242 BuoniCattolici
1 d. for the staff of a chapel.^42 At Lucca, failure to chant the Office was a
major clerical transgression. The city’s synod also stipulated that every
chapel, no matter how tiny, have at least one ‘‘scholar’’ trained in reading
and singing to assist the priest in the celebration of the hours.^43 Daily worship
continued throughout the year; only a papal interdict stopped it, and that by
stripping the city of its clergy.^44 In larger churches, monasteries, and cathe-
drals, the clergy filled the intervals between the canonical hours with recita-
tions of the Office of the dead and the little Office of the Virgin. These hours
were chanted in a subdued tone, to distinguish them from the great hours
that made up the official prayer of the Church.^45
Matins, the first canonical hour of the day, was the longest and most
elaborate. It was so essential to the daily round of prayer that a priest could
not say Mass unless he had already recited this Office, at least privately.^46
The laity knew these clerical obligations and expected their clergy to obey.
Matins began with the chanting of Vigils: twelve long psalms on ordinary
days, or ferias, sixteen psalms on Sundays, or nine psalms divided into three
‘‘nocturns’’ on feasts. At the end of ferial Vigils came three readings from
the Bible. The three nocturns of a feast each ended with a set of three read-
ings. In most cases, the readings of the first nocturn were from Scripture, the
second from a life of the saint, and the third from a treatise by a Church
Father. After each lesson came an elaborate responsory. From reading to
reading and day to day, the responsories formed narratives of events from
the Scriptures, and each such narrative set was called a ‘‘history.’’ For medie-
val listeners, this musical presentation of biblical stories overshadowed the
lessons as the essential ‘‘message’’ of Matins. Attached to Vigils were the six
psalms and canticles of Lauds, the twin of the evening Office, Vespers.^47
Since the psalms of the minor hours were identical each day, the variable
psalms of the long Office of Matins and the shorter Office of Vespers had to
complete the recitation of all 150 psalms of the Psalter each week. For each
psalm, the verses were chanted alternately by the clerics on the north and
south sides of the choir. Today, the chanting of Matins before dawn is unique
to monks and some other groups of religious clergy. In thirteenth-century
Italy, Matins was the normal morning Office of every church and parish,
even the smallest. Matins and Vespers, along with Mass, were the essential
- On obligations, see Lucca Synod ( 1300 ) (repeating statute of 1252 ), 1 ,p. 214 ; Piacenza Stat. Cler.
( 1297 ), pp. 529 – 30 ;( 1337 ), 1 – 2 , pp. 537 – 38. - Lucca Synod ( 1253 ), 1 – 2 ,p. 54.
- As happened in Forlı`in 1282 :Chronicon Parmense, 39.
- On these lesser Offices, see Cremona Cath. Stat. ( 1247 ), 2 ,p. 453. On the canonical hours, see
Sicardo,Mitrale, 4 , cols. 147 – 90. - Grado Council ( 1296 ), 1 ,p. 1165.
- See Sicardo,Mitrale, 4. 1 , cols. 151 – 54 (on ferial Matins), and 4. 2 , cols. 154 – 59 (on festival Matins).
In the province of Milan, the ‘‘Ambrosian Rite’’ followed different arrangements; on which, see ‘‘Instru-
mentum Litis,’’ 8 ,p. 269 , and Valsecchi,Interrogatus, 110 n. 324 , citing Enrico Cattaneo,Il breviario ambro-
siano(Milan: n.p., 1943 ), 12 , 27.