The Baptismal Font at Wilne: A Material History of Early Medieval Recycling

Baptism was the most important ritual of the early Middle Ages. Long before the veneration of the Eucharist would define later medieval Christianity, the rites of initiation determined Christian status for the majority of people in Europe. The indelible mark of the baptismal bath cleansed sins, promised the salvation of heaven, and created new social relationships through Christian institutions such as godparentage. Most conversion narratives and liturgical sources between c. 600 and c. 1100 describe baptism as a quick, standardized ritual that was the foundation of a universal Christendom. The physical settings and material objects of baptism, however, tell us a different story

My paper will address the reuse and recycling of baptismal places and objects during the seventh and ninth centuries in early England. I suggest that the variety of physical and material settings of the key ceremony reveals the flexibility and diversity of the sacrament as practiced by its participants, contrary to its usual static portrayal in contemporary texts and in modern scholarship. A recycled ninth-century cross shaft from Wilne takes center stage in my paper. This fragment of a standing cross was originally a monumental symbol of Christian victory over the converted Derbyshire landscape that was later turned upside down and adapted for use as a baptismal font. This is one of the diverse material forms that baptism took between the sixth and twelfth centuries in England. I show how this particular act of recycling defined the Christian rites of initiation at Wilne as both monumental and concerned with expressions of romanitas. My material approach to baptism reveals how diverse early medieval Christian practice could be, and how baptism participated in defining the many local Christianities of the early Middle Ages rather than a single Christendom.