Late-Medieval Catechesis and the Credo

Abstract

The period from 1300 to 1500 witnessed an explosion in the composition and popularity of monophonic Creed melodies. The development of this corpus of about seventy such hymns paralleled a growing religious and cultural interest in the Creed. Specifically, this interest was manifest in three primary areas of late medieval religious life-catechism, devotion, and liturgy. In this article, I focus on the catechetical dimension of the Creed, and argue that the Creed’s role as an object of religious catechesis can help to explain the emergence of the new musical settings, which perhaps aimed to buttress memorization and understanding of the text. I examine the changing role of the Creed as an object of catechesis, specifically noting how it became an important marker of faith in the wake of the development of academic theology in the twelfth century. This emphasis by twelfthcentury theologians led to ecclesial movements in the thirteenth century that promoted lay participation in the faith through the Creed, which in turn resulted in devotional, artistic, literary, and musical productions of the Creed in the fourteenth century. Highlighting these catechetical and artistic creations that focus on the Creed helps to contextualize the flourishing of its musical settings in the late Middle Ages.