340 BuoniCattolici
Before the Lateran Council, synods and bishops had drawn up outlines
for a catechetical program adapted to lay needs. It highlighted the three
prayers and a rudimentary moral theology based on the seven capital sins,
the Ten Commandments, and the seven sacraments.^205 We do not have any
examples of routine catechetical preaching by parish priests; whether moth-
ers or godparents used such a program with their children and godchildren
is hard to say. Nonetheless, by the late communal period, the program was
familiar to some, perhaps many, of the laity. In the late 1200 s, a wealthy
Pisan or Luchesan commissioned a sumptuous manuscript of vernacular
texts on moral and religious themes.^206 The most important of these wasLo
libro de l’amore et de la dilectione di Dio et del proximo,a work by Albertano of
Brescia translated into Italian. Along with Albertano, the translator included
works by Seneca and stories of the Roman emperors. He included purely
devotional items, too, such as the hymn ‘‘Ave Verum Incarnatum.’’ This was
pretty much standard fare. More important, he included an outline course
in religious education, perhaps of his own devising. It began with a short
summary of the Ten Commandments, which not only translated them into
the vernacular but also briefly explained their meaning. Of the first com-
mandment he wrote: ‘‘One commandment consists in this: You shall have
only one God, who is creator and maker of all things, and you shall love and
fear and serve him above all things.’’^207 He then rehearsed the twelve articles
of the Apostles’ Creed, translating them and identifying the apostle who,
according to legend, had composed each. The program ended with a series
of lists: the seven sacraments, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven
virtues, the seven capital sins, and the fourteen spiritual and temporal works
of mercy. The compiler effectively produced, in the vernacular, an outline
of the catechetical program found in the thirteenth-century pastoral treatises
by clerics. It does seem that the program had become standardized and
known.
By the fourteenth century, at the end of the communal period, vernacular
versions of this catechetical outline became very common in manuscripts.
They show some variety. One compiler, for example, included translations
of the Gospels of the Church year, along with the articles of the Creed, the
sacraments, the theological and cardinal virtues, the capital sins, the Ten
Commandments, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.^208 Did any parents and
godparents use this kind of outline for their children and godchildren? And
- Leonard Boyle,Pastoral Care, Clerical Education, and Canon Law(London: Variorum, 1981 ), 19 – 32.
- Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale,msII.iv. 111 (xiiicent.), esp. fols. 74 r– 75 r(the morals
section). On this manuscript, see Michele Barbi, ‘‘D’un antico codice pisano lucchese di trattati morali,’’
Raccolta di studii critici dedicata ad Alessandro d’Ancona(Florence: Barbe`ra, 1901 ), 241 – 59. - Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale,msII.iv. 111 , fol. 74 ra: ‘‘Et in cio ee luno comandamento:
Non auerai se non uno dio. Lo quale ee creatore et fattore di tutte le cose et lui amerai et temerai et
seruirai sopra tutte le cose.’’ - Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale,msPalat. 4 (xivcent.): the Gospels on fols. 1 r– 50 r,
catechetical materials on fol. 75 v.