INNOCENT SMITH, OP

Medieval Encounters with the

Propers of the Mass

INTRODUCTION

0 n February 12, 1220, two students at the University of Paris began an

unusual Lenten penance. Inspired by the preaching of the Dominican
Reginald of Orleans, Jordan and Henry had decided to join the band of
Preachers, planning to begin their novitiate at the start of Lent. Thirteen or
fourteen years later, Jordan recalled the events of that fateful day in his
Libel/us de principiis Ordinis Praedicatorum:

When the day came on which the imposition of ashes reminds the faithful of
their creation from the dust and their return to the dust, we decided that it was a
suitable occasion for us to begin our life of penance, and to fulfil what we had
promised to the Lord. Our fellow-students who lived in the same hostel were
unaware of what we were planning, so, when brother Henry was leaving the
building, one of them asked him, "Where are you going, Henry?" He answered,
"I am going to Bethany." The student did not immediately understand what he
meant by this, but the facts later made it clear to him, when he saw brother Henry
entering Bethany, that is, "the house of obedience." The three of us went to
St. Jacques, and we arrived, unexpectedly but appropriately, while the brethren
were already singing "Let us change our garments." Without delay we put off the
old man and put on the new, so that what they were singing was actually realized
in what we did. 1

The song that the two young men heard the Friars Preachers chanting was the
Ash Wednesday antiphon Immutemur habitu: "Let us change our garments for
ashes and sackcloth ... " Hearing this antiphon, Henry and Jordan decided
that now was the moment to exchange their secular clothing for the habit of

1 Jordan of Saxony, Jordan of Saxony: On the Beginnings of the Order of Preachers,

trans. Simon Tugwell, Dominican Sources (Chicago: Parable, 1982), 18-19.
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the Order of Preachers, "that what they sang with the voice might be fulfilled
. . ,,
mouracnon.

This story is a striking example of the important role that the chanted propers
of the Mass played in the lives of medieval Christians. In the medieval liturgy,
the proper chants (introit, gradual, alleluia, tract, sequence, offertory, com-
munion, and occasionally other antiphons) were the most artistically-articulated
words that were heard by the faithful attending Mass, forming an aural tapestry
that enticed listeners into the spiritual ethos of the licurgy.2 In this paper,
by drawing on contemporary sources I will illustrate how the proper chants
of the Mass were understood by medieval participants. Through this paper,
I hope to show that the propers were an effective pastoral tool for engaging the
minds and hearts of participants in the liturgical rites of the Church.

HISTORY AND GENRES OF PROPERS

A few days afi:ertheir dramatic entrance into the novitiate on Ash Wednesday,
Brother Henry and Brother Jordan would have encountered another sort of
liturgical drama through the proper chants for the First Sunday of Lent.
These chants present a vivid example of the dramatic and exegetical potential
of the propers in connection with other aspects of the liturgy. In the gospel
reading for the First Sunday of Lent (Matt 4:1-11), the devil's second attempt
to tempt Jesus centers on two verses from Psalm 90: 3

Then the devil took Him into the holy city and set Him on the pinnacle of the
temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it
is written, 'He hasgiven His angelschargeconcerningYou;and upon their hands
they shall bear Youup, lest Youdash Yourfoot againsta stone.'"Jesus said to him,
"It is written further, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.' "4

2 For an overview of the development of the propers of the Mass, see Laszlo Dobszay,
"The Proprium Missae of the Roman Rite," in The Genius of the Roman Rite: Historical,
Theological, and Pastora/ Perspectives on Catholic Liturgy, ed. Uwe Michael Lang
(Chicago: Hillenbrand Books, 2010), 83-118. For an in-depth study of each genre,
see David Hiley, Western Plainchant: A Handbook (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993).
3 In this essay, the Latin Vulgate numbering of the psalms is employed.
4 Translation from Urban P. lntondi, ed., The Saint Dominic Missal (New York: Saint
Dominic Missal, 1959), 113.

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 CONTENTS

The Amen Corner

MARGARET DALY-DENTON

Instilling the Word

196

Essays

ROC O'CONNOR, SJ

Long Division Ever Divisive: A Lament

204

GAIL RAMSHAW

Liturgical Considerations of the Word "Heaven"

223

FRANCIS BOCCUZZI

A Specious Experience:
Theodor Adorno, Commodification, and Evangelical Catholicism

234

LUIZ COELHO

Public Liturgies of Remembrance and Activism

at a Time of Post-Truth

252

INNOCENT SMITH, OP

Medieval Encounters with the Propers of the Mass

267

Book Reviews

278