Resurrection andRenewal 327
with the most precious and sumptuous hangings and adornments. The
Lenten veil was not only taken down but hidden out of sight, said Bishop
Sicardo. The clergy displayed banners and crosses all about and placed Gos-
pel books and reliquaries, especially those resplendent with gold, silver, or
ivory ornamentation, on the altars.^110
The Lenten fast continued in all its rigor on Holy Saturday; only the sick
and infants were excepted. It would not be broken until after the vigil.^111
Today all bathed, and men shaved for the first time since the beginning of
Lent;^112 light-colored clothing replaced the somber hues of the fast. The
children’s parents and godparents procured festive white garments and deco-
rated candles for use in the ceremonies. Because this afforded an unseemly
opportunity for status competition between families, some communes care-
fully controlled extravagances.^113 Cities enforced peace pacts and truces with
special rigor during this sacred time.^114 Pisa expected large attendance from
both the city and the countryside, so the podesta dispatched his representa-
tives and officers of the city militia for crowd control at the rites. They ringed
the great baptistery of San Giovanni, not only imposing order but reminding
all that this was simultaneously a civic and religious celebration.^115 To b e
prevented from performing the Easter liturgy was among the greatest trage-
dies that might befall the commune, second only to the absence of the bishop
at the rites of the vigil.^116 Saint Ubaldo of Gubbio’s last, and perhaps most
pastoral, miracle was to rise from his sickbed to preside at Easter. The people
had come to him in tears, lamenting that they would be deprived of his
presence at the vigil. Unable to resist their pleading, the bishop allowed
himself to be carried to the duomo. There he miraculously recovered his
strength and chanted the Mass with a fine and melodious voice. Only after
the service did he return to bed and, after mediating one last feud, relapse.
He died on the feast of Pentecost.^117 Would that every commune were
blessed with such a conscientious pastor!
The Easter vigil itself commenced at None, in the midafternoon. That
had been its time since at least Carolingian times, and it was suitable because
- Sicardo,Mitrale, 6. 15 , col. 344 ;Ordo Senensis, 1. 168 , pp. 147 – 48 ;Ordo Officiorum della cattedrale [volter-
rana], 114 (San Gimignano, Biblioteca Comunale,ms 3, fol. 48 v; Volterrams 222, fols. 44 r–v).
111 .Ordo Officiorum della cattedrale [volterrana], 121 (San Gimignanoms 3, fols. 53 r–v; Volterrams 222, fols.
47 v– 48 r). - Sicardo,Mitrale, 6. 15 , col. 344 ; Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,ms lxxxiv, fols. 104 v– 111 v, esp. fol.
106 r. Perhaps this is a remnant of the ancient bath of Holy Thursday or Palm Sunday; on which, see
Attilio Carpin,Il battesimo in Isidoro di Siviglia(Rome: Gregoriana, 1984 ), 36 – 37. - E.g., Pisa Stat.i( 1286 ), 3. 50 , pp. 435 – 36 ; Pisa Stat.ii( 1313 ), 3. 59 ,p. 352.
- E.g., Milan,Gli atti del comune di Milano fino all’annomccxvi,doc. 219 ( 28 March 1199 ), pp. 311 – 12.
- Pisa Stat.i( 1275 ), p. 48 ;( 1286 ), 1. 154 ,p. 266.
- On the vigil, see Sicardo,Mitrale, 6. 11 – 13 , cols. 296 – 322 ; for local rites, seeOrdo Senensis, 1. 166 – 87 ,
pp. 146 – 71 ; Valsecchi,Interrogatus, 106 – 7 ;Carpsum, 262 (Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,ms xciv, fols. 46 v–
47 r). Cf. Pont. Rom. (xii), 32. 1 – 39 , pp. 238 – 49 ; Pont. Rom. (xiii), App. 2. 1 – 8 , pp. 290 – 91. - Giordano of Citta`di Castello,Vita Beati Ubaldi Eugubini Episcopi, 20. 1 – 5 ,p. 105.