Reply to Renihan - 5

Absolon, Jankyn and 'Hende' Nicholas are singing the Introit, or Entrance
Anthem.  What do you make of it?  Even though you do not understand Latin,
you have been taught to take a keen and intelligent interest in the Mass.
You have been taught to understand it as a great drama, in which every
detail - every chant, every gesture of the priest - has a symbolic meaning.
The candles, and the order in which they are lit, the position and posture
of the priest and his various assistants, all have a meaning.

So, the Introit is said to represent the Old Testament prophets, such as
Isaiah, foretelling the coming of Christ.  Now the words do not necessarily
contain any such prophecy;  what the Introit represents symbolically has
nothing to do with what it actually says.

After the Introit your three friends sing "Kyrie Eleison".  This is in fact
Greek rather than Latin - not that it makes much difference to you.  I dare
say you've been taught that "Kyrie Eleison" means "Lord have mercy";  but
even if you haven't, you have been brought up to understand that this chant
symbolises the proclamation of the more recent prophets, Zacharias and John
the Baptist.

Now the choir sings "Gloria in excelsis" - "Glory to God in the highest".
This, you have been taught, announces the birth of Christ.  Then Brictric
sings the Collect, or prayer for the day.  Now the Collect is a very
carefully composed Latin prayer.  You won't be able to follow it word for
word, but you do understand that it symbolises Christ in the Temple at the
age of twelve.

John, the subdeacon, now reads a passage from one of the letters
("Epistles") of St Paul.  It's in Latin, so you don't follow Paul's rather
intricate argument;  but you have been taught to understand this reading as
representing the preaching of John the Baptist.

Our three songsters strike up again with another chant, a portion of a
psalm, known as the Gradual.  You understand this as Christ calling the
Apostles to follow him.  They continue immediately with another chant called
the Alleluia, and you understand this as expressing the joy of the Apostles
at witnessing the teaching and miracles of Christ.  And so it goes on.  The
significance of the various chants and prayers and readings have no
connection with their actual words, and so it doesn't matter if you can't
understand them.

The little analysis of the liturgy which I have just given is taken from an
early example of this kind of allegorising by a man called Amalarius of
Metz, who lived in the ninth century.  The ninth century was a long time
ago, but this way of understanding the Mass is still very much in vogue in
the thirteenth.  Pope Innocent III, who summoned the Lateran Council which I
mentioned last time, wrote a treatise on the Mass, called "De Sacro Altaris
Mysterio", "On the Sacred Mystery of the Altar", on very much the same
lines.  It was how he wanted the Mass understood;  he was pushing this kind
of interpretation, and bishops and priests took their cue from the Pope.

A little later in the thirteen century, Durandus, Bishop of Mende, will
produce a huge book on the same subject.  This will continue to be read
right into the Reformation period.  I myself read it in an edition of 1512.
This edition runs to some 378 pages, and attaches a symbolic significance to
all the various vessels, vestments and ornaments used in the liturgy.  The
Amice, or example, which is a sort of hood which the priest puts on first
before saying Mass, signifies chastity of heart.  The Alb, a long white
garment like a nightshirt, which goes on next, signifies purity.  The girdle
of rope which he then binds round his waist, signifies continence.  The
stole, a sort of scarf, represents patience.  The maniple, worn around the
wrist, signifies good works, and the chasuble, the outer vestment, rather
like a poncho or caftan, signifies love.

Durandus interprets the Introit rather differently from Amalarius, and at
much greater length.  The priest emerging from the sacristy (the room where
he puts on his robes) into the Church signifies, for example, Christ
emerging from the Virgin's womb into the world.

All this may sound very learned and esoteric, but in fact was aimed at the
less learned, the ordinary people, the "simpiciores" as they were called.
These treatises answered a need stated succinctly in a fifteenth-century
manual called "The Lay Folks' Mass Book":

Clercus heren on o manere
But lewed men behowus another to lere.

"The clergy hear Mass in one way, but unlearned men need to learn another way."

More tomorrow,

Bill.



%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%