medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Thanks much for the customary reference, John.
I downloaded HBS v. 23 from Google books and will have a look there later
this week.
Stan Metheny
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Briggs" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 8:36 AM
Subject: Re: [M-R] saints of the day 5. January
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> jbugslag wrote:
>>
>> Might you explain what an invitatory is? Presumably, it
>> would have taken place at the high altar which, from the
>> late 13th century, would probably have had the famous
>> Westminster Retable gracing it. There are also splendid
>> wall paintings behind the sedilia, if memory serves.
>> And, of course, the Shrine of Edward the Confessor is
>> just to the east, with - from Henry III onwards - royal
>> tombs ranged around it. It must have been spectacular
>> "theatre".
>>
> Stan Metheny wrote:
>>
>> And if I may add another question, would you please
>> explain the 'eight copes' rubric? Did that refer to eight
>> coped cantors or eight coped ministers of some other
>> sort? Or something else altogether?
>>
> George R. Hoelzeman wrote:
>>
>> I'm reasonably certain that the invitatory is the psalm
>> that opens the first of the liturgical hours on any given
>> day . . . which would be either Matins or Lauds in the
>> period under consideration, however that may not be
>> universal. The first psalm of the Mass would be the
>> Introit. . . to my knowledge (which may be
>> deficient) there is not, nor has there ever been, an
>> invitatory psalm in the Mass.
>>
>> If I recall the Rule of St. Benedict correctly, it gives
>> PS94 as the invitatory. . . I'm pretty sure the Rule of
>> the Master does as well. That's not to say it didn't
>> vary in other communities at different times (I know that
>> in the current, official Roman Catholic liturgy of hours
>> there are three options for the invitatory, which usually
>> precedes Office of Readings, which is the current term
>> for what used to be Matins).
>>
>> Beyond that, I don't know the actual usages at
>> Westminster and since each Benedictine house tends to
>> have its own usages, etc. its kind of hard to
>> extrapolate from the houses I'm familiar with (all of
>> which are in Germany or the U.S.).
>
> Yes, the classification of feasts tends to be according to the number of
> singers who sing the Invitatory (the opening psalm of Matins, "Venite,
> exultemus Domino", with its antiphon.) For example, in the Sarum Use for
> simple feasts the Invitatory can be performed by one, two or three
> singers, on double feasts the Invitatory is always sung by four singers,
> and on ferias it is always sung by one. It is thought that the number of
> copes specified in the Westmister Calendar for Feasts "in copes" and
> Principal feasts refers to this. There is not absolute consistency, so I
> shall generally not mention it. (Principal feasts seem to have four, five
> or eight copes, but the situation is unclear for other feasts, some of
> which also have four copes.) The number of singers of the Invitatory at
> Matins was used as a classification system because the Ferial (or Choir)
> Psalter starts with Matins, and the community would be most familiar with
> this. Feasts, of course, rather inconveniently start with Vespers the day
> before! And we are talking about the Calendar in the Missal, but the
> classification according to the Office is still used.
>
> Nothing happens near the High Altar during the Office, but the more
> important the Feast the more ministers at the High Altar for the Mass. It
> is not thought that the "number of copes" relates to that, but do bear in
> mind that I am relying on scholarship over a hundred years old, and it is
> always possible that there is some clue given in the Customary, to which
> the curious are referred (it is in Latin, of course):
>
> E.M. Thompson, The Customary of the Benedictine Monasteries of Saint
> Augustine, Canterbury, and Saint Peter, Westminster. Vol. I: (Text of
> Cottonian MS Faustina C.XII), Vol. II: (Texts of Cottonian MS Otho C.XI
> and Gonville and Caius MS no. 211) (London, 1902-4) 2 vols, Henry Bradshaw
> Society, vols. 23, 28.
>
> John Briggs
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