TheCityWorships 245
which causes boredom rather than devotion, both to the congrega-
tion and to the celebrants. Take, for example, the hour of prime on
Sunday: priests are required to say their own private Masses, forcing
the laity to wait impatiently. There is no celebrant, for he is still
occupied. The same is true with the recitation of the eighteen psalms
in the office of nocturns on Sunday before theTe Deum Laudamus,
both in the winter and in the summertime, with its short nights,
intense heat, and pestiferous flies: only weariness comes forth from
such an ordeal. Even now, there are many things in the service that
could be changed for the better, and rightly so, since, though not
recognized by everyone, it is full of crudities.^64Nevolone, Pietro, and Ranieri, who were constantly after the clergy to let
them in for Matins, would probably have been a bit shocked by such clerical
carping. Some of the clergy considered the presence of the pious laity at the
night Office something of a nuisance. One cleric found Ranieri’s night visits
a burden and kicked him out of the church. God took the layman’s side.
The priest was punished by a horrible nightmare in which a vicious dog
ripped out his entrails. He woke up with stomach problems that lasted for
months.^65 Ranieri had no more trouble getting into Vigils. When a young
Franciscan complained to Pietro Pettinaio about the tedium of Office, the
combmaker remarked that people should not focus on the ‘‘pain’’ but think
about celestial rewards. The layman then returned to reciting his own devo-
tions.^66 After a while, Pietro approached the same cleric and asked what was
being chanted. The friar replied that it was the canticle ‘‘Benedicite omnia
opera Domini Domino’’ (Dan. 3 : 57 – 88 in the Vulgate). Pietro knew that this
was part of festive Lauds and called on all living creatures of land, sea, and
sky to praise God. The layman shook his head and remarked how odd it was
that irrational animals were being called on to praise God and yet a rational
friar was merely wandering about the church. The friar went back to choir.^67
TheSacrifice of theMass
The Office was only the setting for that jewel of medieval worship, the sacri-
fice of the Mass. Throughout the day, the chants and prayers of the Divine
Office recalled those of that day’s Mass. The calendar recorded what saving
event or saint would be celebrated at Mass. No festival, civic or religious,
was complete without the solemn chanting of Mass. The Mass made heaven
present on earth. ‘‘In the time of the celebration of the holy Mass, who
- Salimbene,Cronica( 1215 ), 43 , Baird trans., 4 – 5.
- Benincasa of Pisa,Vita [S. Raynerii Pisani], 3. 46 , pp. 356 – 67.
- Pietro of Monterone,Vita del beato Pietro Pettinajo, 5 , pp. 58 – 59.
- Ibid., 5 , pp. 59 – 60. Italian synods blamed the clergy more than the laity for irreverence in
church: e.g., Ravenna Council ( 1317 ), 12 , pp. 611 – 12. This contrasts with the clerical sermons studied by
Murray, ‘‘Piety and Impiety in Thirteenth-Century Italy,’’ 83 – 106 , which emphasize lay defects.