the idea of leading all of Christendom and were coming to recognize the right of
secular states to regulate their internal affairs.
LAY RELIGIOSITY
Secular states, yes; but their populations took religion very seriously. With the
doctrine of transubstantiation (see p. 230), Christianity became a religion of the body:
the body of the wafer of the Mass, the body of the communicant who ate it, and
equally the body of the believers who celebrated together in the feast of Corpus
Christi (the Body of Christ). Eucharistic piety was already widespread in the most
urbanized regions of Europe, when Juliana of Mont Cornillon (1193–1258), prioress
of a convent in the Low Countries, announced that Christ himself wanted a special
day set aside to celebrate his Body and Blood. Taken up by the papacy and
promulgated as a universal feast, Corpus Christi was adopted throughout Western
Europe. Cities created new processions for the day. Fraternities dedicated themselves
to the Body of Christ, holding their meetings on the feast day, focusing their regular
charity on bringing the viaticum (or final Eucharist) to the dying. Dramas were
elaborated on the theme. Artists decorated the chalices used in the Mass with
symbols that made the connection between the wine and the very blood that Christ
had shed on the cross. (See Plate 7.1.)
