OrderingFamilies,Neighborhoods,andCities 153
priest of Sant’Alessandro had the privilege of carrying the casket with the
bones of Saint Cassian during the Litanies of Saint Mark, but he wore the
relics of Saint Vincent around his neck, showing deference to the major
church of the city.^67 In Siena, where the image of the Madonna of the Vow
recalled her aid in the defeat of the Florentines at Montaperti, her votive
images and icons took precedence even over the city relics.^68 The new people
of God, like the Israelites of old, set out in procession overshadowed by
divine presence and power.
The commune was the new people of God, and in the spring processions,
one could see its proper order. Following the bishop came the people, not in
a promiscuous mass, but according to their states of life. After the city clergy
came the monks and canons regular; third, the nuns; fourth, the children;
fifth, the unmarried; sixth, widows; and finally, the married, all two by two.^69
The rogations were a civic celebration. All work was suspended, and shops
closed so that even servants and housemaids might also attend.^70 At Verona
and Siena, a folkloric element—almost certainly used elsewhere but undocu-
mented—dramatized the defeat of evil. During the three Rogation Days, an
effigy of a dragon, symbolizing the Devil, was carried before the cross and
candles. During the first two days, the dragon came before the cross and city
banners, with his long powerful tail inflated and erect, showing his power
during the ages before and under the Old Law. But on the third day, the
dragon’s head and tail drooped down, and he followed behind the proces-
sional cross, as a captive prisoner of Christ Crucified. In this, the third age,
that of Grace, Christ had defeated the Devil and robbed death of its sting.^71
As befitting a procession begging God’s mercy on the city, the city ob-
served a Lenten fast during the rogations.^72 As the clergy chanted the peni-
tential psalms and the litany of the saints, the procession moved with a slow
and solemn tread. Dante alluded to the possibility that those participating
shed tears of sorrow and repentance.^73 The rogation procession began with
the chanting of the rogation Mass in the cathedral church. Siena added an
additional votive Mass, ‘‘for help in any affliction,’’ at the church where the
procession terminated.^74 The processional chants of the clergy expressed the
religious meaning of the rite. First the clergy sang the seven penitential
psalms, which they would have known from memory. Then the cantors
began the Litany of the Saints in responsorial form. This was especially
- ‘‘Instrumentum Litis,’’ 1. 1 ,p. 129.
- Kempers, ‘‘Icons,’’ 97.
- Sicardo,Mitrale, 7. 6 , col. 368 C.
- Ibid., col. 369 B.
- Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,ms lxxxiv, fols. 113 r– 114 v;Ordo Senensis, 1. 222 – 28 , pp. 204 – 19 .On
the customary use of the dragon, see Sicardo,Mitrale, 7. 6 , col. 368 D. - Ibid., col. 369 ;Ordo Senensis, 1. 224 ,p. 206.
- Dante,Inferno, 20. 7 – 9 , describing the diviners: ‘‘E vidi gente per lo vallon tondovenir, tacendo
e lagrimando, al passoche fanno le letane in questo mondo.’’ - SeeOrdo Senensis, 1. 343 – 44 , pp. 315 – 18.