkers interested in liturgical reform looked to Rome for guidance and justification, at the same time they uncover an innovative flexibility running throughout Carolingian efforts at Romanizing liturgical renewal.
ISSN:2295-9009
Contains:Enthalten in: Revue bénédictine
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1484/J.RB.5.137779