266 BuoniCattolici
tion if too many were consecrated. With disgust, Salimbene watched a sacris-
tan climb up to put extra Hosts in a hanging pyx during the middle of a
general Communion of the friars. Like the manna in the desert, the Hosts
should be used the day they are consecrated, Salimbene complained, and
not ‘‘kept until the next day.’’ Nor was there any excuse for interrupting
Mass to get Communion for the sick from the pyx; a priest should say a
private Mass and consecrate the Hosts needed.^196 Reservation served the
devotional needs of the laity, but it also allowed the clergy to detach sacra-
mental Communion from the Eucharistic sacrifice.
As popular veneration of the Eucharist, with its awesome power, grew, so
did temptations to use it for practical, even sinful, ends. The hanging pyx
over the altar had become nearly universal in Italy by the later 1200 s.^197 But
it was an easy target for theft. The clergy recognized the need for greater
security. At Lucca in 1253 , the synod required that the pyx containing the
Blessed Sacrament above the altar have a strong lock. In the early 1300 s,
enactments to prevent theft of the Sacrament for use in sorcery multiplied
in Italian synodal statutes.^198 A theft of Hosts from his church, probably for
use in spell casting, caused a parish priest to keep consecrated Hosts in his
house and an unconsecrated Host in the pyx in the church. When the uncon-
secrated Host was mistakenly used for her Communion, Saint Margherita of
Cortona recognized immediately that something was wrong, since the recep-
tion did not give her the usual spiritual delight.^199 Margherita would have
seconded Salimbene’s warnings about Communion from the reserved Sacra-
ment. Benvenuta Bojani never failed to recognize Christ’s presence in Com-
munion. One day the Blessed Virgin appeared to her in prayer and told her
to go to church. There she found her confessor going to the Virgin’s altar to
say Mass and give Communion to a small group of the faithful. Saint Mary
appeared at the altar during the Mass and bowed in homage to the Host as
the priest gave each person Communion. Then, following the usual practice,
the priest gave the communicants each a sip of unconsecrated wine to
cleanse their mouths. The Virgin Mary herself came down and helped the
priest hold the unconsecrated chalice when he ministered it to Benvenuta.
The Blessed Virgin followed the priest in procession to the sacristy after the
Mass.^200 During Communion, heaven joined with earth.
The visual mysticism of the elevated Host in the thirteenth century is a
well-known phenomenon. Less well known is the increase in mystical experi-
- Salimbene,Cronica( 1250 ), 494 – 95 , Baird trans., 340.
- E.g., Lombardy (ecclesiastical province),Constitutiones Domini Coelestini Legati in Lombardia( 1287 ),
Mansi 24 : 884 ; Lucca Synod ( 1300 ), 4 ,p. 214 ; Lucca Synod ( 1308 ), 4 ,p. 177. - Ravenna Council ( 1311 ), 7 , pp. 453 – 54 ; Padua Synod ( 1339 ), 11 , pp. 1136 – 37 ; Perugia (diocese),
Synodus Perusina sub Episcopo Fr. Francisco circa Annum 1320 Habita( 1312 – 30 ), 1 , Mansi 25 : 639 ; Padua Synod
( 1339 ), 21 ,p. 1141. - Giunta Bevegnati,Legenda... Margaritae de Cortona, 7. 26 , pp. 338 – 39.
- Corrado of Cividale,Vita Devotissimae Benevenutae, 6. 51 ,p. 163.