246 BuoniCattolici
among the faithful can doubt that the heavens open at the voice of the priest,
that a chorus of angels is present at that mystery of Jesus Christ, that the
depths are joined to the heights, that heaven and earth are joined, that
invisible things are made visible,’’ wrote Friar Salimbene, paraphrasing a
passage from Saint Gregory the Great.^68 So awesome was the celebration of
the Mass that priests were not to celebrate more than once a day without
necessity—except on the great feast of Christmas, with its three Masses—lest
they acquire a sacrilegious familiarity with such a great mystery.^69 Presence
at Mass was the most powerful catechetical tool of the medieval Church.^70
Celebration of Mass, especially Sunday Mass, sealed the unity of a commu-
nity or neighborhood. One early-fourteenth-century Italian copied into his
collection of devotions a hymn whose first verse united the transcendent and
communal dimensions of the Mass by focusing on Christ as offered there:
Hail living Host, the truth and life,
In which all sacrifices are complete;
Through you infinite glory is given the Father,
So that, through you, the Church stands united.^71Absence from Mass by choice implied a rejection of one’s fellows, and so of
Christianity itself. This ritual created and vivified the community. The Mass
was its very life, as the midday meal was the life of the family.^72
By ecclesiastical statute, Divine Office and Mass were celebrated for the
people daily and without charge in every chapel and collegiate church.^73 In
churches or religious houses with several priests, the priest who chanted
Mass for the people did sovoce alta,with due solemnity. The other priests
and clerics of the church attended this Mass, clad in surplices or, for the
major feasts, in copes.^74 Bishop Sicardo, commenting on the use of the word
‘‘feria’’—which means ‘‘feast’’—as the name for an ordinary weekday, ex-
plained that this word was used because the principal daily Mass was always
celebrated with festive solemnity.^75 Should it be necessary for another priest
to celebrate a ‘‘private’’ Mass during the people’s celebration, it was done
- Salimbene,Cronica( 1250 ), 490 —‘‘Quis enim fidelium habere dubium possit in ipsa immolationis
hora ad sacerdotis vocem celos aperiri, in illo Iesu Christi misterio angelorum choros adesse, summis ima
sociari, terram celestibus iungi, unum quid ex visibilibus et invisibilibus fieri?’’—Baird trans., 337. Cf.
Gregory the Great,Dialogi, 4. 58 ,Dialogues,ed. and trans. Adalbert de Vogu ̈e ́(Paris: Cerf, 1978 ), 3 : 194. - Piacenza Stat. Cler. ( 1337 ), 43 ,p. 548.
- See Giovanni Cherubini, ‘‘Parroco, parrocchie e popolo nelle campagne dell’Italia centro-setten-
trionale alla fine del Medioevo,’’Pievi e parrocchie,ed. Erba et al., 1 : 362. - Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 1563(xivcent.), fol. 53 v: ‘‘Ave vivens hostia, veritas et vita;
in qua sacrificia cuncta sunt finita;per te patri gloria datur infinita,per te stat ecclesia igitur unita.’’ - As observed by Trexler,Public Life, 85.
- E.g., Ravenna Council ( 1317 ), 2 ,p. 604.
- Milan (ecclesiastical province),Synodus Provincialis Pergami habita in Castono sive Cassono Mediolani
Archiepiscopo annomcccxi,RIS^29 : 3 : 6. - Sicardo,Mitrale, 5. 7 , cols. 231 – 32.