Veneration of the Cross and the Liturgy of the Easter Sepulchre: Triduum Liturgies in Medieval England.

All Saints, Hawton, Easter Sepulcher. 

The Liturgy of Good Friday is an ancient one. As I mentioned in a post on St. Cyril of Jerusalem, the liturgy of the Veneration of the Cross has its origins in the rites created and performed at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in the 4th century -when Cyril was Bishop there. In Jerusalem, the actual planks from the true cross were kept in Constantine's basilica and in a rite recorded by a 4th century Spanish nun, Egeria, displayed for veneration by pilgrims.

"Then a chair is placed for the bishop in Golgotha behind the Cross, which is now standing; the bishop duly takes his seat in the chair, and a table covered with a linen cloth is placed before him; the deacons stand round the table, and a silver-gilt casket is brought in which is the holy wood of the Cross. The casket is opened and (the wood) is taken out, and both the wood of the Cross and the title are placed upon the table. Now, when it has been put upon the table, the bishop, as he sits, holds the extremities of the sacred wood firmly in his hands, while the deacons who stand around guard it. It is guarded thus because the custom is that the people, both faithful and catechumens, come one by one and, bowing down at the table, kiss the sacred wood and pass through. And because, I know not when, some one is said to have bitten off and stolen a portion of the sacred wood, it is thus guarded by the deacons who stand around, lest any one approaching should venture to do so again."

The liturgy made its way into several regional rites including the Sarum and Durham rites in England, where it became part of the larger and more genuinely English 'Liturgy of the Easter Sepulcher.' In English Cathedrals and parish churches, the Easter Sepulchre served as the Easter Garden or Altar of Repose, which are more common today. The rite for the Easter Sepulchre, however, stretched through each day of Triduum. This way, all parts of the Triduum liturgies focused on the Resurrection. After all, we don't venerate the cross because by it Christ was killed, but because "by the Cross, joy hath come into the whole world."  We venerate the cross for Christ's resurrection, as the instrument which brought about our Salvation. This is part of the rite for the veneration in the Sarum Missal.

Priest: Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the savior of the world. O Come let us adore.
Choir: We adore Thy Cross, Or Lord, and we praise and glorify Thy holy Resurrection, for by the Cross, joy hath come into the world. 

     After the Veneration of the Cross, or Creeping to the Cross as it was called in England, the crucifix was taken in procession with the reserved sacrament from Maundy Thursday to a stone structure on the north side of the chancel that bore resemblance to either the sedelia or a wall-tomb. Both the crucifix and the sacrament were then placed in a carved wooden or gilded box similar to a reliquary which rested like a chest or feretory on the stone slab (like an altar) of the sepulchre much like a saint's reliquary rests on the stone of a table-shrine (like the shrine of St. Frideswide pictured in the blog cover). The sepulchres often feature the soldiers sleeping round the tomb, the women visiting and the angels. Some even have a special compartment for the Sacrament which resembles the carved tomb. 

St. Peter's East Harling. The chest sat like a reliquary on the slab. 

The author of the "Rites of Durham" recorded the performance of the Liturgy of the Easter Sepulchre at Durham Cathedral which, because of the local importance of St. Cuthbert, interestingly included an image of Christ with St. Cuthbert.

Sepulcher with soldiers, Lincoln Cathedral. 

"Within the Abbye Church of Durham uppon good friday theire was marvelous solemne service, in the which service time after the passion was sung two of the eldest monkes did take a goodly large crucifix all of gold of the picture of our saviour Christ nailed uppon the crosse lyinge uppon a velvett cushion, havinge St Cuthberts armes uppon it all imbroydered with gold bringinge that betwixt them uppon the said cushion to the lowest stepps in the quire, and there betwixt them did hold the said picture of our saviour sittinge of every side on ther knees of that , and then one of the said monkes did rise and went a prettye way from it sittinge downe uppon his knees with his shoes put of[f] verye reverently did creepe away uppon his knees unto the said crosse and most reverently did kisse it, and after him the other monkes did so likewise , and then they did sitt them downe on eyther side of the said crosse and holdinge it betwixt them, and after that the prior came forth of his stall, and did sitt him downe of his knees with his shooes of[f] and in like sort did creepe also unto the said crosse and all the monkes after him one after an nother, in the same order, and, in the meane time all the whole quire singinge an Himne, the service beinge ended the two monkes did carrye it to the sepulchre with great reverence, which sepulchre was sett upp in the morninge on the north side of the quire nigh to the high altar before the service time and there did lay it within the said sepulchre, with great devotion with another picture of our saviour Christ, in whose breast they did enclose with great reverence the most holy and blessed sacrament of the altar senceinge and prayinge unto it uppon theire knees a great space settinge two taper lighted before it, which tapers did burne unto Easter day in the morninge that it was taken forth."


The precise liturgy, though different than the one at Durham, is also found in the Sarum Missal. At Salisbury, after Communion from the reserved Sacrament, the celebrant and a deacon removed their vestments and their shoes and approached the Sepulchre, placing the wooded crucifix (often described as a cross or image of the Christ on the cross) and the pyx with the Sacrament inside the chest in the Easter Sepulchre.
The priest began:

P. I am counted as one of them that go down into the pit: I have been even as a man that hath no strenght, free among the dead.
V. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in a place of Darkness and in the Deep. There have I been. 

The Sepulcher door was then shut and the service ended with no dismissal as it is still done.

The Liturgy of the Easter Sepulchre continued on Easter Day as the first part of the ceremonies. At Sarum the procession went first to the Sepulchre and "after censing it with great veneration" removed the pyx and the cross and after proclaiming "Christ being raised" began the great Alleluia and took the Sacrament to the high altar for adoration.

The 'Rites of Durham' also contains a record of this ceremony:

Coity, Glamorgan, Wales. The chest
with symbols of the passion. 

"There was in the abbye church of duresme [Durham] verye solemne service uppon easter day betweene 3 and 4 of the clocke in the morninge in honour of the resurrection where 2 of the oldest monkes of the quire came to the sepulchre, being sett upp upon good friday after the passion all covered with redd velvett and embrodered with gold, and then did sence it either monke with a paire of silver sencors sittinge on theire knees before the sepulchre, then they both risinge came to the sepulchre, out of the which with great reverence they tooke a marvelous beautiful Image of our saviour representinge the resurrection with a crosse in his hand in the breast wheof was enclosed in bright Christall the holy sacrament of the altar, throughe the which christall the blessed host was conspicuous, to the behoulders, then after the elevation of the said picture carryed by the said 2 monkes uppon a faire velvett cushion all embrodered singinge the anthem of christus resurgens they brought to the high altar settinge that on the midst therof whereon it stood the two monkes kneelinge on theire knees before the altar, and senceing it all the time that the rest of the whole quire was in singinge the foresaid anthem of Xpus resrugens, the which anthem being ended the 2 monkes tooke up the cushines and the picture from the altar supportinge it betwixt them, proceeding in procession from the high altar to the south quire dore where there was 4 antient gentlemen belonginge to the prior appointed to attend theire cominge holdinge upp a most rich cannopye of purple velvett tached round about with redd silke, and gold fringe, and at everye corner did stand one of theise ancient gentlemen to beare it over the said Image, with the holy sacrament carried by two monkes round about the church the whole quire waitinge uppon it with goodly torches and great store of other lights, all singinge rejoyceinge and praising god most devoutly till they came to the high altar againe, wheron they did place the said Image there to remaine untill the assencion day."

St. Andrew Heckington sepulcher with the 
soldiers, women and angels.

The Veneration of the Cross and the Liturgy of the Easter Sepulcher, though rarely used, both bear relevance to the Triduum experience for the Church today. These are not merely medieval filler, added to lengthen the ceremonies or embellish the celebration, but are a liturgical reenactment of the death and Resurrection of Christ, the foundations of our Christian faith. Just as these acts in the life of Christ complete the foundation of our faith, their reenactment remains the core of our Triduum liturgies. These rites allow each of us to engage in the acts of crucifixion and Resurrection that happened two thousand years ago. Physically and emotionally we experience the sadness and rejection of sin and death leading to the cross and the unmatchable joy in the resurrection, Christ's victory over death on the cross, and in the comfort that Christ, God made human, has lived, died, lived again and stayed with us so that we two may really live.

Collect (From the Episcopal Church, BCP, Easter):
O God, who for our redemption didst give thine only-begotten Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection hast delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his resurrection; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Liturgical Tropes: Medieval Filler or Helpful Interpretations?

Ecce Homo: 'Behold the Man.' Sarum gradual chant.

I've been looking at the definitions and use of tropes and sequences particularly in the Sarum Mass. In this Post, I will discuss the function and history of sequences and tropes and how the latter could be , in a modified form, useful in our own, modern liturgies.

     Both sequences and tropes were 'discontinued' in the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church and completely abolished in the Roman Church's Council of Trent, save the Victimae Pascale of Easter, the Veni Sancte Spiritus of Pentecost, the Lauda Sion Salvatorem and the Dies Irae of the Requiem. The Sarum Rite and other ancient rites contained many more sequences than these, one for most of the numerous feasts of the medieval liturgical calendar. 

     Sequences are very similar to hymns, but were sung just before the chanted Gospel Alleluia which had grown so long as to permit each of the clergy to kiss the Gospel book. Sequences are typically joyful and always hymns of praise and awe -fitting with the last syllable of the Alleluia which had evolved into a joyful melisma. 

     Tropes were insertions of text and/or pieces of chant to lengthen or interpret the text being sung. For example, at Salisbury, home of the Sarum Rite, tropes containing just adding the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the patron of the cathedral, were inserted into the Gloria in important feasts to embellish the liturgy. Here is an excerpt from the Sarum Gloria where the tropes (italicized) act similarly to clauses.

Sarum Gloria:

"For thou art only holy, sanctifying Mary;

Thou only art the Lord, ruling Mary;

Thou only, crowning Mary, Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit...."

The Sarum Kyries also use tropes.Instead of addressing just "Lord" and "Christ," a petition for the Holy Spirit is added to emphasized the doctrine of the Trinity. Additionally, tropes are added into each petition to embellish the Kyrie. The well-known "Orbis Factor is one of the Sarum Kyries, though this one addresses the Holy Spirit only at the very end, and is mainly made up of tropes. 

Orbis Factor:
Orbis factor rex aeterne, eleison
Pietatis fons immense, eleison
Noxas omnes nostras pelle, eleison
Christe qui lux es mundi dator vitae, eleison
Arte laesos daemonis intuere, eleison
Conservans te credentes confirmansque, eleison
Patrem tuum teque flamen utrorumque, eleison
Deum scimus unum atque trinum esse, eleison
Clemens nobis adsis paraclite ut vivamus in te, eleison.

Maker of the world, King eternal, have mercy upon us.
O immense source of pity, have mercy upon us.
Drive off all our evils, have mercy upon us.
Christ who art the light of the world and giver of life, have mercy upon us.
Consider the wounds produced by the devil's art, have mercy upon us.
Keeping and confirming thy believers, have mercy upon us.
Thou and thy Father, an equal light, have mercy upon us.
We know that God is one and three, have mercy upon us.
Thou, merciful unto us, art present with the Holy Spirit that we might live in thee, have mercy upon us.

Compare this with the origional, untroped, much simpler, three-fold

Lord have mercy

Christ have mercy

Lord have mercy.
...and now you can see just how much the tropes add.

below in the Orbis Factor, troped Kyrie as chanted from the Gradual of Eleanor of Brittany. 

Additionally, The Catholic Encyclopedia uses an French Sanctus as an example of troping:

Sanctus: ex quo sunt omnia                 Holy: from whom all are all things

Sanctus: per quem sunt omnia             Holy: through whom all are things

Sanctus: in quo sunt omnia, Dominus...Holy: In whom are all things, Lord...

Tropes could have a function in modern Liturgy.

Sarum Gloria: "Sanctifying Mary"

     Tropes could be found in many chanted texts to expand on the praise of God or of his saints or to explain Theology. While tropes were often added to the liturgy just as an extra filler in the liturgical stew, I see tropes as an opportunity to clarify and explain parts of our complex liturgies to the laity. Reviving tropes in prayers which are well known, perhaps too well known, could be particularly useful for the explanation of meaning which is otherwise overlooked because of the commonness of that prayer. 

     I am specifically referring to the Lord's Prayer. While reading former Bishop of Durham, N.T. Wright's "The Lord and his Prayer," which thoroughly explores the meaning and implications of each line of the Pater Noster, I thought, before I knew about troping, that it would be useful to add short clauses into the chanted prayer which concisely explain the meaning or add petition to the line. In reading about tropes, I found a precedent for this idea. While I don't know if the Pater Noster was ever troped, although the chant from the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos includes an Amen sung by the choir after each verse, the deep meanings of each line of so important a prayer should be relayed to the faithful during the service -and tropes are a perfect opportunity. The Lord's Prayer is, as Wright mentions, one of those prayers we recite without really reflecting on its meaning, and each verse is stacked with, as Wright explains, important implications for the mission of Christianity. Wright's "The Lord and his Praye" is an excellent book that all Christians should read...so I will not spoil it. 

     By adding a short trope to the end of each verse in the Our Father, the meaning of each line would be concisecly explained and the general importance of the prayer emphasized. After the  Our Fath, other parts of the mass, which many of us may participate in without much thought, such as the creeds ould also be troped not for the sake of embellishing the mass or restoring medieval customs, but for explaining the complex and important meanings behind the words in our liturgies. 

-Some more on the function and history of Tropes from "Oxford Bibliographies." 

Tropes

"Liturgical poetry, in the form of additional lyrics inserted into all the chants of the medieval Mass, flourished in the 9th through the 12th centuries. In a medieval Latin culture marked by intense interest in hermeneutics, even the Gregorian chants became a field open to extensive use of glosses and added verses performed together with the chant. The authors provided interpretations of the base texts in metaphors, images, or tropes, with the result that the grammatical term “trope” (Greek tropos, in Latin conversio or versus) came to be the name of the genre. Sung between the segments of a chant, the tropes could comment on and meditate over the preceding words of the chant, but they could also prepare for the performance of the words that followed. By means of these insertions, the chantor or compilator could vary the performance of a chant in endless ways while still maintaining the authorized form of the liturgical base chant. Extensive repertories were collected in manuscripts all over Europe. At first written on loose leaves or in the margins, they came to be inscribed into graduals and missals, and then gathered in individual manuscripts labeled “troparium” or “troparium-prosarium.” Because these manuscripts are the earliest witnesses of Western musical notation, or “neumes,” they have attracted many musical scholars as well. The oldest tropes must have been created well before the division of the Carolingian Empire in 843, because they are found in similar form both in East Frankish and West Frankish regions and in Lotharingia. In the following centuries, the repertories came to be divided into more or less separate regional traditions."