9. The Eucharist in its Liturgical Context

Abstract

This chapter explains the logistics of the liturgical calendar and the eucharistic ritual. On the production side, the number of masses performed was not chosen for its resonance, but was maximized based on worldly constraints—the availability of space (the number of altars), money, and time. Similarly, on the consumption side, enthusiasts running between churches sought to behold the highest possible number of masses, a number without any deep-ken meaning. In the deep ken, the glory of the mass was optimized by carefully orchestrating time, place, and other circumstances so they would consonate with each other. In contrast, the interest in maximizing the number of heard masses depended more on the plain ken. Especially in Bohemia and England, but even as far away as Tunisia, critics expressed pointed doubts that the eucharist ritual could turn wine and bread into Jesus's body and blood. Often these objections assumed a plain ken regarding space, which created obstacles to the transformation of matter, to the perception of the invisible, and to the possibility that Jesus could exist simultaneously across the breadth of Christendom. Other critics fought over interpretations of the Jesus's words used to institute the mass. The intensity of these debates fuelled rumours of desecrations. A number of miracles demonstrated that the consecrated host was powerful, indestructible, and unable to be misplaced. Local and transregional cults developed around hosts that bled to empirically drown out all these intellectual controversies.