438 Mele
Mass.13 The Gloria was not originally intended exclusively for the Mass; its
place in the rites was similar to that of the Te Deum, as doxology or a hymn of
“thanksgiving.” Symmachus extended the use of singing the Gloria on Sundays
and at the martyrs’ Mass celebrated by bishops.14 It is indeed possible—but
unprovable—that such liturgical innovations, promoted by the Sardinian
pope, and with inevitable musical consequences, reached Sardinia as well.
Thanks to the monk and bishop Fulgentius of Ruspe (467–532), who was
exiled to Sardinia by the Arian King Thrasamund, at the beginning of the sixth
century, Karales became the cradle of a prestigious coenobium. Around the
year 509, the African prelate founded a monastery with a scriptorium at the
basilica of Saint Saturninus, where the code Basilicanus D. 182, which also in-
cludes the De trinitate of Saint Hilarius of Poitier (315–367), was transcribed.15
Fulgentius’s biography certifies that he prescribed precise liturgical and dis-
ciplinary obligations in his communities, and these obligations were perhaps
transplanted to Sardinia (although this hypothesis cannot be proved). Both
in words and by force, the monk-bishop urged that every week, all the clergy,
the widows, and those among the laity who were able to do so, should fast on
the fourth and sixth ferias, insisting that everyone should be present at the
watches, the daily fasts, and the morning and evening prayers. Fulgentius im-
posed “psallendique suaviter aut pronuntiandi curam maximam gerere (maxi-
mum attention in gently singing psalms and in the pronunciation)” of the
sacred texts.16
According to Fulgentius’s Vita (Life), when the monk died, a solemn wake
with songs was performed: “tota illa nocte in psalmis, hymnis et canticis
13 Louis Duchesne, ed., Liber Pontificalis, 2 vols (Paris, 1886–1892), vol. 1, LIII, p. 9.
14 Josef Andreas Jungmann, Missarum sollemnia: origini, liturgia, storia e teologia della
Messa romana (Turin, 1953–1954), p. 290, n. 39; the Gloria “was brought to the West only
by Hilarius” (the other Sardinian pope, whose pontificate lasted from 461 to 468).
15 Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Arch. Cap. S. Pietro D. 182. See Luisa
D’Arienzo, “Gli studi paleografici e diplomatistici sulla Sardegna,” in Stato attuale della ri-
cerca storica sulla Sardegna: [convegno di studio] Cagliari, 27–28–29 maggio 1982 (Cagliari,
1983), pp. 195, 201; Massimo Ceresa, La Sardegna nei manoscritti della Biblioteca Apostolica
Vaticana (Vatican City, 1990), p. 21; and Giampaolo Mele, “Il monastero e lo scriptorium
di Fulgenzio di Ruspe a Cagliari nel VI secolo tra culto, cultura e il Mediterraneo,” in Il
Papato di San Simmaco (498–514), Atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Oristano 19–21
novembre 1998, eds Giampaolo Mele and Natalino Spaccapelo (Cagliari, 2000), pp. 201–
202; Raimondo Turtas, Storia della Chiesa, pp. 88–92.
16 Migne, Patrologiæ Cursus Completus [...]. Series Latina, no. 65, cols 147B-C. See also, Mele,
“Il monastero e lo scriptorium,” p. 213, n. 53.