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Priest, Deacon and Layman, from St Peter Damian to St Francis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Christopher N. L. Brooke
Christopher N. L. Brooke*
Affiliation:
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
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Extract

Few incidents in thirteenth-century history have been more often described than the story of the Christmas crib at Greccio. Not long before his death St Francis arranged with a noble layman called John of Greccio to prepare a crib for midnight mass at Christmas, with plenty of hay and real animals, ox and ass, in attendance. Crowds flocked to the place and ‘the whole night resounded with jubilation’. Mass was celebrated over the crib. But not by Francis, for he was not a priest but a deacon; and he put on the deacon’s vestments, sang the gospel and preached. Strange as it may seem, it is only from this story in the First Life by Thomas of Celano, confirmed by some shreds of other evidence, that we know that Francis was in deacon’s orders. No explanation is given, no contemporary commentary expounds the fact. Yet it is abundantly clear that his deacon’s orders had some profound significance related to his conception of his Order and its members, and their relations one to another. It is a curious puzzle to discover what it was.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 26: The Ministry: Clerical and Lay , 1989 , pp. 65 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1989

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References

1 Thomas of Celano, Vila Prima, caps 84–7, Analecta Franciscana, 10 (Quaracchi, 1926–41), pp. 63–5; trans. Brooke, R. B., The Coming of the Friars (London, 1975), pp. 130–1 Google Scholar. In all matters related to St Francis, I am deeply indebted to the help of Rosalind Brooke; on the lay brothers in the orders of monks and canons, I have had invaluable help from Giles Constable.

2 Celano, Vita Prima, cap. 86 (p. 64); cf. Julian of Speyer (based on Celano), Analecta Franciscana, 10, pp. 335, 361, 369; and later sources, e.g. ibid., p. 492. In Celano, Vita Secunda, cap. 219 (ibid., p. 257), St Francis is seen in a vision wearing a purple dalmatic, the deacon’s vestment. In Vita Secunda, cap. 193 (p. 241), he prefers a small to a large tonsure: see below, p. 85.

3 See e.g. articles by Michel, A. in Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique, 11 (1931), pp. 1193–1405 Google Scholar; 13 (1936), pp. 138–61 (‘ordre’, ‘prêtre’); useful references in ODCC, 2 edn., p. 1123, cf. p. 1006.

4 Genesis 14, vv. 18–20; for his presence in Innocent III’s writings, see Pennington, K. in Law, Church and Society: Essays in Honor of Stephan Kuttner, eds Pennington, K. and Somerville, R. (Philadelphia, 1977), pp. 54 Google Scholar, 64, n. 32. In the next sentence I speak of the ambition to become a priest as normal. It was never universal: among cathedral clergy for example many seem never to have become priests, and though the cathedrals sometimes seem in deliberate reaction against current religious ideals, and many canons perhaps were not especially devout, we have no reason to doubt that many were. For literature, see below, n. 30.

5 Eadmer, , Historia Novorum, ed. Rule, M. (RS 1884), p. 114 Google Scholar; trans, in Southern, R. W., Making of the Middle Ages (London, 1953), p. 132 Google Scholar.

6 Cf. MCH Libelli de Lite, 1 (Hanover, 1891), pp. 223–6 ( Humbert, , Adv. Simoniacos); 348–55 Google Scholar (Manegold of Lautenbach); etc.

7 Damian, Peter, Opusculum xvii, c.3, PL 145, cols. 384–5 Google Scholar, quoting 1 Cor. 6, vv. 15–16; 2 Cor. 6, vv. 14–15. On Damian and celibacy see Brooke, C. N. L., The Medieval Idea of Marriage (Oxford, 1989 Google Scholar), chap. 3. On the MSS of his letters and opuscula, see Die Briefe des Petrus Damiani, ed. K. Reindel, 1 (MGH, Die briefe der deutschen Kaiserzeil, IV, 1, Munich, 1983), pp. 33–9.

8 Published Oxford, 1984.

9 Macy, chap. 3; for the older tradition, see chap. 2. In the early and central Middle Ages, symbols were often seen as deeply inhering in the things they represented: the modern phrase ‘mere symbol’ would have baffled theologians of that age. A classic example of eleventh-century priestly eucharistie devotion is John of Fécamp’s prayer of preparation, later attributed to St Ambrose: A. Wilmart, ‘L’Oralio Sancti Ambrosii, du Missel Romain’, Auteurs spirituels el textes dévols du moyen âge latin (Paris, 1932), pp. 100–25.

10 Cf. St Francis, below, p. 84.

11 Bayeux Tapestry, ed. Wilson, D. M. (London, 1986), plates 25–6 Google Scholar; for the host as relic, cf. Macy, pp. 81–2.

12 Macy, chap. 3, esp. pp. 86–93.

13 For these definitions, see M. D. Chenu, Nature, Man and Society in the Twelfth Century (Eng. trans, by Taylor, J. and Little, L. K., Chicago, 1968 Google Scholar), esp. chap. 6; and for the older ones, Duby, G., The Three Orders: feudal society imagined (English trans, by Goldhammer, A., Chicago, 1980 Google Scholar).

14 See references in Brooke, C. and Swaan, W., The Monastic World (London, 1974), p. 253 Google Scholar, n. 5 to chap. 6; and for daily mass, esp. Van Dijk, S. J. P. and Walker, J. H., The Origins of the Modern Roman Liturgy (London, 1960), pp. 51 Google Scholar seq.

15 Brooke and Swaan, p. 88 and plates 142–3, reproduce the relevant folios of BL Stowe MS 944 (for a full edition, see Liber Vitae: Register and Martyrology of New Minster and Hyde Abbey, Winchester, ed. Birch, W. de Gray (Hampshire Record Society, 1892 Google Scholar)).

16 In the mid and late eleventh century the ‘laicus conversus’ or ‘conversus et laicus’ is common (Birch, pp. 36–7). Thereafter, it is frequently noted by the conversi that they were or became priests.

17 Glaber, Rodulfus, Historiarum Libri Quinque, ed. France, J. (OMT, 1989), pp. 236–7 Google Scholar. For the growth of altars in Romanesque churches see the numerous plans in Conant, K. J., Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture, 800–1200 (Harmondsworm, 1959 Google Scholar).

18 In Brooke and Swaan, p. 254, chap. 9, n. 5, it is erroneously suggested that the chapel aisles were a later development: those at Rievaulx and Fountains are evidendy twelfth century (see Brooke, C., ‘St Bernard, the patrons and monastic planning’, in Cistercian An and Architecture in the British hies, eds Norton, C. and Park, D. (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 11–23 Google Scholar at p. 17 n. 32; cf. also the much later chapels added to the nave at Melrose and on die continent: Coldstream, N., Cistercian Art, p. 154 Google Scholar).

19 For what follows, see Reeves, M., The Influence of Prophecy in the later Middle Ages (Oxford, 1969), esp. pp. 135–40 Google Scholar.

20 Reeves, p. 136.

21 For the relation of Joachim’s prophecies and the mendicants, Reeves, pp. 59–70, 161–273; cf. Brooke, R. B., Early Franciscan Government (Cambridge, 1959), pp. 268–72 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Toller, T. Northcote and Campbell, A., Supplement to Bosworth, J., Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Oxford, 1921), p. 681 Google ScholarPubMed; cf. the king’s priests studied by Barlow, F., The English Church 1000-1066 (London, 1963), pp. 156–8 Google Scholar. For ‘maessepreost’ see Bosworth, J., Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Oxford, 1898), p. 662 Google Scholar; Supplement, pp. 628–9; and esp. Councils and Synods, 1, pt. 1, eds Whitelock, D. et al. (Oxford, 1981), pp. 204–5 Google Scholar.

23 On the significance of tonsure in the central Middle Ages, see G. Constable in Apologiae duae, ed. Huygens, R. B. C. (CC Com. Med., 62, Turnhout, 1985), esp. pp. 72–5 Google Scholar. For Francis and tonsure see below, p. 85.

24 See e.g. Chenu, chaps. 6 and 7.

25 Brooke, Cf. C., ‘Reflections on the monastic cloister’, in Romanesque and Gothic: Essays for George Zamecki (Woodbridge, 1987), 1, pp. 19–25 Google Scholar.

26 Later examples of this ancient mode are the late tenth century pastoral letter of Ælfric, which includes an account of orders [Councils and Synods, 1, pt. 1, pp. 202–5); and the twelfth century tract by Hugh of Victor, St, ‘De ecclesiasticis ordinibus’ incorporated in his De sacramentis (PL 176, cols 421–31 Google Scholar).

27 Kutmer, Cf. S., ‘Cardinalis: the history of a canonical concept’, Traditio, 3 (1945), pp. 129–214 Google Scholar, at pp. 189–98.

28 See Jtzinger, E. K, ‘The arts as aspects of a renaissance: Rome and Italy’, in Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century, ed. Benson, R. L. and Constable, G. (Cambridge, Mass., and Oxford, 1982), pp. 637–70 Google Scholar, at pp. 641–8; and Horn, W., ‘Survival, revival, transformation: the dialectic of development in architecture and other arts’, ibid., pp. 711–27 Google Scholar, at pp. 719–20.

29 For what follows, see Brooke, C. N. L., ‘The archdeacon and the Norman Conquest’, in Tradition and Change: Essays in honour of Marjorie Chibnall, eds Greenway, D., Holdsworth, C. and Sayers, J. (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 1–19 Google Scholar, esp. 3–4.

30 Calendars and obituaries of cathedrals give some information on die orders of canons, though it is never systematic: see e.g. the St Paul’s Obituaries listed by Greenway, D. E. in Le Neve, 1066–1300, 1, p. xiv Google Scholar; the Hereford obituary in Rawlinson, R., The History and Antiquities of… Hereford (London, 1717), pp. (3)-(31)Google Scholar, and the Chartres obituaries in Obituaires de la province de Sens, ed. Molinier, A. and Longnon, A. (Paris, 1902.), 2 Google Scholar. I have modified the text in die light of discussion with Dr Julia Barrow, to whose advice I am much indebted.

For what follows see Peter of Blois ep. 123, PL 207, cols 358–67, cited Brooke, ‘The archdeacon’, p. 4 n. 11.

31 See Brooke, C., Medieval Church and Society (London, 1971), chap. 4 Google Scholar; Brooke, Marriage, chap. 3, and refs.

32 Brooke, , Marriage, p. 87 Google Scholar; Greenway, cf. D. E. in Le Neve, 1066–1300, 1, p. 18 Google Scholar. Canons could be priests or deacons or less (see n. 30); there was legislation against their marrying in this era, whatever their orders (see Brooke, , Medieval Church and Society, pp. 74–5 Google Scholar n.).

33 There are good examples in English Episcopal Ada, 6, ed. Harper-Bill, C. (forthcoming, 1989 Google Scholar). In general, see Kemp, B. W., ‘Monastic possession of parish churches in England in the twelfth century’, JEH 31 (1980), pp. 133–60 Google Scholar.

34 For examples of this highly proprietary attitude to churches, see Brooke, C. N. L and Keir, G., London 800–1216 (London, 1975), pp. 131–6 Google Scholar, esp. 135–6.

35 A classic statement of these views is in Duby, G., The Knight, the Lady and the Priest (Eng. trans., New York and Harmondsworth, 1983–4 Google Scholar).

36 Brooke, Cf. C., The Saxon and Norman Kings (London, 1963), chap. 2 Google Scholar; Brooke, , Europe in the Central Middle Ages (2 edn., London, 1987), pp. 208–9 Google Scholar.

37 Schulte, A., Der Adel und die deutsche Kirche im Mittelalter (Stuttgart, 1910 Google Scholar); but cf. now Brühl, C., ‘Die Sozialstruktur des deutschen Episkopats im 11. und 12. Jahrhundert’, Le istituzioni ecclesiastiche della ‘societas Christiana’ dei secoli XI-XII: diocesi, pievi e parrocchie (Atti della sesta Settimana … Milano … 1974, Miscellanea del Centro di Studi Medioevali 8, Milan, 1977), pp. 42–56 Google Scholar.

38 Brühl, Cf., ‘Die Sozialstruktur’, with , R. and Brooke, C. in the same volume, ‘I vescovi di Inghilterra e Normandia nel secolo XI: contrasti’, pp. 536–45 Google Scholar, at p. 545 and n. 35 on the English evidence; cf. also B. Guillemain on the French evidence, ‘Les origines des évêques en France aux xie et xiie siècles’, in Le Istituzioni ecclesiastiche della ‘societas Christiana’ dei secoli XI-XII: papato, cardinalato ed episcopato (Atti della quinta Settimana … Mendola, … 1971, Miscellanea 7, Milan, 1974), pp. 374–402.

39 On Henry of Blois see esp. Knowles, D., Monastic Order in England (2 edn., Cambridge, 1963), pp. 286–93 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Knowles, , The Episcopal Colleagues of Archbishop Thomas Becket (Cambridge, 1950, corr. repr. 1970), pp. 34–7, 109–11 Google Scholar; Zarnecki, G., ‘Henry of Blois as a patron of sculpture’, in Art and Patronage in the English Romanesque, eds Macready, S. and Thompson, F. H. (London, 1986), pp. 159–77 Google Scholar.

40 Le Neve, 1066-1300, 2, pp. 1–5; cf.esp. Cheney, C. R., Hubert Walter (London, 1967), pp. 16–17 Google Scholar. Hubert Walter’s father was a prosperous baron of the second rank, but in any case Hubert owed his promotion to service to the king.

41 Magna Vita S. Hugonis, ed. and trans. Douie, D. L. and Farmer, D. H. (Nelson’s Medieval Texts, 1961-2; corr. repr. OMT, 1985), 2, pp. 55–8 Google Scholar; cf. Walter Map, Denugiscurialium, ed. and trans. James, M. R. el al. (OMT, 1983), pp. 80–1 Google Scholar and n. 2. On the lay brothers see esp. I laici nella ‘socielas Christiana’ dei secoli XI e XII, Atri della terza Settimana … Mendola … 1965 (Miscellanea del Centro di Studi Medioevali, 5, Milan, 1968), esp. chaps, by Leclercq, J., ‘Comment vivaient les frères convers?’, pp. 152–76 Google Scholar; Dubois, J., ‘L’institution des convers au XHe siècle: forme de vie monastique propre aux laics’, pp. 183–261 Google Scholar; Fonseca, C. D., ‘I conversi nelle comunità canonicali’, pp. 262–305 Google Scholar. In what follows I am much indebted to Constable in Apologiae, pp. 124–30.

42 The Book of Si Gilbert, eds Foreville, R. and Keir, G. (OMT, 1987), pp. 30–9, 44–9 Google Scholar.

43 Ibid., pp. 48–9, 52–3.

44 Ibid., pp. 34–7.

45 Ibid., pp. 36–9.

46 See esp. Constable, , pp. 124–8 Google Scholar.

47 Apologiae Duae.

48 Constable, p. 129 and n. 416; Leclercq, and Dubois, in I laici, pp. 158–60 Google Scholar, 234–5, 245–7. For some evidence qualifying the completeness of the segregation, see my note in Cistercian Art and Architecture, p. 17 n. 32.

49 Knowles, D. and St Joseph, J. K. S., Monastic Sites from the Air (Cambridge, 1952), pp. xix–xx Google Scholar and passim; Brooke, and Swaan, , Monastic World, pp. 139–50 Google Scholar, and figs. 11–12; plates 238, 243; Brooke, in Cistercian Art and Architecture, p. 17 Google Scholar and n. 32.

50 For the lane, see esp. Dubois in I laici, p. 234; Knowles, and St Joseph, , pp. 89 Google Scholar (Byland), 106–7 (Buildwas).

51 Cf. Leclercq and Dubois in I laici, pp. 160, 255; cf. Usus conversorum, ed. Guignard, P., Les Monuments primitifs de la règle cistercienne (Dijon, 1878), pp. 276–87 Google Scholar, at p. 281, no. 5, p. 283, no. 9, p. 285, no. 13; but see esp. edn. of early versions by Lefèvre, J. A. in Collectanea Ordinis Cisterciensium Reformatorum, 17 (1955), pp. 11–39 Google Scholar, ‘Les traditions manuscrites des Usus Conversorum de Cîteaux’, 65–97, ‘L‘evolution des Usus Conversorum de Cîteaux’, at pp. 92, 94. The prohibition of learning is in both versions, that against a lay brother becoming a monk only in the later version; but it is clearly of quite early date, since it is in the statuta which some have attributed to 1119 and is certainly before 1152 (ibid., p. 69); see also Les plus anciens textes de Cîteaux, eds Bouton, J. de la Croix and Van Damme, J. P. (Achel, 1974), p. 124, no. xxii Google Scholar; and for discussion of date, C. Holdsworth, ‘The chronology and character of early Cistercian legislation on art and architecture’, in Norton and Park, Cistercian Art, pp. 40–55, at pp. 44–52.

52 Canivez, , 1, p. 108 Google Scholar; cf. Dubois, in I laid, p. 261 Google Scholar.

53 Constable, , pp. 128–30 Google Scholar, esp. p. 128 n. 408; cf. Dubois, in I laici, pp. 248–60 Google Scholar.

54 Especially among the Grandimontines: Constable, p. 127 and n. 402; and see below.

55 The Book of St Gilbert, pp. lv-lxii, lxxxiv-xc, 134–67, 343–4.

56 See Becquet, J., ed., Scriptores Ordinis Grandimontensis (CC Cont. Med., 8, Turnhout, 1968 Google Scholar): the early documents give no account of any differences. This was certainly the view of Prior Gerard Iterius (1188-98): see Constable, p. 127 and n. 402, citing Becquet, pp. 397, 431, 473. On Grandmont, the essay of Rose Graham in English Ecclesiastical Studies (London, 1929), chap. 9, is still valuable.

57 Becquet, p. 5 and for the Regula, pp. 63–99, esp. p. 65. The Regula, c. 24, p. 82, rejects the use of written evidence in lawsuits (cf. c. 31, p. 84).

58 In the Testament he talks as if every recension of the Rule was the same; cf. Opuscula, ed. Esser, K. (Grottaferrata, 1976), pp. 439, 442–4 Google Scholar; for the surviving texts of the Rule, ibid., PP. 363–404.

59 See esp. the long tirade attributed to die ex-prior against Henry II after the murder of Thomas Becket: Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, eds Robertson, J. C. and Sheppard, J. B. (London, RS, 1875-85), 7, pp. 450–60, no. 746 Google Scholar.

60 Graham, Ecclesiastical Studies, p. 223, citing the poet Guiot de Provins (Oeuvres, ed. Orr, J. (Manchester, 1915), pp. 56–9 Google Scholar, esp. p. 58, 11.1551-60).

61 What the clerks unctuously observed was that ‘they read nowhere that Mary complained of Martha’ (Graham, Ecclesiastical Studies, p. 223, citing Jacques de Vitry, Historia Occidentalis, c. 19: see now Historia, ed. Hinnebusch, J. F. (Fribourg, 1972), p. 126 Google Scholar).

62 Only one of the first eleven, Sylvester, was a priest; and the Regula Bullata of 1223 (c. 7) still envisages that ministers may not be priests.

63 Brooke, R. B., Early Franciscan Government (Cambridge, 1959), pp. 243–5 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, cf. 197–8; for Dominican influence on Haymo’s legislation, see ibid., pp. 239–41.

64 On the relations between Francis and Dominic, see Brooke, C., Medieval Church and Society (London, 1971), pp. 222–6 Google Scholar; Brooke, R. B., The Coming of the Friars (London, 1975), pp. 95–7 Google Scholar.

65 On the Franciscan general chapter, see Brooke, R. B., Early Franciscan Government, e.g. pp. 35–8 Google Scholar, 42–3, 130–2, 163–6.

66 Scripta Leonis, ed. and trans. Brooke, R. B. (OMT, 1970), no. 71, pp. 210–13 Google Scholar (‘lay’ not specified in the context but clearly intended to be included); Celano, , Vita Secunda, caps 164, 193, and cf. 191, in Analecla Franciscana, 10, 225, 241, cf. 239–40 Google Scholar; Brooke, , Early Franciscan Government, pp. 160–1 Google Scholar.

67 See esp. Brooke, R.B., Early Franciscan Government, pp. 51–2 Google Scholar, 160–1, 243–5.

68 Salimbene, Cronica, ed. Holder-Egger, O. (MGH SRG, 32, 1905-13), pp. 99–103 Google Scholar, esp. p. 102.

69 Scripta Leonis, no. 80, pp. 226–9.

70 Opuxula, ed. Esser, pp. 274–5 (in defence of its authenticity, see pp. 270–4); trans. Brooke, R. B., The Coming of The Friars, p. 127 Google Scholar.

71 Opuscula, ed. Esser, pp. 438–9; trans. Brooke, Coming, p. 117.

72 Celano, Vita Secunda, c. 193, Analecta Franciscana, 10, p. 241.

73 Scripta Leonis, c. 44, pp. 166–71.

74 Brooke, C., Europe in the Central Middle Ages (2 edn., London, 1987), pp. 133–5, 142–4 Google Scholar and refs.