Corpus Christi - Inventing a Feast
The medium and message - Miri Rubin looks at how the changing theology and doctrine of late medieval Christianity led to the creation of a popular event with social and hierarchical overtones.
Religious festivals have long been seen as aspects of medieval life which reflect long-standing and traditional features of popular culture. While their origins usually remain shrouded in mystery, the rituals enacted on these occasions are often studied as particular manifestations of folk-religion, passed on from a pre-Christian age into medieval practice. It is, therefore, particularly interesting to study a feast which differs considerably from this type: one which was founded in the later Middle Ages, which celebrated an aspect of Christian doctrine, and which became the most important processional event of the late medieval town: the feast of Corpus Christi.
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