Crepitacolo

CREPITACOLO. - From the Latin crepitaculum, crepitaculum: a wooden toy that makes a noise when shaken. It is also called battola, tabella or raganella. The most common types are: with a toothed cylinder and with a wooden hammer. The c. is used in the liturgy from Holy Thursday to Holy Saturday in place of the bells. The Roman Missal prescribes that for the Mandatum the «signum cum tabula» be given, and the Ambrosian Missal that on Good Friday the «signum Vesperarum cum crotalo seu tabula lignea» be given. The Memoriale rituum prescribes that a crotalum (v. CROTALI) be kept ready to summon the people and to give the signal for the Angelus (tit. IV, 1, n. 9; v. 1, n. 5; vi, 1, n. 12). For this purpose large c. are often found on bell towers; in churches and religious houses portable c. are used to give the signals during the ceremonies and for community exercises in the last days of Holy Week.

HISTORICAL NOTES

Two pieces of wood struck against each other constitute one of the most primitive instruments for giving signals. From the ancient East such instruments passed directly into Christian use. The Rule of St. Pachomius, for example, just as it speaks of a "tuba" for summoning the monks (ch. 2), so it mentions elsewhere c. and wooden hammers (Regula S. Pachomii, chs. 16, 35, 72; PL 49, 277, 281, 285, 290; cf. also De vitis patrum, III: ibid., 73, 977; Palladius, Historia lausiaca, 104: ibid., 1192). In the Rule of St. Benedict there is more than once mention of a signum, without its being possible to determine whether what was involved at that time was a wooden c. or a small bell. It is certain, however, that, according to various medieval customary books, the use of c. persisted in Benedictine monasteries, such as the waking by means of the malleus, the summoning of the monks to the weekly pedilacium, etc. (cf. E. Martène, De antiquis Ecclesiae ritibus, IV: De antiquis monachorum ritibus, Antwerp 1744, passim; Br. Albers, Consuetudines monasticae, II, Montecassino 1905, passim). From the monasteries the use of c. passed to the basilicas and churches. The Ordo romanus, t (according to Mabillon, XII; according to Andrieu) prescribes that the bells not be rung from Matins of Thursday until Matins of Holy Saturday (no. 29: PL 78, 951); now Amalarius, a profound connoisseur of Roman usages, attests that during these days the people were summoned by signals given by means of wooden instruments (Liber officialis, II, ed. by I. M. Hanssens, Vatican City 1949, p. 470). From Amalarius's statement it follows that such signals were an ancient Roman usage, which remained alive, together with many other customs, in the Sacred Triduum; "Roma iunior" (Constantinople) also used c. "propter vetustatem" (Amalarius, loc. cit.). The Eastern churches introduced bells very late, preserving instead the ancient use of the "sacred woods" (ἀγιάντρα). One reads, for example, in the Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea (787): "cum appropinquasset sanctae civitati almum cadaver [of the martyr Anastasius], notum factum universae civitati, et letitia magna repleti sunt omnes. Et surgentes, sacraque ligna percutientes (τὸ τε ἱερὸ ξύλα σμῆλαντες) congregaverunt semeti-pso in venerabilissimo templo Dei Genitricis" (Mansi, XIII, p. 22). In the monasteries of Mount Athos the semantra have never fallen into disuse.

On the symbolism of the c. and of their sound the medieval liturgists dwell at length: Honorius of Autun (Gemma animae, III, 88: PL 172, 666), Beleth (Divinorum officiorum explicatio, 100: ibid., 202, 103), Sicard of Cremona (Mitrale, VI, 11: ibid., 213, 207) and above all Durandus in his Rationale divinorum officiorum (VI, 72).

The use of the various kinds of clappers and rattles soon became, especially in the hands of children, a characteristic of the folkloric celebrations of Holy Week (v.).

Giuseppe Löw