Vallásos áhítat, közösségtudat, reprezentáció (A késő középkori körmenetek főbb jellemzői)
Religious Devotion, Community Identity, Representation The Main Features Of Late-Medieval Processions

Summary/Abstract: Festive processions were indispensable ingredients of most late medieval feasts. All pro-cessions begin at a starting point where participants line up in hierarchical order. This is kept throughout the procession and then they return to the starting point. These events, important for both the sacred and the profane sphere, had subtle meanings as they, beside the particular subject and object of the celebration, symbolized fundamental values for the communities. Without trying to draw a complete picture, the author mainly deals with 14–15th-century processions. Processions can be placed into several categories. On the basis of their origin, we can talk about regular and special processions; they can be sacred or not sacred; praying, thanksgiving etc. processions. Of these the author outlines 11 distinct categories among which we can find the Sunday Aspereges processions, processions connected to consecra-tion ceremonies (eg. Palm Sunday), Corpus Christ processions, and processions related to the sovereigns’ entry or funerals. Among the participants we could find clergymen as well as laymen, usually without distinction of gender, age or social status. The number of participants, quite naturally, varied as it was dependent on many factors. The processions held on popular feasts (eg. Corpus Christi) were mass events. Participants walked in a hierarchical order. Generally, we can find among them the high-ranking clergymen, the magistrates, the members of guilds and religious confraternities, schoolboys, canopy and candle bearers, musicians etc. Processions could be held either inside or outside the church. Those that were likely to attract masses were more likely to be organized outdoors. Weather conditions (like floods or rain), however, did affect the course of the processions. As processions sacralized either the whole town or certain parts of it, the way courses were set was of great significance. In the late Middle Ages, processions (especially on Corpus Christi) were carefully de-signed. It is especially true for Italy, where respected artist were commissioned for the job. Often were Biblical scenes on display along the procession route, and occasionally they were acted out by the participants (like in Barcelona). The churches and houses were adorned with flowers and tapestry, and the streets and public squares were cleaned up. Regarding the role of the processions, the author highlighted the following: being col-lective activities, they above all could express the community identity of a given group; per-sonal devotion was primarily expressed in the devout donations; they had an important part in the restoration of sacrality; they also had a significant representational and propa-gandistic function; they could convey information. In the late Middle Ages, more and more profane elements appeared in the processions, which often jeopardized the sacrality of the events.

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