276 BuoniCattolici
Christmas itself began with predawn Matins, announced by the pealing
of the church bells. After Matins, the three Masses of Christmas, of night,
dawn, and day, immediately followed.^21 This once, the laity came in force
for Matins and kept vigil for the whole service, including the three Masses.
Bishop Sicardo, commenting on the presence of the laity, explained that
they were the reason why the deacon did not sing the dismissal, the ‘‘Ite
Missa Est,’’ until the end of the third Mass.^22 At Cremona, the parts of this
service formed a seamless whole. When the clerics had finished Matins, with
its nine psalms and three sets of readings, the night Mass began immediately
with the Gloria. At Communion, the clerics sang the psalms of Lauds and
the deacon mounted the great pulpit for the genealogy of Christ from Mat-
thew, chanted in an especially solemn tone. All responded by singing the Te
Deum Laudamus, that hymn of praise reserved for festive Vigils.^23 Bishop
Sicardo noted that a few north Italian churches followed a different order,
singing the Te Deum in its usual place at the end of Vigils and then intoning
the Gloria.
At Siena, the service followed Sicardo’s order, but the Sienese kissed the
Pax before Matins, and the deacon proclaimed the lessons of Vigils from the
great pulpit, not from the usual small lectern in the choir. Night Mass there
ended with Matthew’s genealogy. The Sienese also paused between the three
Masses, to ensure that the second would be precisely at dawn and that the
third would be in full daylight after Terce.^24 The night Mass at Pisa began
with the Pax and Matins as at Siena, but the second Mass began immediately
after, its Gloria taking the place of the Benedictus of the Office of Lauds,
which was chanted at the Communion of the night Mass.^25 The church of
San Gimignano followed yet another order, that of its Mother Church at
Volterra. There, Matins consisted of Vigils and Lauds together in their usual
form, and the night Mass began with the Gloria, which replaced the Bene-
dictus of Lauds.^26 Everywhere, Christmas was one of the times for a general
Communion.^27 Mostly this happened at the day Mass. But at Siena it oc-
curred at a fourth ‘‘popular’’ Mass preceding that of the day. The Sienese
day Mass featured the bishop’s Christmas sermon and an extended pealing
of the duomo bells.^28
The great festival of Christmas called for rejoicing; it even canceled the
- On rising time, see Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 1785(latexiicent.), Rolando the Dea-
con,Liber de Ordine Officiorum,fol. 7 r. - Sicardo,Mitrale, 5. 1 , col. 204 C.
- Ibid., 5. 6 , col. 222.
24 .Ordo Senensis, 1. 40 – 44 , pp. 33 – 41. - Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 1785, Rolando the Deacon,Liber de Ordine Officiorum,fols.
7 v– 8 r.
26 .Ordo Officiorum della cattedrale [volterrana], 51 – 55 (Volterra, Biblioteca Comunale Guarnacci,ms 273,
fols. 10 r– 13 r; San Gimignano, Biblioteca Comunale,ms 3, fols. 7 r– 10 r). - Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 1785, Rolando the Deacon,Liber de Ordine Officiorum,fol. 8 v.
28 .Ordo Senensis, 1. 47 , pp. 44 – 46.