A Schematic Analysis of Medical Coronation Rituals - Research Paper Example

Schematic analysis of medieval coronation rituals indicates how powerful these factors are and how aware medical rulers were of the effects they could have. Ritual and symbolic communication have very specific characteristics (Luger, 2003). “When individual factors of communication are reduced and constitutive conditions changed or distorted, certain consequences for communication ensue.The ritualized element in speech is characterized by restricted individuality, as well as by being the consequence of a specific over-conventionalization” (Lager, 2003).

Coronation rituals are a form of ritualistic communication that in a sense brings this to its height: While superficially an individual is gaining tremendous power, in actual fact an institution is being filled. One of the ways that medieval rulers brought to mind schema that would confer legitimacy and power was the connection to Old Testament rulers in imagery (Hedeman, 1991). “Ceremony and art dealing more specifically with the king also associated biblical with French kingship. One of the most important ceremonies to do this was the French coronation, versions of which were drafted around 1230 and again around 1250” (Hedeman, 1991, 10).. Men like Moses and Abraham were leaders of men, wise and capable.

These schema would bring to mind in the subjects of the Capetians images and feelings of power, wisdom, charisma and strength. “The changed subject matter and new narrative style in these cycles invested religious history with a "new prescriptive force" to become an example for royal behavior” (Hedeman, 1991, 10). Coronation rituals thus used Old Testament elements. One conclusion that is utterly clear is that the kings had no limit to their audacity. “After Louis's canonization in 1297, hagiographic programs, frequently presented within a dynastic framework, became more common at court.

The presence of a royal saint allowed subsequent rulers such as Philip III or Philip the Fair to glorify the royal house by promoting the cult of their saintly forebear” (Hedeman, 1991, 10). Prior to the beatification of Louis IX, it would be impossible to imagine using New Testament imagery: This would place the kings on the level of the saints or the Apostles and would be tantamount to blasphemy. But after a canonization, it was possible to use the imagery of the New Testament and of sainthood to give the dynasty an even more blessed touch.

But it is not just religious legitimacy and imagery that is deployed. “Increasingly, courtly commissions emphasized the continuous succession of the three races of French kings, a succession whose length and holiness, confirmed by the sainthood of Louis IX, were the subject of the Grandes Chroniques de France” (Hedeman, 1991, 10). Schema for coronations are not just ways of establishing the power, wisdom and strength of the ruler to the people, but also the ongoing vitality and legitimacy of the institution of the kinghood itself.