Plebs sancta ideo meminere debet: The Role of the People in the Early Medieval Liturgy of Mass

Abstract

The traditional approach to the historical development of the Christian liturgy tends to depict the medieval period as a period of increasing clericalisation of Mass at the cost of a corporate and communal understanding of this core Christian ritual. Liturgists have stressed time and again the decreasing role of the people in the celebration of Mass and the loss of agency on the side of the laity. The present contribution continues some attempts made in the past decades to modify this image and highlights the active participation of the people in the ritual of Mass by studying sources of diverse character from the period 500-850: historical narratives, liturgical manuals and Mass commentaries. This yields ample evidence that Mass was understood as a corporate ritual, to which clergy and laity contributed each in their own specific role.