Musical Instruments in the Medieval Corpus Christi Procession

Abstract

SHE MOST SPLENDID Of all religious processions during the Middle Ages was held during the Corpus Christi festival, which was instituted by Pope Urban IV in 1264 to be held on the first Thursday following Trinity Sunday.' Its main feature was a parade of clergy and lay folk who escorted the sacrament through the city ceremonially after mass. It was a joint monumental enterprise in which all the local groups participated, civic and religious alike. As a manifestation of the power of the medieval church, as well as a visual and aural spectacle, the Corpus Christi procession was perhaps one of the most typical late medieval phenomena, bringing together all the arts, together with a wide range of dramatic presentations, under a common symbology. One of the effects of the Lateran Council was the elaboration of eucharistic ritual, typified by the consecration of the host as the new focal-point in the mass. Not only was the vision of Christ's passion kept vividly alive before the minds and eyes of the faithful, but thereby the notion of salvation as well.2 For the first time the host was raised up in full view during the mass and paraded through the streets in full panoply. Both clergy and laymen alike placed a great value upon the observance of transubstantiation, and looking at the consecrated wafer became for many the main purpose of attending mass. Crowds flocked around the altar awaiting the significant moment, many leaving the church immediately thereafter or running from service to service to see the elevated host as often as possible.3 That this exposure of the host was the climax of festive worship, exercising a hold on the popular mind, can also be seen in vernacular literature. Both prayers and hymns to the elevation became