Carolingian Monastic Reform and the Plan of St. Gall, Part III: Some Comparisons

Minn. : The Liturgical Press 1987), Dr. Paul Frankl, Baukunst des Mittlealters, die Fruehmittelalterliche und romanishce Baukunst, (Wildpark-Potsdam : Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Athenaion, 1926), Ralph Warner Hammett, The Romanesque Architecture of Western Europe, (New York : Architectural Book Pub. Co., 1927), Richard Krautheimer, Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture, (Baltimore : Penguin Books, 1975), Otto Nussbaum, Der Standort des Liturgen am christlichen Altar vor dem Jahre 1000, volume I & II, (Bonn : Peter Hanstein Verlag GMBH, 1965). We will confine ourselves here to Merovingian and Carolingian models.

2 - It must be mentioned that Old St. Peter's, St. John Lateran and other Roman basilicas had significant influence on almost all church construction in western Europe. This paper, however, will concentrate on more immediate Carolingian sources.

3 - The altars of Centula are dedicated to Sts. Stephen, Lawrence, John, Martin, Quintan (resurrection transept) and Maur (ascension transept). Frankl describes the west as dedicated to the Savior. p. 21-21.

4 - Otto Nussbaum, Der Standort des Liturgen am christlichen Altar vor dem Jahre 1000, vol I, (Bonn : Peter Hanstein Verlag GMBH, 1965), p.347.

5 - Wolfgang Braunfels, Monasteries of Western Europe, (New York : Thames & Hudson, 1972) p.31. Ratger suffered the further humiliation of being ridiculed as Monoceros, the rampant unicorn, in the "Life of Eigilis" his successor.

6 - Eastward altars at Fulda meant that the liturgy was celebrated there versus altare and not versus populum. The later arrangement was still common during the ninth century. Nussbaum, vol. I, p. 18 - 22, 347.

7 - "Ein Opfer dieses Konfliktes mit der erstarkended Hierarchie ist wohl Hildebolds begonnener erster Bau (VI) in Koeln gewesen." (A sacrifice of this conflict with the strengthened hierarchy was certainly the (recently) begun first construction (VI) in Cologne). Boeckelmann, 131.

8 - This concept is reflected in the title associated with this altar in the plan of St. Gall Crux pia uita salus miseriq. redemptio mundi, "Pious cross: life, health and redemption of the wretched world." Horn, vol.I, p.136.

9 - Possibly a liturgical reference to his status as Protomartyr, therefore the first to share the triumph of Christ. The entrance to the crossing was frequently referred to, and architecturally designed, to recall the triumphal arches of Rome.

For bibliographical references, see the first article of this series below.

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