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Another Look at a Composite Office and its History: The Feast of Susceptio Reliquiarum in Medieval Paris

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Rebecca A. Baltzer
Rebecca A. Baltzer*
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Austin
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Extract

The feast celebrated annually on 4 December as the Reception of the Relics is one that was peculiar to Notre Dame of Paris in the later Middle Ages. It commemorated the reception of relics of five saints into the still unfinished Gothic cathedral, including several hairs of the Virgin Mary, three teeth of John the Baptist, an arm of St Andrew the Apostle, some stones from the lapidation of St Stephen the Protomartyr and a large part of the head of St Denis. The event that prompted this feast in Paris took place during the reign of King Philip Augustus, who was on the throne from 1180 to 1223, and it has been the subject of occasional comment, debate and research ever since, with the most recent discussion coming in the excellent article by Craig Wright in the Festschrift for John Ward.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 113 , Issue 1 , 1988 , pp. 1 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 Royal Musical Association

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References

1 This paper, which was first presented at the Fourteenth Annual Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Music (London, August 1986), is dedicated with affection to Janet Knapp on the occasion of her sixty-fifth birthday, 1 September 1987Google Scholar

2 Wright, Craig, ‘The Feast of the Reception of the Relics at Notre Dame of Paris’, Music and Context Essays for John M Ward, ed Anne Dhu Shapiro (Cambridge, Mass., 1985), 1-13. Also of particular importance for its remarks on this topic is art-historian William M Hinkle's ‘The King and the Pope on the Virgin Portal of Notre-Dame’, Art Bulletin, 48 (1966), 1-13 The most extensive earlier study is that of H -François Delaborde, ‘Le Procès du chef de Saint Denis en 1410’, Mémoires de la Société de l'histoire de Paris et de l'Ile-de-France, 11 (1884), 297-409Google Scholar

3 See Hubert, Jean, ‘Les Origines de Notre-Dame de Paris’, Huitième centenaire de Notre-Dame de Paris (Congrès des 30 Mai-3 Juin 1964) (Paris, 1967), 1-22.Google Scholar

4 Another three items appear in the 26 December Feast of Stephen, making his total some 24%Google Scholar

5 See Mershman, Francis, ‘All Saints’, The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1, 315 for dates and further particulars.Google Scholar

6 I have included nothing from Compline, incidentally, since there is nothing in that service specifically proper to 4 December Compline tends to be seasonal rather than ferial, if it is mentioned at all on a particular feast day, it is usually just with the rubric ‘Completorium ut supra’, and ‘supra’ may be many folios earlier in a manuscript.Google Scholar

7 It is interesting to note the emphasis here on the inventio or finding of the relics, in the three prayers for the day (all found in the Mass, with the collect also used in Vespers and Matins), which were also newly composed, the emphasis is on the susceptio, or reception, of the relics in the new cathedral When this feast is listed in calendars or rubricated in liturgical books, it can be found using either term, though susceptio is a bit more commonGoogle Scholar

8 The ‘M’ and ‘O’ numbers are Friedrich Ludwig's enumeration of chants for the Mass and the Office that were set in organum in the Notre Dame repertory; see his Repertonum organorum recentioris, i/1 (Halle, 1910, repr 1964)Google Scholar

9 In lat 9441's version of the 4 December Mass, then, four out of five proper chants match those of All Saints', but 4 December has the Offertory Letamini in lat 9441, while All Saints' has Mirabilis deusGoogle Scholar

10 These two chants, incidentally, are the ones prescribed for the Vigil Mass of All Saints', though the Alleluia would be sung only if the vigil came on Sunday For Wright's remarks on the chronology of the sources, see ‘The Feast of the Reception of the Relics’, 9-10Google Scholar

11 However, Arsenal 110 does prescribe the Offertory Mirabilis rather than the earlier choice of LetaminiGoogle Scholar

12 The greater uniformity of liturgical detail found in all these later sources hints that a new ordinal must have been produced for Notre Dame around 1270, one that resolved most of the diversities to be found in earlier liturgical books following the cathedral use.Google Scholar

13 This idea was tentatively suggested by Wright, ‘The Feast of the Reception of the Relics’, 11, n 22Google Scholar

14 As noted above, Timete does appear as the Gradual in the Vigil Mass for All Saints', but that could not be classified as a major occasionGoogle Scholar

15 They are printed as ‘pièces justificatives’ by Delaborde (see note 2), 371-409Google Scholar

16 ‘Tuit le trésor de France daus yglises furent porté à madam a sancta Mari à Paris e furent seveli apres l'auter nostra dama Ceil qui fit icest livra savet certanament qu'en l'iglise saint Estevre de Paris estet la copa dau chep saint Denis et daus cheveus nostra dama tres lauter’ Quoted in Les Grandes Chroniques de France, ed Paulin Paris (Paris, 1836), i, p xvii See also Hinkle, ‘The King and the Pope on the Virgin Portal’, 5Google Scholar

17 ‘Hae sunt reliquiae capse sanctae Marie. Magna pars capitis sancti Dyonisn martiris Lapis unde lapidatus est protomartir Stephanus.’ From Paris, B n lat. 2294, f 97v The entire list is translated in Wright, ‘The Feast of the Reception of the Relics’, 3Google Scholar

18 ‘Apud urbem Parisiorum, in quodam monasterio sancti Stephani protomartyns, inveniuntur reliquiae de capillis sanctae Mariae xxxij, brachium sancti Andreae apostoli, caput sancti Dionysii martyris, eiusdem urbis episcopi.‘ The Chronicle of Robert of Torigni, ed Richard Howlett, Rolls Series, Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard I, iv (London, 1889), 314-15, also in Léopold Delisle, Chronique de Robert de Torigni (Rouen, 1872), ii, 136.Google Scholar

19 ‘Statutum est autem a capitulo et assensu episcopi, quod de oblationibus que fiunt in trunco reliquiarum beati Dyonisn et aliarum reliquiarum, quas Phillipus, eiusdem maritus, in ecclesia nostra posuit, canonicis et majori altan servientibus, qui vigilie anniversarn intererunt, sex dabuntur denarii, et clericis eiusdem chori duo, et similis fiet distributio in missa’ From the Grand Obituary of Notre Dame, Paris, B n lat 5185cc, f 166v, printed in Cartulatre de l'église Notre-Dame de Paris, ed Benjamin Guérard, 4 vols (Paris, 1850), iv, 29Google Scholar

20 ‘Dedit etiam partem capillorum beate Marie, tres dentes beati Iohannis Baptiste, brachium sancti Andree apostoli, lapides quibus lapidatus fuit beatus Stephanus, et caput pretiosi martyris Dyonisii, que omnia in ecclesia Beati Stepham prothomartiris inventa fuerunt’ Paris, B n lat 5815cc, f 241v, Guérard, Cartulaire, iv, 110Google Scholar

21 ‘Parisius suscepte sunt in ecclesia beate Marie reliquie, scilicet pars capillorum beate Marie, tres dentes sancti Iohannis baptiste, brachium sancti Andree apostoli, lapides quibus lapidatus est beatus Stephanus, caput preciossimum beati Dyonisii martins Hec autem reliquie in ecclesia beati Stephani prothomartiris invente sunt’ Paris, B n lat 5185cc, f 126vGoogle Scholar

22 ‘Hoc anno in ecclesia Sancti Stephani de Gressibus invente sunt plurium sanctorum reliquie, primo invente sunt ibidem capilli beate Marie Virginis, brachium sancti Andree apostoli, et inventi ibidem sunt ahqui lapides quibus prothomartir Stephanus fuit lapidatus, deinde pars capitis beati Dionisn, et cuilibet erat propria superscripcio indicans cujus essent reliquie, et omnes reposite sunt in ecclesia majori Sancte Marie Parisiensis cum magno gaudio, et adhuc ibidem cum reverencia servantur [In red letters in the margin] Anni Domini millesimi cc xvij’ Extract included in Paris, Arch nat LL 1326, f 2, from Delaborde, ‘Le Procès du chef de Saint Denis en 1410’, 372Google Scholar

23 The foundations established by Philip on these two occasions were still remembered in his own obituary notice 30 years later On the death of Geoffrey of Brittany and the reaction of Philip Augustus, see Rebecca Baltzer, ‘Music in the Life and Times of Eleanor of Aquitaine’, Eleanor of Aquitaine Patron and Politician, ed William W Kibler (Austin and London, 1976), 70-1 and notes 57-61Google Scholar

24 Boussard, Jacques, ‘Philippe Auguste et Paris’, La France de Philippe Auguste Les Temps de mutations, Colloques internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, no 602 (Paris, 1982), 334 John W Baldwin has pointed out that the abbey of Saint-Denis, unlike the bishop of Paris, took the king's side and did not support the interdict See Baldwin's The Government of Philip Augustus Foundations of French Royal Power in the Middle Ages (Berkeley, 1986), 179Google Scholar

25 During the latter part of Philip's reign this idea did seem to make headway with the king and other royals as well as with the common people. See Gabrielle M. Spiegel, ‘The Cult of Saint Denis and Capetian Kingship’, Journal of Medieval History, 1 (1975), 43-69, especially pp. 61ff.Google Scholar

26 Oeuvres de Rigord et de Guillaume le Breton, ed H -François Delaborde (Paris, 1882), 113-15Google Scholar

27 Oeuvres de Rigord, 162-3Google Scholar

28 Guérard, Cartulaire, i, 430Google Scholar

29 Only one missal has Bernard and not 4 December - B n lat 15616, which comes immediately prior to lat. 1112 in its contents, the others either contain both feasts or neither oneGoogle Scholar

30 Lebeuf, Jean, Histoire de la ville et de tout le diocèse de Paris (Paris, 1755-8, repr. Paris, 1883-93), i, 140-1 Another reprint appeared in Brussels, 1969-70Google Scholar

31 Perdrizet, Paul, Le Calendrier parisien à la fin du moyen âge (Paris, 1933), 239Google Scholar

32 Described in the two Paris processionals, Brussels, Bibliothèque royale Albert Ier, MSS 1799 (f 120) and 4334 (f 114) Saint-Étienne-des-Grès was also one of the stations visited in procession by the clergy of Notre Dame during Lent and on the second of the three Rogation Days just prior to the Feast of the Ascension The processionals still refer to Saint-Étienne-des-Grès as ‘ecclesia Sancti Stephani’, without further qualificationGoogle Scholar

33 See Hubert, Jean, ‘Les Origines de Notre-Dame de Paris’, cited in note 3 aboveGoogle Scholar

34 The evidence is summarized by William W Clark in ‘The Early Capitals of Notre-Dame de Paris’, Tribute to Lotte Brand Philip, Art Historian and Detective, ed Clark and Colin Eisler, William S Heckscher and Barbara G Lane (New York, 1985), 40-2. See also William W Clark and Franklin M Ludden, ‘Notes on the Archivolts of the Sainte-Anne Portal of Notre-Dame de Paris’, Gesta, 25 (1986), 109-18, especially notes 34 and 38 Clark and Ludden propose that the early work at the western front was in all likelihood halted and then dismantled after a decision was made to add another bay at the western end of the nave, which resulted in the present west front being constructed farther to the west than originally planned On the question of the starting date, see also Kathryn Horste, ‘“A Child is Born” The Iconography of the Portail Ste -Anne at Paris’, Art Bulletin, 69 (1987), 187-210 (pp 193-4)Google Scholar

35 Since the old Saint-Étienne was more than 35 metres wide (nearly the width of the Gothic Notre-Dame), its length must have been at least 70 metres Such dimensions would have extended its eastern end approximately midway through the Gothic nave Saint-Étienne was situated slightly to the west of the present cathedral, where modern-day excavations under the cathedral parvis turned up the foundations of its western front They can now be viewed in the so-called ‘crypt’ that has been opened under the parvis See Michel Fleury, ‘La Cathédrale Mérovingienne Saint-Étienne de Paris’, Landschaft und Geschichte. Festschrift für Franz Petri zu seinem 65. Geburstag, ed. Georg Droege et al (Bonn, 1970), 211-21Google Scholar

36 It was Robert who reported in 1177 that the new Gothic choir of Notre Dame was complete except for the roof, and his fulsome praise of the glorious new edifice could well indicate that he had seen it himself See his remarks in The Chronicle of Robert of Torigni, 274Google Scholar