Civic Ceremony and Religion in Medieval Bruges c.1300–1520

Abstract

Public religious practice lay at the heart of civic society in late medieval Europe. In this illuminating study, Andrew Brown draws on the rich and previously little-researched archives of Bruges, one of medieval Europe's wealthiest and most important towns, to explore the role of religion and ceremony in urban society. The author situates the religious practices of citizens - their investment in the liturgy, commemorative services, guilds and charity - within the contexts of Bruges' highly diversified society and of the changes and crises the town experienced. Focusing on the religious processions and festivities sponsored by the municipal government, the author challenges much current thinking on, for example, the nature of 'civic religion'. Re-evaluating the ceremonial links between Bruges and its rulers, he questions whether rulers could dominate the urban landscape by religious or ceremonial means, and offers new insight into the interplay between ritual and power of relevance throughout medieval Europe.

Circulating sound in the city: The procession in the context of Historical Sound Studies

“…6 Other historians have followed this line of thought, with Andrew Brown, for example, stating with regard to processional ritual in Bruges that There was nothing certain about the effects of a procession, even if properly performed. 7 Burke went further to link the notion of processional fluidity with Pierre Bourdieu's more sociologically based concept of habitus and the principle of regulated improvisation in which a community's practical sense involved both intentional action and habituated behaviour in the creation of identity. 8 Within a given urban centre, the rules implicit in social behaviour -which would include the mounting of processions and the multivalent interpretation of the sounds that circulated with them-were inextricably linked to its geographical situation, topography, demography, institutional structure and networks and cultural practice and expression.…”

Hugo van der Goes’s Adoration of the Shepherds: Between Ascetic Idealism and Urban Networks in Late Medieval Flanders

“…Although it is unclear to what extent Bonkil considered the city of Bruges to be home, the patronage habits and affiliations of all three of these men and their families are typical of the social life of the elite in the urban Netherlands, with no fixed boundaries between members of the ducal court, Flemish patricians, foreign bankers, and well-to-do merchants. 61 They asserted their presence in their adopted or native city through the foundation of chapels in parish churches (marked by works of art), and they also participated in organizations with explicitly religious aims such as the above-named confraternities as well as those without explicitly religious functions such as the tournament society of the White Bear or the rhetorical Chamber of the Holy Ghost. 62 Members of a large confraternity like Our Lady of Snow may not have known each other personally, but they shared an allegiance and thus a commonality that could be exploited for other reasons.…”