Continuity and change in medieval Iberian processional practices

ABSTRACT In this article, we explore the Palm Sunday palms procession in León across the Middle Ages. How might the experience of a tenth-century citizen of León compare with that of his/her descendant 400 years later? Did the palms procession still have the same devotional goals, reached in similar ways? We focus on questions of continuity and change, with the palms procession as our focus. Some processional elements continued without change after the Old Hispanic rite was replaced by the Roman rite. Some elements were still present, but took a different form in the Roman rite. Other elements were lost entirely. This case study introduces the present critical cluster, which provides multiple examples of how scholars can interrogate the evidence - often preserved piecemeal across sources, or providing only partial information - in order to provide a rich picture of medieval ritual practice and its contemporary meanings.