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The Processional Cross in Late Medieval England: The 'Dallye Cross'

by Colum Hourihane

Processional crosses were destroyed in such great numbers at the Reformation that we perhaps forget what an important role they once played in community and liturgical life (as they still do in Brittany, Spain, Portugal and many other parts of Catholic Europe). Tracing the form of the processional cross back to specific ceremonies in the sixth-century Byzantine world, Colum Hourihane shows that they had become 'dallye crosses' by the later Middle Ages, objects indispensable to everyday religious observance. Core to the book is a history of the procession itself which was an occasion for clergy and public to join together in festive community events. Processions came to develop their own liturgical status, separate from other ceremonies, and associated with membership of a professional organization or religious fraternity. Large and well-supported processions accompanied the celebration of saints linked to the parish or the definition of parish boundaries, while others were associated with membership of a professional organization or religious fraternity. As well as recreating this lost world of processions, with all their music, banners and colourful vestments, Colum Hourihane's book also catalogues all the crosses currently known to exist in England, whether in museums, priories or parish churches, from the plainest examples to those that represent craftsmanship and art of the highest order. Iconic of Christ's ultimate sacrifice - his death for our sins upon the Cross - and attributed with miraculous powers, these crosses offer a glimpse of a world in which community, religion and landscape are woven together in a complex tapestry of secular, mythic and religious observance. 162p, 114 b/w illus (Society of Antiquaries of London, Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London 71, 2004)

Review Quotes

"This is a work which heightens aesthetic perception, deepens devotional experience and increases awareness of the religious culture of our late forbears."

Anthony Cornwell
Recusant History (October 2008)

"a useful addition to our understanding of the heritage of religious experience that preceded the English Reformation."

Christopher Colven
The Art Newspaper (2006)

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