We left off in Part VI with the changes brought about by moving the Mass from Rome to France. These changes were, by and large, a combination of French piety and influences from the East. There were, however, some changes that seemed to arise in many places around the same time.
The first of these was the tendency for the various religious orders to assemble a sacramentary for their order. This would be used wherever members of that order found themselves. This was, in part, inspired by the fact that many of the shorter prayers still showed great variation, even from liturgy to liturgy in the same place! In fact, it seems that the shorter the prayer, the greater the variation that was found. It is nearly impossible to reconstruct the earliest forms of such prayers as the Suscipiat or the prayer accompanying the distribution of Communion.
Among the groups establishing their own sacramentaries were the Benedictines, the Carthusians, the Pramonstratensians (Norbertines), the Carmelites, the Dominicans and the Franciscans. We shall later see two of these sacramentaries which contribute greatly to the Mass that arises as a consequence of the Council of Trent.
The German church had a fairly common sacramentary which was the work of a single liturgist, Bernold of Constance, and Italian who produced the work about the year 1085. Bernold had been heavily influenced by Pope Gregory VII and attempted to standardize on his Masses. This work, called the Micrologus became the standard for Hungary about the year 1100 by order of the local bishops. This began a trend of having the local ordinaries set the standards for the celebration of the Mass in their territories. There were, however, still attempts to codify new forms of the Mass. Thus, the evolution was not ended.
The so-called Gothic period lends still another significant development to the Mass. Beginning in this period, the liturgical books tend to be rearranged.This rearranged book was not just a sacramentary, but was called the Missale Plenum or complete missal. As a result of this reorganization, the priest begins to take over the role of the lector and the cantor. This began the development of the priest as the sole minister at Mass; a trend that would continue for the next 900 years!
Yet another significant development was taking place. The Mass, previously filled with cries of sorrow over our sinfulness now became a place of allegory. The various events in the Mass were interpreted as being stages in the life of Jesus, Mary or the apostles. A commentator named Amalar began this and produced a series of books which epitomized the allegorical role of the Mass. So now the Mass becomes a "holy drama." Because of this many of the actions in the Mass were "amplified" or repeated. One such example is the making of the sign of the cross which continued to increase in frequency through the twelfth century!
Another example of this Gothic principle of cumulation was in the kissing of the altar. Up until the twelfth century the altar was kissed only when approaching it for the first time and when leaving for the last time.. However, beginning in the thirteenth century, the altar was kissed every time the priest turned around! The positioning of the hands became greatly symbolic and eventually exact positions were legislated.
There was a time when the actual ceremony was substantially influenced by this allegory. At the Anemnesis when the resurrection was mentioned the priest was supposed to symbolize this through the use of hand gestures. Ivo of Chartres (d 1117) helped us with another common idea -- the Gospel and Epistle sides of the altar. In places where there was no fixed ambo, Ivo had the priest read the Epistle from left side and the Gospel from the right (as the people faced the altar).
Many ceremonies that were often repeated eventually acquired a fixed meaning with little thought given to their particular status in the liturgical action of the Mass. For example, the three silences during the Mass (at the secret, during the canon and after the Pater Noster) were seen as representing the three days Jesus was in the tomb; the five-fold turning of the priest toward the people now represented the five appearances of Jesus after his resurrection. The number of times the priest made the sign of the cross over the gifts acquired particular numerical significance. the three crosses after the Hanc Igitur recalls the three times Jesus was mocked before the High Priest, the five crosses found in the Unde et memores are to signify the five wounds of Jesus, and so on. Thus, the Mass which began as a community celebration of thanksgiving has now become a dramatic presentation of an action in the divine economy, especially the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus.
As new ceremonies were added to the Mass, it was necessary that the allegorical meaning be clear so that they would "fit" within the structure of the Mass. The expansion of the allegorical aspects of the Mass continued unabated through this whole period, and included such components as the vestments the clergy wore (the humeral veil represents Jesus' divinity hidden by his humanity, the alb his purity, the stole his obedience, the chasuble the Church, and so on).
One last development will be touched on in this section -- the development of the idea of "liturgical colors." This stems from Innocent III. His selection of colors actually remains in force today! White was the festive color, red the color of martyrs and Pentecost, black for days of penance and for the dead (this is still an option, although rarely used since white or purple are considered more appropriate), and green for days without a festal character. The vestments themselves continued to be refined. The chasuble (the priest's outer garment) continued to look like a pancho, but the two stripes which had been parallel (like the deacon's dalmatic) now converged, and eventually were joined to form a "forked cross". Eventually this became a regular crossbeam and required stiffer garments to keep this straight.
We'll resume this discussion with the changes that were taking place in the altar during this period, but this seems to be enough for this installment!