TheRituale:the Evolution of a New Liturgical Book

Abstract

Odo of Sully, Bishop of Paris (1200-8), decreed in his statutes that each parish priest within his diocese should have a book called amanuale, which should contain theordoof service for extreme unction, the catechism, baptism, and everyday things. His prescription is the earliest mention in the episcopal legislation that a parish priest should have one particular book dedicated to the liturgy for all the services associated with pastoral care. But codices concerned with the sacerdotal rites for thecura anitnarumhave a history which goes back to the late ninth and tenth centuries. These earlyritualiawere often combined with the monastic collectar, as in the mid-tenth-centuryDurham Collectar. There are also some examples from the late tenth and eleventh centuries ofritualiamade for the secular clergy. Odo of Sully was thus providing his powerful support to an existing practice rather than instituting a new form of service book. This paper investigates further the context in which these early examples of ‘parish’ rituals were compiled, beginning with the Carolingian background.