MASS. 



717 



ing of portions of the Bible, preaching, and the 

 celebration of the Lord's Supper. The people 

 not only understood what was done, but also sung, 

 responded, prayed, and received bread and wine in 

 the Lord's supper. Very early, however, through 

 the so called disciplina arcani (see the Catholic part 

 of the article Lord's Supper), it became customary, 

 and, according to many, universal, during the first 

 three centuries, to divide the. divine service into two 

 chief parts, by separating the restof the service from 

 the celebration of the eucharist. Only the faithful, 

 who lived actually in communion with the church, 

 were allowed to be present at the latter : at the for- 

 mer, also, the catechumens (q. v.), the penitents, and 

 even unbelievers ; but these classes were dismissed 

 before the celebration of the eucharist was begun, by 

 the words Catechumeni, exite, missa est (i. e. concio, 

 the meeting), or Si guts catechumenorum remanserit, 

 exeat foras. Thus they were dismissed (dismissio, 

 missio, missa), from which, circumstance, in the 

 sequel, the whole service received its name ; hence, 

 again, the division of missa catechttmenomm, and 

 missa fidelium. In the article Lord's Supper, the 

 reader will find the Protestant and Catholic views 

 respecting the eucharist, the sacrifice of mass, 

 the holy mysteries of the mass, and the decrees 

 of the Council of Trent respecting this, the most 

 essential point of Roman Catholic service. It re- 

 mains, therefore, to give here an account of the 

 celebration of the mass only. 



When the number of the faithful increased, and 

 communities of Christians rose, not merely in the 

 cities, but also in the villages, the celebration of 

 divine service was intrusted also to priests, who at 

 first officiated only before the whole community, and 

 on days appointed for the purpose ; at a later period, 

 also, on ordinary days, and even alone, for their own 

 benefit, with the assistance of one altar-servant only. 

 Thus originated, with the high,or solemn mass, also 

 the low or private mass, performed by the priest, 

 assisted by one altar-servant only. The Protes- 

 tants consider this, even according to the Catholic 

 doctrine of the mass itself, a great abuse ; and 

 many Catholic authors have concurred with them, 

 while others maintain that it is indispensable, as it 

 would be impossible otherwise to consecrate the host 

 for the sick, &c. ; and, besides, say they, the hermits 

 in the deserts must have celebrated private mass. 

 This, of course, is arguing on the ground that the 

 mass, in the times of the early anchorites, was already 

 developed. If the mass is of such supernatural effi- 

 cacy as a great part of the Catholics consider it ; if 

 it is an actual and repeated sacrifice of Christ for our 

 sins, private masses may also be admissible, though 

 the form of the celebration, founded on the supposi- 

 tion of the presence of the people, may be inconsis- 

 tent with them. The celebration of the eucharist or 

 the mass separate from the preaching, became more 

 and more common, and the actual participation of the 

 people in it gradually lessened. The responses, &c., 

 were made by a servant of the altar, and the priest 

 alone took the sacred elements, changes to which 

 tlie people accustomed themselves the more readily 

 as the knowledge of the ancient languages, in which 

 the masses were performed (in the Oriental church 

 the Greek, and in the Latin church the Latin), be- 

 came more and more limited. The choir of priests 

 and servants, including, at a later period, the singers 

 and musicians, took the place of the people, and the 

 whole difference of the solemn and the private mass 

 came to consist in this circumstance only, the people 

 having ceased to take any part in the mass, and the 

 sermon being delivered separate from this ceremony. 

 This state of things has remained to this day, at least 

 in by far the greater number of Catholic countries. 



The mass, then, at present consists of four or three 

 chief parts: 1. the introduction, which forms its chief 

 part, is called the evangelium, and formerly consti- 

 tuted, with the sermon, the mass of the catechumens; 

 2. the offertorium, or sacrifice ; 3. the consecration, 

 or transiibstantiation ; 4. the communion. These 

 four chief parts, of which the latter three are consi- 

 dered the most essential, are composed of several 

 small parts, each having its proper denomination ; 

 they are prayers, songs, shorter and longer passages 

 of the Holy Scriptures, and a number of ceremonies, 

 which, as the essential point of the mass is the sacri- 

 fice of the Lord, consist partly of symbolical ceremo- 

 nies, commemorative of important circumstances in the 

 Saviour's life, or signs of devotion and homage paid 

 to the presence of the Lord in the host. The order 

 of these ceremonies, and of the whole celebration of 

 the mass, is given in the missal, or mass-book. The 

 masses are modified according to many circumstances. 

 Thus certain parts are changed according to the saint 

 in honour of whom the mass is celebrated, or the 

 seasons of the year connected with different events in 

 the Saviour's life, or the purpose for which the mass 

 is said, as the missa pro defunctis (mass for the dead), 

 or that intended for the invocation of the Holy Ghost, 

 and others. Deviations from the established rite 

 gave rise to \the missa bifaciata, trifaciata, multifa- 

 ciata, formed by uniting two, three, and more masses 

 under one canon. Missa prasanctificatorum is that 

 in which the host has been consecrated one or seve- 

 ral days beforehand, which is more common in the 

 Greek church than in the Latin. Missa sicca, or dry 

 mass, is that which was celebrated without wine ; for 

 instance, on board of vessels, in order to prevent the 

 spilling of the blood. It is no longer in use. The 

 mass of the day is such as is proper to the season, or 

 to the feast which is celebrated. Votive mass is an 

 extraordinary mass, besides that of the day, rehearsed 

 on some extraordinary occasion. High mass is cele- 

 brated by a deacon and sub-deacon, and sung by the 

 choristers. Besides these, there are different masses 

 according to the different rites : the Greek mass, the 

 Latin mass, the Roman and Gregorian mass, Gallican, 

 Gothic mass, &c. 



One of the greatest objections of the Protestants 

 against the Catholic religion is the doctrine of the 

 mass. They are offended with the doctrine that the 

 sacrament of the Lord's supper is made in the mass, 

 a sacrifice continually repeated for the reconciliation 

 of sins, this appearing to them as the application of 

 Jewish and heathenish ideas of sacrifice to the Lord's 

 supper, while the Bible declares that Christ has 

 offered himself by his death on the cross, once for all, 

 for the atonement of sins, and the Lord's supper is no 

 sacrifice to God, but the offering of God's grace to 

 men. To this the Catholics reply that, according to 

 Scripture and tradition, the eucharist is a sacrifice ; 

 that the body and blood of Christ are actually present 

 in the eucharist (see Lord's Supper), and chat " they 

 do not offer a sacrifice different from that of the cross; 

 that it is Jesus Christ himself, who offers himself 

 through the hands of the priests ; that he therefore 

 is the principal priest or pontiff and victim, as he was 

 likewise on the cross. Can, we," continues the Ca- 

 tholic Dictiomiaire de Ttteologie (Toulouse, 1817/, 

 from which the foregoing passage is also taken 

 " can we testify our gratitude to God better than by 

 offering to him the most precious of all the gifts 

 which he has made to us his only Son, whom he 

 deigned to grant us, and who gave himself as a vic- 

 tim for our redemption ? We then say, with David, 

 ' For all things come of thee, and of thine own have 

 we given thee.' (1 Chron. xxix. 14.) We therefore 

 have full ground to hope that God, touched by this 

 oblation, will grant us new grace," &c. 



