The liturgification and sacralisation of royal investitures during the Carolingian period, analysed in the previous chapter, had ritual-ceremonial and symbolic-iconographic effects. This sixth chapter explores the liturgical transformations experienced in England and Germany during the Anglo-Saxon and Ottonian periods. From the mid-tenth century, the practice of imperial and royal coronations was enriched with new conceptions of kingship, notably the assumption of the Christus Rex model. Iconographic messages were consistent with liturgical meanings in Anglo-Saxon and Ottonian theory of Christocentric kingship. These new ideas and practices then spread following a specific liturgical and iconographic programme, leaving generous evidence: royal diplomas, theological and liturgical commentaries, ceremonial investiture ordos and miniatures. This chapter also focuses on the durable interchange and transference between Anglo-Saxon and Ottonian iconographical models and the liturgical meanings they developed.

This chapter first outlines the preconciliar, largely Christocentric perspective that formed the foundation for the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council. As the Council proceeded it complemented this Christological understanding of the church with increasing awareness of the ecclesial role of the Holy Spirit. The eschatological framework of the final documents and the analogy made between ecclesial and Trinitarian koinonia are two notable effects of this rebalancing of Word and Spirit.