304 BuoniCattolici
ashes on their heads. As he did this, each penitent’s candle was extinguished.
The bishop then either prostrated himself (the Pisan practice) or knelt (the
practice elsewhere). The clergy sang the seven penitential psalms and the
litany of the saints. The bishop rose and preached a sermon on how Adam
and Eve were expelled from paradise because of their sins. He urged the
penitents to make good use of their Lenten penances. The archpriest and
the deacon then took each penitent by the hand and put him out of the
church. As the choir sang the chant ‘‘In Sudore,’’ recalling how Adam
earned his food by the sweat of his brow after expulsion from paradise, the
bishop went out to the penitents, who now knelt on the church steps. He
urged the sinners to undertake their penances and promised, if they did so,
that he would readmit them to the church on Holy Thursday. The prelate
then reentered the church to begin Mass. The great western door was sol-
emnly closed behind him and remained so for the rest of Lent. At Pisa, the
bishop gave ashes to the rest of the faithful at this Mass. He used the famous
formula ‘‘Remember you are ashes and to ashes you will return.’’^212 The
Mass ended with a barefooted procession of the faithful around the duomo,
singing penitential psalms and the litany.^213 Public penitents and ordinary
sinners began the discipline of Lent together.
Some communes revived the ancient practice of ‘‘imprisoning’’ public
penitents during Lent.^214 At Siena, only homicides were imprisoned. The
priest penitentiary took them to the bishop’s prison, stripped them of their
clothing, and dressed each in a rough habit and capuce. As he did this, he
asked each if he freely and wholeheartedly accepted his penance. When they
said yes, he instructed each to prostrate himself before the door of his cell.
The sinner cried out three times, ‘‘Through my fault I have sinned, Lord,
have mercy on me.’’ After the clergy present recited the penitential psalms
and the litany again, the penitentiary incensed the penitents and sprinkled
them with holy water. Giving each a little holy water and some blessed
incense, he shut them in their cells, praying over each: ‘‘We commend to
you in the present life, O Lord, your servant, that you might free him from
every evil and, by the intercession of Blessed Mary Ever Virgin, lead him to
eternal life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.’’^215 The prayer is reminiscent
of the collects in the Office for the dead. The penitents at Siena entered a
more earthly purgatory. Until Holy Thursday, the Sienese penitents fasted
on bread and water except on Sunday. But they did have the indulgence of
- For this rite, seeOrdo Senensis, 1. 100 , pp. 89 – 90 ; Parma, Biblioteca Palatina,msPar. 996 (latexii
cent.), fols. 20 v– 22 v; Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,ms mcix, fols. 70 r– 71 v;Rituale di Hugo [di Volterra],
323 – 24. - Best described inOrdo Officiorum della cattedrale [volterrana], 81 (Volterrams 273, fols. 26 r– 27 r; San
Gimignanoms 3, fols. 24 v– 25 r). - Vogel, ‘‘Rites de la pe ́nitence,’’ 142.
215 .Ordo Senensis, 1. 89 , pp. 87 – 88 : ‘‘Commendamus tibi Domine Famulum tuum in vita praesenti, ut
ab omni malo eum eripias, et intercedente B. Maria semper Virgine cum omnibus Sanctis, ipsum ad
vitam perducas aeternam. Per etc.’’