derived from those Dominic himself had composed for the nuns of San Sisto in Rome and which had been imposed by papal bull on the penitent communities known as the Magdalenes.18 While serving as provincial prior of France, Humbert of Romans himself had formulated statutes based on the friars’ Constitutions for the women of Montargis.19 In the capacity of Master General, Humbert revised the Montargis statutes and, in an encyclical appended to the acts of the General Chapter of 1259, declared these Constitutions binding. Any community that refused to adopt Humbert’s statutes would lose affiliation with the Friars Preachers.20 Any grumblings over Humbert’s Rite or his Constitutions for the sisters were silenced when in 1267 Clement IV issued two papal bulls which separately confirmed Humbert’s legislative legacies, the Rite and the women’s Constitutions, and forbade changes to them without papal approval.21
Both the male and female branches of the order accordingly had a number of different documents that laid out the Dominican forma vitae. In addition to the Augustinian Rule, each had a set of Constitutions, and the friars, ideally, also possessed a uniform liturgy. The Rule gave little opportunity for adjustment,22 but the composition of the Rite and the different Constitutions for friars and sisters was a fraught process that lasted decades and only achieved relative stability through the firm guidance of Humbert of Romans. The very energy with which the early Dominicans disputed the form of the Divine Office signals its importance to those who shaped the order’s practices, and the liturgy furthermore occupied a central place in the forma vitae of Dominican women.
Differences in the Constitutions for Friars and Sisters
In both the Constitutions for the Dominican friars and those of the sisters, the first chapter, simply entitled De officio ecclesie, lays the groundwork for liturgical practice within the order, although other chapters touch on liturgical matters, as well. This first chapter is nearly identical in the two sets of Constitutions, but slight differences have significant consequences for the status of the Office and liturgical observance in the lives of friars and sisters. Here I will consider three changes which concern the way of reciting the canonical hours and the matins of the Little Office of the Virgin, as well as the status of Humbert’s Rite. The regulations concerning the Divine Office in the Constitutions for the friars reveal that, although liturgical observance was important, study and preaching took precedence over communal prayer. Dominican women, however, did not share this calling, and the Office replaced formal study in their spiritual and intellectual lives.
For the friars, the prioritization of study and preaching over liturgical practice went beyond the dispensations from singing the hours in the church to affect the very manner in which the community was to perform the Office. The Constitutions specify that “hore omnes in ecclesia breuiter et succincte taliter dicantur, ne fratres deuotionem amittant et eorum studium minime impediatur [all hours are to be said in the church briefly and succinctly so that the brothers do not lose their devotion and their study is minimally impeded].”23 Indeed, Humbert had composed his Office with these injunctions in mind, and, although it was not as abbreviated as the Franciscan Rite, it could be performed quite expeditiously. Prior to the institutionalization of Humbert’s Rite, the General Chapters had attempted to restrict ornamental singing.24 Whether these denouncements stemmed from a fear of music’s sensuality or the recognition that complex singing took longer to perform, they limit the amount of energy and attention a friar should be devoting to the Office hours.
Since Dominican women neither preached nor studied, their daily agenda resembled that of Benedictine monastics more than that of their Dominican brothers. The sisters were expected to concentrate on the Office hours and spend their remaining time on handiwork and manual tasks in the workroom.25 The introduction of a chapter De labore, On Work, represents a significant divergence in the Constitutions of the sisters from those of the friars.26 Despite this and the major changes concerning enclosure, much of the chapter on the Divine Office is identical in the friars’ and sisters’ Constitutions, with the broad shift of focus taking place instead via smaller changes. The passage of the women’s Constitutions corresponding to the brothers’ injunction cited above reads, “hore canonice omnes in ecclesia tractim et distincte taliter dicantur, ne sorores deuocionem amittant et alia que facere habent minime impediantur [All canonical hours should be said in church slowly and distinctly so that that the sisters do not lose their devotion and the other things they have to do are minimally impeded].”27 This passage repeats the friars’ Constitutions word for word, except for two very revealing substitutions. “Study” is replaced with the vaguer “other things they have to do” and, more importantly, saying the hours “briefly and succinctly” gives way to “slowly and distinctly.”28 Unlike the friars, who speed through the Office, the sisters devote more time and thought to it.
This difference affects the expectations for matins of the Little Office of the Virgin. As soon as the friars heard the first bell, they were to start singing the Little Office of the Virgin while getting up (surgant fratres dicendo matutinas), apparently to save time.29 The acts of the General Chapters show that this phrasing was debated for almost three decades, revealing disagreement over the level of respect and attention that was due this Office. The wording was finally changed in 1270, when the General Chapter passed a measure clarifying that the friars had to recite the Little Office standing after having gotten out of bed (surgant fratres et stando dicant officium de beata virgine).30 Matins of the Little Office still was nevertheless said in the dormitory. The sisters, on the other hand, were required to assemble in the choir even for matins of the Little Office. Their Constitutions specify that “hore uero de beata virgine prius horas canonicas dicantur in ecclesia [they should say the Little Office of the Virgin before the canonical hours in the church].”31 Whereas the friars were permitted to say the Little Office while rising, the sisters were required to perform it with the same solemnity as the canonical hours. Late in the thirteenth century, an anonymous ordinance concerning the implementation of the women’s Constitutions in Teutonia permitted the sisters to sing the Little Office matins in the dormitory, as the friars did.32 The Constitutions of the sisters, however, were never updated, and this practice technically remained a deviation.
The difference in both the solemnity of the Little Office and the speed with which the canonical hours were sung shows that the Constitutions for the sisters demand a far greater degree of devotion and attention to the hours than do those of the friars. The friars were expected to show up and fulfill their duty, but the primary font and wellspring of their devotion was the study to which they would devote the greater portion of their day. Their Office should be suitably concise. Dominican women did not share this intellectual vocation, and although their Constitutions make some provisions for brief moments of private contemplation and reading, the Divine Office remains central to its formation of their spiritual lives. While the brothers rush through the hours in order to get to their books, the sisters must linger in the choir singing “distinctly” in order to allow time to process the words that are their spiritual food.
The different place of the liturgy in the spiritual lives of Dominican men and women may ground the most surprising difference between the chapters on the Divine Office in their Constitutions. The General Chapter in 1256 had confirmed a clause imposing Humbert’s Rite on all friars. Since Humbert both organized the Dominican liturgy and wrote the Constitutions for the sisters out of a concern over disparity of practice, it seems logical that he would write his own Office into the Constitutions of the sisters, as well. Yet, in the place of this clause in the friars’ Constitutions, in the sisters’ we read, “aliquis autem locus statuatur, in quo ad preuidendum officium diuinum sorores conueniant, presente priorissa uel alia cui commiserit tempore oportuno [some place should be established in which the sisters convene at an appropriate time to review the Divine Office with the prioress presiding or another to whom she entrusts this].”33 Instead of imposing his own Office on the women, Humbert simply includes a vague passage ordaining that each convent should have a committee to determine and prepare for its own liturgical practice. Not only were the sisters not bound to the same Rite as the friars, it would seem that they also did not need
