An 11th-Century Musical Miscellany

Here is another treasure from the website of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, a musical collection produced for the abbey of St Martial in Limoges in the first quarter of the 11th century. (Département des Manuscrits, Latin 1121. As explained below, today is the patronal feast of the evangelizer of the Aquitaine region in south-western France for whom the abbey is named.) Different parts of the manuscript was copied and illustrated by various hands; almost all of the illustrations are found within the first 42 folios (out of 247), and there are none after the 90th. It contains a wide variety of the classic medieval liturgical elaborations: tropes, proses, sequences, processional chants etc. While it was produced, Guido of Arezzo, who popularized the use of diastemic notation (i.e. written on a staff) was still alive, but his innovation did not take off everywhere at once, and so here we see the notes written adiastemically. I here include all of the illustrations, and have highlighted them by cropping the pages.

The abbey of St Martial was an extremely important center of musical production, and played an important role in the early development of polyphony; see this article from Wikipedia for more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Martial_school

A prose for Christmas, which begins with the words “Quem quaeritis in praesepio – Whom do ye seek in the manger”, a play on the words of the angel at the Lord’s tomb, “Whom do ye seek in the tomb?”

The verso of the same folio.

The feast of St Stephen

An eagle for St John the Evangelist

The Holy Innocents; as is common in medieval liturgical manuscripts, many of the illustrations have no relationship to the feast to which they are attached.

Continue Reading this Article. . .

What Were the Rites “Older Than 200 Years” for Which Pius V Made Exception?

The following letter exchange is published here for the interest of NLM readers.

Dear Dr. Kwasniewski,

I found my way into saying the Traditional Latin Mass a year after my ordination in 2018. Saying the TLM has changed my life and drawn me closer into our Lord’s sacrifice. I have suggested your book Reclaiming Our Roman Catholic Birthright and the documentary Mass of the Ages as resources to educate others about the significance of the TLM. The motu proprio Traditionis Custodes has certainly shown people’s true colors when it comes to the liturgical life of the Church.

In an interview you did with Cameron O’Hearn, you mentioned that there were liturgical rites older than 200 years that Quo Primum did not suppress, but that most of them died out over time. Do you have a list of these liturgical rites that were not suppressed by Quo Primum but which eventually dissolved anyway? Is there also a comprehensive list of liturgical rites that Quo Primum actually did effectively suppress because they were younger than the two-century span he posited?

I would also love to read any academic sources on this subject to educate others on what a liturgical rite actually is. Most people do not realize how many liturgical rites exist or have existed. My hope is that the Traditional Latin Mass will not have to compete for the title “Roman Rite” and will someday simply be acknowledged as the Roman Rite bequeathed to us from across the centuries. Indeed, I have pondered the idea of the Novus Ordo just dissolving over time, as apparently did some of these local liturgical rites, instead of a Pope someday strictly banning it. Most Catholics start scratching their heads when I suggest that the Novus Ordo is likely to lose its hold and dissolve over time, but I really believe this is true.

Yours in Christ,
Father Fiddleback

Dear Father,

You are one of many priests I know who have been so seized with “Eucharistic amazement” through the traditional Latin Mass that they seek to join a fully traditional society of apostolic life or religious order. You may have seen the article I wrote about a priest’s crisis of conscience; many are they who have experienced similar awakenings.

I’m not aware of a simple list of suppressed or defunct rites (or, in most cases, more accurately “uses”), but we can say that there were many in England alone that the Reformation tragically swept away. Sarum was only the most famous. Similarly, the Mozarabic rite was nearly extinguished throughout Spain, surviving eventually only in Toledo, so in a way it can be considered a rite that died away and would have disappeared had not Cardinal Cisneros personally intervened. The rites of Lyons and of Braga were once quite prominent yet barely survive today, with just a handful of clergy who know how to do them.

It would have been ideal had Pope Francis left alone the “Pax Benedictina” of the two “forms.” Yes, one can object to the coherence of the idea, but on the ground it was working as a modus operandi. The “market forces,” so to speak, would have slowly but surely increased the share of the TLM, and the NOM would eventually have peacefully given up the ghost—especially because younger clergy would keep nudging it closer and closer to the TLM until a smooth adoption of the old rite would, in fact, be the logical and pastorally appropriate step. But the late pope allowed himself to be persuaded (or maybe he really believed it) that an all-out war against the TLM was necessary to rid the Church of the last impediment to the glorious revolution marked by Vatican II and its (putative) reforms, and so, now, we will be in the trenches for a while, and the stakes will be higher. Somehow this too is in God’s plan.

I posed your question to another learned fellow, who wrote this interesting reply:

“Basically, every diocese in Latin Christendom had its own use, plus independent monasteries and monastic congregations, plus religious orders, plus some important collegiate churches. Look at the list of uses at Usuarium: it’s huge! Of course, often several dioceses would share the same use, differing only in patronal feasts, and some of the newer dioceses such as in Finland and the Baltic just copied the Dominican use (also adding patronal feasts), so one would have to determine what constitutes an independent “use” and by what standards one may differentiate between uses—a question that exercises many a fine mind. Another difficulty is that a large number of pre-Tridentine books have not survived the ravages of time, especially in smaller dioceses, so we have precious little information about how the liturgy was celebrated there. Generally, no diocese outside of Italy imported their books from Rome, prior to Quo Primum; smaller and poorer dioceses imported them from bigger neighboring dioceses, almost always the metropolitan See.

“To carry out the project, one would have to determine when and why each diocese adopted the Roman rite, and what it means concretely to adopt the Roman rite—as many French dioceses at least amended their books ad Romani formam or ex decreto concilii Tridentini without actually outright adopting the Breviarium Romanum. But at any rate, any diocese that was itself older than 200 years would have been free to keep its own use. St Pius V’s bull was probably aimed at novelties such as the Quiñones breviary and the Ferrari hymnal (both of which, nota bene, had received papal approbation from his predecessors!) rather than against any local use as such.

“The only scholar I know who has even attempted an overview of this transition to the Roman rite is Dom Guéranger in his Institutions liturgiques: he not only gives detailed information about the French dioceses but also discusses, in more general terms, dioceses in the rest of Christendom. (Happily, Os Justi Press has published the meatiest parts of Gueranger’s Liturgical Institutions.)

“Based on Guéranger’s research, I’d say one of the most important reasons many dioceses changed to the Roman rite was financial considerations; it was cheaper to buy the Tridentine books than to publish their own, although it is surprising how many non-French dioceses did not adopt the Roman books until as late as the 19th century, such as the city and region of Cologne. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that many dioceses and religious orders experienced pressure to adopt the Roman books, despite what St Pius V actually said. (The ‘Spirit of the Trent,’ if you will!)

“An attempt to list all the proper uses would therefore be almost impossible without a lot of research, and in any case it would end up being mostly a list of all the dioceses that existed in the late Middle Ages.

“A final note about the term ‘uses’: liturgical uses are probably comparable to languages, in the sense that before the erection of firm borders between European nation-states there were seldom strict boundaries between languages, but rather a continuum existed that makes it difficult to mark where exactly one language stops and another one begins. And like languages, there were several ‘dialects’ of what one might classify as a single liturgical use. But no one has yet ventured to identify and classify all the liturgical dialects of Latin Christendom.”

With my very best regards,
Dr. Kwasniewski

From a Sarum Rite Mass in Illinois, 2025, done with local episcopal permission

Dear Dr. K,

Your colleague has provided much insight about the defunct liturgical rites. I realize that finding a complete list of former rites would be difficult considering that Latin Christendom had many dioceses and religious orders. Taking a look at Dom Gueranger’s Institutions liturgiques should provide some insight into what content these former rites contained. I’m delighted to hear that a translation has finally been published. It sounds like a keeper for my liturgical library.

I do believe St. Pius V was correct in promulgating his bull Quo Primum, considering how many local rites or uses there were. The Protestant Revolution was wreaking havoc in Europe and there was a need to make sure the liturgy was teaching Catholics what the Church actually believed. Making possible the adoption of a unified way of worship was crucial for handing down the Faith in the midst of this religious revolution spreading across Europe. Studying the content of the defunct liturgical rites might give us insight into why certain parts of Europe were better able to, or more eager to, accept the Missal of St. Pius V than others. Did these rites already look similar to the TLM? Were there unworthy novelties that needed to be rooted out? Were certain regions able to adapt quicker than others?

The late Msgr. Klaus Gamber hints in his book The Reform of the Roman Liturgy: Its Problems and Background that the Novus Ordo essentially fosters a creation of multiple rites due to the vast amount of options in the missal: “As we all know, we now have an abundance of individual ‘rites,’ since so many priests now design their own liturgy, just as they please. In this environment, can we really talk about a unity of a liturgical rite?” (p. 95).

I believe that studying the vast number of defunct liturgical rites can teach us about how to promote the TLM amidst a myriad of local “rites” that the Novus Ordo has de facto created. The options of the Novus Ordo create multiple variations of the sacred liturgy that Catholics deal with on a regular basis; this, added to linguistic differences, yields a confusing and chaotic map. Perhaps studying how the TLM conquered (as it were) a plethora of local rites would yield strategies beneficial to us today.

Yours in Christ,
Father Fiddleback

(I must say, Father raises here a very interesting parallel I hadn’t thought of before: how today’s situation of plurality might be compared to that of the late medieval period, suggesting the desirability of a new imposition of the once and future Roman Rite. May God someday bestow this immense gift on us by the hands of a future St. Pius V!)

The Miraculous Responsory of St Anthony of Padua

R. Si quaeris miracula, Mors, error, calamitas, Daemon, lepra fugiunt, Aegri surgunt sani. * Cedunt mare, vincula: Membra resque perditas Petunt et accipiunt Juvenes et cani. V. Pereunt pericula Cessat et necessitas: Narrent hi, qui sentiunt, Dicant Paduani. Cedunt. Gloria Patri. Cedunt.	R. If you ask for miracles, Death, error, all calamities, Leprosy and demons fly And health succeeds infirmities. * The sea obeys, and fetters break, And lifeless limbs thou dost restore, While treasures lost are found again, When young and old thine aid implore. V. All dangers vanish at thy prayer, and direst need doth quickly flee, Let those who know thy power proclaim, Let Paduans say, “These are of thee.” The sea obeys... Glory be.. The sea obeys...
V. Ora pro nobis, beate Antoni. R. Ut digni efficiamur promis- sionibus Christi.	V. Pray for us, blessed Anthony. R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Oremus. Ecclesiam tuam, Deus, beati Antonii Confessoris tui at- que Doctoris solemnitas votiva laetificet, ut spiritualibus semper muniatur auxiliis, et gaudiis per- frui mereatur aeternis. Per Chri- stum Dominum nostrum. R. Amen.	Let us pray. May Thy Church, o God, be gladdened by the solemnity of the blessed Anthony, Thy Confessor and Doctor: that she may be evermore de- fended by Thy spiritual assistance, and merit to possess everlasting joy. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Si quaeris miracula is the eighth and final responsory of the Franciscan Office of St. Anthony of Padua, whose feast is kept today, the anniversary of his death in the year 1231. It is traditionally known as the “miraculous” responsory, from the once-common custom of reciting it to ask for St. Anthony’s miraculous intervention. English-speaking Catholics today perhaps think of him principally as the Saint to call upon when something is lost, for which there is a well-known rhyme, “St. Anthony, St. Anthony, please come down: something is lost and cannot be found.” In his own lifetime, however, and for centuries after, Anthony was principally known for his extraordinary learning and his skill as a preacher; he was the first Franciscan to study at a university and teach.

St Anthony of Padua, ca. 1272, by an anonymous artist known as the Master of St Francis. In his hand he holds a book on which are written the words of Wisdom 7, 7 “I called upon (the Lord), and there came upon me the spirit of wisdom and understanding,” a verse often associated with the Doctors of the Church. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Sailko, CC BY 3.0)

He was also known for a variety of highly spectacular miracles. The 39th chapter of The Little Flowers of Saint Francis tells the story of how he preached before the Pope and cardinals in consistory, and was understood by them all,

Greeks, Italians, French, Germans, Slavs and English, and other languages… as if he had spoken in their own languages … and it seemed that that ancient miracle of the Apostles at the time of Pentecost was renewed, when they spoke by the power of the Holy Spirit in every tongue. And they said to each other with admiration, “Is this man who preaches not a Spaniard? And how do we all hear our own language as he speaks?”

By an interesting coincidence, St. Anthony’s feast day is also the last day possible on which the feast of Pentecost can occur. He was canonized within a year of his death by the Pope in whose presence this miracle took place, Gregory IX (1227-1241), who also referred to him publicly as the “ark of the covenant, and the treasure-chest of the Divine Scriptures”; this is sometimes said to be the fastest canonization ever, but that honor actually belongs to the Dominican St. Peter Martyr. On the occasion of his canonization, Pope Gregory intoned in his honor the Magnificat Antiphon for Doctors of the Church, “O Doctor Optime”, a title which was formally confirmed in 1946 by Pope Pius XII.

The Franciscan Office of St. Anthony of Padua was composed by a German member of the order, Julian of Speyer, roughly ten years after the Saint’s death: one of the best known examples of a later type of Office known as a “rhymed office”. Rhyme itself was not used by the ancients, and where it occurred it was considered a blemish on poetry. Verse was formed by the alternation of long and short syllables in regular patterns; the iambic pentameter used so much by Shakespeare is broadly similar. (His type of English poetry is however much freer than Latin verse.) An example of this type of poetry in the liturgy is an antiphon found in the Office of St. Peter in Chains on August 1st.

Solve, jubente Deo, terrarum, Petre, catenas,
Qui facis ut pateant caelestia regna beatis.

Release at God’s order, o Peter, the earthly chains
Who make the kingdom of heaven open to the blessed.

These two lines are written in dactylic hexameters, the same metrical form used in the epic poetry of Homer and Virgil; they were composed by Pope St. Leo I, (440-461) and inscribed on a wall of the ancient church of St. Peter.

As the Latin language evolved into the modern Romance languages, the vowel quantities on which ancient poetry was based came to be less and less perceptible, leading over the centuries to the emergence of rhyme as we understand it today. (The older forms, on the hand, never ceased to be used.) By the high Middle Ages, this new type of poetry had become extremely popular in the liturgy. Four of the five sequences in the Tridentine Missal (“Lauda Sion” on Corpus Christi, “Veni Sancte Spiritus” on Pentecost, “Stabat Mater” on the feast of the Seven Sorrows, and the “Dies irae” of the Requiem Mass) are in rhyme.

The responsory Si quaeris miracula in a 16th century Franciscan antiphonary. (Two pages cropped and joined.)

Likewise, whole Offices were routinely composed in which all of the proper musical parts, (antiphons, hymns and responsories), are rhymed. Julian of Speyer is considered one of the great masters of this type of liturgical composition, and the rhymed offices which he wrote for St. Anthony and St. Francis were widely imitated from his own time (he died in about 1250), until the Tridentine liturgical reform, when rhymed offices fell out of favor. Many continued to be used by the older religious orders, and churches which maintained their own proper Offices, but the newer orders, in the spirit of the Tridentine reform, preferred to base their proper Offices on Scriptural quotations. Thus, for example, the five antiphons used by the Oratorians at Lauds of St. Philip Neri are all quotations from the Bible, while the proper hymns are all written in thoroughly classical meter. (The Jesuits, unsurprisingly, do not even have a proper Office for St. Ignatius.)

The disfavor into which rhymed offices fell is also a by-product of the increasingly common habit in the Tridentine period of reciting the Office in choir recto tono, i.e. singing everything on a single note, rather than with its longer, proper notation. This manner of saying the Office makes the sing-song quality of the medieval rhyme schemes far more obvious; most people would agree that the “Dies irae”, for example, sounds much better when sung then when read. This recording of the Miraculous Responsory shows very nicely how the proper musical notation transcends the rhyme scheme.

Hymns for the Medieval Office of Corpus Christi

When Pope Urban IV promulgated the feast of Corpus Christi in 1264, he also offered a complete set of Mass and Office texts composed at his behest by St Thomas Aquinas. These are rightly recognized to be among the finest of the High Middle Ages, and have been treasured by Catholics as the official liturgical expression of Eucharistic devotion for many centuries. However, the feast had already been established almost two decades earlier in the city of Liège; in his bull Transiturus, Pope Urban refers to the visionary St Juliana of Mont-Cornillon, who had composed an office of Corpus Christi before St Thomas. Her assistant in this task and in the promotion of the feast was a canon of the church of St Martin in Liège, John of Lausanne; this church and several others continued to use the older Office or parts thereof well after Pope Urban’s time. In a 15th-century manuscript of St Juliana’s life, a note is added by a later hand that refers to this Office, saying that “(i)t begins with the words Animarum cibus, and is found in its entirety in the church of Tongres (about ten miles from Liège) and elsewhere; then Urban IV instituted the office which is now sung everywhere.” (As noted in “The Feast of Corpus Christi”, edited by Barbara R. Walters et al., Penn. State Univ. Press, 2006, p. 61.)

The collegiate church of St Martin in Liège, depicted in a watercolor by Joseph Fussell (1818-1912). Image from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. 

Despite the broad liturgical standardization after the council of Trent, Liège maintained its own proper medieval use, edited according to certain criteria of the Tridentine reform, until the French Revolution ended the independence of the city’s Prince-Bishopric. It would appear from the printed liturgical books of the era that the office of St Thomas was adopted throughout the diocese as part of this reform. At the church of St Martin, however, where the feast of Corpus Christi was first celebrated, several parts of the older office Animarum cibus were added to St Thomas’; among them, proper hymns are assigned to the minor hours of Prime, Terce, Sext and None. (This was done in some parts of the Low Countries on a very small number of feasts, where the use of Rome has the same hymns at these hours every day.) As was typical of the period, several lines are borrowed from other hymns already part of the general repertoire; for example, the first line of the hymn of Prime, “Summae Jesu clementiae” is borrowed from a much older hymn which begins with those same words.

At Prime
Summae Jesu clementiae,
Qui ob salutem mentium
Caelestis alimoniae
Nobis praestas remedium

Mores, vitam et opera
Rege momentis omnibus,
Et beatis accelera
Vitam dare cum civibus.

Praesta, Pater, per Filium,
Praesta per almum Spiritum,
Quibus das hoc edulium
Prosperum serves exitum. Amen.

Jesus, of greatest clemency, who for the salvation of our souls grant us the remedy of heavenly nourishment, in every moment guide our manners, life and works, and hasten also to grant us life with the blessed citizens (of heaven.)
(Each of these hymns is sung with the same doxology:)
Grant this, Father, through the Son, and through the Holy Spirit, and a properous end to those to whom you give this food.

At Terce
Sacro tecta velamine
Pietatis mysteria
Mentes pascunt dulcedine,
Qua satiant caelestia.

Sit ergo cum caelestibus
Nobis commune gaudium,
Illis quod se praesentavit,
Nobis quod se non abstulit.

The mysteries of devotion, covered by a sacred veil, feed our souls with the same sweetness that fills those in heaven. Let this then be the joy which we share with them, that He has made Himself present to them, and Has not (by so doing) removed Himself from us.

At Sext
Splendor superni luminis,
Laudisque sacrificium
Coenam tui da numinis
Tuae carnis post prandium.

Saturatus opprobriis
Ad hoc cruci configeris
Et irrisus ludibriis
Crudeli morte plecteris

Splendor of heavenly light, and sacrifice of praise, grant the banquet of your Divine presence after that of your flesh. For this were you weighed down with reproaches, this nailed to the Cross, derided and mocked, and punished with a cruel death.

At None
Aeterna caeli gloria
Lux beata credentium
Redemptionis hostia
Tuarum pastus ovium.

Hujus cultu memoriae
Dirae mortis supplicio,
Nos de lacu miseriae
Educ qui clamas: Sitio.

Eternal glory of heaven, blessed light of believers, victim for our redemption, pasture of your sheep, by the worship of this memorial, by the punishment of this dreadful death, lead us forth from the pit of misery, you who cried out “I thirst.”

The Mass of St. Gregory the Great, by Robert Campin, 1440, or an assistant.

Each of these hymns contains a specific reference to the canonical hour at which it would be sung. The words “in every moment guide our manners, life and works” in the first hymn fit with one of the main ideas of the hour of Prime, to pray for the the sanctification of the day’s work; this is also expressed by the two invariable prayers of that Hour in the Roman Rite and most other uses. The references to receiving Communion in the hymn Sacro tecta velamine derive from the generally observed custom of the Middle Ages that the principle Mass of all major feast days was celebrated after the singing of Terce. The hymn for Sext refers to the Crucifixion which took place “at the sixth hour”, as St Matthew says, and that of None speaks of the death of Christ at the ninth hour, and His crying out “I thirst” just before, as told in the Gospel of St John.

Britain’s Remarkable Monastic History, Told with Admiration, Humor, and Pathos

(This review was first posted at Rorate Caeli but is reprinted here for the benefit of NLM readers, who will also find much that is of liturgical interest in the book under review.)

Britain is full of monastic ghosts. Street names carry them: Monks Lane, Priory Road, Abbey Close. The landscape, too, still bears the imprint of communities that shaped it for a thousand years. The ruins of Fountains, Rievaulx, Tintern, and dozens of lesser houses stand in fields and valleys across England, Wales, and Scotland, drawing visitors who admire their picturesque qualities while knowing almost nothing of the civilization that produced them.

Joseph Kelly, in his new book Long Reign of Silence: A History of Monasticism in Britain (Cruachan Hill Press, 2026), has set out to remedy this ignorance, in what is surely one of the best popular histories of British monasticism ever written.

The scale of what has been lost and forgotten is remarkable. Kelly observes that almost nine hundred religious houses were targeted under Henry VIII between 1536 and 1541, and that their combined population in the thirteenth century numbered some twenty thousand souls in England alone (out of a total population of well under three million). By any measure, British monasticism was a civilization within a civilization, and its disappearance was not simply a matter of institutional change but of a comprehensive cultural rupture.

Kelly argues, convincingly, that the subsequent neglect of monastic history has not been accidental. The powerful new property-owning class of the Reformation whose wealth depended directly on expropriated monastic land had strong reasons to discourage nostalgia, and the cultural legacy of their prejudice is still with us. (We can also sense, against this backdrop, why the Oxford Movement, and even more the revival of monasticism among Anglicans, ignited such fury in the Establishment.)

One of the book’s most interesting segments is its account of how monasticism first took root in Britain. Kelly begins in fourth-century Egypt with Anthony and Pachomius, the desert fathers whose radical withdrawal from the world gave the monastic movement its distinctive character: poverty, common life, manual labor, and ceaseless prayer. That impulse travelled west through Gaul, was received by figures like Ninian and Patrick, and then flowered with extraordinary intensity in Ireland, a land Rome had never touched but whose tribal social structure paradoxically made communal religious life feel native rather than foreign.

The result was a monasticism of vibrant originality, whose hermits and peregrini carried the Gospel across Britain and continental Europe with zeal. Kelly vividly describes beehive huts on Skellig Michael, huddled against the Atlantic, and the monastery-city of Kildare, where the treasures of kings were stored alongside the treasures of God, and readers begin to understand that what was dissolved in the sixteenth century was not a decayed institution but the living continuation of a tradition stretching back to the first Christian centuries.

For the traditional Catholic in particular, this phenomenon matters in a way that goes beyond historical curiosity. The Celtic and Benedictine monks of Britain inhabited a sacramental cosmos wherein prayer was not private therapy but the Church’s essential public work, offered on behalf of the whole of creation—and shaping it in turn. Their monasteries were, as Kelly suggests, the heartbeat of a civilization. When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, what ceased was not merely a way of organizing property, but a way of interacting with reality itself. The consequences are well traced by other authors such as Sebastian Morello in his Mysticism, Magic, and Monasteries.

The central chapters of Long Reign of Silence, concerning the Benedictine reform under King Edgar and the three monk-bishops who orchestrated it (Dunstan, Æthelwold, and Oswald), deserve particular attention from readers interested in what authentic Catholic renewal actually looks like, especially when (N.B.) ecclesiastical culture is resistant.

By the early tenth century, monasticism in England had largely collapsed, its communities hollowed out by continuous Viking raids and dominated by married clergy who sang the Office and drew an income while ignoring the Rule. What followed was one of the most complete reversals in ecclesiastical history. The pious King Edgar, supported by his austere Bishop Æthelwold, instituted a thoroughgoing purge, expelling the unworthy and refounding house after house on strict Benedictine lines. The instrument of that reform was the Regularis Concordia, a document Æthelwold produced after convening the kingdom’s leading ecclesiastics at Winchester, mandating in precise detail how every monastery in the realm was to be governed.

Kelly tells this story with a novelist’s instinct for character: Dunstan, brilliant and combative, thrown bodily into the marsh by disgruntled monks and returning years later as their abbot; Æthelwold, who translated the Rule into English for the benefit of laypeople, and whose armed thanes arrived at Winchester to enforce compliance when persuasion failed; Oswald of Worcester, a descendant of Viking invaders who converted and became a champion of the civilization his ancestors had plundered. What makes this episode so interesting is that the reform succeeded not through accommodation to the surrounding culture but through an alignment of sacred and secular authority that is almost inconceivable today—together with a willingness to use “tough love” with gloves off, also quite foreign to our flaccid age.

(A few sample pages)

I’d particularly like to highlight the physical beauty of the book itself, which is a pleasure to hold and to read. The layout is clean and professional, and the more than sixty color illustrations—photographs of ruins, abbey churches, manuscript pages, beehive huts on Skellig Michael, the Book of Kells, and landscapes from Egypt to the Scottish Highlands—are reproduced with a clarity and care that genuinely enhances the text rather than merely decorating it. This is the kind of book you find yourself lingering over, turning back to an image to look again. Cruachan Hill Press and Joseph Kelly have produced a truly beautiful work that every traditional Catholic should own and read.

Long Reign of Silence has real virtues: narrative confidence, historical range, an accessibility that makes it suitable for any educated reader rather than Church history buffs alone. As a Brit from Oxfordshire, Kelly tells the story with a passion for the subject that only an English Catholic could bring. The endnotes are generous and point toward primary sources and scholarly literature with discernment.

Those with an interest in medieval history, in the roots of British culture, or simply in understanding what was lost when the monasteries fell will find much here to reward them. Anyone who has spent time in a functioning Benedictine monastery will recognize the life Kelly is describing, and will feel its absence in the landscape all the more acutely for having read this book. Perhaps, one might dare to hope that some of its readers will be among those whom God is calling to become monks or nuns, to help restore to the West its invisible heart, enclosed in visible walls.

Joseph Kelly’s Long Reign of Silence is available from Amazon. Alternatively, receive a 15% discount by pre-ordering at the Cruachan Hill webstore before the end of June.

The Pentecost Exsultet

From time immemorial, it has been the custom of the Roman Rite to celebrate Pentecost as a baptismal feast on a par with Easter. At the end of the fourth century, Pope St Siricius (384-99) wrote in a letter to a Spanish bishop that the sacrament of baptism was to be celebrated on Pentecost as on Easter. (Epist. ad Himerium, cap. 2: PL XIII, 1131B-1148A) Pope St Leo I (440-61) reasserted that this was the Church’s practice in a letter to the bishops of Sicily, exhorting them to follow the example of the Apostle Peter, who baptized three-thousand persons on Pentecost day. (Epist. XVI ad universos episcopos per Siciliam constitutos: PL LIV, 695B-704A)

As we would expect, therefore, all pertinent liturgical books of the Roman Rite, going as far back as we have them, reflect this tradition. For example, the very oldest collection of Roman liturgical texts, the so-called Leonine Sacramentary, ca. 550 A.D., contains a Mass “on Pentecost, for those coming up from the font.” All Roman lectionaries attest that some of the prophecies from the Easter vigil are repeated at that of Pentecost, and the ancient sacramentaries all have prayers to accompany these readings.

The prayers which follow the prophecies at the vigil of Pentecost in the Gellone Sacramentary, ca. 780 A.D. 

Of course, the two vigils are not celebrated in exactly the same way. In the Missal of St Pius V, the vigil of Pentecost begins with the first prophecy, and everything that precedes the readings at the Easter vigil (the blessing of the fire, the procession into the church with the reed, and the Exsultet) are omitted. This is consonant with the received tradition of the Roman Rite in its many uses and variants.

However, I recently discovered, via a footnote in a book [1], that in the Middle Ages, two places in France, Reims and Besançon, had a special form of the Exsultet for the vigil of Pentecost. The text was edited in 1954 in an article by the Benedictine scholar Dom Anselm Strittmatter, but not translated. I believe that this article will therefore be the first English translation of it ever made. According to Dom Strittmatter, the text predates the liturgical reform of Innocent III (1198-1216), since it lacks the special intercession for the Holy Roman Emperor which was added in that period; the author is completely unknown.

The façade of the cathedral of St John the Evangelist in Besançon. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Morio60, CC BY-SA 2.0)

The first part, from the opening to the preface dialog, is exactly the same as the normal Exsultet, so I will not include it here. Likewise, the opening clause of the second part makes only one small change, by adding the words “with the Holy Spirit.”

Vere dignum et justum est, invisibilem Deum Patrem omnipotentem Filiumque ejus unigenitum, Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum cum Sancto Spiritu, toto cordis ac mentis affectu et vocis ministerio personare: Qui pro nobis aeterno Patri Adae debitum solvit, et veteris piaculi cautionem pio cruore detersit.

Truly it is worthy and just to proclaim with all the affection of our heart and mind, and with the service of our voice the invisible God, the Father almighty, and his only Son our Lord Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit; Who for us paid to his eternal Father the debt of Adam, and by his sacred blood canceled the guilt contracted by original sin.

This is the point at which the Pentecost text begins to diverge very notably from the Easter one, while keeping many phrases and expressions from the original. In order to show this, I will here give each section of the Easter version in Latin and English, followed by the Pentecost variant.

Easter A: Haec sunt enim festa paschalia, in quibus verus ille Agnus occiditur, cujus sanguine postes fidelium consecrantur. Haec nox est, in qua primum patres nostros, filios Israel, eductos de Aegypto, Mare Rubrum sicco vestigio transire fecisti.

For these is the Paschal feast, in which the true Lamb was slain, by whose blood the doors of the faithful are consecrated. This is the night in which formerly thou didst lead our forefathers, the children of Israel, out of Egypt, and cause them pass dry-footed through the Red Sea.

The Crossing of the Red Sea, depicted in a paleo-Christian sarcophagus, a reasonably common motif in early Christian funerary art. The front of the sarcophagus has been sawed off and used as the front of an altar in the cathedral of Arles in France.

Pentecost A: Haec sunt enim sacra solemnia, in quibus mortis perpetuae victor, vitaeque sempiternae largitor, humanae postquam conditionis substantiam non solum ab inferis eruit, sed ad superna polorum fastigia triumphans subvexit, Spiritus infusione Paracliti juxta suae verbum promissionis filios ditavit adoptionis.

For this is the sacred solemnity, in which the Conqueror of perpetual death, and granter of everlasting life, after he had not only rescued the substance of our human condition from hell, but (also) brought it up to the great heights of heaven, by the pouring forth of the Spirit, the Paraclete, enriched the sons of adoption according to the word of his promise.

Easter B: Haec igitur nox est, quae peccatorum tenebras columnae illuminatione purgavit.

This then is the night which dissipated the darkness of sin by the light of the pillar.

Pentecost B: Haec igitur dies est, quae peccatorum tenebras sua claritate purgavit.

This then is the day which dissipated the darkness of sin by its brightness.

Easter C: Haec nox est, quae hodie per universum mundum in Christo credentes, a vitiis saeculi et caligine peccatorum segregatos, reddit gratiae, sociat sanctitati.

This is the night which now through the whole world sets apart those that believe in Christ from the vices of the world and darkness of sin, restores them to grace, and unites them to sanctity.

Pentecost C: Haec dies est quae hodie per universum mundum in Christum credentes a vitiis saeculi segregatos, Sanctique Spiritus infusione purgatos, reddit gratiae, sociat sanctitati.

This is the day which now through the whole world set apart those that believe in Christ from the vices of the world, and having cleansed them by the pouring forth of the Holy Spirit, restores them to grace, and unites them to sanctity.

Easter D: Haec nox est, in qua, destructis vinculis mortis, Christus ab inferis victor ascendit. Nihil enim nobis nasci profuit, nisi redimi profuisset.

This is the night on which Christ, having broken the chains of death, rose in victory from hell. For naught had it availed us to be born, if it had not availed us to be redeemed.

Pentecost D: Haec dies est in qua, fugatis originalis peccati tenebris, Spiritus Parclitus ad suorum corda fidelium confirmanda, in igneis linguis de supernis descendit, non ut repentinus visitator, sed ut perpetuus consolator, aeternusque cohabitator.

This is the day on which, when the darkness of original sin had been put to flight, the Spirit, the Paraclete, to confirm the hearts of his faithful, descended in tongues of fire, not as a visitor unlooked for, but as a perpetual consoler that would dwell with us forever.

The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Virgin Mary and the Apostles at Pentecost, ca. 1335-45, by the Florentine painter Taddeo Gaddi (ca. 1290 - 1366).

Easter E: O mira circa nos tuae pietatis dignatio! O inaestimabilis dilectio caritatis: ut servum redimeres, Filium tradidisti!

O, the wondrous regard of thy goodness towards us! O, the inestimable love of thy affection! To redeem a slave, thou didst delivered up a Son.

Pentecost E: O mira circa nos Dei pietatis dignatio! O inaestimabilis dilectio caritatis: ut hominem ab aeternitate dejectum, plasmator universalis ad superna reduceret, quos per Verbi sui doctrinam accenderat, per Sancti Spiritus virtutem confirmat.

O, the wondrous regard of God’s goodness towards us! O, the inestimable love of his affection! That when man had been cast down from eternity, the creator of the universe should bring him back on high, even those whom he once enkindled through the teaching of his word, and now confirms through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Easter F: O certe necessarium Adae peccatum, quod Christi morte deletum est! O felix culpa, quae talem ac tantum meruit habere Redemptorem!

O surely necessary sin of Adam, which hath been blotted out by the death of Christ! O happy fault, that merited to have such and so great a Redeemer!

Pentecost F: O certe necessarium Adae peccatum, quod Christi morte deletum est! O felix culpa, quae Spiritum Sanctum habere meruit Consolatorem!

O surely necessary sin of Adam, which hath been blotted out by the death of Christ! O happy fault, that merited to have the Holy Spirit as its Consoler.

The Fall of Adam depicted in an Exsultet scroll made somewhere near Benevento southern Italy in the second half of the 11th century, now kept in the museum of the cathedral of Pisa. The text is upside down because the scroll was unrolled from the pulpit as the deacon sang it, and the pictures became visible to the faithful standing below. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Sailko, CC BY 3.0)

Easter G: O vere beata nox, quae sola meruit scire tempus et horam, in qua Christus ab inferis resurrexit! Haec nox est, de qua scriptum est: Et nox sicut dies illuminabitur, et nox illuminatio mea in deliciis meis.

O truly blessed night, which alone merited to know the time and hour at which Christ rose again from hell. This is the night of which it is written: And the night shall be enlightened as the day, and the night is my illumination in my delights.

Pentecost G: Haec dies est, quae sola meruit scire tempus et horam, in qua Spiritus Sanctus, ab arce divinitatis irruens, ut invisibilis super Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum baptizatum in columbae specie descendit, ita super Apostolos in igneis linguis apparuit; ut post Redemptoris nostri magnificentiam, credentibus augeret sapientiam, accumularet gratiam, formaret constantiam.

This is the day which alone merited to know the time and hour at which the Holy Spirit, rushing down from the height of the divinity, just as once he came down invisibly upon our Lord Jesus Christ when he was baptized in the appearance of a dove, did likewise appear upon the Apostle in tongues of fire; so that the glorification of our Redeemer, he might increase the wisdom of them that believe, increase grace, and fill them with strength.

From this point forward, there is only one really notable difference from the standard text of the Exsultet, and so I shall simply give the Pentecost variants in parentheses.

Hujus igitur sanctificatio noctis (diei) fugat scelera, culpas lavat, et reddit innocentiam lapsis et maestis laetitiam. Fugat odia, concordiam parat et curvat imperia.

Therefore the sanctification of this night (day) banishes crimes, washes away sins, and restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to the sorrowful. It banishes enmities, produces harmony, and humbles empires.

In hujus igitur noctis (diei) gratia, suscipe, sancte Pater, laudis hujus sacrificium vespertinum, quod tibi in hac cerei oblatione solemni, per ministrorum manus de operibus apum, sacrosancta reddit Ecclesia. Sed jam columnae hujus praeconia novimus, quam in honorem Dei rutilans ignis accendit. Qui, licet sit divisus in partes, mutuati tamen luminis detrimenta non novit. Alitur enim liquantibus ceris, quas in substantiam pretiosae hujus lampadis apis mater eduxit.

Therefore on this sacred night (day), receive, o holy Father, the evening sacrifice of this praise, which thy most holy Church renders to Thee in this solemn offering of a candle by the hands of her ministers, made out of the labor of bees. But already we have known the praises of this pillar, which the bright fire lights for the honor of God; which fire, though it be divided in parts, suffereth no loss from the sharing of its light, for it is fed by the melted wax, which the mother bee brought forth for the substance of this precious lamp.

Beekeepers depicted in an Exsultet scroll made at the abbey of Monte Cassino ca. 1075. 

This is the last place where the Pentecost version differs significantly from the original. 

Easter: O vere beata nox, in qua terrenis caelestia, humanis divina junguntur!

O truly blessed night, which plundered the Egyptians, and enriched the Hebrews. A night, in which heaven is united to earth, and God to man.

Pentecost: O vere beata dies, quae illuminavit credentes, ditavit fideles; dies in qua linguarum diversitates, in unius fidei confessione junguntur.

O truly blessed day, which enlightened believers, and enriched the faithful; the day on which the differences of tongue are united the confession of the one Faith.

Oramus ergo te, Domine, ut cereus iste in honorem tui nominis consecratus, ad noctis (diei) hujus caliginem destruendam, indeficiens perseveret. Et in odorem suavitatis acceptus, supernis luminaribus misceatur. Flammas ejus lucifer matutinus inveniat: ille, inquam, lucifer, qui nescit occasum, Christus Filius tuus, qui, regressus ab inferis, humano generi serenus illuxit.

We pray thee therefore, o Lord, that this candle, consecrated to the honor of thy name, may continue unfailing to dissipate the darkness this night (day); and being accepted unto a sweet savor, may be united with the lights of heaven. Let the morning star find it alight, that star, I say, which knoweth no setting, Christ Thy Son, who, being returned from hell, shone brightly upon mankind.

In the conclusion, the bracketed text is omitted in the Pentecost text, and the bolded words added.

Precamur ergo te, Domine: ut nos famulos tuos, omnemque clerum, et devotissimum populum, una cum beatissimo Papa nostro N. et Antistite nostro N., et gloriosissimo imperatore nostro N., quiete temporum concessa, in his paschalibus gaudiis (sacris solemniis) assidua protectione [regere, gubernare, et] conservare digneris. Per...

We beseech thee therefore, o Lord, that in these joys of Easter (these holy solemnities), thou may deign to grant peaceable times, and with thy constant protection to [rule, guide, and] preserve us thy servants, and all the clergy, and the most devout people, together with our most blessed Pope N. and our bishop N., and our most glorious emperor N. Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ...

The Byzantine emperors Basil II and Constantine VIII, and below, Pope John XIX with two deacons, depicted in an Exsultet scroll made ca. 1025, now kept in the diocesan museum at Bari. The Exsultet scroll as a form of manuscript was unique to southern Italy, which was under the rule of the Byzantine Empire until it was conquered by the Normans at the end of the 11th century.

[1] “The Exsultet in Southern Italy”, by Thomas Forest Kelly. (Oxford, 1996). On p. 43, the author cites the article by Dom Strittmatter, “ The Pentecost Exsultet of Reims and Besançon,” published in the anthology “Studies in art and literature for Belle da Costa Greene.” (Princeton, 1954)

Durandus on the Vigil of the Ascension

The following text is most of section 103 of book six of William Durandus’ Rationale Divinorum Officiorum; a few obscure passages have been omitted. The vigil of the Ascension is one of the relatively few features of the temporal cycle in which there was a lot of variation between different Uses of the Roman Rite in the Middle Ages, and some of the texts which he refers to here differ from those in the Roman Missal. The second part explains the baptismal significance of the Introits of the time after Easter, an appropriate subject for the last day of the Easter season properly so-called, and the beginning of the approach to Pentecost, the other major baptismal feast.

Since fasting, of which we have previously spoken (in the preceding section on the Rogation Days), is not sufficient without the works of mercy, therefore on the vigil of the Ascension, which is the third day of the Rogations, the Church exhorts us to the works of mercy, saying in the introit which is sung in some churches, “The mercy of the Lord etc.” (Repeated from Good Shepherd Sunday in the Use followed by Durandus.) For Gregory (the Great) says “If you want your prayer to fly up to heaven, make two wings for it, namely, fasting and alms.” (This saying is incorrectly attributed.) For with good desires we fly to heaven, whence it is said of the Lord, “Lifting up his hands, he was born unto heaven.” …

The Mass of the Vigil of the Ascension in a 15th century Missal according to the Use of Paris, with the Epistle Acts 4, 32-37, instead of the Roman Epistle, Ephesians 4, 7-13.

But the epistle which is read in some churches, (Acts 4, 32-37) seems not to fit, but rather, to set things in the wrong order, since it happened after the Lord’s Ascension that “the heart and mind of the multitude of the believers were one.” But this is done for two reasons. The first is so that the epistle may fit with the gospel (John 17, 1-11a), in which the Lord says “Father, glorify, (that is, manifest) Thy son”, and afterwards prays, saying “I ask that they may be (one) as we are,” and this unity is shown in the epistle. The other reason is that when alms are given from a true heart, all things are held to belong to all, as the Apostle says about the manna, that he who gathered more did not abound more, and who gathered less did not have less (2 Corinthians 8, 15, citing Exodus 16, 18): for he who is rich, should not for this reason eat more, but share it with others, and this is said in the epistle, “And they had all things in common.”

Now for this reason the aforementioned gospel is read today, because He that prayed when He was about to suffer, became known to men when He ascended (to heaven); or else because at the end it says “I come to Thee.” And in this (gospel) He prays for those whom the Father gave Him, that they may be one in the Father, since all things are one in faith and charity, that is, united to one another in harmony … St Hilary (of Poitiers) explains these words as follows. “I ask that just as I and Thou are one, that is, not only in will, but also in nature; so also may they be one, that is, in unity of spirit, and the grace of the Holy Spirit.” (De Trinitate VIII, 9)

But in other churches, the Epistle is (Ephesians 4, 7-13). …

Therefore, because this Mass is about alms and the works of mercy, in some places, in order that they may acquire for themselves the wings mentioned above, people busy themselves with almsgiving, but they defer this to the feast of the Ascension, as if then to fly unto heaven after Christ…

Now some people fittingly refer the Masses of Easter week to those who are reborn in baptism, according to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. And so, the one who is reborn, inspired by the spirit of wisdom, says “I have risen.” (The Introit of Easter Sunday) The gospel declares through what he is risen, namely, through the Resurrection of the Lord, and the spirit of understanding instructs him as to what he has gained thereby, saying, “He hath brought us into the Land” (The Introit of Easter Monday), that is, the Church; and the spirit of counsel adds, “With the water of wisdom He gave them to drink.” (Tuesday) The spirit of fortitude indicates what else he ought to gain thereby, saying “Come, ye blessed of my Father.” (Wednesday) The spirit of knowledge teaches him that for these benefits granted to him, he must praise God, saying “Together they praised Thy conquering hand, o Lord.” (Thursday) The spirit of piety indicates what the Resurrection has brought to the reborn, saying “The Lord hath led them out in hope” (Friday), and the spirit of fear adds to this, saying, “The Lord has led out his people.” (Saturday)

For all these benefits conferred in baptism, the angels congratulate men, men confess God, and exhort one another to the praises of Christ; they give thanks, they rejoice, they remember these benefits and the causes thereof, and they confidently aspire to greater things. The other parts of the Masses of Easter are concerned with this … Notice also that in the Introits of this week, Alleluia is said four times in four of them (on Easter Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday), and three times in three of them, because praise is given to Holy Trinity from the four parts of the world for the resurrection of Christ, and the redemption of man. In the first Sunday, that is “Quasi modo geniti”, the baptized are urged by their mother (i.e. the Church) to live innocently like infants, and to desire the milk of the Holy Scripture, so that by their mores and life they may hold to the Paschal sacrament which they have received through Christ’s resurrection, overcome the world, triumph with him, and obtain rejoicing in body and soul together. Because of this rejoicing, the Alleluja (before the Gospel) is doubled, because they have escaped from death, and merited to have the hope of life; or as a symbol of action and contemplation; or as a symbol of the joy of the preachers and of those whom they convert.

(The Introit of Good Shepherd Sunday: “The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord, alleluia, and by the word of the Lord the heavens were established, alleluia, alleluia.” Psalm 32)

But on the second Sunday, the baptized, being already instructed, sound forth the mercy of Christ, and preach the Trinity; for in the word “mercy”, they announce the Spirit, in “the word” the Son, and in “God” (i.e. the Lord) the Father. First they mention the Spirit, through whom they are sanctified; then the Son, through whom they are redeemed, then the Father, to whom they are reconciled: and because they sing of the Trinity, they sing Alleluia three times.

(The Introit of the Third Sunday after Easter: “Shout with joy to God, all the earth, alleluia, sing a psalm to his name, alleluia; give glory to his praise, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.” Psalm 65)

On the third Sunday, the baptized invite the whole world to the praise of God, and sound forth the Trinity, … and since through the two precepts of charity they are strengthened in the faith of the Trinity, therefore, first they sing alleluia twice, then three times.

(The Introit of the Fourth Sunday: “Sing to the Lord a new song, alleluia: because the Lord hath done wonderful things, alleluia. In the sight of the nations He hath revealed his justice, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.” Psalm 97)

On the fourth Sunday, again the baptized invite the converted nations to the praise of God, and commemorate the Trinity, when in “the Lord” understand the Father, through “wonders” the Son, and in “justice” the Holy Spirit. And because the nations received the faith of the Trinity from the four parts of the world, therefore they sing of the Trinity with a fourth alleluia.

(The Introit of the Fifth Sunday: “Announce the voice of rejoicing, and let it be heard, alleluia: and proclaim even to the ends of the earth, the Lord hath redeemed his people, alleluia, alleluia.” Isaiah 48)

On the fifth Sunday, again the baptized announce their liberator to their nations, because they sing of the Trinity with a threefold Alleluia.

The Reconciliation of the Public Penitents on Holy Thursday at Sarum

At the end of February, I published an article about the use of the Penitential Psalms in Lent, in which I mentioned that they were generally said at the beginning of the season, at the ceremony by which the public penitents were symbolically expelled from the church, and again on Holy Thursday, when they were brought back in. These ceremonies were particularly elaborate in the Use of Sarum, but similar rites were observed in a great many other places. Here then is the promised description of the rite of the reconciliation of the public penitents, taken from WG Henderson’s 1882 edition of the Sarum Processional.

An illustration from a Sarum Processional of the Ash Wednesday procession; the captions reads “The station on the day of ashes, when the bishop expels the penitents.” The ash-colored banner is seen up top. Reproduced from Henderson’s edition.

After None of Holy Thursday, the bishop or his substitute goes to the west door of the church, wearing a red silk cope, and accompanied by two deacons, led by the same “ash-colored” banner used in the procession of Ash Wednesday. The penitents await them in the narthex. If the bishop himself performs the ritual, the archdeacon, also in silk cope, stands near the penitents and delivers a rather lengthy address to the bishop, of which I give here only the beginning.

“The time is present, venerable bishop, prayed for by the afflicted, meet for the penitent, desired by those in tribulation. Your sons are present, father, whom their true Mother the Church bore unto God with joy; but again, She mourns with new grief every day that at the devil’s suasion, they became corrupt, and wretched, and exiled. For these, all who have happily remained in Her bosom do humbly pray, and who have remained strong in their faith under the protection of divine clemency. Spare them today, father, and with all the force of thy goodness, let that fountain of David be open to us (Zach. 13, 1), and flow forth unto the cleansing of the woman with the issue of blood, reproving none, rejecting none, excluding none. For although no season lacketh the riches of divine mercy, still, now is the forgiveness of sins more abundant through indulgence, and more copious the acceptance of those reborn through grace. …”

The bishop then intones three times the first word of an antiphon, “Venite, Venite, Venite! – Come! Come! Come!”, beckoning to the penitents with his hand as he does, as if to invite them into the church. One of the two deacons, standing near the penitents, says “Let us kneel”; the other, standing near the bishop, says “Rise.” This is all done a second time, then the bishop repeats “Venite” a third time, at which the choir finishes the antiphon “(Come) ye sons, hear ye me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” The whole of Psalm 33 from which it is taken is sung, with the antiphon repeated after each verse. In the meanwhile, priests conduct the penitents by hand to the archdeacon, who brings them to the bishop, who then brings them into the church.

An illustration from a 1595 edition of the Roman Pontifical, showing the reception of the public penitents on Holy Thursday. (Courtesy of the Pitts Theological Library, Candler School of Theology at Emory University.)

When all have entered the church, and the clergy have processed into the choir, they kneel, and say the seven Penitential Psalms; these are accompanied as usual by the antiphon Ne reminiscaris, Kyrie eleison, the Lord’s prayer, and a series of versicles, followed by three prayers. Here is the third one.

“O Lord, Holy Father, almighty and eternal God, who deigned to heal our wounds, we Thy lowly servants and priests humbly beseech and ask of Thee, that Thou may deign to incline the ears of Thy compassion to our prayers, and be moved by confession at (this) penance; and forgive all crimes, and remit every sin; and grant these Thy servants, o Lord, forgiveness in accord with their humble prayers, rejoicing in place of grief, life in place of death; so that those who have come to so great a hope of the height of heaven, trusting in Thy mercy, may merit to come to the goods of Thy peaceable promise and the gifts of heaven.”

He then turns to the penitents, and makes the sign of the Cross over them, saying: “We absolve you by the authority of the blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, to whom was given by the Lord power to bind and loose; and in so far as any accusation falleth to you, and forgiveness thereof to us, may God almighty be unto you life and salvation, and the merciful forgiver of all your sins.” He gives the usual blessing “May almighty God bless you…”, and the Mass of the Lord’s Supper begins.

Durandus on the Mass of Spy Wednesday

The following excerpts are taken from book VI, chapter 70 of William Durandus’ commentary on the liturgy, the Rationale Divinorum Officiorum. Greatly as we reverence his work, our friend is, like many medieval authors, an incorrigible digresser; furthermore, some of the features of the Mass of Spy Wednesday, one of the most beautiful of the entire year, were arranged a bit differently in the missal he knew. I have therefore reordered and paraphrased the text in various places, to make the train of his thought clearer, and to correspond to the Missal of St Pius V. The reader may also find useful this article from two years ago which explains the text of this Mass in detail, especially in regard to the reading from Isaiah 62 and 63 as a prophecy of the Incarnation.

Wednesday is the day on which the Lord was sold by Judas, because He willed not only to suffer for us, but also to be sold, so that He might deliver us from the selling by which our first parent sold us to the devil through the eating of the forbidden fruit, whence Isaiah says (52, 3), “You were sold for free, and you shall be redeemed without money.” Likewise, many sell themselves to the devil for momentary pleasure, just as Adam sold himself for the eating of the forbidden fruit. Therefore, the Sun of justice was sold for our salvation on Wednesday, the day on which the visible sun was formed for the light of the world. (Gen. 1, 14-19)

The Betrayal of Judas, as depicted by Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy, 1304-06.

Now the Lord prayed kneeling, as is said in today’s Gospel (the Passion according to St Luke, 22, 1 – 23, 53). Therefore, in the introit, the Church invites that “in the name of Jesus every knee be bent, of those in heaven”, because He repaired their ruin, “of those on earth”, because He delivered them, “and of those below the earth”, because He led them from the pit in which there was no water, as Zachariah says (9, 11). It is sung in the third tone because of the three things which are invited to bend the knee.

There follows, “and let every tongue confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.” This is taken from the Apostle (Phil. 2, 11) …

Introitus In nómine Jesu omne genu flectátur, caelestium, terrestrium et infernórum: quia Dóminus factus est oboediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis: ideo Dóminus Jesus Christus in gloria est Dei Patris. Psalmus Dómine, exaudi oratiónem meam: et clamor meus ad te veniat. In nómine Jesu…

Introit (Phil. 2, 10; 8 and 11) In the name of Jesus let every knee bend, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth: because the Lord hath become obedient unto death, but the death of the Cross. Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. Psalm 101, 2 O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to thee. In the name of Jesus…

It can also be said that two things are necessary for us, namely, prayer and patience, according to that which the Lord says, “Pray for those who persecute and slander you.” (Matt. 5, 44) We are invited to these two things in the introit: to prayer, when it says, “in the name of Jesus let every knee be bent”; and to patience, by the Savior’s example, regarding whom it is added, “Christ has become for us obedient unto death,” etc. For one is not obedient in tribulation if he does not willingly tolerate it.

Two lessons are read, because on this day the Lord was betrayed for two peoples and by two peoples; and in some churches, they kneel at both of them, because He is adored by both people … and because the first Man incurred two deaths, namely of the flesh and of the soul, and Christ has delivered us from both.

In the first reading (Isa. 62, 11; 63, 1-7), “Say to the daughter of Zion: Behold, thy savior cometh,” … The Angels said (for the incarnation remained hidden from some of them), “Who is this who cometh from Edom?”, that is, from the earth, “with stained garments”, that is, with the members of the body, which are the garments of divinity, “stained purple with blood from Bosra.”

Bosra is a city in Moab, whose name means “strong” or “fortified”, … but its name is transferred to Jerusalem, which once the Lord strengthened by His help, but the inhabitants having become Moabites… they tainted the garments of the king with the purple of blood. He answered, “I who speak justice, and fight forth unto salvation.” And they said, “Why then is thy garment red?”, as if to say, Why have you been bloodied by the pressing of the Cross, if you speak justice? But he answers, “I have trodden the wine press alone”, that is, for all, so that all may be delivered, “and from the nations there is no other man with me.”

The Risen Christ and the Mystical Winepress, by Marco dal Pino, often called Marco da Siena, 1525-1588 ca. Both of the figures of Christ in this painting show very markedly the influence of Michelangelo’sLast Judgment.

And just as the Savior laid down His soul for the redemption of our souls, so also He subjected his body (to death) for the redemption of our bodies; for which reason the first lesson treats of His body, reddened by his own blood, where it says, “Who is this who comes from Edom?”, etc. And because solely from His mercy the Lord suffered for us, therefore the prophet in the person of the Church concludes that reading by saying, “I will remember the mercies of the Lord, the praise of the Lord for all things which the Lord hath rendered unto us.”

After the reading is sung the gradual, “Turn not thy face”, in which He himself prays that through the passion He may come to glory. But because He prayed for a long time in agony, as is said in the Gospel (22, 43), therefore the Offertory and the Communio are taken from the Psalm (101) which is entitled “the prayer of the poor man while he was in anguish”…

Graduale Ne avertas faciem tuam a púero tuo, quoniam tríbulor: velóciter exaudi me. V. Salvum me fac, Deus, quoniam intravérunt aquae usque ad ánimam meam: infixus sum in limo profundi, et non est substantia.

Gradual, Ps 68, 18; 2-3 Turn not thy face away from thy servant: for I am in trouble, swiftly hear me. V. Save me, o God, for the waters have come in even unto my soul. I am stuck fast in the mire of the deep, and there is no sure standing.

The epistle is also from Isaiah (53, 1-12), “O Lord, who hath believed”, in which He is described in the same fashion in which He is represented by the evangelist in the passion…

After the epistle there follows the tract, and in an unusual way (i.e. without a gradual preceding it), because the Church mourns and weeps more deeply than usual… the tract signifies weeping, and therefore on Good Friday only tracts are said. The gradual signifies penance, and because the Lord was not crucified on this day, but only sold, therefore a gradual is also said (i.e. after the first reading).

This tract is sung according to an Old Latin text which reads uses the word “frixorium – a frier”, where St Jerome’s version has “cremium – brushwood.” Below, Durandus interprets the image of bones in a frier to signify the refinement of man’s interior strengths.

Tractus Dómine, exaudi oratiónem meam, et clamor meus ad te veniat. ℣. Ne avertas faciem tuam a me: in quacumque die tríbulor, inclína ad me aurem tuam. ℣. In quacumque die invocávero te, velóciter exaudi me. ℣. Quia defecérunt sicut fumus dies mei, et ossa mea sicut in frixorio confrixa sunt. ℣. Percussus sum sicut faenum, et aruit cor meum, quia oblítus sum manducáre panem meum. ℣. Tu exsurgens, Dómine, miseréberis Sion, quia venit tempus miserendi eius.

Ps. 101, 2-5; 14 O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to thee. ℣. Turn not away thy face from me: in the day when I am troubled, incline thine ear to me. ℣. In whatsoever day I call upon thee, hear me speedily. ℣. For my days are vanished like smoke, and my bones have been fried as in a frier. ℣. I am smitten as grass, and my heart is withered, because I forgot to eat my bread. ℣. Thou shalt arise, o Lord, and have mercy on Sion: for the time hath come to have mercy on it.

Since we have sinned according to the five senses of the body, the tract has five verses, because of the five wounds of Christ, or because He shed His blood five times: first, in the circumcision; second, at the prayer (in the garden); third, at the scourging; fourth, in the crucifixion; fifth, when He was pierced by the spear. In the same tract, the human race asks for help and confesses the failing which it incurred from the sin of the first parent, saying, “because my days have failed like smoke.” For the life of man is but a day, and the night thereof is death, but this life is cut short and fails because of the pride of the first parent, which is symbolized by the smoke. There follow the words, “My bones were fried in a fryer.” Bones are the interior strengths… and the frier is threefold, namely, the recalling of sins, compassion for one’s neighbor, and meditation on the future judgment; in these the good man is fried. The tract closes, like the lesson, with the mercy of the Lord; whence the last verse is, “Thou arising, o Lord, shall have mercy.”

The Communion is “I was mixing my drink with weeping,” which is to say, the drink of the passion, when His sweat became like drops of blood running down onto the earth. (Luke 22, 44; this is also taken from an Old Latin text of the Psalms.)

Communio, Ps 101 Potum meum cum fletu temperábam, quia élevans allisisti me: et ego sicut foenum arui: tu autem, Dómine, in aeternum pérmanes: tu exsurgens miseréberis Sion, quia venit tempus miseréndi eius. (I tempered my drink with weeping, for thou hast lifted me up and cast me down, and I am withered like grass. But thou, O Lord, remainest forever; thou shalt arise, and have mercy on Sion, for the time is come to have mercy on it.