252 BuoniCattolici
As an acolyte went to incense the people, the priest quietly asked the clerics
to pray for him. This incense represented the Church’s prayers as its smoke
drifted upward. Its odor recalled Christ’s merits; the burning coals, the fire
of charity in the hearts of the faithful.^106 In a loud voice, the priest sang the
short dialogue that opened the Preface; the choir then chanted the Sanctus,
a hymn glorifying God and Christ, while the faithful ‘‘listened attentively.’’^107
At this point, the Italian liturgy introduced a distinctively medieval rite,
the ‘‘Common Prayer of the Faithful,’’ or, as it was known in England,
the ‘‘Bidding of the Bedes.’’^108 This rite was common in most of western
Christendom, but outside of north Italy it usually occurred earlier, during
the offertory.^109 The priest turned from the altar, came to the door in the
screen, and addressed the people in the vernacular. First, he announced the
major feasts of the week. He then bid them pray silently for each of four
general intentions, first for peace, next for the clergy, then for the sick, and
finally for all of the dead. Next, he announced the names of all who had died
or whose anniversary of death had occurred in the previous week. He also
requested prayers for the local clergy, for the dead buried in the church’s
cemetery, and for the parents of all present. Then the priest asked the con-
gregation to gather all these prayers into one by chanting with him the Latin
Pater Noster. This completed, the clerics chanted a psalm for the dead. The
priest concluded the rite by singing a collect, also in Latin.^110 So popular
were these bidding prayers that lay penitent groups adopted them into their
own corporate devotions.^111
The priest now returned to the altar, facing the same direction as the
people, toward the east. He began, in their name, the great consecratory
prayer over the bread and wine, the Canon. This prayer—in particular, the
words of Jesus, ‘‘This is my Body’’ and ‘‘This is my Blood’’—changed the
offering of bread and wine into the true body of Christ, theCorpus Domini,
and united heaven and earth. Out of reverence and to prevent profanation,
- So explained in Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale,msMagl.xxxvi. 81 bis, fol. 36 v.
- Ibid.
- Placement after the Agnus Dei was known, but after the Sanctus was nearly universal:Ordo
Senensis, 2. 54 ,pp 454. For the Sienese rite, seeOrdo Senensis, 2. 54 ,pp 454 – 56 ; for that of Volterra, see
Marchetti,Liturgia e storia della chiesa di Siena nelxiisecolo, 109 – 11. On these prayers, see Landotti, ‘‘Pregh-
iera dei fedeli,’’ 98 – 100. On use of Italian, see Jean-Baptiste Molin, ‘‘L’‘Oratio Communis Fidelium’ au
Moyen-Aˆge en Occident duxeauxvesie`cle,’’Miscellanea liturgica in onore di sua eminenza il Cardinale Giacomo
Lercaro, 2 (Rome: Descle ́e, 1967 ), 321 – 22. - Originally this ‘‘Common Prayer’’ probably came after the offertoryDominus vobiscumand is
found in that position elsewhere in Europe: Molin, ‘‘Oratio Communis Fidelium,’’ 315 – 20 , 330 – 455 .On
these prayers in late medieval England, see Duffy,Stripping of the Altars, 124 – 25. Cf. T. Maertens,Pour un
renouveau des prieres du proˆne(Bruges: Apostolat Liturgique, 1961 ), 13 , and Molin, ‘‘Prieres du proˆne,’’ 39 – 42 ,
on the prayers. Italy was the last to drop the ‘‘Common Prayer’’: id., ‘‘Oratio Communis Fidelium,’’ 318. - Siena, Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati,msG.v. 8 , fols. 178 r–v; edited in Molin, ‘‘Oratio Com-
munis Fidelium,’’ 351 – 52 (no. 14 ). Molin (ibid., 352 n. 1 ) thinks the clergy’s psalm and people’s Pater were
simultaneous, but both were sung (see themsversion cited above). For other examples, see Landotti,
‘‘Preghiera dei fedeli,’’ 116 – 31. - E.g., Piacenza Battuti Stat. ( 1317 ), 67 – 69 ; on bidding prayers in confraternities, see Landotti,
‘‘Preghiera dei fedeli,’’ 101 – 9.