Resurrection andRenewal 323
of sin through baptism (water) and the Eucharist (wine).^83 At Siena, the strip-
ping of altars was done with style. Two clerics and the custodian of the
duomo came in procession with incense, chanting the Psalter. They stripped
the altar of Saint Bartholomew and then the other altars in order, perform-
ing the ablutions with wine and water. The turnout for the stripping rite was
certainly good at Siena; it included distribution of alms to the city poor.
Almsgiving truly ‘‘washed the feet of the poor.’’^84 Bishop Guglielmo della
Torre, the early-thirteenth-century bishop of Como, made the connection
visible by having amaior fraterwash twelve paupers’ feet during the distribu-
tion of alms. All the paupers present got an alms of 1 d. along with a free
meal—and all had wine with their dinner.^85 In times of want, these distribu-
tions could be mobbed. On Holy Thursday at Bologna in 1227 , during a
famine, Bishop Enrico della Frata had alms and food distributed to the poor.
So great was the rush that twenty-four paupers were trampled to death in
the frenzy.^86
No Mass was celebrated on Good Friday, the most somber day of the
ecclesiastical year. Rather, Jesus’ crucifixion was commemorated by the
chanting of Saint John’s Passion in a form like that of Palm Sunday. This
service included one of the most emotionally charged ceremonies of the
medieval Church, the veneration of the cross.^87 In the late Middle Ages, this
day occasioned anti-Jewish incidents, and the Fourth Lateran Council did
ban Jewish appearances during Holy Week, but disorders seem not yet to
have been common in Italy.^88 At least for Christians, this day signaled for-
giveness of crime. At Pisa, a commission consisting of four friars and two
laymen from each quarter drew up amnesty lists of prisoners to be released.
Only the most horrible crimes were excluded from mercy.^89 From morning
until the solemn service at None, all kept reverential silence as for a funeral.^90
The actual service of the day began at that hour with the silent entry of the
bishop and ministers in red vestments, recalling the blood of Christ shed this
- Sicardo,Mitrale, 6. 12 , col. 309. For Pisa, see Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 1785, Rolando
the Deacon,Liber de Ordine Officiorum,fol. 21 v.
84 .Ordo Senensis, 1. 152 , pp. 132 – 33. - Milan, Biblioteca Trivulziana,ms 1335(copied 1272 ), Guglielmo della Torre,Costituzioni date ai
canonici di S. Maria di Torello( 1217 ), fols. 11 r–v.
86 .CCB:A, 92 ;B, 92 ; Vill., 93. - For these rites, see Sicardo,Mitrale, 6. 13 , cols. 311 – 21 ;Ordo Senensis, 1. 154 – 65 , pp. 134 – 45 ; Verona,
Biblioteca Capitolare,ms lxxxiv, fols. 94 v– 98 r;Carpsum, 259 – 61 (Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,ms xciv,
fols. 44 r– 46 r). Cf. Pont. Rom. (xii), 31. 1 – 12 , pp. 234 – 37. - Ferrara Stat. ( 1287 ), 4. 67 ,p. 274 , enforces the Lateran seclusion of Jews on Good Friday by a fine
of £ 10 fer. For other anti-Jewish legislation, see ibid., 3. 42 – 43 , pp. 246 – 48. Such legislation is lacking in
the statutes of Bologna, Parma, and Piacenza. On the condition of Jews in high medieval Italy, see
Kenneth R. Stow,Alienated Minority: The Jews of Medieval Latin Europe(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univer-
sity Press, 1992 ), 64 – 88. Cecil Roth,The History of the Jews of Italy(Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society,
1946 ), 74 – 117 , remarks on the meager sources for Italy; perhaps publication of documents, such as Ariel
Toaff ’sJews in Umbria(Leiden: Brill, 1992 ), will yield more information. Prof. Daniel Bornstein has
suggested to me that laws are lacking because Jewish settlements in central Italy mostly postdate 1300. - Pisa Stat.ii( 1313 ), Popolo 50 , pp. 492 – 94 ; Popolo 144 , pp. 594 – 605.
- Sicardo,Mitrale, 6. 13 , cols. 312 – 13.