Cities of God: The Religion of the Italian Communes 1125-1325

(Darren Dugan) #1

 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



  1. 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.’’

  2. 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.

  3. Such was the theme of the Holy Saturday sermon in Giordano of Pisa,Quaresimale, 87 , pp.
    413 – 17 , preached on 2 April 1306.

  4. 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.

  5. Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,msAed. 214 , fols. 48 r– 49 r.

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