Viator 43 No. 1 (2012) 7998. 10.1484/J.VIATOR.1.

102543
TRANSFORMING SPACE, (PER)FORMING COMMUNITY:
CHURCH CONSECRATION IN CAROLINGIAN EUROPE

Dana M. Polanichka

Abstract: Scholarly work on the Carolingian ecclesia, especially in relation to church consecration litur-
gies, has focused largely on ecclesias spiritual and communal meanings rather than its architectural one.
This article turns attention to the physical building in order to understand how the dedication ritual trans-
formed the structure into a sacred space. A close reading of early medieval consecration ordines reveals
their principal emphasis on church architecture, while further analysis of liturgical texts demonstrates how
the prominence given to the physical and spatial allowed for the creation of the universal community of the
faithful (that is, the spiritual ecclesia) within the churchs walls. Lay presence is then considered to deter-
mine the nature of the laitys role in the rite. Ultimately, in reexamining the interplay between space and
community, the article highlights the importance of placing the church building at the center of future con-
siderations of the Carolingian polity.
Keywords: Carolingian, church consecration, dedication, sacred space, renovatio, architecture, liturgy,
ordines, domus dei, ecclesia.

In the early ninth century, conflict over the construction of Fuldas abbey church was
tearing the community apart. After toiling away for more than two decades on the in-
creasingly ambitious and endlessly escalating structure, the monks appealed to Charle-
magne in 812. They protested the enormous superfluous buildings by which the
brethren are unduly tired and the serfs ruined and appealed for moderation and ...
discretion.
1
Unanswered, the monks waited another five years before involving Louis
the Pious, who, in response to their complaints, ejected the unpopular Abbot Ratgar
(802817) and installed Eigil (abbot, 817822) as his successor. The new abbot, ac-
cording to his hagiography, returned harmony to the royal monastery by swiftly com-
pleting the construction. Eigils vita emphasizes his success uniting the community
through a description of the churchs triumphant dedication:
When he had arranged these and many other decorations of different forms in the temple of
God, with the advice received from his brothers, Eigil sent a letter to archbishop Heistolf, so
that he would deem it worthy to dedicate the church constructed in praise of the almighty
God ... Therefore the archbishop came according to the petition of the abbot at the time
agreed upon with him. Indeed, there came others, more than the many bishops, abbots,
priests, and counts honorably invited by the abbot of this monastery. Moreover, even, with
the news spreading, a crowd of the lower ranks came from various parts to the dedication of
this temple ... And the pontiff processed with all the ornament of the church and dedicated

Department of History, Wheaton College, 26 East Main Street, Norton, MA 02766. My broader work on
Carolingian church consecrations has benefitted tremendously from the insight of numerous colleagues
too many to list hereover the past few years. For this particular article, I owe a significant amount of
gratitude to Patrick Geary, Cecilia Gaposchkin, Evie Staudinger, Anni Baker, Yuen-Gen Liang, Elena
Malkov, and my seminar students, who graciously offered their enthusiasm and feedback on a topic far
outside their own historical interests: Nicole DeRosa, Caleigh Greenwell, Hattie Guadagnuolo, Kyle
Hudgins, Drew Kirstein, Hamilton Nelson-Reynolds, Jake Pomerantz, and Verandah-Maureen Shepard.
1
Ut aedificia immensa atque superflua et cetera inutilia opera omittantur, quibus fratres ultra modum
fatigantur et familiae foris dispereunt, sed omnia iuxta mensuram et discretionem fiant. Fratribus quoque
secundum regulam certis horis vacare lectioni liceat et item certis operari. Supplex libellus monachorum,
Corpus consuetudinum, 1.324. Translation from Charles B. McClendon, The Origins of Medieval Architec-
ture: Building in Europe, A.D. 600900 (New Haven 2005) 160. See Janneke Raaijmakers, Sacred Time,
Sacred Space: History and Identity at the Monastery of Fulda (744856) (Ph.D. diss., University of Am-
sterdam 2003), which will soon be published by Cambridge University, for an excellent discussion of the
controversy.
DANA M. POLANICHKA 80
the temple in the monastery of Fulda, constructed in honor of the Holy Savior, namely our
God and Lord Jesus Christ. And the body of the martyr of Christ, Boniface, was translated
into the place which father Eigil and his brothers had prepared ... And the people of God
sang praises to God in dedication of the temple, and sweet sound resounded in their mouths.
And there was great joyfulness in the church of God gathered in his name.
2


For the author of this text, the consecration of the church not only ritually culminated
the building project, but also ended the monasterys discord, unifying the community.
While Fuldas situation proves unique in many ways, this episode highlights the
widespread importance accorded to religious architecture and rite in the Carolingian
world. Between 768 and 855, twenty-seven cathedrals and 417 monasteries were con-
structed,
3
while the contemporaneous Carolingian renovatio (the program of social
and religious, political and cultural reform promoted by the court) emphasized the
need for correct liturgical practice within churches.
4
These two interconnected
developments united seamlessly in the consecration of the church, which was neces-
sary in order that future masses be celebrated there.
5
As myriad texts reveal, consecra-
tion rites were transformative, turning the building into a sacred space, an ecclesia.
The concept of sacred space, first explored by social scientists, has found its way
into scholarship on the Carolingian world as historians increasingly recognize the
eighth and ninth centuries as a key time in the development of Christian belief re-
2
Cumque haec et alia multa diversarum specierum ornamenta in templo Dei collocasset, accepto fra-
trum consilio, misit epistolam ad Heistolfum archiepiscopum, ut dignaretur venire ad dedicandam ecclesiam
in laudem Dei omnipotentis constructam; quatenus per haec piae operationis officia utrisque a Deo merces
maneret in futuro, ac benigna memoria sanctae orationis apud homines frequentaretur in mundo. Venit igitur
archiepiscopus iuxta petitionem abbatis tempore sibi condicto. Venerunt nihilominus alii quam plurimi
episcopi, abbates, presbyteri, comites, ab abbate monasterii honorifice invitati. Insuper etiam, fama vocante,
vulgus ordinis inferioris ad templi huius dedicationem e diverso veniens confluxit in unum. Interea quoque
venerat alma dies dedicationis inlustrata solis perpetui luce corusca. Processit pontifex cum omni ornatu
ecclesiae et dedicavit templum in monasterio Fuldae constructum in honorem sancti Salvatoris, dei videlicet
et domini nostri Iesu Christi. Et translatum est corpus martyris Christi Bonifacii in locum quem praepara-
verat ei pater Aeigil una cum fratribus suis, sicut in sequenti libro manifestissime continetur. In dedicatione
vero templi populus Dei decantabat Deo laudem, et in ore eorum dulcis resonabat sonus. Et erat iucunditas
magna in ecclesia Dei in eius nomine congregata. Candidus, Vita Eigilis Abbatis Fuldensis, c. 15, MGH
Scriptores, ed. Georg Waitz, 1 vol. in 2 pt. (Hannover 1887) 15.221233, at 230.
3
Dominique Iogna-Prat, La Maison Dieu: Une histoire monumentale de lglise au Moyen ge (v. 800
v. 1200) (Paris 2006) 107, referencing Karl der Groe: Werk und Wirkung (Aachen 1965).
4
On Carolingian liturgy, see Roger E. Reynolds, The Organisation, Law and Liturgy of the Western
Church, 700900, The New Cambridge Medieval History, II: c.700c. 900, ed. Rosamond McKitterick
(Cambridge 1995) 587621, at 617621; Yitzhak Hen, The Recycling of Liturgy under Pippin III and
Charlemagne, Medieval Manuscripts in Transition: Tradition and Creative Recycling, ed. Geert H. M.
Claassens and Werner Verbeke (Leuven 2006) 149160; idem, The Royal Patronage of Liturgy in Frankish
Gaul to the Death of Charles the Bald (877) (London 2001); Philippe Bernard, Du chant romain au chant
grgorian (VieXIIIe sicle) (Paris 1996).
5
Karoli M. Capitulare Primum, c. 14, MGH Leges 2, Capitula Regum Francorum [hence Cap Reg], ed.
Alfred Boretius and Victor Kravse (Hanover 18831897) 1.4446, at 46; Episcoporum ad Hludowicum
Imperatorem Relatio, c. 46, MGH Cap Reg Franc 2.2651, at 41; Ghrbald von Lttich I, c. 9, MGH
Capitula Episcoporum [hence Cap Ep], ed. Peter Brommer (Hanover 1984) 1.321, at 18; Ruotger von
Trier, c. 3, MGH Cap Ep 1.5770, at 63; Haito von Basel, c. 14, MGH Cap Ep 1.203219, at 214; Radulf
von Bourges, c. 3, MGH Cap Ep 1.227268, at 236; Hinkmar von Reims III, c. 3, in MGH Cap Ep, ed. Ru-
dolf Pokorny and Martina Stratmann (Hanover 1995) 2.7175, at 75; Herard von Tours, c. 33, in MGH Cap
Ep 2.115157, at 135; Capitula Franciae occidentalis, c. 5, MGH Cap Ep, ed. Rudolf Pokorny (Hanover
1995) 3.3647, at 43; Capitula Monacensia, c. 13, MGH Cap Ep 3.155165, at 164; Capitula Trecensia, c.
9, MGH Cap Ep 3.166171, at 170; Atto von Vercelli, c. 8, in MGH Cap Ep 3.243304, at 268.
TRANSFORMING SPACE, (PER)FORMING COMMUNITY 81
garding the location of the holy.
6
A sacrum locum, in its most straightforward defini-
tion, was a place that had been sanctified by ritual, miracle, relic, or a religiously sig-
nificant event. Consecration rituals made churches into sacred spaces.
7
Once sancti-
fied, these buildings hosted religious rituals and enjoyed legislative protections not
bestowed on profane spaces. But why? What, other than the past enactment of a ritual,
was the difference between an ecclesia and any other space? Clearly, something fun-
damental shifted within the churchs walls during these rituals, but what can the con-
secration liturgies tell us about what actually happened? How did members of the
church community participate in and understand it? How did this ritual unify commu-
nities such as the one at Fulda?
The answers can be sought by examining the consecration ceremonies themselves.
Fully understanding Carolingian church consecrations, as we shall see, necessitates
balancing the communal with the architectural, the spiritual with the physical. Ordines
and prayers for the rite pay significant attention to the building, which is not surprising
since liturgy is a physical, not simply spiritual, act that is performed through move-
ments and gestures within a particular setting, engaging the senses.
8
Moreover, this
particular rite directed attention to the blessing of the church. Yet the major scholarly
work on Carolingian consecrations discounts the physical in favor of the communal.
9
Such neglect of the building results from the fact that the term ecclesia referred, in the
Carolingian period, to many intangible entitiesthe institutional church, the commu-
nity of believers, and the Frankish polityand Frankish writers often emphasized the
primary meaning of the ecclesia as referring to the community of believers.
10
Accordingly, scholarship has sometimes overlooked the architectural and spatial ec-
clesia in favor of the communal and spiritual one, without giving attention to the fact
of the symbiotic relationship between all its meanings. The consecration rite, however,
most clearly reveals the fundamental interconnectedness of these definitions because it
was during this ceremony that the full ecclesia was created.
This essay seeks to situate church consecrations in their physical, spatial, and social
contexts in order to explore the complexity of the contemporary meaning of the rite, as
6
Eric Palazzo, Art, Liturgy, and the Five Senses in the Early Middle Ages, Viator 41.1 (2010) 2556,
at 3435. For a thorough explanation of why cultural anthropological theories of sacred space need contex-
tualization, see Robert A. Markus, How on Earth Could Places Become Holy? Origins of the Christian Idea
of Holy Places, Journal of Early Christian Studies 2 (1994) 257271, particularly his discussion of Mircea
Eliades work (258).
7
On sacred space and church consecrations, see Helen Gittos, Rites for Dedicating Churches in Anglo-
Saxon England: Liturgy, Architecture and Place, Sacred Space in Anglo-Saxon England (D.Phil. thesis,
Oxford University 2001), a revised version of which will soon be published by Oxford University Presss
Medieval History and Archaeology Series. I am grateful to Gittos for sharing her work-in-progress with me.
8
On the sensory experience of the rite, see Thomas D. Kozachek, The Repertory of Chant for Dedicat-
ing Churches in the Middle Ages: Music, Liturgy, & Ritual (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University 1995); and the
work of Eric Palazzo (esp. n. 6 above).
9
Brian Repsher, The Rite of Church Dedication in the Early Medieval Era (Lewiston 1998).
10
Iogna-Prat (n. 3 above); Mayke de Jong, Ecclesia and the Early Medieval Polity, Staat im frhen
Mittelalter, ed. Stuart Airlie, Walter Pohl, and Helmut Reimitz (Vienna 2006) 113132; eadem, Empire as
Ecclesia: Hrabanus Maurus and Biblical Historia for Rulers, The Uses of the Past in the Early Middle
Ages, ed. Yitzhak Hen and Matthew Innes (Cambridge 2000) 191226; eadem, Sacrum palatium et
ecclesia: Lautorit religieuse royale sous les Carolingiens (790840), Annales: Histoire, Science Sociales
58 (2003) 12431270; and eadem, Sancta Ecclesia and the Frankish Polity (paper, Staat und Staatlichkeit
in europischen Frhmittelalter, 5001050: Grundlagen, Grenzen, Entwicklungen, Institut fr Mittelalter-
forschung, Vienna, Austria, 1821 Sept. 2007).
DANA M. POLANICHKA 82
well as of the ecclesia.
11
Focusing on the textual evidence (while keeping in mind the
extent to which these texts cannot perfectly reflect the performance of rites
12
), I will
explore how the multifaceted understandings of the church (ecclesia) that flourished in
the Carolingian period promoted a consecration rite that forcefully merged the reli-
gious, social, physical, and sensory. The essay begins by investigating the rite itself to
reveal its primary emphasis on the physical and the sensory. Then, I explore how the
prominence given to the physical and sensory in the dedication rite allowed for the
construction of the spiritual and communal church. That is, the consecration held a
dual function: the transformation of the physical architecture into a sacred space and
the integration of the community into the ecclesia. Finally, the essay engages the
question of lay participation and community in Carolingian dedication liturgies.

EARLY MEDIEVAL CHURCH CONSECRATIONS
Close analysis of Carolingian church consecration rites presents scholars with no end
of difficulties. To begin, it is hard to place the ritual within specific buildings: other
than the Fulda dedication, there are no Carolingian consecration rites that can be di-
rectly connected to particular churches.
13
Additionally, available liturgical ordines and
prayers for the dedication more assuredly sandwich the Carolingian period than
emerge from within its chronological parameters. We are left with the complicated
task of determining the nature of the Carolingian ritual based upon a comparison of
concise pre- and early Carolingian ordines with an elaborate post-Carolingian ordo. A
firmly dateable Carolingian commentary on the dedication ritual exists, but, as we
shall see, presents its own problems.
14
Fortunately, the dedication liturgies from the
seventh through tenth centuries demonstrate enough similarities and trends to allow us
to posit a fairly accurate description of Carolingian consecrations. Namely, each dedi-
11
My approach owes much to recent scholarly attempts to place consecration in its broader, extra-
liturgical context: Louis I. Hamilton, To Consecrate the Church: Ecclesiastical Reform and the Dedication
of Churches, Reforming the Church Before Modernity: Patterns, Problems and Approaches, ed. Christo-
pher M. Bellitto and Louis I. Hamilton (Aldershot 2005) 105137; Louis I. Hamilton, A Sacred City: Con-
secrating Churches and Reforming Society in Eleventh-Century Italy (Manchester 2010); Yitzhak Hen,
Culture and Religion in Merovingian Gaul, A.D. 481751 (Leiden 1995); Miriam Czock, Purity of
ecclesia: The Symbolism of Baptism in Early Medieval Sources, paper presented in the session Texts and
Identities IX: Carolingian BishopsPotentials and Problems, International Medieval Congress, Leeds, 10
July 2008. For an examination of the role of liturgy in the negotiation of power, community, and history, see
Susan Boynton, Shaping a Monastic Identity: Liturgy and History at the Imperial Abbey of Farfa, 1000
1125 (Ithaca 2006); C. Clifford Flanigan, Kathleen Ashley, and Pamela Sheingorn, Liturgy as Social Per-
formance: Expanding the Definitions, The Liturgy of the Medieval Church, by Thomas J. Heffernan and E.
Ann Matter (Kalamazoo 2001) 695714.
12
On early medieval ritual, see Phillipe Buc, The Dangers of Ritual: Between Early Medieval Texts and
Social Scientific Theory (Princeton 2001); Geoffrey Koziol, The Dangers of Polemic: Is Ritual Still an
Interesting Topic of Historical Study? Early Medieval Europe 11 (2001) 367388; Philippe Buc, The
Monster and the Critics: A Ritual Reply, Early Medieval Europe 15 (2007) 441452; Christina Pssel,
The Magic of Early Medieval Ritual, Early Medieval Europe 17 (2009) 111125.
13
Thus, any attempt to situate these rituals necessarily employs a somewhat generic physical structure.
We can assume that clergymen performed some form of the consecration rituals analyzed below in the
hundreds of cathedrals, monastic churches, and lay churches built during the height of the Carolingian pe-
riod, meaning, of course, that the consecration rituals took place in both large and small churches, in basi-
lica-shaped as well as centrally-planned churches.
14
That is the Quid significent duodecim candelae (PRG 35). Cyrille Vogel and Reinhard Elze, eds., Le
Pontifical Romano-Germanique du Dixime Sicle, Le Text, Studi e Testi 226 (Vatican City 1963) 1.90
121.
TRANSFORMING SPACE, (PER)FORMING COMMUNITY 83
catory narrative follows roughly the same scheme: the bishop and a few clergy enter
the church; they bless the church and its various structures and instruments; they re-
trieve the relics and place them within the altar; and finally they perform a public
Mass once a day for eight consecutive days.
The pre- and early Carolingian church consecration liturgies to be discussed below
are:
(1) the Ordo Romanus XLII, ca. 720750 CE; believed to preserve the basic elements of
sixth- and seventh-century rites; classified as Roman.
15

(2) the Ordo Consecrationis Basilica Novae from the Sacramentary of Angoulme; eighth
century, but likely circulated in seventh-century Gaul; the earliest purely Gallican rite still
extant; rubrical instructions, likely paired with the Consecratio Altaris in the eighth-century
Missale Francorum.
16

(3) the Old Gelasian or Vatican Gelasian; eighth century; fully preserved in Vat. Reg. Lat.
316, ca. 750 CE; in use in, or based on sources from, the seventh century.
17

(4) the Ordo quomodo ecclesia debeat dedicari from the Ordo Romanus XLI; mid-to-late
eighth century; originated in Gaul, but with Frankish and Roman elements; considered the
result of the Romanizing liturgical reforms of Pippin and Charlemagne.
18

(5) the Ordo dedicationis ecclesiae of the Drogo Sacramentary; first half of the ninth cen-
tury; earliest ordo to combine the Roman Ordo XLII and Gallican Ordo XLI.
19

(6) the Ordo Romanus XLIII or Ordo of Saint Amand; from the early ninth-century manu-
script Bibliotheque nationale de France Lat. 974; a product of this supposed Roman-Gallican
commingling.
20


All of these rites share two central and constitutive acts: the deposition of relics and
the aspersion with holy water. Although every text includes the ritual placement of the
saintly remains within the altar, this act appears most central to the Ordo Romanus
XLII, a rite that Cyrille Vogel calls a ceremonial description of the deposition of rel-
15
Michel Andrieu, ed., Les Ordines Romani du Haut Moyen Age, 5 vols. (Louvain 19311961) 4.393
394, ordo at 4.397402. Cyrille Vogel, Medieval Liturgy: An Introduction to the Sources, trans. William G.
Storey and Niels Krogh Rasmussen (Washington, DC 1986) 192; G. G. Willis, Further Essays in Early
Roman Liturgy (London 1968) 152.
16
Paris, BnF Lat. MS 816. Reproduced in L. Duchesne, Christian Worship: Its Origin and Evolution,
trans. M. L. McClure (London 1931) 485486. Willis (n. 15 above) 157; Andrieu (n. 15 above) 4.320; A.
Chavasse, Le Sacramentaire glasien (Vaticanus Reginensis 316): sacramentarie presbytral en usage dans
les titres Romains au VII sicle (Tournai and Rome 1958) 4042; S. Benz, Zur Geschichte der rmischen
Kirchweihe nach den Texten des 6.7. Jahrhunderts, Enkainia: Gesammelte Arbeiten zum 800 jhrigen
Weihegedchtnis der Abteikirche Maria Laach am 24. August 1956, ed. H. Emonds (Dsseldorf 1956) 62
109, at 93. Kozachek describes it as a composite work (n. 8 above) 12. Cod. Vat. Reg. Lat. 257, ed. L. C.
Mohlberg, Missale Francorum, Rerum Ecclesiasticarum Documenta, Series Maior Fontes II (Rome 1957)
1719, nos. 5768.
17
Cod. Vat. Reg. Lat. 316 plus Paris, BnF MS 7193, 41/56, ed. L. C. Mohlberg, Liber Sacramentorum
Romanae Aeclesiae Ordinis Anni Circuli, Rerum Ecclesiasticarum Documenta, Series Maior Fontes IV
(Rome 1960) 107114. Modern paleography dates it to ca. 750; Duchesne (n. 16 above) and Willis (n. 14
above) agree on a later dating. Bernard Moreton, The Eighth-Century Gelasian Sacramentary: A Study in
Tradition (Oxford 1976) 11, 171. See also Vogel (n. 15 above); Chavasse (n. 16 above).
18
The Ordo XLI predates the dissemination of the Hadrianum. Vogel (n. 15 above) 180. Andrieu (n. 15
above) 4.321323; Benz (n. 16 above) 81. Kozachek dates the earliest example of Ordo XLI to ca. 800 (n. 8
above) 23.
19
Paris, BnF Lat. MS 9428, fol. 100, reproduced in Duchesne (n. 16 above) 487489. Andrieu (n. 15
above) 4.390; Willis (n. 15 above) 169170. Benz argues it is not an attempt to combine the two rites (n. 16
above) 99101
20
Andrieu (n. 15 above) 4.405407, ordo at 4.411413; Willis (n. 15 above) 168169. Benz, however,
sees the beginnings of the ordo in the late 6th c./first half of the 7th c. (n. 16 above) 80.
DANA M. POLANICHKA 84
ics.
21
Moreover, the various ordines describe the preparation of holy water and the
subsequent blessing of the altar, the altar linens, the sacred vessels, and the entire
church, including its floor and walls, with that holy water. The Ordo Consecrationis
Basilicae Novae in particular outlines this aspersion at great length, prescribing that
the clergy form crosses with chrism throughout the church.
And yet, each ritual has its own distinctive flavor and some unique elements. The
Ordo Consecrationis Basilicae Novae, unlike the contemporary Ordo Romanus XLII,
describes the hanging of a veil after the altar is covered and before the relics are car-
ried into the church. Similarly, in the Ordo dedicationis ecclesiae, the veil is pulled to
separate the sanctuary from the nave. The Ordo quomodo ecclesia debeat dedicari
boasts two quite interesting ceremonial acts: the lighting of twelve candles and the
writing of the alphabet on the floor as part of the preparation. The movements and
actions of the clergymen differ in two moments in the Ordo Romanus XLII: early in
the dedication, the bishop enters the church alone, unaccompanied by any clergymen,
and without announcing himself; later the mansionarius retrieves a candle from the
sacristy and asks for the bishops blessing.
The texts for these rites, spanning the seventh through early ninth centuries, betray
an undeniable harmony in theme and belief. The clergymen repeatedly evoke the im-
age of the church as the domus Dei, singing of eternal dwelling places and the church
as a house of prayer.
22
Concurrent with this emphasis on the church as the Lords
house is often the recognition, in prayer, that the Lord exists in all places.
23
Moreover,
in the Ordo Romanus XLII, the exorcism of the water is accompanied by a connection
between the church and the places and houses of the faithful.
24
The sentiments of these
prayers and particularly their vocabulary make evident an early medieval understand-
ing of the rite as one that is directed at a building chosen by God as an especial resting
place.
In addition, the ordines teem with Old Testament imagery and vocabulary that em-
phasizes the architectural aspects of the rite and of the ecclesia more broadly.
25
Refer-
ences to the Lords tabernacle, the sancta sanctorum, the Tabernacle of the Covenant,
Moses, and Melchizedek make explicit comparisons between the Christian ecclesia
21
Vogel (n. 15 above) 181. In juxtaposition, although the Ordo Consecrationis Basilicae Novaes
accompanying prayers suggest that the central act of the ritual is the altars consecration (Consecrationis
Altaris), the text lacks prayers for the anointing and consecration of the altar or the church. Willis (n. 15
above) 158159.
22
Ordo XLII, c. 13; Mohlberg (n. 17 above) nos. 690, 703729; Ordo XLI, c. 12 and 14; BnF Lat. MS
9428, fol. 100, in Duchesne (n. 16 above) 487489; Ordo XLIII, c. 7 and 17. Domus, or house, long referred
to domestic structures, including religious ones understood as the dwelling places of God. Christian refer-
ences to a house of God (domus dei) often recalled Jesus expelling moneychangers from the temple and
referring to his house as a house of prayer. Matt 21.1213; Mark 11.1517; Luke 19.4546. The connection
is explicated in Carolingian texts. See Dana Marie Polanichka, Precious Stones, Living Temples: Sacred
Space in Carolingian Churches, 751877 C.E. (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles 2009)
83, 145, 147, 289.
23
Ordo XLII, c. 1 and 4; BnF Lat. MS 9428, fol. 100, in Duchesne (n. 16 above) 487489.
24
Ordo XLII, c. 1 and 4.
25
The bibliography on the Carolingian affinity for, and use of, the Old Testament is extensive, including
Walter Ullmann, The Carolingian Renaissance and the Idea of Kingship, The Birkbeck Lectures 19681969
(London 1969); the articles collected in Early Medieval Europe 7.3 (1998); the essays in Yitzhak Hen and
Matthew Innes, ed., The Uses of the Past in the Early Middle Ages (Cambridge 2000); and Rosamond
McKitterick, History and Memory in the Carolingian World (Cambridge 2004).
TRANSFORMING SPACE, (PER)FORMING COMMUNITY 85
and the Old Testament temple.
26
Moreover, as G. G. Willis has argued, the details for
the Ordo Consecrationis Basilica were actually drawn from the books of Exodus and
Leviticus.
27
Ultimately, the pre- and early Carolingian consecration rites as a whole
speak to a ritual firmly placed within an Old Testament tradition focused on the place
of devotion.
This emphasis on the material and spatial aspects of early dedication rituals is at-
tested to by their inclusion and elaboration in the next stage of the evolution of the
dedicatory ritual: the Ordo ad benedicendam ecclesiam, referred to as the PRG 40 due
to its placement in the Romano-Germano Pontifical (PRG).
28
A monk of St. Alban,
Mainz, compiled the text between 950 and 962, but because the consecratio is con-
flated, scholars suggest that parts of it likely date from an earlier period.
29
While the
PRG dates to the very end of the Carolingian period and although its influence is
unlikely in western parts of the Frankish kingdom, the Ordo ad benedicendam eccle-
siam is certainly the culmination of the liturgical trajectory surveyed above.
30
It com-
bines and embellishes the elements of earlier consecration rites.
The Ordo ad benedicendam ecclesiam emphatically stresses the physical under-
standing of the ecclesia established in earlier rites. Architectural references abound.
For example, God is called the rationabilis artifex and asked to be protector of this
house.
31
The opening prayers describe the church as house and royal hall.
32
Hymns reference the Lords most brilliant houses. During the third circumambula-
tion of the church, the sung response references the first verses of Psalm 23: The
house of the Lord is founded upon the summit of the mountains. It concludes with the
verse, Bless, Lord, this house which I have built in your name.
33
Within the church,
the bishop is to pray, show yourself as dedicator in this temple built for you.
34
Soon
after, the clergy sing, Oh, how amazing is this place that is truly nothing but the
26
For the tabernacle of the Lord, see Ordo dedicationis ecclesiae; holy of holies, Ordo Romanus XLII;
the church as a templum and references to Moses, Melchizedek, and the Tabernacle of the Covenant,
Ordo Consecrationis Basilica Novae, Missale Francorum, nos. 60 and 66. Many Carolingian churches, in
their architecture as well as the legislative texts pertaining to them, recreated the Temples concentric circles
of purity and sacrality. See Polanichka (n. 22 above).
27
Willis (n. 15 above) 158.
28
As a pontifical, the PRG combined ordines and sacramentary prayers, and served as an instruction
manual and reference volume. The critical edition is found in Vogel and Elze (n. 14 above) 1.124173. For
a discussion of the Romano-Germanic Pontifical, see Sarah Hamilton, The Practice of Penance, 9001050
(Woodbridge, Suffolk 2001) c. 4 and appendices. Also, Kozachek explores the history of the PRG ordines
(n. 8 above) 2741. While the PRG was intended for episcopal use, it also served monastic audiences;
Hamilton 104, 128129.
29
Willis (n. 15 above) 135. Repshers argument (3335) for an early 9th-c. dating should be discarded
because the commentary more closely follows the late 8th-c. Ordo Romanus XLI than with PRG 40 (n. 9
above). See Yitzhak Hens review of Repshers book in the Journal of Ecclesiastical History 51.1 (2000)
126128.
30
Hamilton (n. 28 above) 131135, has convincingly questioned the long-held assumption that the PRG
had a strong influence beyond its home province, Mainz.
31
PRG 40, c. 70; huius domus, cuius es fundator, esto protector PRG 40, c. 13.
32
PRG 40, c. 2.
33
lucidissimas mansiones PRG 40, c. 15. Fundata est domus domini <super verticem montium >
Benedic domine domum istam <quam aedificavi nomini tuo > PRG 40, c. 18. Ps. 23.13 Domini est
terra et plenitudo eius orbis et habitatores eius quia ipse super maria fundavit eum et super flumina stabilivit
illum quis ascendet in montem Domini et quis stabit in loco sancto eius.
34
hoc in templo tibi edificato dedicator appare PRG 40, c. 24.
DANA M. POLANICHKA 86
house of God and gate of heaven.
35
The clergy repeat the scriptural proclamation that
the church ought only be a domus domini.
36
The longest part of the prayer asks that
God heal people in this your house, wishing that all who enter this temple be
delighted.
37
When the laity rejoins the clergy, the bishop asks, Lord, mercifully enter
and make a perpetual dwelling place in the hearts of your faithful, and grant that this
house, which stands solemnly in being dedicated to you, be exalted through your pres-
ence.
38
Thus the choir sings, Enter, blessed people of God, your house, your dwell-
ing place, is prepared by the Lord.
39
These are just a handful of prayers emphasizing
the church as a domestic space for God.
More generally, the concepts of space and place receive much emphasis within the
text. A prayer in the tent requests space for penance (spatium paenitentiae).
40
When
the relics are raised upon the bier, the clergy are to sing Saints, rise up from your
dwelling-places and make these places sacred.
41
Standing before the church doors,
they chant that the Lord is wholly present in your entire dominion.
42
Prostrating
before the altar, they entreat: That you give to us a space and place for penance. That
you deign to elevate our church ... That you deign to bless and consecrate this
church.
43
Praying in the church, the bishop and his clergy ask that the Lord admit in
this place all who come to adore him, and that the Lord freely protect those praying in
this dwelling.
44

To sanctify the ecclesia, the clergy exorcise the salt and water to send evil and im-
pure spirits from all places where the faithful are.
45
The clergy pray, I exorcise you
[the salt], so that you repel the devil from the boundary of just people, lest he be in the
shadows of this church, and that you, Lord Jesus Christ, pour the sacred spirit into
this, your church.
46
Another prayer addresses the newly blessed water as having the
ability, when poured in places, to send away evil so that the Holy Spirit may live in
this house.
47
The altar is designated as a place where the Lord will especially help
35
O quam metuendus est <locus iste, vere non est hic aliud nisi domus Dei et porta celi> PRG 40, c.
26.
36
PRG 40, c. 44.
37
in hac ... domo tua ... omnes qui hoc templum ... ingrediuntur PRG 40, c. 48.
38
domine, clementer ingredere et in tuorum cordibus fidelium perpetuam tibi constitue mansionem, et
praesta, ut domus haec, quae tua subsistit dedicatione sollemnis, tua fiat habitatione sublimis PRG 40, c.
131.
39
Ingredimini, benedicti Dei, <parata est vobis a domino habitatio sedis vestrae > PRG 40, c. 132.
40
Ut spatium paenitentiae nobis dones. Te [rogamus]. PRG 40, c. 2. Spatium could refer to time in
Carolingian Europe, but the meaning here seems to be spatial, not temporal.
41
Surgite sancti de mansionibus vestris, <loca sanctificate > PRG 40, c. 10.
42
in omni loco dominationis tuae totus assistis PRG 40, c. 13.
43
Ut spacium et locum paenitentiae nobis dones, te./Ut aecclesiam tuuam sublimare digneris, te roga-
mus./Ut aecclesiam istam benedicere et consecrare digneris, te [rogamus] PRG 40, c. 23.
44
PRG 40, c. 47.
45
ab eo loco PRG 40, c. 5; ab omni loco c. 29; in domibus vel in locis fidelium c. 8. On holy wa-
ter and exorcism in the Carolingian period, see Herbert Schneider, Aqua BenedictaDas mit Salz
gesmischte Weihwasser, Segni e riti nella chiesa altomedievale occidentale, Settimamne di Studio del
centro italiano di studi sullalto medioevo 33 (Spoleto 1987) 1.337364.
46
Exorcizo te ... ut repellas diabolum a termino iustorum, ne sit in umbraculis huius aecclesiae, et tu,
domine Iesu Christe, infunde spiritum sanctum in hanc ecclesiam tuam PRG 40, c. 32.
47
PRG 40, c. 33 and 37a.
TRANSFORMING SPACE, (PER)FORMING COMMUNITY 87
supplicants.
48
Over and over again the ecclesia is described as a place or space for
Christians, for God, and for religious devotion.
As with the earlier consecration rites, the Ordo ad benedicendam ecclesiam
abounds with references to the Old Testament that draw in not only biblical traditions,
but also spatial and architectural terminology. First, the ritual begins in a tent, echoing
that in which the Ark once rested. It is even called the holy of holies.
49
Likewise, the
curtain pulled to separate the altar from the laity is an explicit reference to the veil that
obscured view of the sancta sanctorum.
50
When the bishop makes the sign of the cross
inside the church walls, the clergy are to sing, The Lord sanctified his tabernacle; this
is the house of God.
51
Furthermore, the consecration of the altar involves multiple
references to the Old Testament.
52
The altar linens and liturgical vessels are blessed
with reference to those of the Tabernacle. The blessing of the chalice refers to that of
Melchizedek. The ordo links the ciborium to the cherubim Moses placed over the Ark
of the Covenant. Likewise, the consecration of the reliquary involves a plea to the god
who instructed Moses to construct the Ark.
53
In blessing the liturgical vessels and
ornaments, the bishop offers an extended reference to the physical side of religion:
Omnipotent and merciful God, who created from the beginning useful and necessary things
for men, and who wished that temples made by human hands be dedicated to your sacred
name and be called places of your dwelling, and who, through Moses, your servant, decreed
that the pontifical, priestly and Levitical vestments and other ornaments of diverse types be
made for the worship and beauty of your tabernacle and altar, hear favorably our prayers and
deign to purify, sanctify, bless, and consecrate through the servitude of our humility all these
ornaments of diverse kinds, prepared on account of your honor and glory, for the use of this
basilica and this altar, so that they are fit for divine worship and sacred ministries.
54


This prayer is not unique: four more references are made to the objects of worship
instituted by Moses.
55
Overall, Old Covenant imagery pervades the Ordo ad
benedicendam ecclesiam, forcefully underlining the church as a sacred space in the
tradition of the Tabernacle and Temple.
Beyond verbal references to the space and place, to the physical architecture and
material objects, this ordo, following earlier precedents, pays extensive ritual attention
to the space. Most emphatic are the multiple circumambulations of the church, both
inside and out, accompanied by singing, lighted candles, and crosses. These repeated
processions physically and explicitly demarcate the worship space; they draw the bar-
riers between profane and sacred. Likewise, the anointing of multiple surfaces and
48
ut omni tempore in hoc loco supplicantis tibi familiae tuae anxietates releves PRG 40, c. 60.
49
PRG 40, c. 3.
50
PRG 40, c. 133.
51
Sanctificavit dominus tabernaculum suum; haec est domus Dei PRG 40, c. 57.
52
PRG 40, c. 61.
53
PRG 40, c. 7477, 93, 117, and 112.
54
Omnipotens et misericors Deus, qui ab initio utilia et necessaria hominibus creasti, templaque manu
hominum facta nomini tuo sancto dicari tuaeque habitationis loca vocari voluisti, quique per Moysen famu-
lum tuum vestimenta pontificalia et sacerdotalia seu levitica et alia quequae diversi generis ornamenta ad
cultum et decorem tabernaculi et altaris tui fieri decrevisti, exaudi propitius preces nostras et omnia haec
diversarum specierum ornamenta, in usum huius basilicae vel altaris, ad honorem et gloriam tuam praepa-
rata, purificare et sanctificare, benedicere et consecrare per nostrae humilitatis servitutem digneris, ut divinis
cultibus sacrisque ministeriis apta existant PRG 40, c. 78.
55
PRG 40, c. 79, 82, 95 and 110.
DANA M. POLANICHKA 88
objects, the tracing of letters on the floor, and the other ritual movements through the
building focus on the physical church and its spatial dimensions.
That said, the text acknowledges that spirituality also existed beyond architecture
or location. When dedicating the altar, the bishop explains that the Lord esteems the
appearance of holy minds over the decoration of walls.
56
He prays to God, the
dweller in sacred minds, for whom a faithful soul is hospice, for whom a pious mind is
a temple.
57
A comparison between the ciborium and the Arks cherubim calls saints
bodies truly the Ark of your covenant, indeed the receptacles of the Holy Spirit.
58
Moreover, the format of the ritual, following Gallican heritage, echoes that of Chris-
tian initiation ceremonies (baptisms).
59
Nevertheless, the consecration of the ecclesia was a rite primarily directed at a
physical entity. The role of the physical and visual in religion is made explicit
throughout. For example, the tangible implements of worshipthe vessels, chalices,
crosses, etc.that are blessed at such length not only assisted in ritual observance, but
also served as manifestations of the spiritual. While blessing the gilded cross, the
bishop recited, Let the splendor of your only begotten Son radiate here in gold, let the
glory of his passion shine forth in the wood, let the redemption of our death glow in
the cross and the purification of our life in the splendor of the crystal.
60
But most im-
portant was the building, and again and again, prayers said within the church call the
space a holy house of God.
A close examination of the Ordo ad benedicendam ecclesiam and earlier consecra-
tion rites demonstrates their fundamental attention to the physical. We should not,
however, in emphasizing the spatial and architectural aspects of these rites, avoid the
communal and spiritual. After all, as mentioned above, ecclesia did also refer, in the
Carolingian period, to many intangible entitiesthe institutional church, the commu-
nity of believers, and, perhaps most intriguingly, the Frankish polity. In fact, the Quid
significent duodecim candelae, the only full liturgical commentary on church conse-
cration from the Carolingian period, as we shall see below, reiterate earlier theologi-
ans emphasis on the original meaning of ecclesia (the convocation of the faithful)
even as it focuses on the physical meanings.
61




56
Et ut propensiori cura et attentiori famulatu tibi servitutis official deferamus, hoc praesertim in tem-
pore quo religiosarum mentium habitum ultra parietum ornatum delegisti PRG 40, c. 61.
57
Habitator sanctarum mentium Deus, cui anima fidelis hospitium, cui mens pia templum est PRG 40,
c. 71.
58
veraciter archa testamenti tui, recepta videlicet spiritus sancti PRG 40, c. 117.
59
Duchesne (n. 15 above) 413.
60
Radiet hic unigeniti tui filii splendor divinitatis in auro, emicet gloria passionis eius in ligno, in cruce
rutilet nostrae mortis redemptio, in splendore christalli nostrae vite purificatio PRG 40, c. 105.
61
Hrabanus Maurus includes a shorter explication of the church consecration rite in his De institutione
clericorum, written 819840. Here, in discussing the anniversary celebration of church dedications, he
describes the rite itself, firmly placing it within an Old Testament framework and focusing heavily on the
meaning and history behind it. Hrabanus, De Institutione Clericorum, bk. II, c. 45, ed. Detlev Zimpel,
Freiburger Beitrge zur Mittelalterlichen Geschichte 7, ed. Hubert Mordek (Frankfurt am Main 1996); a
comparison of the text to the ordo used at Fulda is undertaken by Daniel J. Sheerin, The Church Dedication
Ordo Used at Fulda, 1 Nov., 819, Revue Bndictine 92.34 (1982) 304316.
TRANSFORMING SPACE, (PER)FORMING COMMUNITY 89
INTERPRETING THE CAROLINGIAN CONSECRATION RITE
It is to this commentary that we now turn to better understand the ritual. Ritual, as
Pssel suggests, is not so much a category of action as of intention and perception.
62
While the actions of the consecration liturgy were certainly directed toward the physi-
cal church and the space it encompassed, it is necessary to probe into the intentions of
the liturgical actors as well as the perception of those involved. What did the bishop
and his fellow clergymen intend with their activities and words during the consecra-
tion of a church?
The commentary Quid significent duodecim candelae, of uncertain authorship,
dates from the mid-ninth century and was, in the mid-tenth century, included in the
Romano-Germanic Pontifical.
63
As expected of a liturgical exposition, it endeavors to
interpret the acts, objects, and prayers of the liturgy, using a method similar to the
biblical exegesis proliferating among Carolingian clergy. This goal is accomplished
through the posing and answering of questions about the rite, with the first providing
the treatises name: what do the twelve candles signify?
Within the initial chapters, the author of Quid significent introduces the term ec-
clesia in order to discuss its many meanings. The expositor clearly differentiates be-
tween the proper and common meanings of ecclesia, invoking etymology and au-
thoritative Christian sources. Yet even while defining ecclesia as the assembly of
Christians, he acknowledges the appropriateness of applying the term to the physical
building. For the basilica serves as the place where the faithful assemble and unite; it
physically holds them in that space. Thus the writer quotes Augustines description of
the building as uniting the convocatio, and explicitly accepts this double usage of ec-
clesia.
64
For the commentator (as well as his contemporaries), the architectural ec-
clesia signifies and represents the true ecclesia, collapsing the meanings and fortifying
the term.
This tension between the symbolic and literal meanings of ecclesia continues
throughout the work. For example, when referring to the antiphon He who dwells in
the aid of the Highest, the commentator asserts that only those who dwell in Gods
help will be protected.
65
Here a spatial metaphor provides a description of ones
submission to God. In another instance, the author plays on the relationships between
different definitions of ecclesia: a reference to the biblical verse My house shall be
called a house of prayer evolves into an explication that people are to prepare them-
selves in such ways as to prevent demons from reigning over their bodies and
breasts.
66
The ecclesias walls are described as made from stones, which represent the
clergy in minor orders.
67
Finally, the author of Quid significent juxtaposes the physi-
62
Pssel (n. 12 above) 117.
63
Vogel and Elze (n. 14 above) 1.90121 (PRG 35).
64
See, for example, Augustine, Epistola CXC, c. 5, 19, S. Aureli Augustini Hipponiensis Episcopi
Epistulae, ed. A. Goldbacher, CSEL 57 (1911) 154155.
65
Canunt autem antiphonam: Qui habitat in adiutorio altissimi, asserentes non protegi a Deo, nisi eum
qui in eius adiutorio habitaverit, id est ipsum adiutorem sibi esse assidue deprecatus fuerit. PRG 35, c. 31.
66
et cantare domino: Domus mea domus orationis vocabitur, ut scilicet talem ecclesiam Dei prae-
paret quae non sit spelunca latronum, sed domus orationis, id est ne fures et latrones demones in corporibus
pectoribusque sibi subiectorum exerceant dominatum, sed potius se tales praeparent, ut aliud quid sive man-
ducent sive bibant, sive faciant, in gloria Dei faciant PRG 35, c. 33.
67
Per parietes autem minoris quique ordinis, quibus sufficit quod lapides sunt aecclesiae et in compagis
DANA M. POLANICHKA 90
cal, earthly dwelling place of the Lord with the eternal one: Lord God, You who from
every union of holy ones [saints] builds an eternal dwelling place for Your majesty.
68
The expositor continues by describing how the dwelling place of the ecclesia is earthly
and temporal, made of stones and wood. Gods eternal dwelling place is that which is
built in the heavens, from the holy people who are the true rocks. This understanding
of Christian souls as the building blocks of the true aecclesia references New Testa-
ment verses.
69
The true domus Dei is described not as the convocation of the faithful
on earth but rather as Christian souls in heaven. In this way, Quid significent seems to
emphasize an understanding of the church building as an ecclesia secondary only to
Gods kingdom in heaven.
This liturgical commentary echoes many themes of the ordines: an emphasis on
physicality and materiality in dedicatory rites. There is, to be sure, a simultaneous
stress on a spiritual understanding of the ecclesia as well as the spiritual meaning be-
hind every act of the consecration ritual. Yet the texts exegetical approach to the lit-
urgy necessitates an investigation of the multiple non-literal meanings behind the rite;
unsurprisingly, there is an intricate theological and biblical explanation for every ges-
ture and word, every object and instrument in the dedication.
Is this description of the rituals meanings and intentions indicative of broader
Carolingian understandings of dedicatory rites? The works anonymity prevents any
consideration of authorship, but the text fits into the popular genre of Carolingian alle-
gorical expositions.
70
Although Quid significent is our only full early medieval
interpretation of the dedication ritual, the commentarys inclusion in the Romano-
Germanic Pontifical indicates, perhaps, a recognition of its importance or validity as a
didactic text (though we cannot be certain of the pontificals influence).
71
Neverthe-
less, if we read the consecration ordines as well as this liturgical commentary side by
side and place them within a broader framework of Carolingian texts, we discover an
understanding of what the ritual of consecrationor, more precisely, what the cele-
brants of this liturgyintended to do.
72

ipsius manent unione, atque ideo per fidem passionis ac resurrectionis et per caritatem fraternitatis donum
merentur spiritus ... Qui muri de lapidibus pretiosis edificantur, quia valde pretiosi Deo fuerunt qui scriptu-
ras sacras ipso auctore condiderunt et nobis legendas reliquerunt, lapides autem dicti propter invincibilem
firmitatem PRG 35, c. 4647.
68
Cui rei concinit oratio pontificis dicens: Domine Deus, qui ex omni coaeptatione sanctorum eternum
tibi condis habitaculum. In caelis namque aeternum sibi habitaculum ex omni coaptatione condit, quia illuc
omnes sanctos suscipiens aeterna mansione in eis habitat. Istud enim habitaculum quod videmus terrenum
est atque transitorium, sed nec de coaptatione sanctorum edificatur, sed lapidum atque lignorum. Illud vero
habitaculum aeternum est, quia nulli obnoxium mutationi et de sanctis fit, qui sunt veri lapides participa-
tione illius lapidis angularis, in quo templum aeternum compactum et constructum crescit in augmentum
Dei, modo in spiritu sancto; tunc perfectum erit, cum omnis numerus sanctorum collectus fuerit et capiti suo
aeternaliter adheserit. PRG 35, c. 57.
69
Paul wove such metaphors; Eph. 2.2022; 1 Pet. 2.5.
70
Among the Carolingian scholars to write such liturgical treatises are Agobard of Lyons, Walahfrid
Strabo, Hrabanus Maurus, Amalarius of Metz, Florus of Lyons, and Remigius of Auxerre. Hen, Royal Pa-
tronage (n. 4 above) 7. There are also high medieval expositions on church consecrations (e.g., by Honorius
Augustodunensis, Durandus, etc.).
71
Considering further the PRGs rapid dissemination and immediate popularity, Quid significent
would have gained a following within ecclesiastical circles; Vogel (n. 15 above) 237. Hamilton (n. 28
above) 106, 131135, notes the PRGs popularity and that it survives in thirty-five to thirty-eight manu-
scripts, though it was largely used in the Mainz region.
72
Pssel reminds us that ritual never does anythingsuch a phrase is always shorthand for the agency
TRANSFORMING SPACE, (PER)FORMING COMMUNITY 91
FROM BUILDING TO ECCLESIA
The early medieval consecration of a church was a multi-sensory experience, though
mostly for those clergy members who fulfilled central roles in the ceremony.
73
Prayers
and litanies filled the ears of all, while a concert of other sounds were heard by only a
few clergymen: the bishops repeated knocking on the churchs lintel; the footsteps of
people circumambulating the church; the swishing of water with wine as they were
mixed; the scraping of the bishops staff as he wrote the alphabet on the floor; and
perhaps even the not-quite-silent forming of crosses with anointment on the altar and
church walls.
74
Equally stimulating were the many sights of the ritual as people proc-
essed around the church. Candles and crosses moved in and out and throughout the
building; the relics progressed from tent to church; and the background scenery trans-
formed as multiple spacesthe tent, the outside, the churchwere transgressed. At
the climax of the rite, the drawing of the veil within the church either focused ones
eyes on the holy of holies or explicitly prevented ones view of it.
For the clergy, the consecration was also a tactile event: the lifting of the relics on
the bier; the carrying of crosses and candles; the holding of the liturgical manuscripts;
the drawing of cruciform-shapes with holy water; the tracing of the alphabet with a
staff; the handling of liturgical vestments, utensils, and manuscripts; the aspersion of
holy water and exorcism of salt.
75
Even the sense of smell would have been activated
in the dedicatory ritual: incense and the smoke from candles competed with one an-
other for the noses of all, while the faint smell of wine or salt would have been experi-
enced only by the bishop and his closest aides. One might imagine that this liturgical
rite even excited the taste buds, as smoke, incense, or holy water may have entered
ones mouth.
If Carolingian church consecrations were multifaceted ritual performances, focused
on the material and physical in a multitude of ways, what can we determine about their
meaning? Primarily and explicitly, the rite of dedication prepared the church space for
future liturgical celebrations, making it hospitable to religious devotion, particularly in
the form of the mass. This sanctification of the church was carried out through a chain
of events. First, the liturgical ritual, with its attendant prayers, invocations, blessings,
and actions, brought a sacred quality to the building, making the structure ready for
the presence of sacred objects. Once this initial sacralization had occurred, the relics,
which, on account of their identity, history, or miraculous powers, were already con-
sidered holy, were translated into the church and placed in its altar. Their very pres-
ence carried further religious power into the building. Finally, the celebration of the
mass eight times enacted the full holiness of the church, completing the consecration.
Thus, the dedicatory rite prepared the religious building for future liturgies.
76

The ordines and complementary prayers also suggest a far deeper understanding of
the church consecration ceremony. Biblical references elucidate this. As the rite de-
of a rituals participants (n. 12 above) 116.
73
See also Kozachek (n. 8 above) 358; Louis I. Hamilton, To Consecrate the Church (n. 11 above)
106; Iogna-Prat (n. 3 above) 266; and Palazzo (n. 6 above) esp. 2628, 30.
74
For the music involved in church consecration liturgies, see Kozachek (n. 8 above).
75
On liturgical manuscripts as sacred spaces that activated the senses, see Palazzo (n. 6 above).
76
One might say that the consecration rite made the church ready for the regular re-creation of the true
Temple, the body of Christ, as present in the Eucharist.
DANA M. POLANICHKA 92
veloped over the course of the Carolingian period, it increasingly invoked the Old
Testament, referring to the church as a templum, describing the tent and sanctuary as
the sanctum sanctorum, referencing Moses and Melchizedek, and making explicit
comparisons to the Ark and Tabernacle of the Covenant and to Solomons Temple.
Even details from the rite drew on rituals from Exodus and Leviticus. While a propen-
sity for the Old Testament has long been recognized in the Carolingian period, these
references are more than an echo of Frankish affinity for the Old Law. Rather, they
reveal an understanding of the consecration as a rite that transformed a building into a
holy site in which the boundaries of time and space, heaven and earth, disappeared.
Liturgical references to the Tabernacle of the Covenant are of particular import
here. This res sacrata, as described by Charlemagnes court, was built by man, but at
the behest, and according to the specific instructions, of God.
77
As a result, the Ark
was not thought to be man-made. Carolingian churches, on the other hand, were decid-
edly products of human design and toil; in this way, they could not inherently compete
with the Tabernacle of the Covenant, the Temple of Solomon, the heavenly dwelling
places of God. But the ritual of church consecration could change that: it could trans-
form the space of the church into a domus Dei. The dedicatory ceremony fashioned the
building into a spiritual dwelling able to house an eternal and immaterial God.
78
The
rituals prepared the church not only for the presence of liturgies, but also, more sig-
nificantly, for the presence of God. So, throughout the rite, the clergy beseech the
Lord to make the church fit to be his house. The clergy spoke of his most brilliant
houses from the past and recalled how the Lord sanctified his temple. They ask that
God give heavenly increases to his church; they refer to the church as not only the
house of God, but also the door of heaven. They draw links between the temple or Ark
and the church at hand, so that this new place might be made sacred through God.
The prayers of the consecration ceremony endeavored to place any given church
within the long line of temples, places, and even objects made sacred by God himself
as domiis Dei; the bishop and clergy beseeched God to personally bless the building as
he had those previous spaces. The liturgical acts, by repeating events from the Old
Testament, were able to make these events, and thus the biblical past, present once
again in the church. The Carolingian rites of consecration created the same multi-his-
torical moment as described by Robert Ousterhout regarding the Holy Sepulcher: the
events commemorated could be made spiritually present through ritualized venera-
tion. He continues, The faithful could experience there the real presence of holy
persons and events ... The historical event and its ritual reenactment are conflated.
79
Church consecration ceremonies not only made past consecrations present once again,
but also turned the building into a place where past and present were united.
What transpired then was the complete conversion of a building into an ecclesia in
the fullest sense of the worda space in which God dwelt eternally; a place in which
the faithful were united across time and space; a point at which heaven and earth met;
77
On res sacrata, see Opus Caroli Regis contra synodum (Libri Carolini), MGH Concilium 2, Supple-
ment 1, ed. Ann Freeman (Hanover 1998).
78
Note that Bede interprets the curtain of the Tabernacle, which separated the holy of holies, as heaven.
Bede, On the Tabernacle, bk. II, c. 8, trans. Arthur G. Holder (Liverpool 1994) 78.
79
Robert Ousterhout, Architecture as Relic and the Construction of Sanctity: The Stones of the Holy
Sepulchre, The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 62 (2003) 423, at 4.
TRANSFORMING SPACE, (PER)FORMING COMMUNITY 93
the site where the prophets of the Old Testament, the saints of the New Testament, and
the faithful of the present day gathered to form the universal and eternal ecclesia.
80
The consecration ceremony collapsed the definitions of ecclesiathe community of
the faithful, the physical building, and the institutional churchinto one entity. The
church became the ecclesia so well described by the author of the Quid significent: the
community of the faithful, whose congregation made them the true ecclesia and, in
turn, gave spiritual meaning and weight to the building that could now properly be
called an ecclesia. So while the physical church and the material aspects of devotion
may have been central to the church consecration ritual, such directed focus on them
did not result in the disregard of the immaterial meanings of ecclesia. Rather, the tan-
gible, locatable church building, once consecrated, made the spiritual ecclesia possible
and present. Each understanding of ecclesia mutually supported and strengthened the
others through the rite of church consecration.

PERFORMING SPACE AND COMMUNITY
The consecration rite transformed the space most obviously, but was also intended to
transform the community. Of course, the danger of ritual to which Buc has alerted us
is that ritual meaning is not as fixed as many historians previously assumed. The
effects and consequences of such symbolic acts are not under anyones full control.
81
Thus, even if we can determine what the church, the clergy, or the agents of the
Carolingian renovatio intended the consecration ritual to mean, we cannot be sure that
this meaning was conveyed to the lay audience, or that the rite had the intended effects
on that audience. Let us then consider the nature of lay participation in the ritual, in an
attempt to understand their experience of it.
Although the faithful people are at times mentioned in prayers, they are often not
present for their recitation. According to the vast majority of ordines, the people do
enter the church until nearly the end of the dedication rite. At each rites beginning,
the bishop and two or three clergymen step inside, while the congregation remain out-
side.
82
Only the Ordo XLIII places the laity within the church during the rite (when the
deacon asperses the people with exorcised water)but even in that ordo, the people
do not enter with the bishop.
In fact, very little within the ordines or commentary speak to the laitys involve-
ment. Within the shorter, early ordines, the laitys presence is usually noted only when
a veil is drawn to separate them from the sancta sanctorum. In the more elaborate
Ordo ad benedicendam ecclesiam, the lay faithful are not mentioned until chapter 126,
when the bishop and his men emerge from the church to carry the relics, crosses, and
lights around the church. At that moment, the people sing Kyrie eleison and possibly
join the procession.
83
It is not stated, in the ordo, what the lay faithful did or where
exactly they were prior to this circumambulation, but it is nearly certain that they had
80
Iogna-Prat writes, De fait, lglise nouvellement consacre est la porte ouverte sur lau-del qui
donne accs des constructions largement spirituelles o se retrouvent tous les chrtiens vivants et morts
(n. 3 above) 280.
81
Pssel (n. 12 above) 114.
82
For example, the people do not enter the church until PRG 40, c. 131133.
83
circumeant ecclesiam, sequente clero has antiponas vel responsoria psallendo et populo cum
mulieribus et parvulis Kyrieleison decantando PRG 40, c. 126.
DANA M. POLANICHKA 94
remained outside the church guarding the relics.
84
After the procession and singing of
Kyrie eleison, the bishop preaches to the people before the church doors.
85
When the
people finally enter the church, a curtain is extended across the space to hide the altar
from lay view. The people remain in the church through the consecrations final
prayers and rituals, and then attend the first mass.
The author of Quid significent, however, imagined the assembly of believers at the
forefront of the consecration ceremony. When describing the bishops blessings with
water, wine, salt, and ashes, the expositor twice asserts that the people ought to be
instructed on issues of faith by the clergy.
86
Moreover, in an unusual description,
chapter ten depicts the laity entering the church with the bishopand thus being pre-
sent for the entire rite.
87
Who exactly entered the church is more ambiguous in Ordo
XLI, the likely basis for this commentary: the people are not directly mentioned until
the end of the ritual, possibly suggesting that they remained outside the church during
most of the rite. Why the commentary diverges on this point is unclear.
88

Further complicating the matter is the fact that the expositor described how, when
the bishop later returned to the tent to retrieve the relics, he meets the people who are
waiting in the present night, and guarding the saints [i.e., relics] with great circum-
spection.
89
According to this, the laypeople had spent the evening guarding the relics,
as confirmed by a following reference to Jesuss reprimand of the sleeping apostles,
who, he said, ought to be guarding themselves.
90
Ultimately, a survey of the early
medieval consecration demonstrates that the laity was physically and ritually periph-
eral to the rite. They had no active role, beyond watching the relics, and were present
for only a minute portion of the rite.
91

84
We can assume that at least one clergyman would have also been guarding the relics along with the la-
ity (lest the people steal or mistreat them!).
85
habeat pontifex verbum ad plebem PRG 40, c. 128.
86
et, qualiter Christo tamquam capiti corpus per eius passionem coiunguntur et sanctificentur, suffi-
cienter instruuntur ... cum docentur populi sanctae trinitati gratias referre pro sua eruditione atque redemp-
tione ... insinuatur quia populus per os praedicatoris instrui debet quod dominus noster et salvator Deus est
et homo ... and ... cum populum se audientem, quantum sibi possibile est, erudit, castigat, consolatur et
fovet et contra omnes inimici insidias armari docet. PRG 35, c. 2223, 35.
87
Aperto vero ostio, intrat pontifex cum clero et populo PRG 35, c. 10.
88
Two possibilities: A no-longer-extant ordo may have placed the laity within the church; likewise, it is
possible (if not plausible) that the author was describing an actual consecration in which the people did in
fact enter the church building early in the liturgy.
89
Quid in his innuitur, nisi quod verus pontifex noster, postquam praeparavit nobis, sicut Apostolus ait,
civitatem, revertitur, ut sanctos quoque qui in nocte praesenti morantur, et semetipsos cum magna circum-
spectione custodiunt, vigilantes sicut dominus dicit PRG 35, c. 52. That Latin describes the saints
watching themselves, but context suggests that the intended meaning was, rather, that the people watch the
saints (i.e., relics).
90
... vigilantes sicut dominus dicit: Vigilate et orate, ut non intretis in temptationem, assumit eos de
locis suis, ut perducat eos in domum patris sui? PRG 35, c. 52. This is a reference to Matt. 26.40 and Mark
14.37, when Jesus scolded the Apostles for sleeping.
91
That the lay faithful were not active participants in the ritual of church consecration is not unusual:
Donald Bullough, in an article on the broader Carolingian liturgical experience, called the laity the silent
majority and further noted the lack of attention paid in written texts to the ordinary faithful and to how they
worshipped in their local churches. Bullough, The Carolingian Liturgical Experience, Continuity and
Change in Christian Worship: Papers Read at the 1997 Summer Meeting and the 1998 Winter Meeting of
the Ecclesiastical History Society, ed. R. N. Swanson (Woodbridge 1999) 2964, at 3037. Likewise,
McKitterick has discussed how lay participation increasingly amounted simply to their presence and emo-
tional and aesthetic response to the ritual in the absence of any complete comprehension of the written
words. The Frankish Church and the Carolingian Reforms, 789895 (London 1977) 142.
TRANSFORMING SPACE, (PER)FORMING COMMUNITY 95
One may assume that the opening portions of the rite, before the clergy entered the
church, were visible to the people. They would have seen the lights of candles, heard
the singing of prayers, and smelled the smoking incense. Once separated by church
walls, it is unclear whether the laity would have heard singing penetrating the walls or
incense wafting through the windows. Nor is it certain what they were doing while
alone (other than possibly watching the relics). When the clergy reemerged from the
ecclesia, so would have the sights, sounds, and smells. Having finally entered the
church, the peoples ears and noses would have further filled with the liturgy, but their
view would have been obstructed, since a curtain hid the sanctuary from non-clerical
eyes.
92
They may have had a sense of what was happening, but mystery would have
pervaded the final consecration of the altar.
93

But in noting this, one should not assume that the laity did not fulfill an important
role. They certainly realized an essential task simply by attesting to the transformative
performance. Just as with the miracles described in medieval hagiographies and relic
translations, the ordinary layperson, through observing a miraculous or ritual event,
could validate its spiritual power and transformation. Finally, the laity filled an im-
portant role as witness to the very fact that the church was dedicated. As legislation
referenced in this articles opening reveals, any uncertainty regarding a churchs con-
secration was problematic and required a dedication to ensure the spaces sacred na-
ture.
The consecration of a church held the essential function of proclaiming the nature
of the space within the basilica. The liturgy displayed the churchs sanctification: the
bishop and clergymen marked the ecclesia as a sacred space set off from the profane
world through ritual, relic, light, water, salt, incense, song, and movement. At a time
when Carolingian legislation worked to demarcate the boundaries of Christendom and
classify behaviors as appropriate or inappropriate within a church, the dedication rite
would have provided the perfect opportunity to signal that delineation of the holy.
Enacting the sanctity of the site could thus help the clergy maintain its sanctity by in-
spiring lay reverence: later, when prodding people to honor the ecclesia, the clergy
could have drawn on their memories of the dedication. Moreover, the consecration
served to define and divide not only spaces, but also peoples. Carolingian leaders, in
architecture, legislation, and rituals, increasingly separated sacerdotes and fideles.
94
The dedicatory rite did so quite explicitly by excluding the lay audience from the ma-
jority of the ritual and then obstructing their view of the sanctuary once they were
within the church. If the consecration created community, it was a highly ordered
community with a clear hierarchyand thus one that depended on the lay audiences
presence.
92
Iogna-Prat writes of how the veil was only a precursor to the reality of clerical/lay separation (n. 3
above) 272.
93
The physical separation between clergy and laity within this rite is echoed in more general trends in
early medieval liturgy and architecture. See Rev. Joseph A. Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its
Origins and Development (Missarum Sollemnia), rev. ed. (Westminster, MD 1974) 182; Bullough (n. 91
above) 53; Susan A. Rabe, Faith, Art, and Politics at Saint-Riquier: The Symbolic Vision of Angilbert
(Philadelphia 1995) 143.
94
See Bullough (n. 91 above); Reynolds (n. 4 above); and Julia M. H. Smith, Religion and Lay Soci-
ety, The New Cambridge Medieval History, II: c.700c. 900, ed. Rosamond McKitterick (Cambridge
1995) 654678.
DANA M. POLANICHKA 96
But again, this tells us more about the intentions of the clerical hierarchy, the ex-
pected role of the laity, and the intended outcome, not the actual effects of the ritual on
the people or communities. Could the performance of the church consecration trans-
form not just the space, but also the minds of lay believers? If the laity did not actually
see the transformation occur before their eyes, if they were only aware that a ritual
occurred, what did they believe actually happened? Influenced by cultural anthropo-
logical and sociological theories of liminality, art historians, in discussing the use of
veils in sanctuaries, have suggested how they can be revealing, not just obstructive.
Thus, it is posited that in ritually charged spaces, the very structures used to separate
and divide can also link and bind.
95
Unfortunately, lacking any evidence, one can only
speculate on the lay audiences response to a ritual from which they were largely ex-
cluded.
Beyond individual understandings of, or reactions to, the consecration rituals, the
effect of the ritual on the community as a whole should be central to a consideration of
Carolingian church dedications. After all, the goal of the rite was the transformation of
the church into an ecclesia, a space encompassing and representing all of Christen-
dom. On a very practical and local level, this meant the creation of a religious and
social site: upon the churchs dedication, the community possessed a (new) building to
house future, frequent liturgies, not to mention social events, that would have physi-
cally and literally brought together the community. Yet such communal formation did
not commence only after the dedication. The consecration liturgy itself was, first and
foremost, a shared experiencethe laity participated in this communal rite. Although
absent for much of the ceremony, they would have been gathered together. One can
almost picture the families huddled within or near a tent, standing guard by the relics,
awaiting the return of the clergy to proclaim the nearly complete consecration. Pssel
notes how medieval ritual is credited with the ability to have created community,
consensus, or power, an idea that no doubt draws on theories of the social effects of
symbolic rituals.
96
The consecration ritual leads us to wonder whether the laypeople
were bound in their own unscripted way, whether they knew that now they were part
of Gods ecclesia, whether the ritual created community and consensus among the
laity.

CONCLUSION
An examination of multiple ordines and prayers for the dedication of churches demon-
strates that Carolingian consecrations were ceremonies fixated on the physical, archi-
tectural, spatial ecclesia, performed within the framework of Old Testament rituals
95
For example, Herbert L. Kessler has noted the medieval interpretation of the veil as something that
both revealed and held divinity an association enabled by the identification of images with the curtain
before the inner sanctorum of the Jewish tabernacle, where the invisible God had communicated with Moses
and his successors and which was identified with Christs flesh. Kessler, Seeing Medieval Art, Rethinking
the Middle Ages 1 (Ontario 2004) 172. Joan R. Branham, in studying the Jerusalem Temple, discusses how
such barriers could not only delineate and formulate spatial order but, more profoundly, construct and
circumscribe social order. Penetrating the Sacred: Breaches and Barriers in the Jerusalem Temple,
Thresholds of the Sacred: Architectural, Art Historical, Liturgical, and Theological Perspectives on Reli-
gious Screens, East and West, ed. Sharon E. J. Gerstel (Washington, DC 2006) 724, at 7.
96
Pssel (n. 12 above) 113; for example, Clifford Geertz, Ritual and Social Change: A Javanese Exam-
ple, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (New York 1973) 142, 168.
TRANSFORMING SPACE, (PER)FORMING COMMUNITY 97
and devotion. The dedications ultimate goal was the creation of sacred space within
the walls of the basilica. Through this elaborate rite, the bishop and clergy prepared
the physical church for hosting future liturgies as well as uniting not just the present
lay audience, but also the universal and eternal community of the faithful. In the dedi-
catory rite, the bishop and clergy focused their energies on the transformation of the
church into something more than just a building or a place: it became an ecclesia
worthy of all the layers of meaningspiritual, material, and communalattached to
that term.
That church consecration ceremonies had the effect of uniting communities of
Christians is implied in the text with which this essay opened, the Vita Eigilis. On the
first day of November in 819 CE, the abbey church of Fulda, finally having reached its
completion, was dedicated. This event, according to the abbots hagiographer, brought
the disgruntled monastic community back together. Both the rite itself and its later
textual recording announced that the community had been united in the ecclesia, and
Frankish readers of Eigils vita would have understood that the consecration was the
final, ritual step in the creation of community and consensus at Fulda. What, however,
are the broader implications of understanding church consecration ceremonies as cre-
ating spaces in which all of Christendom was gathered? What is the significance of a
church dedication to communities beyond that at Fulda?
To answer such questions will require a foray into early medieval political life.
Those studying the Carolingian world have long recognized the central role of the
Church in the Frankish empire and its political implications. Notably, Matthew Innes
has referred to the sense of a corporate Frankish Church as a defining political force,
while Mayke de Jong has proposed the concept of ecclesia as intimately involved in
Carolingian conceptions of the state.
97
But focusing on the spiritual and communal
meanings of ecclesia to the neglect of its integral and connected physical meaning has
so far prevented scholarly recognition of the role of the church building in the formu-
lation of the Carolingian realm. A close examination of church consecration rites re-
veals the intimate connections between the ecclesia as an architectural and a social
entity, since the dedication liturgy created a space that brought the universal commu-
nity of the faithful into the walls of the early medieval Frankish church. Accordingly,
we ought to consider the implications of the consecration ritual in the formation and
unification of the Carolingian polity, while simultaneously bringing sacred space into
future discussions of early medieval political identities.
97
Matthew Innes, Charlemagnes Will: Piety, Politics and the Imperial Succession, English Historical
Review 112 (1997) 833855, at 854; de Jong, Ecclesia and the Early Medieval Polity and Empire as
Ecclesia (n. 10 above).