258 BuoniCattolici
‘‘Et cum spiritu tuo’’ at the beginning of Mass, but he wrote nothing to
suggest that the people might not join in there as well.^148 The church of
Siena in about 1210 also expected the people to make the short responses,
such as the reply to the greeting, the dialogue before the Gospel (where they
also crossed their foreheads), the reply to the Agnus Dei, and the ‘‘Deo
Gratias’’ at the dismissal.^149 One might dismiss these rubricians’ directions
as wishful thinking, but a document produced by the laity themselves, the
commentary on the 1221 Rule of the Penitents, mentioned the laity’s giving
these responses at the Mass and Office.^150 During the flagellant processions
of 1260 , the people had no trouble singing the simple responses to the lita-
nies: ‘‘Kyrie eleison,’’ ‘‘Miserere nostri,’’ and ‘‘Te rogamus audi nos.’’^151 Any
idea that the Italians of the communes could only stand mute and passive at
their Masses begins to look a bit absurd.
In addition, there is no reason to exclude participation by some of the
laity in the choir’s chants of the Ordinary—those texts that did not change
from day to day, the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei—
although there is also no evidence to support such a practice. The other
music, the biblically based chants of the Propers, which changed daily, de-
manded trained singers or at least a cantor with a Graduale containing the
music. Diocesan synods legislated to assure the presence of trained clerics in
each church to execute these chants.^152 The Propers included complex choir
pieces: the Officium or Introit at the beginning, the Gradual Psalm with the
Tract or Alleluia between the readings, and the elaborate, if shorter, chants
of the Offertory and Communion. Churches with fine choirs had a competi-
tive edge over those without; most people preferred well-executed music to
bad. The superior of the Franciscan house in Pisa, Fra Enrico, was famous
for singing plain chant and harmony during Mass. He composed hymns and
sequences in honor of the patron saints of the churches where he was sta-
tioned. On one occasion, a nun who heard him singing in the street fell out
the window of her convent and broke her leg.^153 Saint Giacomo Salomone’s
mother arranged for him lessons in the chant from a Cistercian monk of a
local monastery. This training gave the future Dominican an ear for the
music and helped him avoid the errors typical of those who got their training
as adults.^154 At Siena, the canons installed a great organ in the duomo. They
were so proud of it that it was used almost every day to support their singing.
They could not resist using it—even in Lent!—to lend splendor to trium-
- Sicardo,Mitrale, 3. 2 , col. 98 D.
149 .Ordo Senensis, 2. 40 , pp. 440 – 41 ; 2. 52 ,p. 454 ; 2. 67 ,p. 472. - ‘‘Expositiones Regule,’’ 12 , Meersseman,Dossier, 115.
- Meersseman,Ordo, 1 : 504 – 5.
- Lucca Synod ( 1300 ), 2 ,p. 214 (repeating a statute of 1254 ); on legislation in Bologna and Milan,
see Zelina Zafarana, ‘‘Cura pastorale, predicazione, aspetti devozionali nella parrocchia del basso Medi-
oevo,’’Pievi e parrocchie,ed. Erba et al., 1 : 516. - Salimbene,Cronica( 1247 ), 262 – 63 , Baird trans., 172 ; ibid., 266 , trans., 175.
154 .Vita [Beati Jacobi Veneti Ordinis Praedicatorum], 1. 2 ,p. 453 ; 2. 12 ,p. 456.