244 BuoniCattolici
They locked the door, but he kept finding ways to get in.^58 He took up
sleeping on the bare floor of the church to be sure he would not be locked
out—no doubt provoking more clerical ire.
What was the spiritual experience of the pious who got up so early to hear
Matins? Even more important, what was the experience of the ordinary
people who came to hear Vespers and Mass? Peter the Chanter, in his little
book on prayer, suggested that merely standing at devout attention was the
limit of lay capacity for participation in the public cult.^59 This was a view
congenial to the prejudices of a learned twelfth-century cleric. Other conclu-
sions on lay participation are possible. At least for the pious, participation in
worship was by no means so inert and passive. Ranieri of Pisa, layman that
he was, had learned to read. During Matins, it was his practice to read his
Psalter and recite a special litany of the saints that he had composed him-
self.^60 He may not have been reading the same psalms that the clerics chan-
ted, but he did get through the entire Psalter in a week, just as they did.
While in Jerusalem, he stayed on after the chanting was completed, reading
his prayers—at least until a demon (or was it a tired cleric?) extinguished his
candle.^61 Pietro Pettinaio of Siena was famous for listening so attentively to
the Office and Mass that he committed much of the liturgy to memory.^62
When he attended Matins at the Dominican church in Siena, he quietly
recited his ‘‘customary prayers.’’ These he addressed most likely to the
Blessed Virgin—his favorite place during services was next to her altar.
Pietro’s behavior seems more typical of the laity than Raimondo’s. The comb-
maker’s habits were well enough known to the Dominicans and the canons
of the Siena duomo that they made special provision to admit him when he
came for private midnight devotions.^63
For Pietro, reciting his many Ave Marias near the Virgin’s altar, the expe-
rience of the Divine Office certainly was otherwise than for Ranieri, who
read his Psalter very much like a cleric. But they had this in common: each
sought in his own way to make the Church’s public cult his own. Each
performed a free act of devotion. Unlike the clerics of Piacenza, they in-
curred no fine if they failed to show up. Unless it was a day of obligation,
when the laity (like the clergy) had to attend Mass, feelings about worship
could be quite different on the two sides of the choir screen. The cleric, Fra
Salimbene of Parma, wrote of the thirteenth-century Office:
Up to the present day, some flaws remain, as many men say, and it
is indeed true. For the liturgy contains much that is superfluous,58 .Vita Beati Nevoloni, 7 ,p. 648.
59. Peter the Chanter,De Oratione, 185.
60. Benincasa of Pisa,Vita [S. Raynerii Pisani], 3. 44 ,p. 355.
61. Ibid., 3. 38 – 39 ,p. 354.
62. Pietro of Monterone,Vita del beato Pietro Pettinajo, 1 , pp. 5 – 6.
63. Ibid., 4 – 5 , pp. 32 – 45.