Cities of God: The Religion of the Italian Communes 1125-1325

(Darren Dugan) #1

TheCityWorships 249 


Not all clerics were scrupulous in the discharge of their most sacred duty.^90


Christ appeared in vision to Margherita of Cortona and praised a priest of


her acquaintance for saying Mass with tranquillity of mind, avoiding curiosi-


ties in preaching, not rushing the service, and preparing piously rather than


chatting with other clerics.^91 Christ merely voiced Margherita’s own senti-


ments and those of other pious layfolk. Devotion to the Mass appears so


often in the lives of the communal lay saints that it must have been typical


of lay conventions of holiness, but, as it appears in the lives, the level of


intensity is certainly exceptional. The serving girl Zita of Lucca tried to


attend Mass at every city church on its patronal feast, and she especially


loved the first Masses chanted by new priests.^92 Pietro of Foligno never


missed the daily Mass in his parish church of San Feliciano. Afterward he


cleaned the church and lit candles before the images of the Blessed Virgin


and saints. He also washed the statues on a regular basis. When he could


find time, he did the same in the other churches of Foligno.^93 Sibyllina Bis-


cossi had no fewer than five priests on call to celebrate Mass at her anchor-


hold when she felt a special need.^94 Such extremes of devotion marked only


the professionally pious, but Don Burigardo, captain of the army of Sassuolo,


had a chaplain on call to say Mass and Office daily in his house.^95


The material aspect of high lay devotion to the Mass surfaces in an 1143


lawsuit at the collegiate church of Sant’Ambrogio in Milan. The church was


home to both a monastery of monks and a house of canons. The two groups


came to court over the laity’s free-will Mass offerings at one of the altars.


The offerings were so substantial that the canons considered them sufficient


to construct a new residence (canonica) and put in a drain (cloaca). The monks


and canons finally split the offerings half-and-half.^96 Heretics could not es-


cape the lure of the Mass. Gherardino, mixed up with the anticlerical and


apocalyptic Dulcinite heresy, explained the group’s habits. They went to


Mass to hear the chants and the Gospel but left when the priest prepared


to recite the Consecration.^97 Andrea Seramita, explaining the habits of the


Guglielmite sect, explained and itemized the vast array of liturgical para-


phernalia and vestments the group had collected for their future female


pope. They also had plenty of candles to burn at the tombs of their saints.^98


Heretics might reject the Catholic priesthood, but they could not imagine


life without the Mass, or at least without some part of it. Only the Cathar



  1. Ibid., 615 , trans., 430.

  2. Giunta Bevegnati,Legenda... Margaritae de Cortona, 9. 12 , pp. 377 – 78.
    92 .Vita [Sanctae Zitae Virginis Lucencis], 3. 19 ,p. 509.

  3. Giovanni Gorini,[Legenda de Vita et Obitu Beati Petri de Fulgineo], 10 ,Analecta Bollandiana 8 ( 1889 ):
    365 – 66.

  4. Tomasso of Bossolasco,Vita [B. Sibyllinae], 3. 15 ,p. 69.

  5. Salimbene,Cronica( 1285 ), 856 , Baird trans., 594.

  6. Milan,Gli atti del comune di Milano fino all’annomccxvi,doc. 9 (June 1143 ), pp. 16 – 18.
    97 .Historia Fratris Dulcini Heresiarche,ed. Arnaldo Segarizzi,RIS^29 : 5 : 55 – 56.
    98 .Atti inquisitoriali [contro i Guglielmiti], 2. 4 , 3. 13 , 3. 15 , pp. 133 – 34 , 230 , 236.

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