326 BuoniCattolici
consecrated by contract with a piece of the Host.^104 For the laity, Good
Friday’s rites culminated when they kissed the Lord’s holy cross. At the ca-
thedral of Aquileia, they added a suggestive rite unknown in the rest of north
Italy, the ‘‘burial of Christ’’ in a replica of Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulcher. The
bishop carried a consecrated Host and an image of the crucified Christ to
the ‘‘sepulcher’’ and sealed them in it. He then incensed the ‘‘grave’’ and
departed. There the holy objects would lie, like Christ in the tomb, until
Easter morning. On that day, the bishop returned, broke the seal, and
showed the risen Christ to the people as the clergy chanted the antiphon
‘‘Venite et videte locum ubi positus est Dominus’’ (Come and see the place
where the Lord was laid).^105
TheEasterVigil
The morning of Holy Saturday continued the somber penitential tone of
Good Friday; Christ rested in the tomb.^106 The mournful chants of Tenebrae
picked up the theme. At a quiet morning service, priests anointed the infant
catechumens with holy oil on the shoulders and chest, the last of the prepara-
tory rites before baptism. This anointing prepared their shoulders to carry
the burden of Christ’s cross, and that on the chest purified their hearts of
evil inclinations.^107 Siena celebrated this rite just before the baptisms at the
afternoon vigil.^108 In most churches, the babies’ godparents professed baptis-
mal vows for the children at the morning anointing. They vowed to accept
the teachings of the Apostles’ Creed. They renounced Satan and all his
pomps and works. The vows were sevenfold, for Satan’s works consisted of
the seven capital sins: pride, envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust.
So the infants, vicariously, made the covenant vows of the new people of
God. For thirteenth-century Christians, their baptismal rejection of the Devil
included a rejection of the seven sins. Whenever medieval Italians prepared
to go to confession by examining their consciences according to the seven
capital sins, they recalled their seven baptismal promises.^109 After Terce, the
clergy decorated the cathedral, dressing the choir, altars, nave, and walls
- On this rite, seeOrdo Senensis, 1. 163 – 63 , pp. 143 – 44 ; Parma, Biblioteca Palatina,msPar. 996 , fol.
46 v; San Gimignano, Biblioteca Comunale,ms 3, fol. 47 r. Occasionally, the other ministers communicated
with the bishop; see Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 1785, Rolando the Deacon,Liber de Ordine
Officiorum,fols. 25 v– 26 v. Sicardo,Mitrale, 6. 13 , cols. 319 – 21 , thought that all (omnes) should communicate at
this service, but he probably meant ‘‘all the ministers.’’ - Ousterhout, ‘‘Church of Santo Stefano,’’ 317 – 18 , suggests (without evidence) that the same rite
was performed at Bologna. The Sarum Rite in England had a similar ceremony; see Duffy,Stripping of the
Altars, 29 – 37. - Such was the theme of the Holy Saturday sermon in Giordano of Pisa,Quaresimale, 87 , pp.
413 – 17 , preached on 2 April 1306. - Sicardo,Mitrale, 6. 14 , col. 322 ; Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale,msMagl.xiv. 49 , fols.
58 r–v; Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,msAed. 214 , fol. 47 v:c. 10 ;Ordo Officiorum della cattedrale
[volterrana], 116 – 17 (Volterrams 222, fols. 45 r– 46 r).
108 .Ordo Senensis, 1. 176 ,p. 156. - Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,msAed. 214 , fols. 48 r– 49 r.