Medieval Practices Retained by the Church of the Reformation

Ernst Walter Zeeden on the medieval ceremonies retained in the Church of the Reformation:

 “Lutherans continued to use the five ancient liturgical colors as well as the liturgical vestments in the service and for sacramental acts; this usage lasted amazingly long, partly up to the brink of the nineteenth century… Apparently the Interim also contributed to usage of the chasuble and surplice becoming more firmly established… Of the objects for the service with which pre-Reformation churches tended to be furnished, they kept altars, candles, pictures, and sculptures; likewise baptismal fonts and basins, bells, procession poles and banners, as well as little bells, which were rung during the service as a signal, for example, during the elevation.  Even the otherwise severely frowned upon monstrance remained in some churches, indeed even remarkably long in Stendal’s Jacobi church.  Censers remained more widely spread… At the same time, swinging the censer for liturgical purposes also remained in practice, for example in the Magdeburg cathedral before celebrating the Lord’s Supper, or in the Duchy of Weimar during Christmas Matins.”

Zeeden, Ernst Walter, Faith and Act: The survival of Medieval Ceremonies in the Lutheran Reformation. Translated by Kevin G. Walker.  2012, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 31-34.