316 BuoniCattolici
should wear their faith publicly and not hide it. Popular sentiment consid-
ered this signing and breathing to be as powerful as the exorcism prayers
themselves. These gestures drove off any demons that hovered around the
unbaptized.^42 After the prayers and exorcisms, priests gave each catechumen
a taste of salt, which Bishop Sicardo explained as a foretaste of the true
doctrine in which the newly baptized were later to be instructed.^43 This taste
of salt also recalled the cleansing of the prophet Jeremiah’s mouth by God,
which gave him the commission to ‘‘pull down and break down nations; to
build and to plant.’’^44 The exorcisms were to be repeated five more times,
usually on the Wednesdays and Saturdays of the next three weeks, but with-
out the ceremonies of the signing and salt.^45
On the Saturday before Palm Sunday (the sixth Sunday in Lent) came
the last and most important of the scrutinies. This was also the seventh
scrutiny. That these rituals totaled the perfect number seven made them, for
allegorists, a symbol of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which would be
bestowed on the catechumens by their Easter baptism.^46 During the triple
chanting of the solemn exorcism ‘‘Maledicte’’ over the infants at this Mass,
priests approached each one and touched the child’s ears and nostrils with
his own saliva. As they did so, the priests said, using the ancient Aramaic
language of Jesus, ‘‘Ephpheta, that is be opened.’’ This rite paralleled
Christ’s action in John 13 and prepared the catechumens to hear the words
of power that were now to be proclaimed to them. Their carnal ears were
now spiritual.^47 In Cremona, one of the doorkeepers, a member of the minor
order ofostiarius,selected two children, one male and one female, whom
their parents then brought within the screen and over whom a deacon chan-
ted passages from the Gospel.^48 In Siena and most other cities, deacons per-
formed the rite over all the children, not just a representative couple in
the choir. In the Sienese rite, the children, carried by their parents and
accompanied by their godparents with lighted candles, assembled before the
side altar of Saint Sevinus. Four deacons intoned the antiphon ‘‘Sitientes.’’
Then deacons chanted the opening verses of one of the four Gospels over
each child’s head. The four Gospels used in this ceremony symbolized the
calling of the Gentiles from the four corners of the earth. The reading of
- Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,msAed. 214 , fols. 42 v– 43 r.
- Sicardo,Mitrale, 6. 8 , cols. 279 – 80. See also Mantua, Biblioteca Comunale,ms 331, fols. 32 v– 33 v,
andOrdo Officiorum della cattedrale [volterrana], 93 (Volterra, Biblioteca Comunale Guarnacci,ms 222, fol.
32 r). - Jer. 1 : 9 – 10 ; so allegorized in Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,msAed. 214 , fols. 43 r– 44 r.
- Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 1785(latexiicent.), Rolando the Deacon,Liber de Ordine
Officiorum,fol. 19 v;Ordo Officiorum della cattedrale [volterrana], 92 (Volterrams 222, fols. 31 v– 32 r); but compare
Ordo Senensis, 1. 118 ,p. 104. On Brescian practice, see Valsecchi,Interrogatus, 107 – 9.
46 .Ordo Senensis, 1. 118 ,p. 104 ; Sicardo,Mitrale, 6. 8 , cols. 286 – 87. - Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,msAed. 214 , fols. 46 v– 47 r. On this rite, see Sicardo,
Mitrale, 6. 8 , cols. 279 – 80 , and Mantua, Biblioteca Comunale Centrale Teresiana,ms 331, fol. 33 v. - Sicardo,Mitrale, 6. 8 , col. 279.