medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

p.s. On third attempt, I've now been able to download HBS 28. Thanks again.

With apologies for a non-medieval question, would someone on the list with 
more tech expertise be willing to explain why HBS 23 download (from Google) 
was only 7.2mb and the HBS 28 (from MSN) was 28.2mb? I can't detect any 
difference in resolution on my screen.

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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