Focusing on so-called occasional rituals such as burial, church consecration, exorcism and excommunication rather than on the Mass and Office, this book provides an introduction to current work and new directions in the study of medieval liturgy. Recent research on such rites challenges many established ideas, especially about the extent to which they differed from place to place and over time, and how the surviving evidence should be interpreted. Bringing together scholars working in different disciplines, periods and intellectual traditions, the collection demonstrates the potential that liturgical evidence offers for understanding the Middle Ages.

Contents: Introduction, Helen Gittos and Sarah Hamilton. Researching Rites: Researching the history of rites, Helen Gittos; Researching rites for the dying and the dead, Frederick S. Paxton; Approaches to early medieval music and rites, William T. Flynn. Questioning Authority and Tradition: Questioning the authority of Vogel and Elze's Pontificale Romano-Germanique, Henry Parkes; Rethinking the uses of Sarum and York: a historiographical essay, Matthew Cheung Salisbury. Diversity: Interpreting diversity: excommunication rites in the 10th and 11th centuries, Sarah Hamilton; Medieval exorcism: liturgical and hagiographical sources, Florence Chave-Mahir; Rites for dedicating churches, Mette Birkedal Bruun and Louis I. Hamilton. Texts and Performance: Architecture as evidence for liturgical performance, Carolyn Marino Malone; Liturgical texts and performance practices, Carol Symes. Bibliography; Index.