Paweł Figurski

The text provides a highly detailed catalogue description of the twelfth-century collectar from the Cistercian Abbey of Ląd (Poland), preserved today in Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Until 2016 the manuscript was regarded in Poland as lost (during World War II). The appendix describes the newly discovered manuscript and presents a sample description template that will be utilized in the catalogue.

Moreover, the article describes other objectives of the recently launched project "Liturgica Poloniae." The grant, financed by the Ministry of Education and Science within the National Program for the Development of Humanities (2022–2027), conducted at the Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences, aims to meticulously catalogue approximately 110 liturgical manuscripts copied until ca. 1300, currently held in Polish and foreign repositories. The absence of a comprehensive publication addressing this objective and the inadequacies of existing catalogues necessitate a detailed examination of Polish liturgical codices.

Utilizing advanced technologies, the project will provide reliable information about Polish liturgical manuscripts. The resulting English-language catalogue will offer extensive details on bindings, scripts, musical notations, materials used, ornamentation, provenance, dating, and, notably, a specific description of liturgical content tailored to each genre. The catalogue will be published in open access and distributed to major libraries. The catalogue intends to facilitate global research on Poland’s national heritage, correct misdated or misidentified manuscripts, and aid specialists in Polish history in interpreting liturgical sources.

The full publication is available here: https://wydawnictwo.umk.pl/produkt/codices-et-fragmenta-sredniowieczny-kodeks-rekopismienny-w-aspekcie-historycznego-trwania

Although the issues of premodern ethnogenesis, early medieval state formation, and political identification are central fields of inquiry in recent historiography, including in Polish academia, scholars rarely refer to liturgical sources even when discussing the significance of political rituals. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to examine identity formation in the Piast realms based on liturgical evidence which contributed significantly to political identification in medieval Poland. First, the paper analyzes the meaning and spread of the name Polonia proper, as applied c. 1000 for the territory under the Piast ruler. The first materially extant example of the term appears in the liturgical sequence "Annua recolamus" from the well-known Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek MS Lit. 5, fol. 97v. Second, the paper analyzes how Christian liturgy enabled leaders to shape and internalise Polish political identity through the liturgical invocation of the name of a ruler. This phenomenon granted Piasts virtual omnipresence in spite of their physical absence, in regions defined by flux and chaos. The practice was an expression of political allegiance in newly conquered regions, where new sacral architecture was being constructed. Finally, based on the Carolingian, post-Carolingian, and Slavic analogies, the paper argues that the political message conveyed by liturgical phenomena should not be seen as exclusively limited to the members of the clergy, but rather that it could have reached a broader audience as well. In sum, the paper posits that the power of the Christian liturgy was one of the most efficient identification strategies employed by the first rulers of medieval Polonia at the turn of the first and the second millennium.

William Diebold argued for the overwhelming influence of the Carolingian Codex aureus, BSB, Clm 14000, in artistic production in Regensburg around the year 1000. Diebold has stressed the misreadings of the model, as well as its creative continuation in the visual/textual Ottonian culture. In this paper, I have argued that not only visual but also liturgical traditions developed by Carolingians might have influenced the rich Regensburg iconography that expressed theological/political ideas in the early eleventh and twelfth centuries. The invocation of the king in the "Te igitur" provided the ruler with sacramental powers and equated him with the highest ecclesiastical hierarchy. Similar ideas were unfolded in Henry II’s symbolic portraiture in Clm 4456, as well as in the heavenly/earthly hierarchy with Salian rulers from the Kraków Gospel Book. Moreover, it seems that the "ad complendum" oration from one of the "missae pro rege", preserved in all of the sacramentaries of indisputably Regensburg provenance, might also have influenced the original iconography of Henry in Clm 4456, fol. 11r. If, as noted by Kantorowicz, the Ottonian and early Salian government could be labeled as liturgical kingship, this conception reached one of its peaks during this era in the monastery of St Emmeram.

In this paper, I would like to venture beyond the predominant historiographical framework of the "monarchical Church" and focus on other areas of episcopal activity, usually omitted from examination, but which were at the core of bishops’ activities — namely, the leadership in Christian worship. I argue that the liturgical manuscripts from the Piast realms, usually overlooked or analyzed outside of their proper societal and political context, shed light on the polyvalent agency of various bishops, including in respect to the Piast rulers. The codices from medieval Poland used during ecclesiastical services, if analyzed properly, tell a different story than that usually encountered in the narratives on the "monarchical Church". This paper, although not examining the foundations on which the "monarchical Church" model was elevated, analyzes medieval Church in the Piast realms from another viewpoint, offering insights into concerns other than those usually present in recent historiography. To unfold this different perspective, I will first describe the significance of the liturgy for episcopal self-conceptualization in the late tenth to early eleventh centuries, including an example of a hierarch active in the Piast realm. Having laid these foundations, I will then move to the extant corpus of Polish manuscripts, offering a reconsideration of selected liturgical codices, which have been misinterpreted in previous scholarship primarily because they were analyzed within the framework of the "monarchical Church". Finally, I will briefly examine hitherto largely unknown pontificals, produced before 1200 and preserved in Poland, that provide insight into the manifold activities of bishops in one of the Central European dioceses but lack developed political liturgy, which would be expected if one subscribes to the "monarchical Church" vision.

The political role that rituals can play, is well acknowledged in current scholar­ship, especially after the so-called ‘performative turn’ in the humanities, which has led many scholars in recent decades to pay more attention to rituals and cere­monies as important driving forces in society. Especially scholars of the Middle Ages have been prominent adopters of anthropologically inspired approaches on this point. In their vigorous investigations, however, most historians have chiefly studied non-religious ‘ritual’ behaviour, largely glossing over the liturgy. Ernst H. Kan­torowicz, on the other hand, asserted already in 1946 that ‘it is really no longer possible for the mediaeval historian [...] to deal cheerfully with the history of mediaeval thought and culture without ever opening a missal’. Yet liturgy has never truly entered the mainstream of historians’ training in academia, and many medievalists still research political culture without considering consulting a liturgical book.

Kantorowicz argued that the medieval vision of world unity was part of Christian eschatology, thus encompassing both the real and the ideal vision of the world, both at the particular moment in its history and at its end. It embraced both temporality and eternity, both heaven and earth ‘with the one referring to the other, reflecting the other, and flowing over into the other’. Kantorowicz called this reality sacramental. He suggested that political institutions, particularly the Roman Empire, also had sacramental features: ‘In East and West alike, the Roman Empire was not considered a political unit but a supra-political idea, an almost sacramental entity’. In this paper, I would like to follow Kantorowicz’s suggestion and argue that not only the Roman Empire but also medieval kingship should be understood within the framework of the medieval world’s sacramentality. My goal is to propose the concept of sacramental kingship as the description of royal power in the Early and High Middle Ages to grasp more accurately the medieval affinities between what we today call politics and religion. A theory of kingship set within the sacramental framework describes the belief in royal power as an inner ecclesiastical office intermingled with God’s heavenly kingship, signifying the latter and making it present on earth. This approach proposes a way out of the puzzles of modern historiography, which – according to my assessment – is trapped within the false dichotomy (sacred/sacral kingship versus essentially secular kingship), and the dialectical processes of sacralization versus de-sacralization, or secularization versus de-secularization. To prove this point, I shall firstly describe the ideological constraints of modern historiography on medieval kingship, especially regarding political liturgies. Secondly, based on the analysis of selected medieval sources, I shall demonstrate the sacramental nature of kingship in the Middle Ages.

Moim celem jest przedstawienie dowodów wbrew przyjętej opinii na temat historii Sakramentarza Tynieckiego. W swoim tekście chciałbym wskazać, że Sakramentarz nie został zamówiony dla żadnego cesarza, króla, królowej ani księcia oraz że nie ma mocnych podstaw, by sądzić, że rękopis był używany w jakiejkolwiek polskiej instytucji kościelnej w XI lub XII wieku. Aby udowodnić te tezy, najpierw przedstawię krótko aktualne podstawy dotychczasowej "opinio communis", że istnieje związek między sakramentarzem a klasztorem w Tyńcu. Następnie porównam Sakramentarz Tyniecki z innymi rękopisami ottońskimi i wczesnosalickimi, szczególnie związanymi z monarszym dworem, aby ukazać nieprawdopodobieństwo jakiegokolwiek związku między Sakramentarzem a jakimkolwiek królem lub księciem. W artykule proponuję inny krąg, w którym rękopis powstał i prawdopodobnie był używany.

This article argues that the local appropriation of Christian liturgy in 'Polonia' facilitated the early-medieval state formation of the first Piast realm. ‘Polish’ political identity was shaped by original liturgical phenomena by mostly two means. First, the hitherto unprecedented name of the territory, 'Polonia', was firstly attested in writing in the liturgical sequence 'Annua recolamus' (Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, Ms. Lit. 5, fol. 97v). The name was promoted mostly by sources used during Christian worship (the sequence mentioned above and the hagiography of Saint Adalbert). Second, liturgical phenomena interiorized the new identities of the political community and the theology of rulership. For instance, the invocations of rulers’ names in the disputed territories, repetitive intercessions for monarchs, developed liturgy of war have been shaping and, subsequently, expressing the identities of the Piast dynasty and of those who participated in the Christian worship. Political liturgy functioned as the tool in the identification processes of the early-medieval 'Polonia'.

Celem niniejszego tekstu jest zobrazowanie na kilku przykładach religijnego, społecznego i politycznego znaczenia kanonu Mszy w wiekach średnich. Nie jest to systematyczne opracowanie tematu ani też pełne ujęcie problematyki. Poniższe studium kilku wybranych przypadków ma raczej ukazać tylko niektóre możliwości wykorzystania źródeł liturgicznych w badaniach kultury średniowiecza.

W opisie Sakramentarza Tynieckiego rewiduję dotychczasową historiografię na temat rękopisu (Warszawa, BN, BOZ 8). Przede wszystkim kwestionuję pogląd, że słynny w Polsce sakramentarz został wyprodukowany na zamówienie władcy i był przeznaczony dla klasztoru w Tyńcu. Swoje argumenty wywodzę ze szczegółowej analizy źródła i jego liturgii, a nie hipotetycznej rekonstrukcji kontekstu historycznego, który skłonił dotychczasowych badaczy do przyjęcia wielu wątpliwych tez.

Presumably between 1310 and 1313, scribes produced a manuscript for Bolesław II of Mazovia, which contained a prayer for the ruler. The intercession was formulated as "una cum papa, et episcopo, et duce," which suggested that ducal power and ecclesiastical authority, while not explicitly equal, shared a similar importance. In a world dominated by rituals, this had quite an important meaning, especially in light of the fact that the chant was performed during the most solemn liturgy of the year, the Easter Vigil, which is meant to represent the deeds of Redemption. The text itself suggested that those who participated in the solemnities were a part of the history of salvation. The invocation of the political and ecclesiastical elite marked the path from Adam to the heavenly Jerusalem, where bishop John, duke Bolesław and his sons Siemowit and Wańko should be present. The insertion of their names in gold was meant to grant them eternal presence with God. However, the name of the duke was written in gold majuscule script with the use of red ink, suggesting that the prayer was meant to reinforce political majesty of Bolesław II even after the restoration of the Polish kingdom by other rulers. The prayer was also a part of the phenomenon of sacrality of ducal power in Mazovia which had a longer tradition. This phenomenon was modeled on the approaches used by Piast dynasty after the loss of their royal title in the second half of the eleventh century. The sacrality of ducal power in Mazovia, however, is not very different from that of other contemporary European duchies. Mazovia may have been located on the edge of the Christian world, but the course of its history in the Middle Ages – marked by crusades against Baltic pagans, preparations for campaigns against the Mongols, attempts at the unification of the kingdom of Ruthenia with Rome, and diplomatic relations with both the papacy and the most important rulers of Central Europe – demonstrates that it should not be marginalised in scholarship, especially in regard to the phenomenon of sacralised political power.

Medievalists have long debated the function of miniatures of rulers embedded in liturgical manuscripts. This phenomenon begins in the early ninth century and ends in the late eleventh. Many scholars have treated the iconography of medieval rulers as the visual propaganda of kings striving to elevate their power vis-à-vis Empire and Church. Recently, however, scholars have begun to interpret these images according to the liturgical function of the book in which they were included.

I take up this recent approach and show that Ottonian images of rulers should be interpreted in the context of liturgical texts. I analyze the famous ‛Coronation of Henry II’ in the Sacramentary of Regensburg (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 4456, fol. 11r) and ‛Coronation of Otto’ in the Warmund Sacramentary (Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare, Ms. LXXXVI, fol. 160v). I compare the iconography of these illuminations with liturgical prayers for rulers preserved in the same manuscripts. Moreover, I contextualize the iconography and prayers within the broader symbolic function of liturgical books in the Middle Ages in order to argue that the selected miniatures are not only visualizations of texts, but also performances of prayers for rulers. Thus, the miniatures of rulers had the sacramental function of making present the invisible graces of God.

Even though liturgy – understood explicitly as religious ritual – was a fundamental part of medieval society, and offered powerful structures of meaning and practice to medieval communities, its actual impact on the socio-political level is lamentably under-researched; just as conversely, the influence of the political on the liturgical has been under-appreciated. This disregard has its roots in divergent historiographical traditions. Liturgical manuscripts have been studied by scholars mostly interested in the evolution of worship practices rather than in political culture. Frequently their research has been influenced by the pastoral concerns of the Liturgical Movement, rather than by a desire to understand past societies through the perspective of liturgy. On the other hand, scholars interested in political culture have focused on other types of sources, mostly narrative and diplomatic materials, and have not appreciated liturgy and its impact on medieval political life. Yet, it is necessary to build a bridge between these two areas of liturgical scholarship and political theory.

In: "Liturgical Life and Latin Learning at Paradies bei Soest, 1300-1425: Inscription and Illumination in the Choir Books of a North German Dominican Convent," 2 vols., eds. J. Hamburger, E. Schlotheuber, S. Marti, M. Fassler (Münster, 2016), 2: 4-17.

The goal of the project is to shed new light on the three areas crucial for Polish historiography: 1) the origins of Piasts' early medieval state, 2) the ideology of Piasts' political power, and 3) the restoration of the Polish kingdom ca.1300, by integrating a hitherto marginalized type of historical source–liturgical manuscripts–into the broader narrative of the political and social history of Poland from the tenth to the beginning of the fourteenth century.

This project is funded by Polish Science Center (ca. 600 000 PLN), and will be realized from December 2018 until December 2021 in cooperation with Prof. Susan Rankin, University of Cambridge.

The aim of my project was to analyze a medieval manuscript (ca. 1175-1250) from the medieval Mazovia region. As the new acquisition of Polish libraries (the book was stolen during WWII and since 1973 housed in Munich), the manuscript is now available for multi-faceted research on its external (codicology, paleography), and internal content (liturgical prayers). The manuscript is the oldest representative of the so-called Roman-German Pontifical from Poland, and provides detailed insight into the history of Piast duchies in the time, as few written sources from this time have survived. The manuscript offers various research possibilities. On the one hand, it contextualizes the history of the Polish region of Mazovia into the wider European historiography on the struggle over world order between ecclesiastical hierarchs and civil rulers. On the other hand, it lends itself to contemporary research on the genre of the pontificals.

The individual project analyzes selected liturgical manuscripts from the early and high medieval Poland (foremost the Sacramentary of Tyniec, Codex Mathildis, the Pontifical of Cracow, and the Plock Pontifical). The project is part of the grant OPUS led by Prof. Roman Michałowski on the "Originality and Imitation in Polish Political and Religious Culture (10th-13th century)." Research funded by the Polish Science Center.

Although Ernst Kantorowicz formulated for the Ottonian and early Salian ruling system a characteristic of „liturgical kingship”, there are not many works about the influence of the mass (main liturgy of Christianity) on a political culture of the aforementioned period. It appears, however, that celebrations of the mass in which rulers participated, had the immense impact not only on the religiosity of kings but also on the politics in kingdom... More about the project: http://pawelfigurskiuw.wix.com/sacra-potestas-en

The project was funded by the decision DEC2011/03/N/HS3/00907 of the National Science Center, Poland.

This conference aims to bring together experts to study Latin liturgical tradition and organization of knowledge in early and high medieval manuscripts. In particular, we welcome expressions of interest from scholars who would like to present a study on the "mixed sacramentaries" from around 850 to 1200, including continental and Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. Local studies of a single center, comparative treatments, or studies of single manuscripts as examples, are ideal suggestions.

This conference aims to bring together experts to study Latin liturgical tradition and organization of knowledge in early and high medieval manuscripts. In particular, we welcome expressions of interest from scholars who would like to present a study on the "mixed sacramentaries" from around 850 to 1200, including continental and Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. Local studies of a single center, comparative treatments, or studies of single manuscripts as examples, are ideal suggestions.

The central goal of this conference is to begin to more accurately describe the relationship between the ‘secular’, ‘sacred’, and ‘sacramental’ as evinced by the historical phenomena, and from there to build a richer conceptual framework for describing all of these categories and their interplay in premodern Europe. By proposing the concept of the ‘sacramental’, this conference aims to complement the recently revived debate on premodern theologies of the political (University of Cambridge 2018 and University of British Columbia 2019).

Moreover, recent discussion of premodern theologies of the political has focused predominantly on the most well-known works (i.e., those of Augustine, Gregory the Great, Bede the Venerable, and so forth), or on the influence of these key texts on other, lesser-known sources, (i.e. Carolingian exegesis of Scripture). And, while such scholarship has presented serious challenges to the previous linear conceptualizations, it nevertheless has perceived these theologies as primarily the product of individual thinkers, without accounting for ways in which they may have been shaped and even embodied by the worship practices of the Churches.

Therefore, this conference also aims to contribute to the ongoing debate an additional perspective; namely, that rituals (ecclesiastical liturgies and the symbolic actions of civic powers) were important influences defining and propagating the theologies of the political witnessed in the most well-known works. We would like to analyze to what extent the rituals of the Churches and civic powers, mediated through texts, may have shaped theological-political ideas in premodern Europe, and conversely, how theologies of the political influenced the performed liturgies of the Churches and of civic powers.

Liturgy-understood as explicitly religious ritual-was an fundamental part of medieval society. In all its different forms and dimensions, liturgy permeated, impacted, articulated, and even shaped almost all aspects of both individual and communal human life. Its impact ranged from the demarcation of time and life's liminal moments, over interpersonal relations and public communication, to corporeal, intellectual, and affective experience. Given this vast influence, understanding how liturgy functioned in direct relation to its extra-liturgical contexts-not merely as a sterile, disconnected, and monolithic activity, but as ritualized actions that were intrinsically connected to the world in which they occurred-is thus fundamental to any historian's comprehension of medieval society.

However, even though liturgy so powerfully offered structures of meaning and practice to medieval communities, its actual impact on the socio-political level is strongly under-researched; just as conversely, the influence of the political on the liturgical has been under-appreciated.

Rituals of the Heavenly and Earthly Kingdoms. The Sacred, Secular, and Sacramental Powers 
in Premodern Europe

Keynote Speakers:

Gerd Althoff
Philippe Buc
Margot Fassler
Rosamond McKitterick
Susan Rankin
Yves Sassier


Organizers:
Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland
Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences
Journal Questiones Medii Aevi Novae
PSALM-Network

Venue:
Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland

Date:
May 20-22, 2020

Before the dawn of Modernity, premodern Europe was “Christendom”, a society in which there was no sharp demarcation between theology and politics, ecclesial and civic institutions, worship of God and loyalty to one’s ruler or people. However, in the early modern period, European intellectuals began to espouse novel linguistic categories that effectively built a wall between religion and politics. In speaking of ‘society’ and ‘religion’ as distinct, abstract entities, these thinkers opened up space for ‘migrations of the holy’ from the realm of the Church to that of the state, resulting in the sacralization of the latter.

This grand narrative of Christendom represented by John Bossy is quite similar to other prominent concepts that were used by the following scholars to describe the history of premodern Europe:

Henri-Xavier Arquillière (political augustinianism),
Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz (political theology),
John Howard Yoder (Constantinism),
Robert Austin Markus (de-secularization).


In light of more recent scholarship, however, these concepts need to be reconsidered. Scholars no longer describe the history of premodern Europe using a linear, unilateral narrative; for instance, they no longer assess the Constantinian shift as a radical break with the Christian past or see the Gregorian Reform as the radical movement of disenchantment that brought about the apparently secular age of today. Instead, contemporary scholarship has begun to take notice of the often contrary but parallel tendencies of secularization, christianization and sacralization operating simultaneously within the same intellectual networks and periods. This recognition calls for an even deeper reassessment of the view that there was, indeed, a European Christendom in which the secular, the sacramental, and the sacred were neither practically nor intellectually distinguished from each other.

The central goal of this conference is, therefore, to begin to more accurately describe the relationship between the ‘secular’, ‘sacred’, and ‘sacramental’ as evinced by the historical phenomena, and from there to build a richer conceptual framework for describing all of these categories and their interplay in premodern Europe. By proposing the concept of the ‘sacramental’, this conference aims to complement the recently revived debate on premodern theologies of the political (University of Cambridge 2018 and University of British Columbia 2019).

Moreover, recent discussion of premodern theologies of the political has focused predominantly on the most well known works (i.e., those of Augustine, Gregory the Great, Bede the Venerable, and so forth), or on the influence of these key texts on other, lesser known sources, (i.e. Carolingian exegesis of Scripture). And, while such scholarship has presented serious challenges to the previous linear conceptualizations, it nevertheless has perceived these theologies as primarily the product of individual thinkers, without accounting for ways in which they may have been shaped and even embodied by the worship practices of the Churches.

Therefore, this conference also aims to contribute to the ongoing debate an additional perspective; namely, that rituals (ecclesiastical liturgies and the symbolic actions of civic powers) were important influences defining and propagating the theologies of the political witnessed in the most well known works. We would like to analyze to what extent the rituals of the Churches and civic powers, mediated through texts, may have shaped theological-political ideas in premodern Europe, and conversely, how theologies of the political influenced the performed liturgies of the Churches and of civic powers.

The specific issues that we would like to discuss concern, but are not limited to:

-the conceptual and practical distinctions between the sacred, the secular, and the sacramental in premodern Europe;
-the representations of the secular, the sacred, and the sacramental in political and religious rituals of premodern Europe;
-the mutual influences between political rituals and ecclesiastical liturgies in regard to their origins and performances from Late Antiquity to the dawn of Modernity;
-the impact of ecclesiastical liturgies on framing theologies of the political in premodern Europe;
-the theologies of the political practiced in rituals of civic powers and of liturgies;
-the relationship between premodern and contemporary conceptualizations of the secular, the sacred, and the sacramental;
-paradigms of writing a theological-political history of premodern Europe in modern historiography in regard to the rituals.

We invite scholars from different fields, methodological backgrounds, institutions, and research traditions to deliver a paper (not exceeding 20 minutes) at our conference. An abstract (between 300 and 500 words) and short biography should be sent to Paweł Figurski (psalm.network@gmail.com) by July 15, 2019.

Recent scholarship is demonstrating an increased interest in the dynamic relation between politics and liturgy in the Middle Ages. Essential is the dominant, traditionalizing power of liturgy to shape realities (both intellectual and practical) from which stable meaning could be derived in complex and continuously changing contexts. Indeed, contrary to what rough overviews of normative sources might suggest, liturgy was often much more contextual than has been held until now – and so were its sources. If it wasn’t highly local in formal differences, then at least in the juxtaposition of its universal character with each, necessarily unique, political context and identity in which it was performed.

This session, therefore, wishes to delve deeper in a fundamental historical aspect of the relation between liturgy and politics, by comparing examples of the (often paradoxical) interactions between tradition and change. The session will bring together papers that investigate change in political situations (be they secular or ecclesiastical) and whether and how this impacted (particular) liturgies, or, vice versa, where liturgical adaptations were meant to inspire new realities and political traditions.

(Pieter Byttebier)

Recent scholarship is demonstrating an increased interest in the dynamic relation between politics and liturgy in the Middle Ages. Essential is the dominant, traditionalizing power of liturgy to shape realities (both intellectual and practical) from which stable meaning could be derived in complex and continuously changing contexts. Indeed, contrary to what rough overviews of normative sources might suggest, liturgy was often much more contextual than has been held until now – and so were its sources. If it wasn’t highly local in formal differences, then at least in the juxtaposition of its universal character with each, necessarily unique, political context and identity in which it was performed.
(...)
We welcome speakers working on all areas in Early or High Medieval Europe, be it in the heart of Christianity or at its borders, and in turbulent times of reform or during more slower evolutions. This will allow to bring together a stimulating set of perspectives          in order to compare the mutual or common reaction of politics and liturgy to new realities. Or, inversely, it will allow to better comprehend how the interaction between politics and liturgy could help create new realities and thereby instigate broader societal change.

(Pieter Byttebier)

While medieval scholarship has focused on the rituals of social interactions in secular and ecclesiastical contexts (i.e. Gerd Althoff, Geoffrey Koziol, Philippe Buc), liturgical texts and their political and societal impacts have not often been included in those studies. This is a problem, since liturgy, in both its codified form and its practical application, was an essential part of medieval societies, and a rich corpus of primary source material on medieval liturgical practices is available to scholars today. Only a few scholars have noticed the significant link between liturgy and politics (i.e. Carl Erdmann, Ernst Kantorowicz, Arnold Angenendt, Michael McCormick, Éric Palazzo, Cecilia Gaposchkin). Therefore, the goal of the proposed session, as well as the society that organizes it (the PSALM-Network), is to deepen the study of liturgy as an integral component of social and political histories.

Papers in this session will therefore investigate the mutually influencing relationship between liturgy and the socio-political by focusing on the concept of identity. Liturgy was a device by which political, social and religious identities were forged, re-created, manipulated and confirmed. Examples include the role of liturgy in shaping political, religious, and social identities in the borderlands of Christianity (Central Europe, Benevento and Spain), as well as in the centers of Latin Christianity (Rome, Reich, Capetian France). Of course liturgy itself was also shaped by political arrangements (i.e. as discussed in the works of Henry Parkes and Éric Palazzo) and this too should be acknowledged and discussed.

The PSALM-Network conference was organized in memory of Ernst H. Kantorowicz and took place in Poznań, where Kantorowicz was born and raised. The year 2017 was marked by the 60th anniversary of  "The King’s Two Bodies" and by the 90th anniversary of "Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite". The topic of the meeting was devoted to political theology in the Middle Ages, and was focused on the medieval liturgical sources which were studied by Kantorowicz for the purpose of writing political history of the Middle Ages. These two areas of research - study on liturgy and politics - remain widely separated in contemporary academia, although Kantorowicz paved the way for the finest inclusion of the liturgical material into the study on medieval political ideology. This conference is meant to trigger the research on this overlooked legacy of Kantorowicz.

From the 10th to the 12th centuries a new set of collective identities was
established in Europe: the medieval nationes, the Western church with the pope at its head, religious orders, monastic associations; communities centred on cities, villages, valleys and parishes; fraternities, merchant guilds, craft guilds and communes. All these organisations were aware of their identity as communitas, created their own symbols in seals, coats of arms, and flags, and adopted a patron saint. At the same time through a process of institutionalisation which took place at all levels of European society these “We” organisations acquired a permanent structure. Legal criteria defined the membership of the “I”, and clearly separated the “We” from the “Others”. This institutionalisation legitimised a representative who could speak in the name of all members, i.e. the “We” group as universitas, and who was also authorised to put pressure on the members. In a differentiated society an individual always belongs to several organisations, broader or narrower in scope, each of which are assigned specific functions at an overall level, and for the individual’s personal existence.
.
In Western Europe during the 11th and 12th centuries a phase of fundamental long-acting changes in social structures took place, changes to which the above enumerated developments were central. These changes were accompanied by intense conflicts. The so-called investiture controversy called into question the validity of the precepts and values observed up until that time. In the religious and spiritual turmoil of the central Middle Ages, controversies were analysed with extraordinary intensity; positions and counter-positions were propagated in a flood of polemic papers. The appeal to personal opinion, and plea for an inner and outer decision were ubiquitous. Who is right? On whose side does the “truth” lie with regard to the fundamental questions? The demands of faith and conscience have to be followed in order to protect  one’s own personal identity. To whom does the individual assign the “I”, and in whom can he/she recognise the “We” group?
.
The newly formed collectives, i.e. the parties in contest with each other, endeavoured by every means possible to compel the individual to decide for their group: do you belong to us or to our adversaries? Under such pressure to make a decision individuals who had belonged to the relevant “We”, could suddenly switch to the “Others”. Three examples from within the German region of the Holy Roman Empire illustrate how bishops in the midst of the investiture controversy grappled with and sought to protect their own identities and integrity. Benno of Osnabrück attempted to maintain a mutually recognized position between the two fronts. With reference to differently interpreted values, Walram of Naumburg for the Imperial party, and Herrand of Halberstadt for the Papist adversary, called on their respective opponents to revise their convictions and change their positions. Ruthard of Mainz believed that in transferring his adherence from previous loyalties to the opposition “We-Group”, he could regain his personal identity, i.e. through an internal reversal of position with all its external, political consequences.
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A scholarly description of the personal dilemma which people were caught up, in due to the deep divide in their communities, would necessitate reflection on the definition of individuality as perceived at that time, as has long been called for in the academic discourse. Aaron J. Gurjewitsch recalls his own experience in the Soviet Union, evoking the situation of the dissident in the present. The question of the relationship between the “I”, “We”, and, “You” in the middle ages, i.e. the tension between personal and collective identity in a concrete, historical environment, confronts us with questions about our own existence: about the individual conscience of our “I”, about interactions in the communities which form our multilayered “We” and about behaviour towards the “Others”, with whom we, in one and the same land, as well as in the entire world, search for, or agonise over, the fundamentals required for a peaceful and just coexistence.
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English Translation: Julie Zein
(p. 21-22)
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The Polish text was later developed and published in German:
Hagen Keller, "Identitäten und Individualität in den Krisenerfahrungen des europäischen Hochmittelalters (11./12. Jahrhundert)," [FMSt 46, 2012, S. 221-240]

A review of the recent biography of Ernst H. Kantorowicz by Robert E. Lerner with varied insights on:

- EKa's controversial life,
- modern political theology, 
- and the neglected influences of the Christian theologians on the medievalist's conceptualizations of the past.

A brief history of a destroyed manuscript (produced c.1311-1313) which provides an insight into the political liturgy of Piasts.

Krótka historia zniszczonego niemal zupełnie rękopisu z XIV w., który daje wgląd w spektakl władzy mazowieckich Piastów podczas wigilii paschalnej. Dzięki ocalałym kartom zawierającym imiona dostojników można związać manuskrypt z Bolesławem II. Ów władca wedle niektórych historyków położył podwaliny pod gród warszawski, który znajdował się w miejscu dzisiejszego Zamku Królewskiego.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7Y_McFRmvU

A public lecture for a broader audience on the over five-century quest to find the identity of the Anonymous Author who wrote between 1113-1116 the first Piast dynastic narrative, "Gesta ducum sive principum Polonorum." A magnificent style of the prose combined with dangerous political agenda allows rendering the narrative to the finest examples of the so-called "renaissance of the twelfth century."

Talk with Cezary Łasiczka (TOK FM) on medieval political theology and ideological preconditions of medieval studies, among others. (available here: http://audycje.tokfm.pl/podcast/O-sredniowiecznym-sojuszu-oltarza-z-tronem-z-dr-Pawlem-Figurskim/58663)

Dopiski na marginesach w Pontyfikale z Płocka, podobnie jak cały manuskrypt, odznaczają się niezwykle burzliwą historią, w której pozostało jeszcze wiele tajemnic. Nie wszystkie addycje udało się w ramach prowadzonego projektu odczytać, ale już na podstawie niektórych z nich, można zaproponować w tym miejscu pierwszą hipotezę na temat losów słynnej księgi przechowywanej obecnie w Płocku.