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The Perception of Time in the Middle Ages |
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| The Medieval calendar was firmly controlled by the church. Ordinary people
were usually not even aware what year not to mention what day it was or how old they
themselves were. Time was usually arranged around the larger holidays such as
Christmas and Easter. The festivals celebrating Saints might also have functioned as
organisers of time. Before the mechanical clock was invented (ca 1270-1290) and became
common knowledge (14th Century) the hours of the day were measured in many
different ways in separate communities. Hores Canones or the Canonical hours of the church
were specifically important in creating the daily rhythm. The Canonical Hours had become established as the unified ecclesiastical time since the 6th Century. In the arrangement of time the two daily church services or masses, one every morning and one every evening were crucial, as well as the usage of psalms to cover the other seven hours of the day. The first mass known as matins was held in the dawn. It was followed by four "little hours" prime (6 a.m.), terce (9 a.m.), sext (noon) and nones (3 p.m.). These names were derived from the numerical system applied in Rome and referred to the first, the third, the sixth and the ninth hour. However, in the ecclesiastical tradition they also referred to the condemnation of Christ (terce), the Crucifixion (sext) and death (nones). The rhythm of the day also included vesper as the night prayer and compline before going to rest. This kid of timetable put specifically the lives of the monks, the nuns and the clergymen in order, but it also measured time for those who did not take part in all the ecclesiastical rituals of the day. |
