506 MAS 
Bulk; vaft body.—The Creator of the world would not 
have framed fo huge a mafs of earth, but for fome reafon- 
able creatures to have their habitation. Abbot, 
This army of fuch mafs and charge, 
Led by a delicate and tender prince. Shakefpeare's Hamlet. 
Congeries ; affemblage indiftinft.—The whole knowledge 
of groupes, of the lights and fhadows, and=of thofe maffes 
which Titian calls a bunch of grapes, is, in the prints of 
Rubens, expofed clearly to the fight. Dryden. —Where 
flowers grow, the ground at a diftance feems covered with 
them, and we mult walk into it before we can diftinguifh 
the feveral weeds that fpring up in fuch a beautiful mafs 
of colours. Addifon. 
At difiance, through an artful glafs, 
To the mind’s eye things well appear; 
They lofe their forms, and make a mafs 
Confus’d, and black, if brought too near. Prior. 
Grofs body ; the general ; the bulk.—The mafs of the 
peopie have opened their eyes, and will not be governed 
My Clodius and Curio. Swift. 
Where’er thou art, he is ; th’ eternal mind 
Adits through all places ; is to none confin’d ; 
Fills ocean, earth, and air, and all above, 
And through the univerfal mafs does move. Dryden. 
A flick of a certain form ufed at the game of billiards. 
Mass, in mechanics, the matter of any body cohering 
with it; i. e. moving and gravitating along with it. In 
this fenfe, mafs is diltinguifhed from hulk or volume, which 
is the expanfion of a body in length, breadth, and thick- 
nefs. The mafs of any body is rightly eftimated by its 
weight; and the maffes of two bodies of the lame weight 
are in a reciprocal ratio of their bulks. 
Mass, in.painting, a technical term of the art, which 
implies an union of a variety of parts, fo as to convey to 
the eye one undivided impreffion. It likewife fignifies, 
in its ordinary fenfe, a large portion of one colour. 
MASS,/. [ miffa , Lat.] In a general fenfe, is taken for 
the whole fervice of the Romifh church ; but more parti¬ 
cularly for the office or prayers ufed at the celebration of 
the eucharifi; i. e. confecrating the bread and wine into 
the body and blood of Chrifi, and offering them, fo tran- 
fubfiantiated, as an expiatory facrifice for the quick and 
the dead. As the mafs is in general believed to be a re- 
prefentation of the paffion of our bleffed Saviour, fo every 
action of the prieft, and every particular part of the fer¬ 
vice, is fuppofed to allude to the particular circumftances 
of his paffion and death ; and this they efieem the greateft 
and moft augult ceremony in ufe in the church ; as being 
the facrifice of the new law, wherein the body and blood 
of Jefus Chrifi are offered up to God. 
Nicod, after Baronins, obferves, that the word comes 
from the Hebrew miffack, (oblatum ■,) or from the Latin 
miffa, mifforum ; becaufe in former times, the catechu¬ 
mens and excommunicated were fent out of the church, 
when the deacoais laid Ite, miffa eft, after fermon and read¬ 
ing of the epifiie and golpei ; they not being allowed to 
afiift at the confecration. Menage derives the word from 
mijfio, “ difmifling Others from miffa, “ million, fend¬ 
ing ;” becaufe, in the mafs, the prayers of men on earth 
are Tent up to heaven. 
The general divifion of maftes confifts in high and low. 
High mafs is that lung by the chorifters, and celebrated 
with the affiltance of a deacon and fub-deacon. Low maffes 
are thofe in which the prayers are barely rehearled, with¬ 
out finging. \ 
There is a great number of different or occafional maffes 
in the Romifh church, many of which have nothing pecu¬ 
liar but the name ; fuch are the maffes of the faints ; that 
of St. Mary of the Snow, celebrated on the 51 h of Augulf; 
that of St. Margaret, patronefs of lying in women; that 
of the Fealt of St. John tile Baptift, at which are laid three 
mafies; that of the Innocents, at which the gloria in ex- 
M A S 
ceifis and the hallelujah are omitted, and, it being a day of 
mourning, the altar is of a violet colour. As to ordinary 
maffes, fome are faid for the dead, and, as is fuppofed, con¬ 
tribute to fetch the foul out of purgatory ; at thefe mafies 
the altar is put in mourning, and the only decorations are 
a crofs in the middle of fix yellow wax-lights ; the drefs 
of tile celebrant, and the very mafs-book, are black ; 
many parts of the office are omitted, and the people are 
difmified without the benediifiion. If the mafs be faid 
for a perfon diftinguifhed by his rank or virtues, it is fol¬ 
lowed by a funeral oration ; they erect a chapelle ardente, 
that is, a-reprefentation of the deceafed with branches and 
tapers of yellow wax, either in the middle of the church, 
or near the deceafed’s tomb, where the prieft pronounces a 
folemn abfolutiosi of the deceafed. There is Itill a fur¬ 
ther diitindtion of maffes denominated from the countries 
in which they were ufed ; thus, the Gothic mafs, or miffa 
mofarabum , is that ufed among the Goths when they were 
mafters of Spain, and which is ffill kept up at Toledo and 
Salamanca ; the Ambrofian mafs is that compofed by St. 
Ambrofe, and ufed only at Milan, of which city he was 
Hi (hop; the Gallic mafs, ufed by the ancient Gauls; and 
the Roman mafs, ufed by almott all the churches in the 
Romifh communion. 
Solitary or private maffes, were thofe that were cele¬ 
brated by the prieft alone, in behalf of fouls detained in 
purgatory, as well as upon fome other particular occafions ; 
e. g. for ftolen or (frayed cattle or goods, for health, for tra¬ 
vellers, &c. Thefe maffes were prohibited by the laws of 
the church in the eighth century, but they were a rich 
fource of profit to the clergy. They were condemned by 
the canons of a fynod, aflembled at Mentz, under Charle¬ 
magne, as criminal innovations, and as the fruits of avarice 
and doth. 
Mass of the PrefanElifed, is a mafs in which there is no 
confecration of the elements ; but, after finging fome 
hymns, they receive the bread and wine which was be¬ 
fore confecrated. This mafs is performed in the Greek 
church all Lent, except on Saturdays, Sundays, and the 
Annunciation. The prieft counts upon his fingers the 
days of the enfuing week on which it is to be celebrated, 
and cuts off as many pieces of bread at the altar as he is 
to fay maffes ; and, after having confecrated them, fteeps 
them in wine, and then puts them in a box; out of which, 
upon every occafion, he takes fome of it with a fpoon, 
and putting it on a difh fets it upon the altar. In the 
Latin church, this kind of mafs is ufed only on Good 
Friday. 
To MASS, v. n. To celebrate mafs.—Their mpjfng fur¬ 
niture they took from the lalv, left, having an altar and a 
prieft, they ftiould want veltments. Hooker. 
To MASS, v. a. It feems once to have fignified to 
thicken; to ftrengthen.—They feared the French might, 
with filling or mafjing the houfe, or elfe by fortifying, 
make fuch a piece as might annoy the haven. Hayward .— 
To chafe, or delicately rub or perfume the body. 
MASS'-BOOK, f. The book which contains the ritual 
of the Roman-Catholic church.—Burnilhed gold is that 
manner of gilding which we fee in old parchments and 
mafs books, done by monks and priefts; who were very ex¬ 
pert herein. Peackam on Drawing. —Importing or felling 
mafs-books, and other popifh books, incurs the penalty of 
40s. 3 Jac. I. c. 5. § 25. 
M ASS'-PRIEST, f. In former times, fecular priefts, to 
diftinguifh them from the regulars, were called mafs- 
pritfts ; and they were to officiate at the mafs, or in the 
ordinary fervice of the church. But afterwards the word 
majs prieft was reltrained to ft.ipendiaries retained in chan¬ 
tries, or at particular altars, to fay maffes for the fouls, 
ot the dead. Jacob's Law Dibl. 
MAS'S A, [Heb. temptation.] A mans’ name. 
MAS'SA, (Duchy ot), a fmall principality, fituated 
near the Mediterranean, between Genoa, and Tufcany. 
This principality, and that of Carrara, have often changed 
mafters. Before the French revolution, they, were an¬ 
nexed. 
