WorldWithoutEnd.Amen. 407
end of the world predominated. Nowhere was this better expressed than in
the sequence before the Gospel, the ‘‘Dies Irae.’’^175 Written in the mid- 1200 s
by Fra Giacopone of Todi, it was a meditation on Christ’s judgment at the
last day. By including it in the funeral Mass, the Church indicated that the
judgment the deceased now faced would one day come to all.
At the end of Mass, the ministers left the choir for the blessing and com-
mendation. The priest put off his chasuble and put on a black cope. The
ministers brought the processional cross, holy water, and incense for the
blessing of the body.^176 After the absolution prayer ‘‘Non Intres in Iudicium,’’
the priest sprinkled the body with holy water and incensed it, walking around
it counterclockwise, as he did when incensing the altar. The deacon assisted
him, while the subdeacon stood at the head, holding the processional cross.
At Siena, where all funerals took place at the cathedral, the deceased’s pastor
had a special role. At the blessing of the body, he came forward and took
the aspergillum from the bishop or archpriest. After kissing the prelate’s
hand, he sprinkled his parishioner’s body.^177 The cantor then intoned the
‘‘Libera,’’ perhaps the perfect expression of the common fate of the living
and the dead on the day of the judgment. Speaking for all Christians, the
cantor alone sang the verses of the responsory:
R. Deliver me, Lord, from eternal death on that dread day, *
when the heavens and the earth shall be shaken, * when you come
to judge the world by fire.
V. That day is a day of wrath, a day of ruin and devastation, a
great day and a very bitter one. * When the heavens and the earth
will be shaken. R.
V. I am seized with trembling and I fear, as the judgment and the
wrath to come draw near. * When you come to judge the world by
fire. R.
V. I am most miserable, what shall I say, or what shall I do, when
I have nothing good to say in front of such a judge? * When the
heavens and the earth shall be shaken. R.
V. Therefore, Christ, we ask you, we beg you, have mercy; you
came to redeem the lost, do not condemn the redeemed. * When
you come to judge the world by fire. R.
V. O God, creator of all things, you formed me from the dust of
the earth and wondrously redeemed me with your blood. Although
my body may now decay, you will raise it up again from the tomb- On the association of the individual’s death with the Second Coming of Christ in this hymn and
in medieval death piety, see Arie`s,Western Attitudes, 32 – 33. - ‘‘Instrumentum Litis,’’ 1. 1 ,p. 128 ; Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale,msConv. Soppr.
D. 8. 2851 , fols. 15 r– 16 r; Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,ms mcix, fol. 48 r.
177 .Ordo Senensis, 2. 97 , pp. 504.