Civic processions that took place on a regular basis consisted of two major types, the ritualistic celebration
Daily Life
Of local saints and parades by civic organizations. Patron saints were thought to protect the localities in which they were revered, functioning as intermediaries between citizens of the town and the Virgin. Many paintings were commissioned of the sacra con-verzatione (sacred conversation) depicting Mary and the infant Jesus with these intercessionary saints. When a saint’s day was observed, the citizens were often required to participate; it was part of their civic duty. These processions were especially elaborate in southern Europe. Most towns had one or more relics of their patron saint, and parading relics through the streets, from the church and back again, propitiated the saint and honored the saint’s name. Alternately, the procession might begin from a city gate and proceed around town, finally arriving at the church containing the relic. The parades and processions of civic organizations derived from the model of saints’ processions, with a rigid hierarchy of position of each official in the group as it paraded. The organizations that participated included militias, guilds, and confraternities. These events were quite colorful as each group displayed banners or flags and uniform costumes. Members of the public observing the festivities also enjoyed allegorical tableaux vivants (living pictures) in which costumed actors staged static scenes without speaking, moving pantomimes in which they also were silent, and declamatory scenes in which the actors spoke their lines. The content of these presentations could be quite political and propagandistic; even mythological scenes sometimes had veiled references to current events.
Two of the most lavish civic processions in northern Europe were the London mayoral inauguration of the latter 16 th century and the Ommegan-gen (guild processions) of Antwerp. During the Renaissance, London’s mayor was always a guild member, and his guild was responsible for the festivities. In a competitive spirit each guild tried to surpass the efforts of previous ceremonies, with boats, chariots, floats, stationary stages, and ephemeral works of art, drama, and poetry commissioned for the occasion. Each guild in Antwerp owned a large wagon or chariot used for the Ommegangen. This procession was linked to the August 15 Assumption of the Virgin and always took place on the following Sunday. The themes of the floats could be religious or secular, often relating to some aspect of travel, trade, or commerce. Because Antwerp was an important artistic center, the statues, paintings, and music in this procession often were of professional quality.
FEAST OF FOOLS
The Feast of Fools, or Feast of Asses, was a jubilant winter celebration in which misrule reigned. Taking place not long after Christmas, this festival consisted of mock mass pronounced in church, with a young man pretending to be a bishop or other high church official. A donkey might be taken into the sanctuary, and everyone, including the priest, brayed during parts of the liturgy. This sort of irreverent hilarity was strongly discouraged by the Counter-Reformation and eventually died out, at least within the church building itself.
EXECUTIONS AND CORPORAL PUNISHMENT
Although the number of public executions declined toward the end of the 16th century, many thousands of city dwellers witnessed hangings, burnings, and the mutilation of human beings. These severe punishments were usually reserved for murderers and violent thieves, but in some areas, notably Florence, personal “crimes” such as sodomy were punishable by hanging. Punishment occasionally entailed desecration of the criminal’s corpse. A hanged person’s body could be left to rot and be picked on by carrion birds, or “drawn and quartered,” a punishment in which the body was spread out and split into four pieces. Very rarely was a living person executed in this fashion or burned at the stake. The Renaissance was a violent era, and people, especially children, who witnessed such public events must have been affected by the spectacle.
World History
