ABSTRACT
The forms of worship are the chief memorials and declarations of Christian doctrine. The opus dei was the principal occupation of the monk, whereas for the laity and many of the clergy in the Middle Ages the forms of prayer and activity in public worship expressed and safeguarded the character of the Christian faith: lex orandi lex credendi. Texts were intoned where necessary in order that they might be heard by all members of an assembled congregation. In western manuscripts the positurae fulfilled the need for more accurate indication of the nature of the pauses required to elucidate the sense of a text when it was to be intoned or sung in the liturgy. The practice of the scribes of the Salzburg scriptorium is typical of that elsewhere. The clarity of the positurae made them particularly suitable for use by correctors of manuscripts.
