Resurrection andRenewal 335
Everyone danced. At Cremona, even staid Bishop Sicardo—with some
misgiving—danced in the cloister with his canons. Their traditional dance
had a cosmic dimension and perhaps, he admitted, a pagan origin. It once
imitated the movements of the heavenly bodies, but the good bishop assured
readers that it now commemorated the dance of Miriam and that of David
before the Ark of the Covenant.^161 Sicardo’s canons shared in the lay practice
of theLudus Paschalis(the ‘‘Easter Game’’) by playing practical jokes on each
other. They missed out on the more rambunctious lay fun. Throughout the
Veronese contado, Easter Monday was a day for role reversal: wives got to
beat their husbands. But the men got their turn on Wednesday!^162 The games
and dances passed, but, at least liturgically, the city wore its white baptismal
garb and lit extra candles for all fifty days until Pentecost. On the eve of that
feast, the vigil duplicated Easter and included baptism for babies born in the
Paschal season.^163 On that day, at Mass after the Credo, the deacon solemnly
announced the dates of the Apostles’ Fast; at the dismissal, he chanted the
‘‘Ite Missa Est’’ with alleluias for the last time.^164 Easter was over.
Learning theFaith
In 1201 , Pope Innocent III wrote to the parish priest of San Gavino in Flor-
ence about the duties of a pastor. At their head was preaching to the peo-
ple.^165 In 1211 , the synod of Milan required the priest of every chapel to
preach to his people every Sunday.^166 Canon lawyers like Enrico of Susa
(Hostiensis) also beat the drum for regular preaching.^167 Physical evidence
for preaching is mostly lost—great stone pulpits like those in the cathedrals
of Siena or Modena were for liturgical proclamation of the Gospel rather
than for preaching. The preaching pulpit stood on the north side of the
nave, halfway down, so that the preacher could be heard by all.^168 Weekday
preaching in the chapels was probably rare. Saint Giacomo Salomone’s bi-
ographer thought it exceptional that this priest gave a short reflection on
each day’s saint or feast at Mass.^169 But then Giacomo was a member of the
Order of Preachers. His Servite confrere, Saint Francesco Patrizzi, used to
- Sicardo,Mitrale, 6. 15 , cols. 351 – 52.
- Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,ms lxxxiv, fol. 108 v.
- On the Pentecost vigil, see Sicardo,Mitrale, 7. 10 , cols. 375 – 76 ;Ordo Senensis, 1. 241 – 43 , pp. 229 – 31 ;
Parma, Biblioteca Palatina,msPar. 996 , fols. 69 r– 71 r; Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 1785, Rolando
the Deacon,Liber de Ordine Officiorum,fols. 33 v– 34 r;Ordo Officiorum della cattedrale [volterrana], 146 – 47 (Volterra
ms 222, fols. 60 v– 61 r). Pentecost was the occasion of one of the earliest Italian mystery plays, that at Forlı`
in 1298 , described by an eyewitness inAnnales Foroiuliensis, 208. - Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 1785, Rolando the Deacon,Liber de Ordine Officiorum,fols.
34 v– 35 r.
165 .PL 216 : 1256 – 57 ; and see, on this text, Michele Maccarrone, ‘‘ ‘Cura animarum’ e ‘parochialis
sacerdos’ nelle costituzioni delivConcilio Lateranense ( 1215 ): Applicazioni in Italia nel sec.xiii,’’Pievi e
parrocchie,ed. Erba et al., 1 : 115. - On this legislation, see Maccarrone, ‘‘Cura animarum,’’ 91.
- Hostiensis (Enrico of Susa),Summa Aurea(Venice: Sessa, 1570 ), fols. 314 vb– 315 ra.
- Sicardo,Mitrale, 1. 4 , cols. 21 – 22.
169 .Vita [Beati Jacobi Veneti Ordinis Praedicatorum], 2. 15 ,p. 457.