254 BuoniCattolici
precious Body and Blood, to the clergy, who kissed it in order of rank and
seniority. At the popular Mass on Sunday, the Pax then passed to the laity.
The subdeacon carried it out the door of the screen and presented it to be
kissed, first by the men, on their side, and then by the women, on theirs.^121
At Siena, city officials kissed it first, followed by the other men according to
their social rank. Observance of this order was probably a near-universal
practice. Women also kissed it in order of their social precedence.^122 As the
subdeacon presented the image to each of the faithful, he greeted them with
the words ‘‘Peace be with you’’ (Pax tecum). The subdeacon was to make
special provision to ensure that all the aged, the infirm, and paupers also
received the Pax. Christ’s love encompassed all.^123 The Pax rite substituted
for the Sunday sacramental Communions of the early Church. It was a true,
if nonsacramental, Communion, symbolizing the unity of the community
through the power of Christ present on the altar. It made visible the gift of
his grace to the assembly in all its members and parts. By the time the Pax
instrument had finished its journey through the congregation, the priest’s
Communion was finished, and he was ready to chant the closing collect.
Unless it was one of the three Sundays a year with a general Communion,
the people did not communicate. The deacon then dismissed the faithful
with the words ‘‘Ite Missa Est,’’ and the clergy filed out.
After Mass on Sundays and feasts, a special ceremony followed the dis-
missal, the distribution of blessed bread. To the faithful, this rite held a cen-
trality near to that of the elevation. At weekday Masses, when bread was not
blessed, many laypeople simply left after the Canon.^124 At the end of Mass,
the celebrating priest came out from behind the screen for the Eulogia, the
blessed bread. The people presented baskets ofnuvole(white rolls) andfocacce
(spiced buns), and the priest blessed them with a prayer recalling the graces
of sacramental Communion.^125 Making such breads was the special work of
the parish’s women, their particular contribution to worship. Umiliana dei
Cerchi and other women of her chapel collected grain to make the Hosts
for Mass, also a near-universal women’s duty.^126 But women’s most visible
contribution to the cult was not the priest’s Host but the Eulogia. Neighbor-
hood chapels rotated responsibility for making it through the housewives of
the contrada. Statutes of the civic societies at Bologna reveal the kinds of
bread the women prepared. They were more cake than bread, and they
were substantial. The Toschi, in their 1256 statutes, prescribed for their Mass
- Sicardo,Mitrale, 3. 8 , col. 140.
122 .Ordo Senensis, 2. 10 , pp. 410 – 11. - Bonvesin de la Riva,Vita Scholastica,ed. Anezˇka Vidmanova ́-Schmidtova ́,Liber Quinque Clavium
Sapientiae(Leipzig: Teubner, 1969 ), 67 , lines 350 – 52. - Synods regularly castigated this bad habit: e.g., Ravenna Council ( 1311 ), 9 ,p. 455.
- For the blessing of Eulogia, seeRituale di Hugo [di Volterra], 325 ; on its symbolism, seeOrdo Senensis,
- 70 , pp. 474 – 75.
- Vito of Cortona,Vita [B. Humilianae], 1. 4 ,p. 386.