TheCityWorships 243
minimum. The other small hours might occasionally be omitted, especially
in churches with a very small staff.^48 The great hours occurred daily in every
church, and the church signaled the beginning of each with a special peal of
its bell.^49
Whether chanted by two large choirs or by one priest and his cleric,
Matins was a clerical Office. Bishop Sicardo assumed that clerics would be
present in the dark church for these hours, but he did not exclude the peo-
ple’s presence absolutely.^50 At Sicardo’s own Cremona, Omobono rose every
night when the cathedral bell sounded for the two-hour Matins service. He
seems to have been a lone attender, since the canons detailed a priest of the
duomo, Don Osberto, to make sure that the church door was open when he
arrived.^51 Omobono lived in the late 1100 s; by the mid- 1200 s, lay penitents
commonly attended the night Office.^52 Anecdotal evidence suggests the prac-
tice became common also among pious laypeople, like the young Andrea de’
Gallerani.^53 Margherita of Cortona used to get up to hear the Franciscans
chant Matins. She then stayed praying in the conventual church until Terce
in midmorning.^54 Ranieri of Pisa, during his visit to the Holy Land, spent his
nights praying in the church of the Holy Sepulcher. He left the building
during the chanting of the night Office by the Armenians only ‘‘because he
could not understand the Office.’’ He did stay for Latin Matins, which sug-
gests that he could follow at least some of the psalms and chants.^55
In 1299 , on the feast of Saint John the Baptist, when lightning struck the
cathedral of Cassis during the chanting of Matins, two of the laypeople pres-
ent in the nave were killed—the canons chanting in the choir, however, were
spared. ‘‘Many’’ of the canons who had ‘‘anticipated’’ Matins the evening
before and stayed in bed were also killed.^56 Matins became even more popu-
lar with the laity as the thirteenth century wore on. There was a growing
consensus that the obligation to attend church on feast days and Sundays
included attendance at Matins and Vespers as well as Mass.^57 The presence
of the laity at Mass and Vespers presented no extra work for the clergy, for
these were at a convenient time. But clerics found the presence of laypeople
at Matins something of a nuisance, since it meant having to open the doors
in the middle of the night. The beggar saint Nevolone got into the habit of
attending all the canonical hours after his conversion to the ascetic life. The
priests found it impossible to keep him out of the church during Matins.
48. On the lesser hours and Vespers, see Sicardo,Mitrale, 4. 3 , cols. 159 – 62 , and 4. 8 , cols. 181 – 86.
49 .Ordo Senensis, 2. 1 , pp. 403 – 4 ; 2. 5 ,p. 406.
50. Sicardo,Mitrale, 4. 4 , col. 165 A.
51 .Vita Sancti Homoboni, 112.
52. Bertoni, ‘‘Una vita di s. Omobono,’’ 174 – 75.
53 .Vita [Beati Andreae de Galleranis], 1. 8 ,AS 9 (Mar.iii), 54.
54. Giunta Bevegnati,Legenda... Margaritae de Cortona, 2. 1 c, p. 188.
55. Benincasa of Pisa,Vita [S. Raynerii Pisani], 2. 30 ,p. 352.
56 .Annales Foroiuliensis, 209.
57. Cattaneo, ‘‘Partecipazione,’’ 415.