Man or woman that wollere [will]
A Mass devoutly for to hear
Good intent thou give thereto
And as this book teacheth, so thou do,
For it is written what thou shalt say,
When thou shalt rest when thou shalt pray
Both for the quick [living] and the dead
As thou findest right, so make thy bede [prayer].
While the priest maketh him boune [ready]
Upon thy knees settle thee down;
And hew up thine heart with good intent,
The whiles he doth on his vestement,
To God thou pray on this manere [manner],
As next thou findest written here.
This section is from a manuscript adapted for small churches where the priest had to put on his vestments in front of the congregation. It goes on to give a prayer which I shall put in the next extract, where it occurs in other manuscripts of this text.
The 12th century (Norman) church at Stainburn
This section was fascinating to me; as someone who wanders round many medieval churches, I am familiar with the fact that vestries or sacristies are relatively recent in architectural history. They start to arrive around the 15th century so what did priests do before then?
We know from the many documents preserved at Salisbury Cathedral, which record the details of the pre-Reformation Sarum Rite, that on a Sunday the priests vested in the north choir aisle. I’ve not been to Salisbury Cathedral yet, so here is another north choir aisle from Winchester Cathedral.
The choir and chancel are on the right of the photo. As you can see, there is a lot of room in this aisle. From the Sarum documents, we know that the priests put on their vestments in this aisle before setting off with the holy water for the pre-Mass tour of the various parts of the monastery they covered in the Asperges (sprinkling of holy water) before the beginning of Mass.
Without a sacristy, where did they keep the vestments? The answer is - in wooden chests. Here is a medieval cope chest, still standing in the north aisle of York Minster.
If you’re not familiar with a cope, it is effectively a cloak worn over the alb (the long white garment a priest wears), and is only used for the sprinkling of holy water. This chest allows the copes to be laid completely flat. All the other vestments must have been kept in similar chests. Cathedral north choir aisles usually had lockable gates to prevent unauthorised persons gaining entry.
The section of the Lay Folks Mass Book above is designed for small churches where there was no aisle or separate place for vesting. In that case he would put on his amice and alb in front of the people and so the instructions are for the people to kneel and pray while he does this.
I have seen many medieval chests which may have contained vestments. They’re usually very long which could have allowed the vestments to be laid fairly flat. These kinds of chests were used for books or possibly plate as well, though often cupboards were built into chancel walls to contain the sacred vessels.
This one is from Monyash church in Derbyshire, probably the oldest I’ve seen - 13th or 14th century I think. Interestingly the lid seems to be made in two parts, which suggests it was designed to hold two different kinds of things, to be accessed separately.
The chasuble - the outer garment - would be laid on the altar beforehand. There are some suggestions from medieval Sarum documents that chests for vestments could be put under the altar, which makes an amount of sense. In large churches with multiple chapels, each altar would have a chest underneath for the vestments belonging to that chapel (often donated by the person or guild who funded it). If you go the the Traditional Latin Mass today, you may see this kind of thing even now. In the church I attend, if the priest celebrating mass is also preaching, he removes the chasuble and maniple and places them on the altar after the Gospel reading before going to the pulpit to preach. This is an ancient practice.
Priests say a number of prayers while vesting, which is why the people are instructed to pray at the same time. Those of you who attend the TLM will wonder about the prayers said by the priest at the foot of the altar. These do not form part of the new mass, but are said as the priest approaches the altar. At the time the Lay Folks Mass Book was written, these were prescribed to be said privately by the priest and so they would have been included at the end of the vesting process, as he moved towards the altar. They were added formally to the Mass at a later date as (according to the Rector of my church) priests were lazy and didn’t always do them. The Church therefore moved them into the Mass itself to ensure they were said.
If you’re not familiar with these, they begin as follows (English translation):
I will go in unto the altar of my God.
Unto God, who giveth joy unto my youth
(Then follow some verses of Psalm 42, after which the two lines above are repeated.)
The Lay Folks Mass Book continues:
When I upon the book[e] know it
Into English thus I draw it.
When the altar is all dight
And the priest is vested right,
Then he takes in both his hende [hands]
A cloth upon the altar ende,
And comes back a little down,
Does it upon him all a-boune. [make ready]
All men kneel, but he stands
And holds to God up both his hands;
There, or he the Mess begin,
Will he make him for his sin;
To all the folk he shrives him there
Of all his sins less and mare [more],
So does the clerk again to him
Shrive him there of all his sin,
And ask-es God forgiv-e-ness
Or [before] they begin to hear the Mess.
The priest assoyls them there belyve,
Lered and lewed that will him shrive,
And know to God, that they are ill
Whether it be loud or still.
Therefore kneeling on thy knees,
As thou beside others sees,
Shrive thee there of all thy sins,
Beginning thus when he begins,
As next beneath this rubric stands,
And therewith jointly hold thy hands;
And that it so may be
Eke the pater and ave, (Our Father and Hail Mary)
And, or [before] thou rise, thou say thy creed,
All the better may thou speed.
Many say confiteor; [I confess]
Were as good say this therefore:
I know to God, full of might,
And to his mother, maiden bright,
And to all hallows [saints] here,
And to thee, father ghostly, [spiritual father]
That I have sinned largely.
In many sins sere.
In thought, in speech, and in delight,
In word, and work I am to wite
And worthy for to blame.
Therefore I pray Saint Mary
And all hallows holy,
In God’s holy name,
And the priest to pray for me,
That God have mercy and pity
For his great manhood,
Of my wretched sinfulness,
And give me grace and forgiveness
Of my misdeed. Amen.
(Say a Pater noster and an Ave and creed)
When thou thy creed thus has done,
Upon thy feet thou stand up son
For by this time, as I guess,
The priest begins the office of the Mess,
Or else he stands turning his book
At the south altar nook.
Even then so standing,
Would I thou were this saying:
Now Lord God, for thy goodness,
At the beginning of this Mess,
Thou grant to all that shall hear,
That in conscience they may be clear;
Lord, thou save the priest, that it shall say
From great temptation this ilke day,
That he be clean in deed and thought,
That evil spirit noy him nought,
To fulfill this sacrament
With clean heart and good intent;
First highly to thine honour,
That sovereign art of all succour [help],
And to thy mother, maiden clean,
And to they hallows, all by-dene,
And all that hears it, soul health,
Help and grace and all kinds of wealth,
And all that we have in mynde,
Sib or friend by any kind;
And, Lord, grant him for this Mess,
Of all his sinnes forgiv-e-ness,
And rest and peace that lasteth ay,
To christian souls that passed away;
And to us all they succour send
And bring us to joy without-en end. Amen.
The priest, after vesting, goes up the altar, lays the cloth and the sacred vessels and comes back down the steps to make his confession. Again, this is still done in the TLM; the confession is first made personally by the priest, before he approaches the sacrament of the altar. The “clerk” is the altar server or deacon next to him, who responds on behalf of the people and asks God to forgive him his sins. Then the clerk says his confiteor, on behalf of the people, who are kneeling and the text provides an English version of the confession. If you’re only familiar with the new Mass, you should know that the old Confiteor asks the saints for their prayers, beginning with Our Lady.
The priest then pronounces the absolution and all rise as “the priest begins the office of the Mess, Or else he stands turning his book at the south altar nook.” He goes to the Missal on the south side of the altar to read the introit for the Mass (remember he is facing east, away from the people and towards God).
The text suggests a prayer here, beginning with a prayer for the priest, for his preservation from temptation, so that he may offer the Mass with a good intent. I don’t recall ever seeing any modern writings recommending prayer for the priest at this point in the mass but it seems to me a good idea. Medieval people understood the Mass was offered for them and so the priest offering it needed to be holy; therefore it is right to pray for him before he offers it. I resolve to do this more myself.
The prayer goes on to ask for spiritual fruits as a result of hearing Mass and also to pray for our relatives and friends, for forgiveness and also for the dead.
Next week we move on to the Gloria.
Next chapter
This is an excerpt from The Lay Folks Mass Book, a verse poem from the 14th/15th century, originally written in Middle English.
Each Sunday I post a short excerpt, transcribed into modern English for ease of reading, and harmonised from the 4 surviving versions which are in different dialects and with some variations in text.
Notes on the transcription: like German, the letter “e” on the end of words is often pronounced. In general, modern English has dropped all these so in transcribing it I have generally followed modern English which means that in most cases the rhyme and meter work. But occasionally, I have put letters in square brackets where required for the verse, or sometimes separated the endings with a hyphen to indicate that they should be pronounced as a separate syllable.
Most of the words have a modern English equivalent which is very similar, but where that doesn’t happen I have put the meaning in [ ].
One important word: the term for Mass in middle English is Messe, with the “e” pronounced, as in German. I have generally written it as Mess for the sake of the rhyming.
The text used is the one published by Thomas Frederick Simmons in 1879 and reprinted in 1968.
Fascinating. I had no idea that sacristies were a newer thing but it makes sense! Thank you!