Fred’s Reviews > Cities of God: The Religion of the Italian Communes, 1125–1325 > Status Update

resurrection and renewal. Lay reception of species of wine stopped in 1100s. On Good Friday the bishop communicated with host from the day before and dropped a particle into unconsecrated wine which he drank. Babies awaiting Easter baptism participated in scrutinies. Dancing during the Easter season. Easter processions. Tenebrae. Repetitive catechetical homilies by design.

Feasting, fasting & doing penance. confession & penance. People feasting up until midnight before Ash Wednesday

kissing the pax was the kiss of peace and was a substitute for communion. Also, unconsecrated rolls were blessed at the end of Mass. I saw this in a paraliturgical 13-week novena in an Italian American parish. When lay people received communion, they drank unconsecrated wine to clear out their mouths afterward

The City Worships. Lots on communion: from 3x a year to frequent. Kissing a pax instead of receiving communion. Lay innovation of kneeling, apparently rooted in the Gospel of the pharisee and the sinner. Lay demands for elevation of hosts and bells at elevation, so people could look at the host. Pyx in church for reservation of sacrament. Increase in confession.

"Kneeling to pray or express reverence was relatively new in the thirteenth century, and it was a lay habit. The clergy chanted their prayers sitting or standing. Priests still made a deep bow to the cross as a gesture of respect; the lay faithful preferred to kneel {…] not all priests like laypeople's freedom of bodily expression. Better that the laity conform to clerical styles, like standing for prayer" (238)

and lay acclamation

holy persons & holy places. What makes a saint: honesty in business, small kindnesses & forgiveness, paying taxes & fines, avoiding special treatment, caring for the poor & sick, asceticism and miracles.

also: what a very urban christianity!

this chapter was really lively with weddings, processions, candles, and bells. Weddings typically took place in the home where a couple would live, and the priest was optional

The Holy City. Cities had carts which were similar to college mascots in that they would despoil them from each other in battle. Frederick II turns up a lot in this chapter as do lots of local saints, conveniently discovered. Private heresy tolerated as not a threat to the city