334 BuoniCattolici
Tuesday were holidays, not to be profaned by secular work or business, a
hiatus in the city that lasted until the following Sunday. But in the country-
side, agricultural labor resumed on Wednesday, ‘‘since rural labor is more
necessary.’’^155 The clergy urged the laity to pray standing during the Easter
season, to symbolize Christ rising from the dead.^156 But the kneelers per-
sisted; we can be sure of that. Throughout Easter week, the Pisans had a
daily procession around the baptistery of San Giovanni before the solemn
Mass at the duomo. At Cremona, processions took place after the chanting
of the Magnificat at Vespers. During the procession, they chanted the psalm
‘‘Laudate, Pueri, Dominum’’ (Praise the Lord, you children) when they
reached the font, to commemorate Saturday’s infant baptisms. The proces-
sion went then to the oratory of Sant’Andrea, chanting ‘‘In Exitu Israel de
Egypto,’’ linking baptism’s cleansing power to the Israelites’ liberation from
bondage in Egypt.^157 At Siena, Volterra, and San Gimignano, godparents
carried the white-robbed newly baptized and their lighted baptismal candles
during the Vespers processions. The children came first, right after the
cross.^158 Not all cities had Easter processions. Verona lacked them, but the
bishop celebrated stational Masses in two different churches on each day of
the week. His presence spread the joy of Easter through the neighbor-
hoods.^159 On the Sunday ending Easter week, neophytes removed their white
robes and chrismation bands. As Christian infants, they remained under the
particular care of the Virgin Mother Mary. One fourteenth-century Italian
recalled the Virgin’s special protection in one verse of a long poem celebrat-
ing Mary and Jesus. He invoked her help for the newly baptized:
Those receiving blessed baptism
clothed in white,
let them be blessed,
so innocent in the state of grace;
let us who rightly bear his name,
have your Son from whom we are called,
lest the deceit of the Devil
draw those bearing it into sin.^160- Sicardo,Mitrale, 6. 15 , col. 355 : ‘‘autem licet viris ruralia opera exercere... quia ruralia magis
sunt necessaria.’’ - They seem to have had little success convincing the laity not to kneel. Sicardo was satisfied,
however, that there was no genuflection during the opening Collect of the Mass: ibid., col. 351. - For Pisa, see Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 1785, Rolando the Deacon,Liber de Ordine
Officiorum,fol. 29 v; for the north, Sicardo,Mitrale, 6. 15 , cols. 350 – 51.
158 .Ordo Senensis, 1. 201 ,p. 187 ;Ordo Officiorum della cattedrale [volterrana], 130 (Volterrams 222, fols.
52 v– 53 r; San Gimignanoms 3, fols. 61 v– 62 v). Similar ceremonies occurred during Pentecost week:Ordo
Senensis, 1. 249 ,p. 238.
159 .Carpsum, 263 – 65 (Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,ms xciv, fols. 47 v– 49 r); similar stational Masses
occurred on Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays of Lent:Orazionale, 111 – 12. - Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 1563(xivcent.), fol. 17 v: ‘‘Suscipientes baptismum beatum
albis amicti,sic innocentes per gracie statum fiant benedicti;nomen habentes iuste tuum natum quo
sumus dicti,quos deferentes trahit in peccatum fraus maledicti.’’