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An Ordinal of Christ in Medieval

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2006

Roger E. Reynolds
Roger E. Reynolds
Affiliation:
Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies/University of Toronto
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Extract

In the later Middle Ages, scholars frequently translated ancient and medieval Latin texts into various vernacular languages, and the text studied here provides an example of this. Widely copied and modifi ed throughout the Middle Ages, the little text, called an Ordinal of Christ, appears in over eighty versions and has a threefold significance. First, it turns up as the first reported example of an Ordinal of Christ in Catalan. Second, the version of the text does not belong to a high or late medieval tradition, such as one might expect in a late medieval manuscript, but goes back at least to the ninth and tenth centuries in the early Middle Ages. Third, the text parallels a version found largely in southern Italy and thus illustrates the contacts and connections between Catalonia and southern Italy throughout the Middle Ages.

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NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
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Harvard Theological Review , Volume 99 , Issue 1 , January 2006 , pp. 103 - 110
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© 2006 Cambridge University Press

In the later Middle Ages, scholars frequently translated ancient and medieval Latin texts into various vernacular languages, and the text studied here provides an example of this. Widely copied and modifi ed throughout the Middle Ages, the little text, called an Ordinal of Christ, appears in over eighty versions and has a threefold significance. First, it turns up as the first reported example of an Ordinal of Christ in Catalan. Second, the version of the text does not belong to a high or late medieval tradition, such as one might expect in a late medieval manuscript, but goes back at least to the ninth and tenth centuries in the early Middle Ages. Third, the text parallels a version found largely in southern Italy and thus illustrates the contacts and connections between Catalonia and southern Italy throughout the Middle Ages.

Ordinals of Christ1

On the origin of the term Ordinal of Christ, see my monograph The Ordinals of Christ from Their Origins to the Twelfth Century (Beiträge zur Geschichte und Quellenkunde des Mittelalters 7; New York: W. de Gruyter, 1978) 6; and “Christ as Cleric: The Ordinals of Christ,” in Clerics in the Early Middle Ages: Hierarchy and Image (Variorum Collected Studies Series 669; Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate, 1999) ch. 2. The theme of the Ordinals of Christ was originally discussed in my doctoral dissertation at Harvard: “Sacred Orders in the Early Middle Ages: Shifts in the Theology of the Lower and Higher Ecclesiastical Orders from Late Patristic Antiquity through the Early Middle Ages as Reflected in the Ordinals of Christ and Related Literature” (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), and was summarized in “Sacred Orders in the Early Middle Ages,” Harvard Theological Review 62 (1969) 436.

refer to short texts that list each grade in the ecclesiastical hierarchy with some word(s) or deed(s) in Christ's life to justify or sanction that grade. Throughout the Middle Ages from at least the fifth to the sixteenth century, people used them in sermons, biblical commentaries, theological treatises, sentence collections, canon law collections, liturgical commentaries, ordination allocutions, erotomatic literature, glossaria, and in manuscripts as space fillers and probationes pennae, to mention but a few. Moreover, from Ireland in the west to Austria in the east and from Scandinavia in the north to Italy and Spain in the south, most regions in western Europe compiled and copied their Ordinals of Christ. The Ordinals of Christ had no established text, and their authors remained often anonymous. Hence the compilers of these texts felt relatively free to rearrange, to add, and to subtract dominical sanctions; this practice thereby reflected developments over the centuries in the theology of sacred orders. Indeed, the Ordinals of Christ represent perhaps the best “barometer” to assess these theological changes. The numbers and the arrangement of the grades in the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the luxuriance of the sanctions from Christ's life assigned to each grade, the so-called dominical sanctions, astonish us. Even more examples of the Ordinals, often hidden away in unexpected places, turn up almost yearly.2

For example, only in 2004 while working on a Glossarium in a Beneventan-script codex at Montecassino, Archivio della Badia 205 (s. XIin), 209, an unusual Ordinal was discovered tucked away in the middle of the Glossarium; on which see below, n. 27.

Just as striking as the theological diversity of the Ordinals of Christ, the languages in which they appear produce similar lexical diversity. In the West most Ordinals of Christ use Latin, but before and while the western churches had cast them in Latin, they used other languages for them as well. Indeed, the first formal Ordinal of Christ appeared in Greek in the fifth-century Apopthegmata or Verba seniorum.3

Ordinals, 18–19.

Thereafter they appear in various sources of the Eastern churches: the Paradise of Enaniso,4

Ibid., 21

an anonymous Syriac Expositio offi ciorum ecclesiae,5

Ibid., 22–23.

the works of the Syrian Dionysius bar Salibi and Theodore bar Wahbun,6

Ibid., 24–24.

and the fifteenth-century Symeon of Thessalonika.7

Ibid., 26.

Further work by scholars specializing in eastern languages will undoubtedly turn up more. Scholars looking to the West have found Ordinals of Christ in versified and prose Irish forms8

Ibid., 64–65.

and particularly in Old English.9

Ibid., 86–88.

Among the Ordinals of Christ of the early Middle Ages, one finds two common arrangements of the ecclesiastical grades and the dominical sanctions attached to each. The first one listed the grades in the chronological sequence in which Christ fulfilled them by some word(s) or deed(s) in his life. This form, known as a Chronological Version, has a number of variants. In such a Chronological Version, the lowest grade of doorkeeper would go immediately before the highest grade of bishop because Christ as doorkeeper harrowed hell after or during his passion and before blessing the disciples as bishop at his ascension. An eighth-century manuscript, Vatican, BAV Pal. Lat. 277, provides a good example of this type of Ordinal:

Tell me, how and when did Christ fulfill the seven grades? Response. As the first grade he was a lector when he opened the book of the prophet Isaiah and said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” As the second grade he was an exorcist when he cast out seven demons from Mary Magdalene. As the third grade he was a subdeacon when he made wine from water at Cana in Galilee. As the fourth grade he was a deacon when he washed the feet of his disciples. As the fifth grade he was a presbyter when he blessed bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples. These five grades Christ fulfilled before his passion. As the sixth grade he was a doorkeeper when he said, “Lift up your heads O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors.” As the seventh grade he was a bishop when he lifted his hand over the heads of his disciples and blessed them.10

Dic mihi. Quomodo vel quando implevit Christus septem grados: Respondit. Primus gradus lector quando aperuit librum Esaiae prophete et dixit, Spiritus domini super me. Secundus gradus exorcista quando eicit vii. demonia de Maria Magdalene. Tertius gradus subdiaconus quando fecit vinum de aqua in Chanam Galileae. Quartus gradus diaconus lavavit pedes discipulorum suorum. Quintus gradus presbyter quando benedixit panem et fregit, dedit discipulis suis. Istos quintus grados ante passionem implevit Christus. Sextus gradus ostiarius quando dixit, Tollite portas, principes vestri, et elevamini, portae aeternales. Septimus gradus episcopus quando levavit manum suam super capita discipulorum suorum et benedixit eos. This example is given in “Christ as Cleric,” 9 [Hibernian Chronological Ordinal from Vatican, BAV Pal. Lat. 277, fol. 87r-v].

In the other form, the authors arranged the grades in the order in which clerics generally followed them in their way through the clerical cursus honorum. Known as a Hierarchical Version, this form likewise has a number of variants. In these one would find the lowly doorkeeper generally listed first and the exalted bishop last. A ninth-century canon law manuscript of the Collectio canonum hibernensis (Orléans, Bibliothèque de la Ville 221), called an Hiberno-Hispanic Hierarchical Ordinal, provides a good example of this type (it has the designation “Hispanic” because, as in the works on the clerical orders of Isidore of Seville used in the Collectio canonum hibernensis, the exorcist has a hierarchically lower place than the lector):

Concerning the grades that Christ fulfilled. He was a doorkeeper because he opened the gates of Hell. He was an exorcist because he cast out seven demons from Mary Magdalene. He was a lector when he opened the book of Isaiah. He was a subdeacon because he made wine from water in Cana of Galilee. He was deacon when he washed the feet of his disciples. He was a priest because he took bread and broke it and blessed it. He was a bishop when he raised his hands to heaven and blessed the apostles.11

De gradibus in quibus Christus adfuit. Hostiarius fuit quoniam aperuit hostia infernii. Exorcista quoniam iecit vii. demonia de Maria Magdalena. Lector quando aperuit librum Essaiae. Subdiaconus quoniam fecit vinum de aqua in Cana Galilee. Diaconus quando lavit pedes discipulorum suorum. Sacerdos quoniam accepit panem ac fregit et benedixit. Episcopus fuit quando elevavit manus suas ad celum et benedixit apostolos. This example can be found in “Christ as Cleric,” 9 [Hiberno-Hispanic Hierarchical Ordinal, from Orléans, Bibliothèque de la Ville 221].

By the late eleventh and early twelfth century, this hierarchical form became dominant, and the authors added myriad dominical sanctions. Among these hierarchical Ordinals of Christ of the later Middle Ages, the ones related to the Ordinals of Christ in Sermo II of Ivo of Chartres,12

Ordinals, 101–2.

the De sacramentis of Hugh of St. Victor,13

Ibid., 143.

and the Sententiae of Peter Lombard14

Ibid., 144.

attained greatest importance. Although clerics copied some of the most ancient forms of the Ordinals in manuscripts of the twelfth century and beyond, these forms occur rarely.15

See, e.g., the Hibernian Chronological Version with explanatory interlude in Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek 1642 (s. XII) (text and commentary in H. Weisweiler, Das Schrifttum der Schule Anselms von Laon und Wilhelms von Champeaux in deutschen Bibliotheken. Ein Beigrag zur Geschichte der Verbreitung der ältesten scholastischen Schule in deutschen Landen [Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters 33.1–2; Münster in W.: Aschendorff, 1936] 235–38); Douai, Bibliothèque Municipale 357 (s. XIII), fol. 87r; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Lat. 7418 (s. XIV); and the same Version (but lacking explanatory interlude) in Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Lat. 806 (s. XII), fol. 54r.

It comes as a surprise, therefore, to discover one of the most ancient forms of the Ordinals in a late fourteenth and late fifteenth-century composite manuscript. Even more surprising—although heretofore predicted16

In “Christ as Cleric,” 1, the comment was made that “in the west they [Ordinals of Christ] were written in Old English, Irish and probably in other vernacular languages.”

—we find it in another vernacular language. The Catalan language developed in the ninth century out of vulgar Latin, and people still use it today in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, parts of Valencia in Spain, Andorra, the Roussillon area in southern France, and even the Italian city of Alghero. The manuscript itself, written somewhere in the diocese of Barcelona, as its style of Catalan evidences, remains now in the Biblioteca de Catalunya of Barcelona and bears the shelfmark 309.17

On this manuscript see Guía de la Biblioteca Central de la Diputación Provincial de Barcelona (Barcelona, 1959) 64; Cincuenta años de la antigua Biblioteca de Catalunya (Barcelona, 1968) 133–34; Karl-Werner Gümpel, “Zwei unbeachtete Fragmente der altkatalanischen Art del cant pla,” in De musica hispana et aliis. Miscelànea en honor al Prof. Dr. José López-Calo, S.J. en su 65o cumpleaños (Colección Aula Aberta. Música 1; Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 1990) 120–22, 130–43. Eulália Duran with M. del Mar Battle, Eulàlia Miralles, Maria Toldrà, and Joan Tres, Repertori de manuscrits Catalans, 1474–1620 (Memóries de la Secció Històrico Arqueològica 50; Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, 1998) 182–83. The Catalan language is generally divided into Western and Eastern Catalan, the former including North-Western Catalan (Ribagorçà, Pallarès, Tortosì, Lleidatà) and Valencian (northern Valencian, Apitxat [central Valencian], southern Valencian, and Majorcan from Tàrbena and la Vall de Gallinera Valencian municipalities) and the latter including northern Calatan or Rossellonès, central Catalan (Saltat from the Costa Brava, Barcelonès, Tarragonès and Xipella) Balearic (Mallorquì, Monorquì, Eivissenc from Ibiza or Eivissa) and Alguerès (from the Italian city of Alghero or Alguer).

The section of the manuscript containing Catalan language texts extends primarily but not exclusively from folios 124 to 144. The major part of this section contains the Speculum ecclesiae of Hugh of St. Cher ([dagger]1263) with an allegorical explanation of the Mass liturgy.18

For the text of this work, see Hugonis a St. Charo Tractatus super missam seu Speculum ecclesiae (ed. Gisbert Sölch; Opuscula et textus historiam ecclesiae eiusque vitam atque doctrinam illustrantia, Series Liturgica 9: Münster in W.: Aschendorff 1940). For the texts in the codex in Latin and Catalan, see the literature cited in the preceding note.

Following this, an explanation of the canonical hours, a number of questions on liturgical issues, and a final section of diverse texts on the paschal candle and its “baptism” during the Easter vigil appear. An Ordinal of Christ in Catalan, printed here as one fi nds it in the manuscript, closes the section:

One ought to know that our Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the seven ecclesiastical orders. He was a lector when he opened the book of the prophet Isaiah and said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me.” He was an exorcist when he cast out seven demons from the body of St. Mary Magdalene. He was a subdeacon when he washed the feet of the disciples. He was a priest when at the last supper he blessed bread and wine and changed them into his body and blood. These five grades Jesus Christ fulfilled before his passion. He was a doorkeeper when he took the holy fathers from Hell and said “Lift up your gates, etc.” He was a bishop when he raised his hands over the heads of his disciples and blessed them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit, whosoever sins ye shall loose shall be pardoned, and whosoever sins ye shall bind shall be bound.” Blessed be the name of God, his holy mother, and all his saints male and female. Amen etc. [sic].19

[D] euets saber que les .vij. ordes ecclesiastichs volch auer nostro seyor Jhesucrist. Con el fo lector, con obre lo libre de Isayes profeta e dix: Speritus dominus [sic] super me, eo quod vnxerit me. Encara fo exorcita [sic], con gita .vii. demonis del cors de senta Maria Magdalena. Encara fo sotsdiaca, con leua [sic] los peus als dexebles. Encara fo preuera, con lo digous de la cena beney lo pa e lo vi, e.l feu tornar en cors e en sanch seu. .v. gracies, conpli Jhesucrist ans de la sua passio. Fo encara hostiari, con trasch los sans pares del infern[fol. 145r=lvijr] e dix: Atollite portas etc. Fo encara bisbe, con leua les mans sobre los caps dels seus dexebles, els benay e los dix: Prenets l'esperit sant. E aquels als qualls lexarets los pecats, sien perdonats: e aquels a qui vos los retraurets, sie-los retrauguts. Beneyt sie lo nom de deu, e de la sua beneyta mare, e de tots los seus sans e santes. Amen, etc [sic]. [Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya 309, fol. 144v=/lviv].

That the title states seven grades but lists only six in the text itself strikes one first about this Ordinal of Christ. Anomalies like this between title and text occur fairly commonly in the Ordinals of Christ and in other texts on sacred orders.20

See my “ ‘At Sixes and Sevens’—and Eights and Nines: The Sacred Mathematics of Sacred Orders in the Early Middle Ages,” Speculum 54 (1979) esp. 680–81; reprinted in my Clerics in the Early Middle Ages, 3.

At times, this happens because the scribe has copied the title correctly but has mistranscribed the text and omitted grades in the original from which he worked. At other times the compiler or scribe purposely wrote the number ‘vii,’ to signify a traditional number of grades or the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, but continued to list more or fewer than seven grades. Our text probably evinces the former case, since almost all Ordinals of Christ list the deacon, missing here, with a dominical sanction. Moreover, while the dominical sanction applies the pedilavium, or the ritual of footwashing, to the subdeacon, the ancient Ordinals of Christ, that the scribe appears to follow here, assigns the pedilavium to the deacon. Only in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and beyond did they attach the pedilavium to the subdeacon.21

Ordinals, 101, 176–90.

Further, the statement following the presbyteral grade, that Christ fulfilled five orders before his passion, indicates that a scribal mistake has taken place, because the text gives only four.

That the text lists the grades in the chronological order in which Christ fulfilled them constitutes another notable aspect of our Ordinal of Christ in Catalan. The lowest doorkeeper precedes the highest bishop. One can explain this order, as in many early medieval Ordinals of Christ, by an explanatory interlude stating that Christ fulfilled the five orders listed earlier, before he underwent the passion. This epexegetical interlude in chronologically arranged Ordinals of Christ goes back at least to the eighth century.22

Ordinals, 58–59.

Other notable aspects appear in the dominical sanctions used for several grades. For the grade of doorkeeper, the text gives two dominical sanctions, the harrowing of hell and Psalm 23 (24). In early Ordinals of Christ, especially those of Hibernian origin, the scribes or compilers used the harrowing of hell in hierarchically arranged texts and Psalm 23 (24) in the chronologically arranged texts.23

See the texts above:“Christ as Cleric,” 9 [Hibernian Chronological Ordinal from Vatican, BAV Pal. Lat. 277, fol. 87r-v]; ibid. [Hiberno-Hispanic Hierarchical Ordinal, from Orléans, Bibliothèque de la Ville 221].

Here we see a conflation of the dominical sanctions of those two different types. We fi nd this particularly interesting, because this conflation, the so-called Italo-Hibernian Chronological Ordinal, turns up commonly in the Hibernian Chronological Ordinals from southern Italy. An example of this appears in a famous canon law manuscript written in both Romanesca and Beneventan script of the eleventh century (Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana Tomus XVIII):

Concerning the seven grades that Christ fulfilled and how Christ fulfilled these seven grades. As the first grade he was a lector when he opened the book of the prophet Isaiah and said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me and sent me to bring good news to the poor.” As the second grade, moreover, he was an exorcist when he cast out seven demons from Mary Magdalene ([gloss] Magdalum is a village). As the third grade he was a subdeacon when in Cana of Galilee he made wine from water. As the fourth grade he was a deacon when he washed the feet of his disciples. As the fifth grade he was a presbyter when he took bread, broke, and blessed it and similarly blessed the chalice. These five grades he fulfilled before his passion. As the sixth grade he was a doorkeeper when in his passion he opened the gates of Hell. Others say when it was said, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in.” As seventh grade he was a bishop when ascending to heaven he raised his hand over the heads of the disciples and blessed them.24

De septem gradibus quos Christus adimplevit. Quomodo implevit Christus septem gradus. Primum gradum lector quando aperuit librum Esaie prophete et dixit, Spiritus domini super me eo quod unxit me, evangelizare pauperibus misit me. Secundum gradum autem exorcista quando eiecit septem demonia de Maria Magdalena, Magdalum enim villa est. Tertium enim gradum subdiaconus quando in Cana Galilee fecit de aqua vinum. Quartum gradum diaconus quando lavit pedes discipulorum suorum. Quintum gradum presbiter quando accepit panem, benedixit ac fregit, similiter et calicem benedixit. Istos quinque gradus ante passionem implevit. Sextum gradum hostiarius quando in passione aperuit portas inferni. Alii dicunt quando dictum est, Tollite portas, principes vestri, et elevamini, porte eternales et introivit rex glorie. Septimum gradum episcopus quando ascendens in celum levavit manum suam super caput discipulorum suorum et benedixit eos. This example is found in Ordinals, 93 [Italo-Hibernian Chronological Ordinal in Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana Tomus XVIII, fol. 149v]. This conflation of the two dominical sanctions is also found in a less-likely source, a mid-ninth-century Ordinal from Limoges but written in northern France, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Lat. 1248, fols. 67v–68r: INT. Fuit Christus hostiarius? Fuit. INT. Ubi? R. Post pasionem (sic) suam quando aparuit portas inferni et dixit, Tollite portas principes vestras.

Moreover, we have evidence that texts belonging to the south Italian Collection in Five Books with this Italo-Hibernian Chronological Ordinal had appeared in Catalonia from at least the late eleventh century.25

See my “South Italian Liturgica and Canonistica in Catalonia (New York, Hispanic Society of America MS. HC 380/819),” Mediaeval Studies 49 (1987) 487–89 reprinted in my Law and Liturgy in the Latin Church, 5th–12th Centuries (Collected Studies Series 457; Brookfield, Vt.; Ashgate, 1994). The Ordinal of Christ in this Hispanic Society manuscript is, however, of the common Hibernian Chronological Version known throughout Europe. In this article, pp. 484–87, it is also emphasized that manuscripts in Beneventan script from southern Italy went to Catalonia in the Middle Ages and were palimpsested and overwritten (e.g., Tortosa, Biblioteca Capitular 122). Further, the version of the Pseudo-Damasus-Pseudo-Hieronymian text on the Mass in the Hispanic Society manuscript is in the same version as that in Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Archivio San Pietro H 58, a codex written in Rome ca. 1000 but based on a Beneventan-script exemplar, on which see my “A South Italian Liturgico-Canonical Mass Commentary,” Mediaeval Studies 50 (1988), 626–70, reprinted in my Law and Liturgy in the Latin Church, 5th–12th Centuries (Collected Studies Series 457; Brookfield, Vt.; Ashgate, 1994).

Two further dominical sanctions may reflect a knowledge of the Ordinals of Christ from southern Italy. The first one, that concerns the presbyter, occurs where Christ blessed both the bread and wine.26

See above: Ordinals, 93 [Italo-Hibernian Chronological Ordinal in Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana Tomus XVIII, fol. 149v].

The other southern Italian tradition may appear in the episcopal verse, in which Christ blesses the disciples and gives them power to forgive sins, and may reflect a citation of John 20:22–23 found in an Ordinal of Christ in a Montecassino manuscript of the second half of the eleventh century (Archivio della Badia 217):

Concerning the eight grades that the Lord fulfilled. God fulfilled eight grades: doorkeeper, lector, acolyte, exorcist, subdeacon, deacon, presbyter, and bishop. He was a doorkeeper when it was said, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates.' He was a lector when he opened the book of the prophet Isaiah and said, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me.” He was an exorcist when he exorcized and cast out seven demons from Mary Magdalene. He was an acolyte when he took incense and a candlestick and said, “A portion of my inheritance.” He was a subdeacon when he made wine from water at Cana of Galilee. He was a deacon when he took the chalice and said, “This chalice is the blood of the New Covenant.” He was a priest when he took bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to his disciples. He was a bishop when he raised his hands over the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit, the sins of those you shall remit shall be remitted to them.”27

De viii. grados quos dominus adimplevit. Octo grados adimplevit Deus, ostiarius, lector, acolitus, exorcista, subdiaconus, diaconus, presbyter, episcopus. Ostiarius fuit ubi dixit, Tollite portas principes vestras. Lector fuit ubi aperuit librum Isaie prophetae et dixit, Spiritus domini super me eo quod unxit me. Exorcista fuit ubi exorcizavit et fugavit vii. demonia Maria Magdalenae. Acolitus fuit ubi accepit incensum et ceraptata et dixit, Pars hereditatis meae. Subdiaconus fuit quando vinum fecit de aqua in Chana Galileae. Diaconus fuit ubi accepit calicem et dixit, Hic calix sanguis Novi Testamenti. Sacerdos fuit ubi accepit panem et benedixit ac fregit et dedit discipulis suis. Episcopus fuit ubi levavit manus super discipulos suos et dixit, Accipite Spiritum sanctum, quorum remiseritis peccata remittuntur eis. This example is found in “Christ as Cleric,” 18. [Montecassino Ordinal from Montecassino, Archivio della Badia 217 (s. XI2/2) in Beneventan script]. In a hitherto unnoted south Italian Ordinal of Christ there is a similar but truncated version of this ending for the bishop: Accipite spiritum sanctum. In the middle of a Glossarium in a Beneventan-script codex Montecassino, Archivio della Badia 205 (s. XIin) 209, the following unusual Ordinal of Christ appears: Lector fuit Iesus quando legit librum esayae. Ianitor quando aperuit et percussit portas inferni. Exorcista quando increpavit demonia, exorcizo graeco expello vel increpo. Subdiaconus quando aquam convertit in vinum. Diaconus quando lavit pedes discipulorum. Presbiter quando benedixit panem tribuens discipulis. Episcopus quando insufflavit in discipulos dicens Accipite spiritum sanctum. Other more unlikely later medieval sources with this text are the Arsenal Ordinal and Liber Quare Addenda Ordinal, on which see “Christ as Cleric,” 25–26.

Although the major portion of the Barcelona codex in the Catalan language contains a text of the thirteenth century, the Speculum ecclesiae of Hugh of St. Cher, our Ordinal of Christ in that same codex reflects the most ancient western tradition, the Hibernian Chronological Version. This version with its explanatory interlude occurs in various manuscripts from Catalonia and southern France, as follows: Paris, BN lat. 614A (s.IX–X, southern France); New York, Columbia University Plimpton 58 (s.IX2/3, southern France with Spanish symptoms); Albi, Bibliothèque Rochgude 43 (s.IX4/4, southern France); Barcelona, Biblioteca Universitaria 228 (s.X, southern France/northern Italy? or Catalonia?); and New York, Hispanic Society of America HC 380/819 (s.XIex., Sta. Maria de Estany, Catalonia). One of these texts might have formed the basis of our Catalan text. The fact, however, that some of the grades in our Catalan text have dominical sanctions not found in these manuscripts from Catalonia and southern France but rather in the Italo-Hibernian Chronological Version and the Montecassino Ordinal of Christ suggests that a text of a south Italian Ordinal of Christ circulated in Catalonia in the thirteenth century. Thus, unexpectedly, the late medieval compiler of our Ordinal of Christ in the medieval Catalan language may have used it as a model.

Footnotes

Research for this article has been completed with the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for the program Monumenta liturgica beneventana and a George William Cottrell Jr. Membership in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. I wish to thank my colleagues in the Societat Catalana d'Estudis Litúrgics, Professors Miquel dels Sants Gros i Pujol and Karl-Werner Gumpel, for their part in drawing this text to my attention, and my former colleague in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Professor Gisela Ripoll of Barcelona, for help with details on the Barcelona manuscript here studied.