processions, liturgical 599The Impact of Printing 1450–1800,trans. David Gerard and
ed. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith and David Wootton (London:
N.L.B., 1976); Martin Lowry, The World of Aldus Manutius:
Business and Scholarship in Renaissance Venice (Ithaca,
N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1979); David McKitterick,
“The Beginning of Printing,” in The New Cambridge
Medieval History.Vol. 7, c. 1415–c. 1500,ed. Christopher
Allmand (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998),
287–298; James Moran, Printing Presses: History and
Development from the Fifteenth Century to Modern Times
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973).
prisons In the Middle Ages prisoncould refer to an
arrest and subsequent temporary confinement until the
accused was obliged to appear before a judge on a fixed
day. The prisons ensured that appearance and were not
considered a punishment in themselves. Only rarely were
they used as permanent or even temporary places to con-
fine those being punished for a crime, or considered a
threat to the safety of society for various reasons deter-
mined locally. This category comprised closed prisons in
buildings intended for that purpose and under the
surveillance of a jailer. Confinement in them was
reserved for those who could not meet financial or
human pledges guaranteeing their appearance for justice.
If one could not pay the fine imposed by a court, one
would have to remain in these houses of detention until
the fine was paid. Ecclesiastical courts sometimes consid-
ered such sojourns an opportunity for reform. Since
ecclesiastical authorities did not practice the death
penalty, they replaced it with perpetual confinement.
Nonetheless, prisons in the late Middle Ages had bad or
dangerous reputations. The inmates were poorly sup-
ported in this system. Conditions were particularly
unpleasant and dangerous because of the bad and
unhealthy state of the places themselves. Moreover, pris-
oners were obligated to pay for their own keep, whether
they had the resources to do so or not. Security was never
very strict or competent, however, and there were fre-
quent prison escapes and breaks. There were benevolent
organizations, such as certain CONFRATERNITIES, whose
charitable mission was to help those in prison.
See also CRIME, PUNISHMENT, AND THE COURTS;
JUSTICE; OUTLAWRY.
Further reading:John G. Bellamy, Crime and Public
Order in England in the Later Middle Ages (London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973); Christopher Harding,
Imprisonment in England and Wales: A Concise History
(London: Croom Helm, 1985); Norvall Morris and David
J. Rothman, eds., The Oxford History of the Prison: The
Practice of Punishment in Western Society (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1995); Ralph B. Pugh, Imprison-
ment in Medieval England(London: Cambridge University
Press, 1968).processions, liturgical When ritual required posi-
tional changes within the church during liturgy—for
example, at an entrance, the offering, or moving forward
for communion—these changes were done to the accom-
paniment of music and followed an organized ritual of
movement. “Procession” was reserved for important
movements, distinguished by their function or by their
occurrence often answering a special event or necessity.
Other motion within a church service was “ordinary,” or
usually occurring regularly. Medieval processions
occurred daily, such as at vespers; weekly, such as during
Sunday blessings or Wednesday and Friday penitential
processions; or annually, such as at Candlemas or Easter
eve. During pilgrimage visits to prestigious sanctuaries,
there were often festive processions to Roman sacred
places. The Palm Sunday procession commemorated
Jesus’s entry into JERUSALEM. All these processions
became associated with the notion of PILGRIMAGE. The
music of all these processions might vary from a peniten-
tial psalm, with ANTIPHONSthat served as refrains, to a
festive or joyous HYMNfor a happy commemoration.
Religious processions were more numerous at CON-
STANTINOPLEthan elsewhere, lent the capital a particular
festive dignity, and provided a good example of Christian-
ity’s dominating the urban milieu. The system of proces-
sions seems to have developed in the fifth and sixth
centuries as Constantinople built more churches. Proces-
sions could be organized on the occasion of a rare event
such as earthquakes, invasions, translations of RELICS,The imprisoned Saint Columba of Sens is saved by a bear
from an attack on her person (ca. 1350, Giovanni Baronzio),
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy (Erich Lessing / Art Resource)