Mass

MASS. - It is the sacrifice of the New Law, in which, under the sacramental species, the same victim of Calvary, Jesus Christ, is offered, to acknowledge God's supreme dominion and to apply to the faithful the merits acquired on the Cross.

The word missa is equivalent to missio (= "dismissal"); analogous cases occur in offensa-offensio, collecta-collectio, oblata-oblatio (cf. Ch. Du Cange, s. v. in Glossarium, ed. L. Favre, V. Paris 1938, p. 412). From the 4th century the rite of dismissing the catechumens before the Offertory gave its name to the whole complex of ceremonies in which the Eucharistic Sacrifice is accomplished. St. Augustine with the word missa explicitly alludes to the ritual dismissal: "Ecce post sermonem fit missa catechumenis, manebunt fideles" (Sermo 49, 8: PL 38, 324). St. Ambrose was perhaps the first to use the word missa in its present meaning (Ep. 20, 4: PL 16, 995). Other current explanations of the term M. seem unfounded (cf. K. Kellner, L'anno ecclesiastico, Italian trans. by A. Mercati, Rome 1914, pp. 73-80; G. Brinktrine, La S. M., Italian trans. by G. Sölch and A. Pintonello, ibid. 1945, pp. 11-12; G. F., Quel est le sens étymologique du mot Messe: renvoi ou repos sacré?, in L'ami du clergé, 59 [1949], pp. 293-95). The Greeks designate the sacrifice of the altar with μυσταγωγία ("mystic action"), ἱερουργία ("sacred action"), λειτουργία ("public action").

I. THE MASS IN DOGMATIC THEOLOGY.

I. THE SACRIFICIAL CHARACTER OF THE MASS

1. Errors

The exaggerated spiritualism of the medieval sects resolved itself into a decided denial of the M. as a sacrificial rite. Already at the Council of Arras (1025), Gerard, bishop of Cambrai (v.), condemned a «novam haereses sectam» which, rejecting the entire sacramental system, also denied the sacrificial character of the Eucharist (PL 142, 1271-78). In the following century Peter of Bruys was stigmatized by Peter the Venerable as a disparager of the Christian people, from whom he took away the glory of the Eucharistic Sacrifice (Contra Petrobrusianos: PL 189, 787-89).

At the beginning of the 13th century the Albigensians formulated their denial in a concise phrase, reported by Durandus of Mende: « Nec Christus nec Apostoli eam (Missam) instituerunt » (Rationale divinorum officiorum, IV, 1, Lyon 1672, p. 88). The Council of Constance condemned a proposition in which Wycliff had condensed the medieval denials: « Non est fundatum in Evangelio, quod Christus Missam ordinaverit » (Denz-U, 585).

In the 16th century the Protestants, in the undisguised desire to overthrow the major defense of the papacy (« Triumphata Missa, puto nos totum Papam triumphare »: Luthers Werke, ed. Weimar, X b, p. 220), advanced specious biblical arguments to shake the faith in the divine origin of the M. Luther seized upon the word testamentum used by Christ at the Last Supper: « Non enim Christus cum condere testamentum, illud obtulit Deo Patri » (De captivitate babylonica, ed. Weimar, VI, p. 523). Melanchthon, starting from the clause of Hebr. 10, 14: « Una oblazione consummavit in sempiternum sanctificatos », concluded for the absolute uniqueness of the sacrifice of the Cross and the consequent denial of the M.: « Sola igitur Christi mors fuit sacrificium... non alia opera levitica aut postea secuta » (Loci theologici communes, Basel 1561, p. 416). Zwingli, placing in the definition of sacrifice the idea of a physical and bloody immolation, held that he had easily disposed of the M.: « Christus illic tantum offertur ubi patitur, sanguinem fundit... Christus non potest ultra mori, sanguinem fundere, ergo Christus ultra offerri non potest » (Adv. H. Emserum antibolom, in Opera omnia, I, Zurich 1928, p. 142). Calvin, preserving for the Eucharist the idea of a remembrance (memoria) of the sacrifice of Calvary, rejected the M. with words of fire: « Horrendae abominationis caput fuit... quum pestilentissimo errore totum paene orbem obcecavit Satan, ut credere Missam sacrificium esse » (Institutio relig. christ., IV, 18). This doctrine of the first innovators became official in the various Protestant confessions, not excluding the Anglican (cf. Confessio Westmonasteriensis prima, p. 31). There were not lacking, however, especially in England, isolated assertors of the sacrificial character of the M., for example, Grabe and Leibnitz (18th century), Gore, Frankland, Warfield, Goetz, Herbert (20th century). At the beginning of this century two Catholic writers, F. Renz (Die Geschichte des Messopferbegriffs oder der alte Glaube und die neuen Theorien über das Wesen des unblutigen Opfers, 2 vols., Munich 1901-1902) and above all F. Wieland (Mensa und Confessio. Studien über den Altar der altchristlichen Liturgie, 2 vols., ibid. 1906) upheld ideas similar to the Protestant ones. According to Wieland the New Testament knows only the sacrifice of the Cross, of which the Eucharist is a figure. Only in the 2nd century did St. Irenaeus introduce the idea of an oblation, whereas in the two preceding centuries the Eucharist was considered a simple prayer.

Liberal Protestantism and rationalism, with a new tactic, have attempted to eliminate the entire Eucharistic phenomenon (v. EUCHARIST). Mention must be made of two theories directly aimed at explaining, by evolution, the appearance of a sacrificial rite linked to the Eucharist. According to G. P. Wetter (Altchristliche Liturgien, 2 vols., Göttingen 1921-22) at the dawn of Christianity the Eucharistic supper was a domestic celebration, prepared by one or another of the faithful. Once the primitive community had developed, the need was felt that all the faithful should contribute to the common banquet. The offering of food was soon enriched with a ceremonial and accompanied by moving prayers. Subsequently the rite of the offering, for various causes, slowly disappeared, but the liturgical formulas remained, which were applied to the bread and wine, by then the only surviving elements of the primitive convivium, and, under the influence of the mystery conception, it began to be held that the presence of the Body and Blood of Jesus was linked to the two elements. Thus the Catholic M. was born.

According to H. Lietzmann (Messe und Herrenmahl. Eine Studie zur Geschichte der Liturgie, Bonn 1926) there were two primitive types of liturgy: the Palestinian one (represented by the Didaché and by the anaphora of Serapion), having no relation whatsoever to the Last Supper, is to be considered as the repetition of the ordinary meals that Jesus took with his disciples. In the fraternal agapes, soon introduced by the Apostles after the death of the Master, it was believed that the Lord was spiritually present; then, under the influence of Hellenism, the supper was held to be a sacrifice. The Pauline type (represented by I Cor. 10 and 11 and by the Traditio Apostolica of Hippolytus) is in direct relation to the Last Supper, in which Jesus, breaking the bread, symbolized the imminent torment to which his Body would be subjected. The disciples renewed the rite as a remembrance of the Passion of Christ and, under the influence of the Hellenic mysteries, held that they were mystically united to the divine victim, whom they subsequently believed to be present. This conception spread to all the regions of the Pauline apostolate and prevailed in the Roman Church, giving origin to the M. as it is known today in Catholicism.

2. Catholic doctrine

The Council of Trent (sess. XII, cann. 1-4) fixed the thought of the Church in the dense and lapidary formulas with which it condemned all the shades of the Protestant error: can. 1: « If anyone shall say that in the M. a true and proper sacrifice is not offered to God, or that this oblation is nothing other than eating Christ, let him be anathema »; can. 2: « If anyone shall say that by those words: Do this in remembrance of me (Lk. 22, 19; I Cor. 11, 24), Jesus Christ did not constitute the Apostles priests and did not ordain that they and the other priests should offer his Body and his Blood, let him be anathema »; can. 3: « If anyone shall say that the Sacrifice of the M. is only one of praise and thanksgiving or a bare commemoration of the sacrifice of the Cross and not truly propitiatory, or that it benefits only the one who partakes of it and that it must not be offered for the living and the dead, for sins, punishments and satisfactions and other needs, let him be anathema »; can. 4: « If anyone shall say that by the Sacrifice of the M. blasphemy is done to the most holy Sacrifice of the Cross or that it detracts from it, let him be anathema » (Denz-U, 948-51). These definitions are preceded and followed by numerous other documents of the ecclesiastical magisterium (cf. Denz-U, 424, 430, 435, 441, 464, 698, 1045, 1528, 2049; Leo XII, encycl. Mirae caritatis [18 May 1902]; Pius XII, encycl. Mediator Dei [20 Nov. 1947]).

3. Proofs of the Catholic doctrine

The sacrificial character of the Eucharistic rite is affirmed several times in the documents of Revelation.

a) Scripture. — In the Old Testament the Fathers found figures (for example, the paschal lamb: Ex. 12:17; Deut. 16; 17) and allusions (for example, Ps. 21:23: "adorabunt et manducabunt"; Is. 19:19: "in illa die erit altare Domini in medio terrae"; Dan. 3:39; 12:11) to the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Today two texts, on which the attention of the Church and of theologians has concentrated, are considered true prophecies of the Mass: Ps. 109:4: "Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech." The psalm, which is held by all to be messianic, affirms three things: Christ is a priest and therefore offers sacrifice; he will perform this priestly function for ever; his sacrificial offering will be made according to the rite of Melchisedech. In Gen. 14:18, according to the Hebrew text, we read: "Melchisedech, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was priest of the Most High and blessed him (= Abraham)." It is certain that the Hebrew word hōsī ("protulit") can indicate either a sacrificial offering or the offering of provisions for an ordinary meal; however, the clause "et erat sacerdos Altissimi" suggests the idea of a sacrificial oblation of bread and wine, made by Melchisedech for Abraham's victory, all the more so since the mention of Melchisedech's priesthood in order to explain the further phrase "et benedixit ei" would have been superfluous, since in the Semitic conception blessing was not reserved to priests. This interpretation is accepted by the Vulgate, by the Canon of the Roman Mass and by the Holy Fathers with unanimous consent. Such a prophecy can be considered fully verified only on the hypothesis that the Mass is a true sacrifice; indeed only in the daily offering of the consecrated bread and wine does Christ appear as a priest, who offers perpetually a sacrifice according to the rite of Melchisedech.

Malachi (5th century B.C.), taking up the lukewarmness of the priests of the Old Testament, who offered refuse (blind, lame animals), expresses himself thus: "I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, I will not accept the sacrifice from your hands any more, for from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation, for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts" (Mal. 1:10-11).

In this prophecy there is question of a true sacrifice (as appears from the terminology muqār: "adoletur"; muqāf: "offertur"; minhāh: "oblatio"), which will be offered in the messianic age, characterized by the abrogation of Levitism ("non est mihi voluntas in vobis... et munus non suscipiam de manu vestra"), by universality ("ab ortu enim solis usque ad occasum magnum est nomen meum in gentibus et in omni loco sacrificatur") and by holiness ("offertur nomini meo oblatio munda"). The prophetic vision, which beneath the immense arch of Yahweh's glory beholds the dawn of the peoples coming out of the shadow to offer to the one God a pure sacrifice, has its perfect fulfillment in the Mass, which from every point of the earth and from all races is offered as an "hostia immaculata" to the Lord.

The New Testament offers certain indications and apodictic testimonies. At the Last Supper Jesus performed a true sacrifice when he said that his Body was "given" ("Hoc est corpus meum, quod pro vobis datur": Lk. 22:19) and his Blood was "shed" ("Hic est Sanguis meus Novi Testamenti, qui pro multis effunditur in remissionem peccatorum": Mt. 26:28), since in biblical style these two expressions, even taken separately (for the traditio corporis cf. Is. 53:12; Mt. 20:28; Rom. 8:32; Gal. 1:4; 2:20; Eph. 5:25; I Tim. 2:6; Tit. 2:14; Hebr. 10:10; for the effusio sanguinis cf. Rom. 3:25; 5:9; Eph. 1:7; I Cor. 14:20; Hebr. 9:7; I Pt. 1:19; I Io. 1:7) always indicate a sacrificial immolation. Nor can it be held that the Lord wished to allude to the imminent sacrifice of the Cross (as the text of the Vulgate: effundetur [Mt. 26:28] might suggest), since the present participle (διδόμενον: "datur"; ἐκχυννόμενον: "effunditur") refers to what was happening at the moment in which Jesus was speaking. At that very instant Christ gave the command to renew that sacrificial rite: "Hoc facite in meam commemorationem" (Lk. 22:19; I Cor. 11:24). The Church therefore, in repeating the Eucharistic gesture of its founder, performs a true and proper sacrifice, the very one that Jesus offered.

This sacrificial interpretation of the Last Supper is effectively confirmed by other expressions of the context: Lk. 22:19: "Quod pro vobis datur: τὸ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν διδόμενον: the Body of the Lord is not only offered as food to the disciples ("illis"), but also given for them ("pro illis"): an evident allusion to the sacrificial character of the rite. The text of Lk. 22:20: "Calix novum foedus est in Sanguine meo, qui pro vobis effunditur: τὸ ποτήριον ἡ καινὴ διαθήκη ἐν τῷ αἵματί μου, τὸ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν ἐκχυννόμενον, especially in its Greek construction, indicates that the Blood is shed inasmuch as it is contained in the Eucharistic chalice. In the same clause the New Covenant is considered established in the Eucharistic Blood, with manifest allusion to Ex. 28:8: "Hic est sanguis foederis, quod pepigit Dominus vobiscum." The two Covenants are seen in the sacrificial perspective of the shedding of the blood of the victims. Against this same background the Eucharist is considered as the new Passover, which, in the Blood of the one Lamb that takes away the sin of the world (Io. 1:29), causes the innumerable sacrifices of the Law to cease.

St. Paul sets alongside the Gospel testimonies: I Cor. 10:20-21: "Quæ immolant gentes, daemonis immolant et non Deo. Nolo vos socios fieri daemoniorum: non potestis calicem Domini bibere et calicem daemoniorum: non potestis mensae (τράπεζα: "altar") Domini participes fieri et mensae daemoniorum. The Apostle, establishing an antithesis between pagan and Christian rites, acknowledges in both the existence of a sacrifice, "per mensam altare utrobique intelligens" (Council of Trent, sess. XXII, cap. 1: Denz-U, 939).

Another transparent allusion to the Sacrifice of the Mass is in Hebr. 13:10: "Habemus altare, de quo edere non habent, qui tabernaculo deserviunt" — indeed the realistic verb φαγεῖν ("manducare") spontaneously carries the thought to the Eucharistic altar, where the victim is really consumed, rather than to the altar of the Cross, whose victim can be said to be eaten only metaphorically (cf. Teodorico da Castel S. Pietro, La Chiesa nella lettera agli Ebrei, Rome 1945, pp. 225-30).

b) Tradition. - The Church, obedient to the Lord's command: "Do this in memory of me" (Lk. 22:19; I Cor. 11:24), immediately celebrated the Eucharist in Jerusalem (Act. 2:42), at Troas (ibid. 20:7-11), at Corinth (I Cor. 10-11) and in all the places of its conquests. From the beginning it surrounded the rite of the fractio panis (v.) with ceremonies and prayers, in which, in simple form, the common faith was expressed and the sacrificial character of the Eucharistic worship lived again: the Didaché (14:1-3) affirmed that the κλάσις τοῦ ἄρτου

is the sacrifice (ἡ θυσία) foretold by Malachi. St. Justin provided its first liturgical description (I Apol., 65-67), St. Hippolytus (Traditio apostolica) the first Roman canon (oblatio Ecclesiae), Serapion (Eucologio) the first Eastern anaphora ("sacrificium": θυσία; "obtulimus": προηγέγκαμεν).

The Holy Fathers, in agreement with the liturgical tradition and with the New Testament data, offer a detailed testimony on the sacrificial character of the Eucharist and on its constitutive elements. They hold in fact that the Mass is:

α) a true and proper sacrifice: St. Irenaeus (Adv. haeres., 4, 18, 1-2 [PG 7, 1024-25]: "Ecclesiae oblatio... sacrificia in populo [Iudaico], sacrificia in Ecclesia"); St. Hippolytus (In Danielam, 22 [PG 10, 656]: "Sacrificium et libamen, quod ubique locorum offertur Deo"); Tertullian (De oratione, 19 [PL 1, 1182-83]: "Ara Dei... participatio sacrificii"); St. Cyprian (Ep., 63, 14 [PL 4, 397]: "Sacrificium verum et plenum"; "Summum verumque sacrificium... verissimum et singulare sacrificium"); St. Augustine (De civitate Dei, 10, 20: PL 41, 298; De spiritu et littera, 11: PL 44, 211).

β) foretold and prefigured in the Old Testament: Didaché, 14, 1-2; St. Justin (Dial. cum Tryphone, 116-117: PG 6, 746); St. Irenaeus (Adv. haeres., 4, 17, 5: PG 7, 1023; ibid., 4, 18 [PG 7, 1024]: "Oblationes enim et illic, oblationes autem et hic"); St. Cyprian (Ep., 63, 4 [PL 4, 38]: "Christus obtulit hoc idem quod Melchisedech obtulerat, idest panem et vinum, suum scilicet Corpus et Sanguinem"); St. Augustine (De Civitate Dei, 17, 20 [PL 41, 556]: "Id enim sacrificium successit omnibus illis sacrificis Veteris Testamenti, quae immolabantur in umbra futuri").

γ) instituted by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper: St. Irenaeus (Adv. haeres., 4, 17, 5: 18, 1 [PG 7, 1023-24]: "Christus... Novi Testamenti novam docuit oblationem, quam Ecclesia ab Apostolis accipiens in universo mundo offert Deo... Ecclesiae oblatio, quam Dominus docuit offerre in universo mundo"); St. Cyprian (Ep., 63, 1 [PL 4, 373]: "Christus, Dominus et Deus noster, sacrificii huius auctor et doctor"); Eusebius of Caesarea (Demonstr. evang., 1, 10 [PG 22, 90]: "Eiusque rei [Passionis] memoriam, ut nos ipsi Deo pro sacrificio offerremus, instituit").

Besides repeating these data of the simple faith (ὑλλὰ πίστες), the Fathers, especially those of the golden age, sketched out a theologia sacrificalis, in which all the elements of the Revolution are harmonized:

α) Christ, really present under the species of bread and wine (v. EUCARISTIA) is the priest and the victim of the Eucharistic Sacrifice: St. Ephrem (ed. Th. J. Lamy, S. Ephrem sermones et hymni, I, Malines 1882, p. 660: "Ipse altare et agnus, victima et sacrificator, sacerdos et esca"); St. Augustine (De civitate Dei, 10, 20 [PL 41, 298]: "Christus sacerdos est, ipse offerens, ipse et oblatio").

β) as priest he offers invisibly: St. Gregory of Nyssa (In Christi resurr. oratio, 1 [PG 46, 611]: "Christus arcano sacrificii genere, quod ab hominibus cerni non poterat, seipsum pro nobis hostiam offert et victimam immolat, sacerdos simul existens et agnus Dei"). The mysterious work of the divine Offerer appears externally through the sensible oblation of his ministers: St. Cyprian (Ep., 63, 14 [PL 4, 385]: "Utrique ille sacerdos vice Christi vere fungitur, qui id quod Christus fecit imitatur et sacrificium verum et plenum tunc offert in Ecclesia Deo Patri, si sic incipiat offerre secundum quod ipsum Christum videat obtulisse"); St. Ambrose (Enarr. in Ps., 38, 25 [PL 14, 1051-52]: "Sequimur, ut possumus, sacerdotes, ut offeramus pro populo sacrificium... quia etsi nunc Christus non videtur offerre, tamen ipse offertur in terris quando Corpus Christi offertur; immo ipse offerre manifestatur in nobis, cuius sermo sanctificat sacrificium, quod offertur").

γ) as victim he is again immolated unbloodily, mystice, in the Sacrament, in mysterio: Tertullian (De pudicitia, 9 [PL 2, 1050]: "Rursus mactabitur Christus");

St. Gregory of Nazianzus (Ep., 171 [PG 37, 279]: "Quando incruenta sectione secaveris Corpus et Sanguinem dominicum, vocem adhibens pro gladio"); Gregory of Nyssa (In Christi resurr. oratio, 1 [PL 46, 611]: "In cena iam arcana et non aspectabili ratione Corpus erat immolatum"); St. Ambrose (De officiis, 1, 48 [PL 16, 94]: "Nunc Christus offertur, sed offertur quasi homo, quasi recipien passimem... hoc in imagine"); St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catech., 23, 10 [PG 33, 1118]: "Christum mactatum offerimus"); St. John Chrysostom (De sacerdotio, 3, 4 [PG 48, 642]: "Cum videris Dominum immolatum et iacentem"); St. Cyril of Alexandria (De adoratione in spiritu et veritate, 10 [PG 68, 707]: "Christus... mystice sacrificatus a nobis et pro nobis offertur"). St. Augustine sums up the patristic teaching in one sentence, full of content: "Nonne semel immolatus est Christus in seipso? Et tamen in Sacramento omni die populis immolatur" (Ep., 99, 9: PL 33, 363).

The unbloody and sacramental immolation represents the bloody death of Calvary and perpetually renews its memory: St. Cyprian (Ep., 63, 17 [PL 4, 387]: "Passionis eius mentionem in Sacrificiis omnibus facimus, Passio est enim Domini Sacrificium quod offerimus"); Eusebius of Caesarea (Demonstr. evangelica, 1, 10 [PG 22, 90]: "Eiusque rei memoriam... instituit"); St. Ambrose (De fide ad Gratianum, 4, 10 [PL 16, 641]: "Quotiescumque Sacramenta sumimus... mortem Domini annuntiamus"); Serapion of Thmuis (4th cent.; Anaphora eucharistica, 4, in C. Kirsch, Enchiridion historiae ecclesiasticae, 5th ed., Freiburg im Br. 1941, n. 479: "Propterea et nos similitudinem mortis [τὸ ὑμύλομεν τοῦ θανάτου] celebrantes, panem obtulimus"); St. Augustine (De Trinitate, 3, 4 [PL 42, 873]: "Corpus Christi et Sanguinem... rite sumimus in memoriam pro nobis dominicae Passionis").

At the end of the 6th century, St. Gregory the Great, gathering together all the elements of Tradition, constructed a particularly felicitous synthesis: "Hace victima... illam nobis mortem Unigeniti per mysterium reparat, qui licet resurgens a mortuis iam non moritur et mors et ultra non dominatur (Rom. 6, 9), tamen in semeiipso immortaliter et incorruptibiliter vivens, pro nobis iterum in hoc mysterio sacrae oblationis immolatur... Hoc sacrificium... Passionem Unigeniti Filii semper imitatur" (Dial., 4, 58: PL 77, 425).

c) Scholastics. - Through St. Isidore of Seville and the Venerable Bede (Hom. 14 in dominica tertia post Theophanium: PL 94, 75), the Gregorian idea reached the 9th century and lent itself to various interpretations. Amalarius of Metz (Liber officialis, 3, 24-35, in Amalarii Ep. opera liturgica omnia, ed. J. M. Hanssens, II, Vatican City 1948, pp. 337-368), placing the accent on the phrase "Passionem imitatur", saw in the ceremonies of the Mass a suggestive re-evocation of the drama of Calvary in all its details; Florus of Lyon, on the other hand, insisting on the "mortem reparat", affirmed that in the Mass "non tam verbis quam mysteriis" (Expositio Missae, 63: PL 119, 54) the death of the Cross is renewed. The controversy, barely hinted at in the two liturgists, took on broader proportions in two distinct theologians: Paschasius Radbertus, a tenacious assertor of Eucharistic realism, maintained that Jesus "in mysterio veraciter immolatur" (De Corpore et Sanguine Domini, 2, 3: PL 120, 1274), while Ratramnus of Corbie held that in the Eucharist "fideliter reconditur in memoria, quod pro nobis eius (Christi) caro crucifica et vulnerata sit" (De Corpore et Sanguine Domini, 33-34: PL 121, 141; ibid., 49: PL 121, 169).

The symbolism of Ratramnus, which in its origin and early development probably remained within the bounds of orthodoxy, in the 11th century, carried to an extreme by Berengar of Tours (v.), issued in the denial of the real presence and the consequent absolute subjectivization of the Sacrifice (cf. Berengar, De S. Coena, ed. W. H. Beekenkamp, The Hague 1941, passim).

Then, through the work of excellent theologians (Lanfranc of Bec, Guitmund of Aversa, Gregory of Bergamo, Alger of Liège), the traditional realism, in the line of Paschasius Radbertus, was tenaciously vindicated and in the century guente vibrates under the pen of Stephen of Beaugé (de Balgiaco), in the Tractatus de Sacramento altaris (PL 172, 1280: «Christus quotidie sine vulnere sacrificatur»), of Gratian (Decretum, dist. II, de cons., cap. 51 [PL 187, 1755]): «Non mentiri eum, qui dicit Christum impassibilem et immortalem quotidie in Sacramento immolari», and of Peter Lombard (IV Sent. d. 12, c. 5; 2nd ed., II, Quaracchi 1916, p. 812-14), until, in the rapid synthesis of St. Thomas, it is harmonized, almost into a complete system, with the symbolism of the Fathers («memoria»: ἀνάμνεσις). Indeed the Aquinate in brief and pithy phrases summarized and fused all the elements of Revelation: «Eucharistia est Sacramentum perfectum dominicae Passionis, tamquam continens ipsum Christum passum» (Sum. Theol., 3rd, q. 73, a. 5, ad 2), and so that the expression could not be understood in the Berengarian sense, he added: «Continent ipsum Christum passum, non solum in significatione et figura sed etiam in rei veritate» (ibid., q. 75, a. 1). Christ, really present, is in the state of victim (passus), since in every Mass he is immolated: «Proprium est huic Sacramento, quod in eius celebratione Christus immoletur» (ibid., q. 83, a. 1). Such immolation recalls and represents the death of the Cross: «Per hoc Sacramentum repraesentatur Passio Christi» (ibid., q. 79, a. 2), inasmuch as in the Consecration the sacramental separation of the Body from the Blood takes place: «Repraesentatio dominicae Passionis agitur in ipsa Consecratione» (ibid., q. 80, a. 12, ad 3).

Three centuries later, in a period of stormy controversies, the Council of Trent took up the Thomistic themes and fixed them in sess. XXII, in one of the most beautiful pages of eucharistic literature: «In caena novissima, qua nocte tradebatur, ut dilectae sponsae suae Ecclesiae visibile relinqueret sacrificium, quo cruentum illud semel in Cruce peragendum repraesentatur eiusque memoria in finem usque saeculi permaneret... novum Pascha instituti seipsum ab Ecclesia per sacerdotes sub signis visibilibus immolandum» (Denz-U, 938).

II. THE NATURE OF THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

Until the denials of Protestantism no one had deliberately studied the intimate nature of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. When, under the pressure of circumstances, theologians set about it, the Council of Trent, gathering the data of Revelation as explained by the Fathers and the scholastics, laid down certain principles destined to be the pole star of every further investigation. After having established implicitly (sess. XII, chaps. 1-2; Denz-U, 939-40) that the Sacrifice of the Mass is realized in the consecration of the two species, it specifies: a) that in that central act of the liturgy there takes place an unbloody immolation, numerically distinct from that of Calvary: «In hoc divino sacrificio quod in Missa peragitur idem ille Christus continetur et incruente immolatur, qui in ara crucis semel seipsum cruente obtulit» (sess. XXII, chap. 2; Denz-U, 940); b) that the Eucharistic immolation represents and recalls that bloody one of the Cross: «Quo cruentum illud semel in Cruce peragendum repraesentatur eiusque memoria in finem usque saeculi permaneret» (ibid., chap. 1; Denz-U, 938); c) that the immolation of the Mass is sacramental since it is «sub signis et symbolis»: «Seipsum sub signis visibilibus immolandum... sub earundem rerum (panis et vini) symbolis offerent» (ibid., chap. 1; Denz-U, 938).

The path was marked out, but it was not followed by all. Alongside the traditional vein of immolation «sub signis et symbolis», theories and systems had a great development which, fastening upon only one part of the complex sacrificial doctrine, either exaggerated its scope or diminished its content.

1. Systems of physical immolation

The Protestants, especially Zwingli, laid down the principle that a true sacrifice implies a physical immolation that directly touches the victim. The principle was false, but, through a misunderstanding explicable in the heat of polemic, some Catholics accepted it and each sought to discover in the Mass an element that would satisfy its requirement.

St. Robert Bellarmine (De Missa, 1, 27) held that in the Communion of the priest a physical destruction takes place, since the Eucharistic Body of Jesus, at the passing away of the species, loses its «sacramental being». F. Suárez (De Eucharistia, disp. 73, sect. 1; disp. 75, sect. 5) maintained that at the moment of the Consecration the substance of the bread is destroyed and the substance of the Body of Christ is produced; in such a productive destruction «et in melius immutativa» he believes he discovers the essential element of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

G. B. Franzelin (De Eucharistia, 5th ed. edited by G. Filograssi, Rome 1932, pp. 451-55), developing the thought of F. Lugo (De Eucharistia, disp. 19, sect. 5), held that in the Mass the Body of the Lord, besides being subject to an external destruction, inasmuch as it is reduced «in statum declivorem», suffers internally an «exinanitio» (κένωσις), greater than that of the Cross, since, stripped of its bodily extension (quantitas magnitudinalis), it is deprived of the exercise of the senses.

Each of these theories rests on the false presupposition (v. EUCARISTIA) that in transubstantiation or in Communion the Body of Christ is touched, or that something belonging to it is destroyed. Moreover they prove radically unsuited to furnish that relation of likeness between the Mass and the Cross which is a requirement of Revelation, and they are incapable of evoking the idea of that sursum actio or «anaphora», inherent in the very concept of sacrifice.

2. Theories of oblation

At the end of the 19th century, in the full flowering of the history of religions and under the influence of the historico-cultural school of Wilhelm Schmidt, some theologians, who attached themselves to the sacrificial tradition of Bérulle and of Olier (French school), held that the essence of sacrifice in general consisted in the offering. They also believed that the simple act of oblation was the guiding thread of the history of human sacrifices, from the offerings of first-fruits of the Pygmies to the gift-sacrifice of many classical religions, from the oblationes of the Old Testament (loaves of proposition, sheaves of barley of the day of Pentecost) to the «oblata» of the Christian liturgy: an idea crystallized in the προσφόρο of the Greeks and the offero of the Latins. G. Graneris (La religione nella storia delle religioni, Turin 1935, p. 244) compared the history of sacrifice to a single trunk of oblation, onto which in the course of the centuries frequent grafts of immolation would have been practiced.

This current of ideas, transported to the theological plane, gave occasion to two powerful syntheses on the essence of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. M. de la Taille (v.) holds (Mysterium fidei. De augustissimo Eucharistiae Sacrificio atque Sacramento, 3rd ed., Paris 1931) that every sacrifice, after the fall of Adam, is constituted by three elements: the external and liturgical oblation (essential and primordial element), the immolation (accessory element, in the hypothesis of sin), the consumption, that is the sensible acceptance on the part of God (complementary element); the immolation moreover can precede, accompany or follow the oblation, so that the sacrifice can be the oblation of a thing already immolated in the past, or immolated in the present, or to be immolated in the future.

The redemptive sacrifice of Christ, which was expiatory of the sin of Adam, had its external and liturgical oblation in the Last Supper, its bloody immolation on Calvary; the Supper and the Cross therefore form a single reality, they unite like matter and form to constitute the one Sacrifice of the Redemption: «La Cène et la Passion se répondent et se compénèrent l'une l'autre. L'une présente à nos regards l'oblation sacerdotale, sensible, rituelle, que constitue l'immolation mystique; l'autre vient y ajouter l'immolation réelle, sanglante, pleinement suffisante, dont la première était l'image. Au Cénacle, parmi le décor de splendeur qu'il a affecté, le Christ est principalement prêtre; au Calvaire, dans son silence et sa nudité, il est principalement victime... La passion est immolatio hostiae oblatae, la Cène est oblatio hostiae immolandae» (id., Esquisse du Mystère de la Foi, Paris 1924, pp. 12-13; cf. Mysterium Fidei, 3rd ed., ibid. 1931, p. 701).

Offered in the Supper, immolated on the Cross, the sacrifice of Christ reached its perfection (consummatio) in the Resurrection and the Ascension and endures eternally not actively, but passively, inasmuch as the humanity of the Savior remains in the state of victim «Agnus tamquam occisus», accepted forever by the Father, who, crowning with glory the humanity of his Son, shows visibly that he accepts its sacrifice in perpetuity; therefore Christ in heaven, although glorious, is in an immolatory state before the eyes of God: «est ergo Christus hostia, antecedenter ad nostram oblationem, penes seipsum» (op. cit., p. 151).

The Mass is nothing but the liturgical oblation, made actualiter only by the Church, of the bloody immolation that occurred once only on the Cross, but now passively persevering before the divine Majesty: that is, the Church, taking possession, by means of transubstantiation, of the Body of Christ in its immolatory state, offers it in that condition to the Father and thus accomplishes a true sacrifice, that is the actual and present oblation (Altar) of a past immolation (Cross) but passively persevering (Heaven).

The system of the brilliant theologian enjoys great organicity, which is a strength, but also a weakness, since if one point gives way, the whole edifice collapses. Many points in reality do not withstand criticism. The numerical unity of the sacrifice of the Supper and that of the Cross is «inaudita a saeculo», as the author himself candidly confesses (op. cit., p. 30). Such unity is openly contradicted by the Council of Trent, which in the Supper and in the Cross sees two complete and distinct sacrifices (Denz-U, n. 940). As Ch.-V. Héris observes (*Il mistero di Cristo**, Italian trans. Brescia 1938, p. 268), in wanting to integrate the Eucharistic consecration of the Supper with the sacrifice of Calvary, one joins two realities of a different order, the one sacramental and the other physical. Moreover, even passing over the immolatory state of Christ in heaven (anything but proven), the Mass cannot be reduced to a simple ritual oblation on the part of the Church, since the Council of Trent (Denz-U, 940) requires a new oblation and a new immolation on the part of Christ himself.

According to M. Lepin (L'idée du sacrifice de la Messe d'après les théologiens depuis l'origine jusqu'à nos jours, 2nd ed., Paris 1926), the sacrifice of the Redemption consisted in the internal oblation with which Jesus constantly offers himself for men to the Father. The immolation of the Cross is the deicide of the Jews, which is connected chronologically (almost by a pre-established harmony), but not ontologically, with the interior oblation of Jesus, accepted by the Father as the price of man's redemption. The bloody immolation was not matter informed by Christ's spiritual oblation, but only a condition required by God in order to manifest to the world the work of human salvation. Since the dispositions with which he offered himself to the Father for men are constant in the heart of Christ — « semper vivens ad interpellandum pro nobis » (Hebr. 7:25) — his sacrifice, begun in the Incarnation, offered in the Presentation, immolated on the Cross, glorified in the Resurrection, consummated in Glory, endures through all the phases of his earthly, heavenly and Eucharistic life, for all eternity.

In this perspective the Mass is nothing but the ritual oblation, made by the Church, of the interior offering that Jesus presently raises toward the Father under the Eucharistic species. The Church takes hold of Christ's internal sacrifice, in the mystery of the Consecration, and makes it her own, as the body that associates itself with the sentiments of the Head, in order to offer it to the Father under the sensible symbols of the sacramental immolation; or rather, it is Christ who draws the Church's oblation into the orbit of his own offering, ennobling and unifying it: « Ainsi le Christ n'ajoute pas son offrande à celle de l'Eglise : il s'incorpore cette première offrande, l'absorbe et la convertit en la sienne, de telle sorte que l'offrande de l'Eglise devient l'offrande même du Christ » (op. cit., p. 755).

But even this conception, however seductive and presented with a solemn historical apparatus by the learned Sulpician, laid itself open to no slight criticisms. Apart from the improbability of the idea of the sacrifice as internal oblation, from the dogmatic point of view the present system does not seem to square perfectly either with Scripture, which brings out the immolation of the Cross as the prevailing element of the redemptive sacrifice, or with Trent, which in the Mass requires (Denz-U, 940) a new immolation distinct from that of Calvary.

3. The sacrifice-communion

Once R. Smith's theory had established itself at the beginning of the twentieth century, according to which sacrifice is nothing but a meal taken in common by a group of men in order to strengthen social and religious bonds, the idea of the sacrifice-communion also made headway among certain theologians.

F. S. Renz (Die Geschichte der Messopfer-Begriffs oder der alte Glaube und die neuen Theorien über das Wesen des unblutigen Opfers, 2 vols., Dillingen-Frisinga 1902), after a detailed examination of the patristic and theological tradition, sketched a speculative synthesis whose guiding principles are the following: the Mass, by its nature as a relative and unbloody sacrifice, presupposes a victim previously immolated; this immolation (which does not constitute the essence of the sacrifice) took place on Calvary, which was the one true sacrifice of Christ, of which the Mass is but a representation and, as it were, a continuation: the Consecration in the Mass does not immolate Jesus Christ anew, but forms, as it were, the connecting link between Christ and the faithful, between the Head and the members, because, by making present the Lamb previously immolated and presenting him under the species of bread and wine, it as it were serves him up to the faithful in a mystical banquet. It appears as the prior act, indissolubly united to the Communion, in which the essence of the Mass consists. In Communion the faithful, eating the divine victim, turns away from sin and draws near to God. In this act of union with God St. Augustine saw the chief end and the intimate nature of sacrifice, which is « omne opus, quod agitur ut sancta societate inhaereamus Deo » (De civitate Dei, 10, 6: PL 41, 283). The holy Doctor summed up the whole thought of the nascent Church, which never saw in Communion a descent of the Divinity toward man, but an ascent of man toward God. Thus the Eucharistic banquet is intermediate between the human table of earth and the wholly divine one of Heaven. Indeed the earthly table does not unite one to God, the heavenly table constitutes the perfect union, while the Eucharistic table separates from sin and brings man near to God by sanctifying him, that is, "sacrificing" him. In the Consecration Christ is made present as vital nourishment: it is almost the beginning and the presupposition of human sanctification (objective sacrifice); in Communion Christ enters the soul to unite it to God by sanctifying it, that is, sacrificing it (subjective sacrifice).

J. Bellord (The notion of sacrifice & The sacrifice of the New Law, in Ecclesiastical review, 33 [1905], pp. 1-14, 258-73), after a violent indictment of the sacrifice-immolation (destruction-theory), fully accepted the thesis of the sacrifice-communion (banquet-theory). In his view the sacrifice of the Redemption was accomplished on the Cross, but subordinately to the Last Supper, whose banquet constituted the principal and essential part of Christ's salvific work. The Mass, therefore, which repeats the Last Supper, is essentially nothing but a table, where the faithful by means of the Body and Blood of Jesus are intimately united to the Father, becoming his friends, heirs and table-companions. The use of the two species in the Eucharist has the sole purpose of providing a perfect nourishment, that is, consisting of food and drink; it therefore has no symbolic function with regard to the separation of the Blood from the Body that took place on the Cross.

According to A. Stolz (De Sacramenti, Freiburg im Br. 1942, pp. 162-91), in present-day man the two antithetical states of elevation and of sin are summed up. By the first man tends toward union with God, by the second he is driven away from it. God devised a marvelous plan of salvation: the Incarnation and the Passion of his Only-begotten. Indeed Jesus Christ: a) by the Incarnation assumed man's twofold condition: on the one hand, union with God (as the Word ever united to the Father, as man ever conjoined to the Word through the Hypostatic Union), on the other, separation, because the humanity assumed was caro peccati, taken from the massa damnata and destined to death (Gen. 2:17): b) by the Passion he overcame the second (indeed, by dying, he destroyed the flesh of sin) and made the first triumph (indeed, by rising, his flesh became πνεύμα, as St. Paul says [I Cor. 15:45], that is, so spiritualized as to be capable of the perfect union with God, which followed in the Ascension, when « apparuit vultui Dei » [Hebr. 9:24]).

Man, in order to escape his fate, must follow the itinerary traced by Christ, dying to sin and rising again to Grace, that is, to union with God. This process of real imitation of the twofold phase of the Redemption begins with Baptism (death to sin and resurrection to Grace, according to Rom. 6:3-11) and is completed with the Eucharist, through which the faithful die perfectly, at least sacramentaliter, and are united to God through Christ. The M. is a sacrifice, since, Jesus Christ being present in it and always united to God, the faithful take possession of and make their own that act of union and thus are joined to God; for it is in union with God that the formal reason of sacrifice is found, according to the classic doctrine of St. Augustine: "Sacrificium est omne opus, quod agitur ut sancta societate inhaereamus Deo" (De civitate Dei, 10, 6: PL 41, 283).

The M. is therefore a sacrifice, because the Mystical Body in Communion sacramentally appropriates to itself the death of Jesus Christ (separation from sin, the negative element) in order to be united with Christ and through him with God (resurrection to Grace and consequent union with God, the positive element). Such seems to be the genuine thought of Stolz, as can be gathered from his rich but not always clear exposition.

These theories agree in identifying the essence of the M. in sacramental Communion. Against such a conception there are grave difficulties. It is historically certain that many true sacrifices were devoid of communion, for example, the holocaust of the Hebrews and the immolation of the Cross. Moreover, since Communion is an act directed to the benefit of the faithful, it cannot constitute the essence of sacrifice, which in its fundamental concept evokes the idea of a thing presented to God: while communion descends to man, sacrifice ascends to God. In the present hypothesis, the M. is no longer the sacrifice of Jesus united to his Church, as the Council of Trent teaches (Denz-U, 940), but becomes the exclusive sacrifice of the Mystical Body, in some way severed from its Head. Renz then fell into an evident error when he affirmed that the M. is not in itself a perfect sacrifice, but only the prolonged shadow of the Cross. Furthermore, supposing this theory to be true, one would have to conclude that when the faithful do not approach the eucharistic table they have not participated in the sacrifice. Lastly, Renz and Stolz seem to confuse the intrinsic nature of the sacrificial act with its more or less secondary end, union with God through an act of love (cf. the condemnation by Pius V against Baius; Denz-U, 1945).

4. Sacramental immolation

With the reflowering of scholasticism there came about a return to the traditional conceptions of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. The liturgical rebirth and the renewed study of the Fathers led many theologians to rediscover the thread of that theologia perennis which joins the earliest speculations with the canons of the Council of Trent. The first decisive step was taken by Cardinal L. Billot (De Sacramentis, I, 7th ed., Rome 1932, pp. 582-654), who, at the end of the last century, pointed out the necessity of seeking in the M. the immolation of Jesus not in a physical reality, which would compromise the absolute identity of the eucharistic Body with the glorified one, but in the order of signs, that is, in that same economy of symbolic and sacramental realities in which the sacrifice is accomplished. Starting from the idea of transubstantiation, the keystone of the whole eucharistic mystery, Billot drew from it an important corollary: since under the species of bread, by the words of the Consecration (si verborum), there is only the Body, and under the species of wine only the Blood, in the Eucharist there is verified sub signis a separation of the Body from the Blood, a mystical immolation present (status immolationis; habitus externus violentae mortis), which by its appearance evokes the death of the Cross, vividly representing its bloody immolation.

While the explanation of the eminent theologian gathered wide assent, in Germany the liturgical school of O. Casel (v.) made headway, to which the doctrine of mystical immolation seemed too cold and external. To the purely representative sign a real and profound content was to be given. A vast and complex synthesis was laboriously constructed, dominated by ideas of striking originality. According to O. Casel (Das Gedächtnis des Herrn in der altchristlichen Liturgie, Freiburg im Br. 1918; Das christlichen Kultmysterium, Regensburg 1932) the essence of Christianity consists in the union of the Church with Christ, so that all men may be made partakers of the saving work of the Redeemer. Such a union is not realized in a purely moral way, but through a physical contact between the work of the Redeemer and the activity of the redeemed. This contact, which time and space seem to prevent, is brought about in a marvelous way in the liturgy, which implies in its every act (in the Sacrifice and in the Sacraments, in the Sacramentals and in the Divine Office) not only the presence of Christ but also of his every saving action, whether internal (acts of love, of obedience) or external (Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, Ascension, Parousia).

The presence of Christ with the whole complex of his saving acts comes about in a manner that remains this side of God's omnipresence, but that surpasses the limited presence of bodies (circumscriptive), of the soul (informative), and of the Angels (definitive), following rather the laws of sacramental presence, which is supernatural, pneumatic, mystical (Mysteriengegenwart).

In this conception the M. is held to be a sacrifice not because an interior offering (Lepin) or an exterior one (De la Taille) is accomplished in it, not because a physical immolation (Bellarmine, Suárez, Franzelin) is verified in it or a mystical immolation (Billot) is enacted in it, but because it makes present (re-presents) the very immolation of Calvary. The M. is the same (numerically identical) sacrifice of the Cross, which through transubstantiation acquires a new ubi and a new quando. The M. makes its way, as it were, through the crowd of the centuries, takes possession of the drama that unfolded two thousand years ago, and by a marvelous sacramental transposition re-presents it in this determined fragment of time and space (new location and "when-location" of the Cross).

The Caselian conception, though furnished with so many philological and liturgical arguments, immediately laid itself open to harsh criticisms and grave reservations, since the new quandocatio of the historical fact of Calvary seemed metaphysically repugnant; the hypothesis in fact implies a singular "contemporaneity" with all times of the bloody immolation of the Cross, from which the absolute identity of the eucharistic Christ with the celestial one would be irremediably compromised, which is an ineradicable requirement of the Catholic faith.

To obviate these difficulties A. Vonier (A key to the doctrine of the Eucharist, London 1925) deemed it necessary to return to the Thomistic-flavored interpretation of Billot, perfecting it with a new element. Sacramental immolation for Vonier is not only a representation of the Cross, but a continuation and prolongation of it. By separating si Sacramenti the Body from the Blood, the Church realizes and prolongs the essence of the sacrifice of Calvary. In the Eucharist the earthly phase of Jesus' life, the state of death, does not exclude the celestial phase, the state of glory, but what surrounds, even really, the Body separated from the Blood, goes beyond the sphere of the sacramental sign.

This brilliant explanation had the defect of neglecting the interior element, which constitutes the soul of every sacrifice. Other theories therefore appeared which, filling this gap, sought to harmonize the external element with the internal one (cf. Ch. V. Héris, Le mystère du Christ, Paris 1927, pp. 332-68; E. Masure, Le sacrifice du chef, ibid. 1932, pp. 253-250; A. Michel, Messe, in DThC, X, coll. 1276-77). Convinced assertors of the interior offering of Jesus, actualiter elicita in every Mass, as the vivifying principle of all worship, and sacramentaliter significata by the external immolation, are R. Garrigou-Lagrange (L'amore di Dio e la Croce di Gesù, II, Italian trans. by I. Paci, Turin 1936, p. 321) and M. Cordovani (Il Santificatore, Rome 1939, pp. 219-20).

Accepting the flower of these speculations, one may hold that in the Mass there occurs a mystical immolation, that is, an external mactatio, constituted by the sacramental separation of the Blood from the Body of Christ, a mactatio which, being realized "in genere signi sacri seu Sacramenti", simultaneously signifies the immolation of the Cross (the Mass is therefore a relative sacrifice) and the internal actual oblation of Christ and of the Church, which constitutes the soul of the Eucharistic worship (the Mass is thus a true sacrifice, de praesenti, even while renewing and applying the sacrifice of Calvary). This doctrine is in harmony with the three dogmatic principles of the Council of Trent (Denz-U, 938, 940), which definitively fixed the data of the question. Scripture indeed affirms that in the Eucharist the Body of Jesus is "given", διδόμενον (Lk. 22:19) and that his Blood is "shed", ἐκχυννόμενον (Mt. 26:28). Since such an immolation cannot physically touch the Body and Blood of Jesus, it reaches them in their sacramental state, separating the one from the other, insofar as they are under the Eucharistic signs. This concept forms, as it were, the guiding thread of the whole patristic-theological tradition, from the incisive affirmations of St. Gregory of Nazianzus (Ep. 171: PG 73, 279), of St. Augustine (Ep. 98, 9: PL 33, 363) and of St. Gregory the Great (Dial., 4, 58: PL 77, 425), to the first attempts at scholastic synthesis, from the clear formulas of St. Thomas to the slow systematic elaboration of modern theologians.

This age-old doctrine received its seal in the encyclical Mediator Dei (Nov. 20, 1947): "On the altar the shedding of blood is not possible, but divine wisdom has found a wonderful way of making manifest the sacrifice of our Redeemer, with external signs that are a symbol of death ("per signa externa, quae sunt indices mortis"). For by means of the transubstantiation of the bread into the Body and of the wine into the Blood of Christ, just as his Body is really present, so is his Blood; the Eucharistic species, under which he is present, symbolize the bloody separation of the Body and the Blood. Thus the memorial of his real death on Calvary is repeated in every sacrifice of the altar, because by means of distinct symbols ("per distinctos indices"), it is signified and shown that Jesus Christ is in the state of victim... It must further be noted ("etiam atque etiam animadvertendum"), that the Eucharistic Sacrifice consists essentially in the unbloody immolation of the divine victim, which is mystically manifested by the separation of the sacred species and by their oblation made to the Eternal Father" (AAS, 39 [1947], pp. 548-49, 563).

III. THE MASS IN THE ECONOMY OF SALVATION

The Catholic faith holds, in harmony with the conviction of all peoples, that sacrifice is the supreme act of worship, but it adds that, since this has ceased to be purely symbolic, after Christ made reality succeed the figures, the sacrificial rite acquires a new and unique value, henceforth full of the reality it expresses. Just as all the forms of Mosaic worship were concentrated in sacrifice, so in the Mass all the elements of religion are gathered together, reaching in it their highest manifestation. The ancient oblation still subsists; one continues to offer, with bread and wine, the firstfruits of food and the symbols of life; yet in Christian worship, more spiritualized, there remains of these material realities only a mystic veil, beneath which the Word of God communicates Himself to men as "the bread of life" (John 6:51) and "the drink of immortality" (St. Ignatius, Eph., 20, 2).

The immolation likewise remains, but since the reign of shadows has vanished, the victim is Christ Himself. The Flesh and Blood of the God-Man are presented under distinct signs, become mortis indices, a remembrance of His Passion, and at the same time they are given under the species of bread and wine, emblems of life, because life springs from His death. The elements of the offering, symbols of creation as those of the unbloody death are emblems of redemption, are found united and identified in the sacrifice of the Mass, since redemption is a creation repaired (cf. St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres., 5, 2: PG 7, 1126-27).

Through the firstfruits of creation, transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus, the Church receives from God Himself the gifts to offer Him, which by a divine exchange become seeds of life cast into the furrows of time so that they may germinate in eternity (cf. St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres., 4, 18, 5: PG 7, 1027-29).

As the term of the figures of the Old Testament and the elevation of creation, the Mass is above all the fulfillment of the Redemption: "Effectum quem Passio Christi fecit in mundo, hoc Sacramentum facit in homine" (St. Thomas, Sum. Theol., 3a, q. 79, a. 1). Dying on the Cross, Christ redeemed the world; renewing sacramentally His death in the Eucharist, He applies to each soul the merits acquired by His Blood. The Cross and the Mass are integral parts of the same salvific plan, two panels of the same picture. On Golgotha, all are redeemed de iure (in actu primo); at the Altar, in the conscious and willing adherence of individual faithful, the Redemption becomes each one's own: de facto (in actu secundo). Christ, who on the Cross represented as Caput Ecclesiae constituendae the whole of humanity, and for it offered Himself as a victim infinitely pleasing, at the Altar, as Caput Ecclesiae constitutae, renews the same oblation together with all the members of His Mystical Body, which as "the redeemed city offers itself through Him as a universal sacrifice" (St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, 10, 6 and 20: PL 41, 283 and 921), individual faithful becoming in Christo and per Christum a single catholica hostia (cf. L. Thomassin, De Incarnatione, 1.10, c. 20-21). Mediator between God and men on Golgotha, Jesus prolongs His work at the Altar, present with all the prerogatives of Glory beneath the symbolic veils. At the moment of the Eucharistic Consecration, everything converges toward Christ in Glory, everything gravitates around Him on earth. In the one and the other state it is the same Incarnate Word, High and Eternal Priest of the New Covenant (cf. Sum. Theol., 3a, q. 83, a. 4).

The genius of Raphael rendered in sensible forms, in the Disputation of the Sacrament, the inner logic of this divine plan. The first scene represents the most distinguished Doctors and thinkers of Christianity in the attitude best suited to their theology and to the various shadings of their holiness. The Host placed on the Altar, in a golden disc of light, forms the center of the ideal assembly. The second scene, placed above the first, shows Paradise. At the center of a glory of Angels appears the Eternal Father, who blesses the world. He is half hidden by a luminous circle, where the three figures are framed of Jesus, who shows His scars, of Mary who adores Him, of the Baptist who points Him out as the Lamb of God. At the sides two evocative ranks of patriarchs, prophets and apostles. The first scene shows the Church militant gathered around the Eucharist, Sacrifice and Sacrament; the second shows the Church triumphant gathered around Christ, who, showing the stigmata of the Passion, perpetually offers His merits and His satisfactions to God for men: "Semper vivens ad interpellandum pro nobis" (Heb. 7:25). The two parts are united by the symbolic bond of the dove. The work of Creation, over which the Father presides, the work of Redemption accomplished by the Son, have their perfection in Sanctification, appropriated to the Holy Spirit. The mystic dove is surrounded by four graceful Angels, who hold the Gospels open. In this it is indicated that the Christian faith, in the sacrifice of the Eucharist, open onto Glory, is founded in the word of God contained in the Scriptures. In this theological and pictorial synthesis shines the centrality of Christ; the same Word, who in the bosom of the Father created the world, incarnate in the womb of Mary saved the human race, in the heart of the Church sanctifies souls in the unbloody sacrifice consumed by the fire of the Spirit, to draw all to the light of Glory.

Eucharistia, 2nd ed., Malines 1941, pp. 220-94; E. Doronzo, De sacrificio eucharistico, Milwaukee 1948.

Special works: a) On Scripture: I. E. Belser, Der Opfercharakter der Eucharistie, in Theologische Quartalschrift, 95 (1913), p. 1 ff.; I. Lebreton, Eucharistie, in DFC, I. coll. 1563-1567; C. Ruch, La Messe dans l'Écriture, in DTHC, X. coll. 795-863; W. Goossens, Les origines de l'Eucharistie Sacrement et sacrifice, Gembloux 1931; I. Coppens, Eucharistie, in DBL, II. coll. 1178; B. Mariani, De sacrificio a Malachia praedicto, in Antonianum, 9 (1934), pp. 193-242, 261-82, 451-74; A. Vaccari, Melchisedech, rex Salem, proferens panem et synum, in Verbum Domini, 18 (1938), pp. 208-14, 235-43; F. Amiot, L'enseignement de si Paul, II, Paris 1938, pp. 45-47; F. M. Braun, Les origines de la Messe, ibid. 1946 (pamphlet); I. Bonsérven, L'Évangile de Paul, ibid. 1948, pp. 269-75.

b) On the Sts. Fathers: A. Vacant, Histoire de la conception du sacrifice de la Messe dans l'Église latine, Lyon 1894; L. Ruch, La Messe d'après les Pères, in DTHC, X. coll. 864-964; M. Blain, Le sacrifice de l'Eucharistie d'après si Augustin, Lyon 1906; G. Philips, Le sacrifice eucharistique dans la tradition africaine, in Revue ecclésiastique de Liège, 22 (1930-31), pp. 137-54; A. Meunier, Sacrificium eucharisticum apud Patres latinos, ibid., 29 (1937), pp. 358-66; W. Lampen, Doctrina i. Io. Chrysost, de Christo se afferente in Missa, in Antonion, 18 (1943), pp. 1-16.

c) On the Scholastics: general survey in M. Lepin (op. cit. in the text); W. Goetzman, Das eucharistische Opfer nach der Lehre der älteren Scholastik, Freiburg im Br. 1901; A. Gaudel, Le sacrifice de la Messe dans l'Église latine jusqu'à la veille de la réforme, in DTHC, X. coll. 964-1085; H. King, Dans Scati doctrina de sacrificio, praesertim de sacrificio Missae, in Estudis franciscans, 39 (1927), pp. 408-25; 40 (1928), pp. 381-436; R. Garrigou-Lagrange, De sacrificio Missae sec. 1, Albertum Magnum, in Angelicum, 9 (1932), pp. 213-24; Henricus a S. Theresia, Notio sacrificii in communi in synthesi 1. Thomae, Rome 1934; G. Roschini, L'essenza del sacrificio della M.: la vera completa dottrina di s. Tommaso, in Palestra del clero, 25 (1937), pp. 25-33; A. Hoffmann, De sacrificio Missae texto 2. Thomae, in Angelicum, 15 (1938), pp. 262-85.

d) On the Protestants and the Council of Trent: I. Rivière, La Messe durant la période de la réforme et du Concile de Trente, in DTHC, X. coll. 1085-1142; M. Alonso, Di sacrificio eucaristico de la Ultima Cena del Señor según el Concilio Tridentino, Madrid 1929; E. Messenger, The reformation, the Mass and priesthood, London 1935; S. Frankl, Doctrina Horii de sacrificio Missae cum decreto tridentino comparato, in Collezionee theologiae, 1935, pp. 281-339; S. Resende, O sacrificio da Missa em D. Frei Gaspar do Canal, Porto 1941; I. Armaibo Suárez, La imolación del sacrificio eucarístico según el Concilio Tridentino y el decreto conciliar, Quito 1942; E. Jamalullo, Le sacrifice eucharistique au Concile de Trente, in Nouvelle revue théologique, 67 (1945), pp. 513-31; id., L'unité sacrificielle de la Croix et l'autel au Concile de Trente, in Ephem, theologie, Louvain, 22 (1946), pp. 34-69.

Works on the essence of the M.: a) General survey: A. G. Martimer, Eucharistie sacrifice, London 1901; A. Michel, La Messe chez les théologiens postérieurs au Concile de Trente, in DTHC, X. coll. 1143-1316; F. Kramp, Scrittura eudita de sacrificio Missae, in Gregorianum, 2 (1921), pp. 416-42 (examination of works published in the decade 1910-20); A. Collart, Théories sur l'essence de la Messe, in Collations Namurcenses, 1930, pp. 210-19, 376-91; 1931, pp. 10-25, 207-27; E. Leroux, La controverse sur l'essence du sacrifice de la Messe, in Revue ecclésiastique de Liège, 1930-31, pp. 341-51; M. Báuerle a Neukirch, Doctrina speculativa theologorum recentiorum de sacrosancto Missae sacrificio, in Estudis franciscans, 44 (1932), pp. 321-38; E. F. Dowd, A conspectus of modern catholic thought on the essence of the eucharistic sacrifice, Washington 1937; I. Van der Meersch, Annotat. de sacrificio Missae, Bruges 1940; F. A. Piersanti, L'essenza della M., Rome 1942; B. Cappello, Du sens de la Messe, in Les quest. liturg. et paroiss., 30 (1945), pp. 1-25, 59-78.

b) Sui sistemi dell'immolazione fisica. Moderni sostenitori: I. C. Broussolle, Théorie de la Messe, 2ª ed., Parigi 1913; E. Hugon, La ste Eucharistie, 2ª ed., ivi 1917, pp. 311-28; I. Nicolassi, Die hl. Eucharistie als Opfer, Bosen 1919; I. M. Buathier, Le sacrifice dans le dogme et dans la vie chrétienne, 11ª ed., Parigi 1922; I. Brinktrine, Das Opfer der Euchar., Paderborn 1938.

c) On the theories of oblation: besides the Mysterium fidei, already cited, M. De la Taille developed his thought in Esquisse du mystère de la foi, 2nd ed., Paris 1924 and in M. Brillant, Eucharistia, Encyclopédie populaire sur l'Eucharistie, ibid. 1934, pp. 153-81. He was followed by A. D'Alès, De Eucharistia, ibid. 1929, pp. 109-24; Girolamo da Fallette, Stato attuale degli studi riguardo al sacrificio della s. M., in Palestra del clero, 19 (1931), pp. 1234-40; I. Connell, De Sacramentis Ecclesiae, Bruges 1933, pp. 271-73. Closer to him are the Jesuit F. de Lanversin, Esquisse d'une synthèse du sacrifice, in Recherches de science religieuse, 17 (1927), pp. 193-209; G. Albarelli, Il s. sacrificio della M., Pesaro 1937; G. Anichini, Sacramentum Redemptoris, L'Eucaristia nel dramma della Redenzione, Lucca 1947 (amplifies De la Taille's ideas). Numerous opponents, at times merciless: anonymous, Le sacrifice selon le p. de la Taille, in L'ami du clergé, 1923, p. 72 sgr. (critica serrata); V. Mac Nabb, A new theory of the sacrifice of the Mass, in The Irish ecclesiastical record, 1924, pp. 361-73 (molto severo); V. Cremers, Quelques réflexions sur le Mysterium fidei, in Studia catholica, 1925-26, pp. 57-70, 179-202; A. Swabs, The last Supper and Calvary, Londra 1926; I. Brodie-Broanan, The sacrifice of the New Law, Londra 1926; I. Classe, Etude critique de certaines propositions du Mysterium fidei, Delhaim 1927 (il più acre: forse il più ingiusto); I. Puig de la Bellacasa, La esencia del sacrificio de la Missa, in Estudios eclesiásticos, 10 (1931), pp. 65-96, 385-408; 538-33; 11 (1932), pp. 95-102; A. Verbanime, De distinctione inter sacrificium Crucis et sacrificium Missae, in Collations Brugenses, 1936, pp. 230-36; I. De la Taille più volte si difese in dotti articoli: Cornu et Poissio, in Gregorianum, 9 (1928), pp. 177-241; A propos d'un livre sur la Cène, ibid., 11 (1930), pp. 194-203 (risposta ad Alonso); The mystery of faith and human opinion contrasted and defined, Londra 1930 (raccolta di vari articoli). La polemica sostenuta dal De la Taille con il Billot, risoluto avversario, è narrata da I. Puig de la Bellacasa, La esencia del sacrificio de la Missa, in Estudios eclesiásticos, 8 (1929), pp. 365-80. Non meno rumore ha suscitato M. Lepin: L'idée du sacrifice dans la religion chrétienne, principalement d'après le p. de Coudron et M. Olier, Parigi-Lionne 1897; questa tesi giovanile fu sviluppata nell'ampio volume: L'idée du sacrifice de la Messe d'après les théologiens, sopra citato; cf. anche La Messe et nous, Parigi 1937. Larghi furono i consensi raccolti dal Lepin. Egli ritenne di essere nella linea dei grandi teologi della « scuola francese » (De Berulle, De Coudron, Olier, Thomassin), ma sul loro oblizionismo molto riserve su son fatte. Consapevoli oblizionisti sono P. Batifol, Leçons sur la Messe, Parigi 1919, pp. 175-90; I. Rivière, Un nouveau système sur l'essence de la Messe, in Revue des sciences religieuses, 1921, pp. 86-91 (a proposito dell'opera del Lamiro); I. M. Bover, De oblatione Christi eueresti secundum Epistolam ad Hebraeum, in Verbum Domini, 1 (1921), pp. 161-66; I. Bitterneieux, De nota destructivum in sacrificio Missae, in Divus Thomas, 4 (1927), pp. 35-36; F. Cimitier, Oblation et immolation, in Revue apologetique, 44-45 (1927), pp. 682-94; P. De Vooght, Le si sacrifice de la Messe, in Les questions liturgiques et paroissiales, 1927, pp. 195-224; A. Collart, De sacrificio-oblatione, in Collations Namurcenses, 9 (1931), pp. 207-27; B. V. Miller, The essence of the sacrifice of the Mass, in The clergy review, 10 (1935), pp. 329-41.

d) Sul sacrificio-comunione. Poco si è scritto: cf. F. Cabrol, Le canon romain et la Messe, in Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques, 3 (1909), pp. 514-15; A. Tanquerra, Synopsis theologiae dogmaticae, III, 22ª ed., Roma 1930, pp. 534-35; A. Van Hove, De Eucharistie, 2ª ed., Malines 1941, p. 255; A. Piolanti, De essentia sacrificii Missae sec. A. Stolle, in Eunice docese, Commentaria Urbaniana, 1 (1948), pp. 63-75; G. De Broglie, Pour une théologie du Festus Eucharistique, in Doctor Communis, 2 (1949), pp. 3-36; 3 (1950), pp. 16-42.

e) Sull'immolazione sacramentale. Vastissima produzione provocata da O. Casel, il quale espose il suo pensiero, non sempre in modo limpido, in numerose pubblicazioni: oltre le già ricordate, cf. Mysterium und Martyrium in den römischen Sakramentarien, in Jahrbuch für Liturgiewissenschaft, 2 (1922), pp. 18-38; Die Liturgie als Mysterienfeier, Friburgo in Br. 1923; Altchristlicher Kult und Antike, in Jahrbuch für Liturgiewissenschaft, 3 (1923), pp. 1-17; Die Messe als heilige Mysterienhandlung, in Benediktinische Monatschrift, 3 (1923), pp. 20-28, 97-104, 155-61; Das Gebet der Kirche im täglichen Offizium, in Die betende Kirche. Ein liturgisches Volksbuch, Abbazia S. Maria Laach 1924, pp. 182-206; Das Mysteriengedächtnis im Licht der Tradition, in Jahrbuch für Liturgiewissenschaft, 6 (1926), pp. 113-204; Mysterienfrömmigkeit, in Bonner Zeitschrift für Theologie und Seelsorge, 4 (1927), pp. 101-17; Antike und christliche Mysterien, in Bayerische Blätter für das Gymnasialschulwesen, 63 (1927), pp. 329-40; Mysteriengegenwart, in Jahrbuch für Liturgiewissenschaft, 8 (1928), pp. 145-224; Die Stellung des Kultmysteriums im Christentum, in Liturgische Zeitschrift, 3 (1930-31), pp. 39-53, 72-83, 103-15; Die Messopferlehre der Tradition, in Theologie und Glaube, 23 (1931), pp. 351-367; Zum neuen Kirchenjahr, in Liturgische Zeitschrift, 4 (1931-32), pp. 37-44; Das christlichen Kultmysterium, Ratisbona 1932; 2ª ed. ivi 1935; Neue Zeugnisse für das Kultmysterium, in Jahrbuch für Liturgiewissenschaft, 13 (1936), pp. 99-171; Glaube, Gnosis und Mysterium, ibid., 15 (1941), pp. 155-205; Das christliche Festmysterium, Paderborn 1941. Aderirono al Casel: J. De Séguier, Quelques réflexions sur le sacrifice eucharistique, in Nouvelle revue théologique, 56 (1929), pp. 289-99; G. Rohner, Messopfer-Kreuzesopfer, in Divus Thomas (Friburgo), 8 (1930), pp. 3-17, 145-74; I. M. Scheller, Zur Mysterienlehre, in Zeitschrift für Aszese und Mystik, 11 (1936), pp. 61-93. Simpatizzante: W. Goossens, Les origines de l'Eucharistie, Sacrament et sacrifice, Gembloux 1931, pp. 52-57. Avversario irriducibile è stato J. B. Umberg, Mysterium-Frömmigkeit, in Zeitschrift für Aszese und Mystik, 1 (1926), pp. 351-66; id., Die These von der Mysteriengegenwart, in Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie, 52 (1928), pp. 357-400; id., Sacramenta efficiunt quod significant, ibid., 54 (1930), pp. 95-105. Combatterono, più moderatamente, la stessa tesi I. Coppens, Le mystère eucharistique et les mystères poêters, in Cours et conférences des semaines liturgiques, VII, Lovanio 1920, pp. 111-124; I. Dillersberger, Eine neue Messopfertheorie, in Theologie und Glaube, 22 (1930), pp. 571-88; A. Stohr, Zu P. Odo Casels Mysteriumlehre, in Pastor Bonus, 1931, pp. 351-61; id., Der hl. Thomas, ein Kronzenge für P. Odo Casels Mysteriumtheorie, ibid., 1931, pp. 422-36; 1932, pp. 41-49; P. De Vought, A propos d'une conception symboliste de la Messe, in Divus Thomas, 9 (1932), pp. 310-17 (breve e chiaro); I. M. Hanssens, Estre liturgia cultus mysterieux?, in Periodica de re morali, canonica, liturgica, 1934, pp. 112-32, 137-60 (ricco e limpido); B. Poschmann, Mysteriengegenwart im Lichte des hl. Thomas, in Theologische Quartalschrift, 116 (1935), pp. 53-116 (molto importante); K. Prüm, Mysterion von Paulus bis Origenes, in Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie, 61 (1937), pp. 390-425 (osservazioni di uno specialista); G. Söhngen, Symbol und Wirklichkeit im Kultmysterium (Grenzfragen zwischen Theologie und Philosophie), 4, Bonn 1937; id., Der Wesensaufbau des Mysteriums (ibid., 6), ivi 1938 (l'opera più completa scritta contro Casel); A. Hoffmann, Der Begriff des Mysteriums bei Thomas von Aquin, in Divus Thomas (Friburgo), 17 (1939), pp. 30-60 (lucida critica); G. Söhngen, Le rôle agissant des mystères du Christ dans la liturgie, in Les questions liturgiques et paroissiales, 24 (1939), pp. 79-107 (critica di Casel); D. Winzen, Note complémentaire, ibid., pp. 108-13 (risposta a Söhngen). Tutta la polemica provocata da Casel è ben descritta in Th. Filthaut, Die Kontrozerie über die Mysterienlehre, Warendorf in W. 1947; e in sintesi da M. Becqué, Le mystère de la Messe, in Nouvelle Revue Théologique, 82 (1950), pp. 27-30. Il Billot è stato seguito da L. Labauche, Leçons de théologie dogmatique, IV, Parigi 1921, pp. 299-305; I. Grimal, Le sacerdoce et le sacrifice de N. S. J. - C., ivi 1926, pp. 231-42; G. Van Noort, De Sacramentis, I. Hilversum 1927, pp. 374-79; L. Lercher, Institutiones theologiae dogmaticae, IV, Innsbruck 1930, pp. 481-482; I. Van der Meersch, Annotationes de sacrificio Missae, Bruges 1940, e da molti altri. Al Vonier preparò la via M. S. Gillet, Les harmonies de la transsubstantiation, in Revue de sciences philosophiques et théologiques, 8 (1914-18), pp. 258-69; l'opera del Vonier è stata tradotta da P. Roguet, La clef de la doctrine eucharistique, Lione 1943. Della stessa corrente: L. De Faulconier, Le prêtre représentant du Christ et de l'Église dans le sacrifice eucharistique, in Cours et conférences des semaines liturgiques, VII, Lovanio 1920, pp. 103-107; B. Augier, Le sacrifice ecclésiastique, in Revue thomiste, 37 (1932), pp. 739-57; 39 (1934), pp. 201-22; F. Dickamp, Theologiae dogmaticae manuale, IV, Parigi-Roma 1934, pp. 233-35; A. M. Hoffmann, De sacrificio Missae sec. 1. Thomson, in Angelicum, 15 (1938), pp. 262-85.

For the doctrine, which enhances the best data of the sacramental conception of the Mass, cf. R. Garrigou-Lagrange, Le Sauveur et son amour pour nous, Paris 1933; id., An Christus non solum virtualiter sed actualiter afferat Missas quae quatidie celebrantur, in Angelicum, 19 (1942), pp. 105-18; M. Cordovani, Animadversiones in sacrificium Missae, in Angelicum, 8 (1931), p. 543 ff.; id., Il Santificatore, Rome 1939, pp. 219-20. The thought of the two Dominicans is harmonized by F. A. Piersanti, L'essenza del sacrificio della M., Rome 1940, pp. 153-71; G. Roschini, La S. M.,

Turin 1941; I. Filograssi, De Eucharistia, 4th ed., Rome 1947, pp. 269-320; A. Piolanti, De Sacramentis, 2nd ed., ibid. 1947, pp. 255-266; A. Michel, La Messe chez les théologiens postérieurs au Concile de Trente, in DThC, X, coll. 1143-1316 (a rich article); A. Piolanti, Un'osservazione sulla teoria sacrificale di E. Duranzo, in Euntes Docete. Commentaria Urbaniana, 2 (1949), pp. 121-23; G. Sartori, Le concezioni sacramentali del sacrificio della M., Bassano del Grappa 1949.

On the Mass in the plan of salvation: Baldwin of Canterbury, Liber de Sacramento altaris: PL 204, 695; F. Henninger, Apologia del cristianesimo, Italian trans. by B. Galsandere and I. Donzella, III, Pistoia 1896, pp. 469-75; M. D'Hulst, Conferenze sulla morale cristiana e sociale, Italian trans., III, Turin 1912, pp. 161-65;

M. M. Philipon, Les Sacraments dans la vie chrétienne, Paris 1945, pp. 145-98; Th. De man, La spiritualité de la Messe, ibid. 1946; E. Mersch, La théologie du corps mystique, II, ibid.-Brussels 1946, pp. 320-325; R. Graber, Le Christ dans ses Sacraments, Paris 1947, pp. 31-98; F. Taymans d'Eyperson, La Ste Trinité et les Sacraments, Brussels 1949, pp. 141-32; M. I. Scheeben, I misteri del cristianesimo, Italian trans., Brescia 1949, pp. 355-364; C. V. Hérià, Il mistero di Dio, Italian trans., ibid. 1950, pp. 199-200; A. Penzo, De habitudine Cordis Iesu ad mysterium eucharisticum, Rome 1950 (unpublished thesis of the Athenaeum of Propaganda Fide), Antonio Piolanti.

II. THE MASS IN MORAL THEOLOGY AND IN LAW.

I. FRUITS OF THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

The fruits of the Eucharistic Sacrifice are bound to its ends. Jesus Christ indeed instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice: a) as a protestative sign of the infinite excellence of God and of his supreme and absolute dominion over the life and death of man (latrietic end); b) to give thanks to God for the benefits received from him (eucharistic end); c) to appease God on behalf of sinners (propitiatory and satisfactory end); d) to implore from God the necessary helps (impetratory end). From these ends derive the fruits of the Eucharistic Sacrifice; that is: merit; impetration; propitiation; satisfaction.

1. Merit

When by means of the Eucharistic Sacrifice the worship due to God is rendered and he is thanked for the benefits received, a good work is accomplished, indeed the good work par excellence; therefore, as such, meritorious before God. This fruit is produced ex opere operantis, yet infallibly connected with the offering of the Sacrifice.

2. Impetration

With the Eucharistic Sacrifice (which is perfect prayer) one can impetrate all that is obtained by prayer; that is, conversion to God, the strength necessary to overcome temptations and practice the virtues, God's help in necessities, comfort in adversities, and even temporal goods useful to the salvation of the soul. The efficacy of impetration depends on the impetrants, who are Jesus Christ, the Church, the offering priest and those who in some way participate in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Now the impetration of Jesus Christ is by its nature infallible, not depending on the probity of the offering priest; the impetration of the Church is in itself efficacious, independent of the dispositions of the minister; that of the priest and of all the other offerers is efficacious ex opere operantis, that is, commensurate with the dispositions of the subject.

3. Propitiation

Propitiation, that is, the remission of sins, is wrought mediately: a) by way of impetration, inasmuch as through the Eucharistic Sacrifice sinners obtain the help of actual Grace which stirs them to the acts necessary to obtain the forgiveness of sins; b) probably also by way of placation, inasmuch as God, appeased by the Eucharistic Sacrifice, ceases to deny to the sinner the helps he needs to do penance. Sins indeed provoke the just indignation of God, who therefore denies special helps.

4. Satisfaction

Satisfaction, that is, the remission of the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven, is produced by the Eucharistic Sacrifice immediately and ex opere operato, according to the measure established by God and unknown to men, having regard also to the dispositions of him for whom the Eucharistic Sacrifice is offered. This is the doctrine taught by Trent (sess. XII, De Sacrificio Missae, chaps. 2-3; sess. XXV, Decretum de Purgatorio). Propitiation and satisfaction are an infallible effect of the Eucharistic Sacrifice when he for whom it is offered places no obstacle (obex) in the way (Council of Trent, sess. XXII, De Sacrificio Missae, can. 1).

II. SUBJECT

The subjects of the fruits of the Eucharistic Sacrifice are all those who participate in it, that is, the offerers. The offerers are: Jesus Christ, the principal offerer, in whose name and by whose power the visible priest acts; the Church, which offers through its minister consecrated and delegated by it, as is clear from the whole rite and from the prayers of the Mass; the celebrating priest in the name of Jesus Christ and of the Church; all those who participate in the priestly action (that is, the one who has the Mass celebrated, by offering or providing the alms for the priest; the one who offers the material things necessary for the celebration; the one who serves at the altar; the one who assists at the Mass).

The person for whom the Eucharistic Sacrifice is celebrated is not an offerer; for although he may belong to one of the above-mentioned categories (and therefore be himself an offerer), nevertheless he is not so necessarily. In fact the Mass can be celebrated for the dead and even for unbelievers.

And, with regard to the participants, the fruit is general, or special, or most special. This premised:

1) Merit cannot be received by Jesus Christ because he is not a wayfarer, a condition necessary for meriting. He does, however, apply to us the merits of the most excellent works he performed as a wayfarer. Nor does the Church merit because, although it has consecrated and delegated the priests to the sacrificial action, nevertheless, while the priests celebrate the Mass, it does nothing. All the other offerers (the celebrating priest, those who have the Mass celebrated, the servers, the hearers) merit de condigno, if they are in a state of Grace; otherwise only de congruo.

2) As for impetration, without doubt Jesus Christ, as principal offerer, impetrates for men, as is known from Holy Scripture: «but this one (Jesus), because he continues forever, has a priesthood that does not pass away. And therefore he is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through him: living always to intercede for us» (Hebr. 7, 24-25). Likewise the Church impetrates through the ministry of the priest delegated by it.

Finally the priest, and all those who with him offer this Sacrifice, impetrate not only for themselves, but also for those for whom the Sacrifice is offered.

3) The propitiatory fruit can be received by all the faithful living in the communion of the Church, because all can impetrate and for all it is possible to impetrate the helps necessary to repent of sins and obtain their forgiveness.

4) The satisfactory fruit is received principally by the dead, because the suffrages of the Mass can shorten the temporal punishment due for sins. But it can also be received by the living. It is indeed true that the more common opinion denies this, from the persuasion that this fruit, being finite, would very soon be exhausted if all the faithful partook of it (cf. F. Suárez, De Eucharistia, in Opera omnia, XX, Paris 1860, disp. 88, sect. II, n. 3). But the opposite opinion is not without true and solid foundation, because the satisfactory fruit, although finite, is nevertheless so abundant that all the faithful can be partakers of it (cf. A. Ballerini - D. Palmieri, Opus theologicum morale, IV, Prato 1900, tract. X, De Sacramentis, sect. IV, De Eucharistia, n. 239, pp. 193-94).

It has been said that the propitiatory and satisfactory fruits are received by all the faithful. But it is beyond doubt that they are received in a particular way by the celebrating priest and by all who contribute in any way to the sacrificial action. The fruit received by these is called by some general; by others special, because in a certain manner it approaches the most special, received by the celebrating priest, because these faithful are the closest to him in the sacrificial action.

Those for whom the priest applies the Mass receive the special or ministerial fruit (considered by some as distinct from the special); that is, the impetratory, the propitiatory and, for those who are in a state of Grace, the satisfactory.

III. VALUE OF THE MASS

The Eucharistic Sacrifice, considered in itself, is without doubt of infinite value, since the Victim that is offered is of infinite dignity. It follows that through the Eucharistic Sacrifice a worship is rendered to God than which no other is greater. If, however, the Eucharistic Sacrifice is considered insofar as through it Jesus Christ applies to men the merits of his passion and death (without doubt of infinite value), it is not so easy to assert that its value is infinite.

In this regard the following considerations must be kept in mind: 1) impetration may be called infinite insofar as the goods that are asked for and the number of those for whom they are asked can be increased without any limit, without the efficacy being thereby diminished; 2) satisfaction is really finite intensively because, however great the offense for which satisfaction is made, a temporal punishment is always remitted, and therefore a finite one; 3) extensively, because however great the number of those to whom the fruit of satisfaction extends, it is always a finite number.

This being established, one may ask whether the Eucharistic Sacrifice, applied to many, other conditions being equal, benefits each one as if it were applied to him alone. It is commonly admitted that the fruit of impetration and propitiation coming to each one does not diminish with an increase in the participants. On the other hand, it is the common opinion that the satisfactory fruit (that is, the special or ministerial fruit coming to each one) diminishes in proportion to the number of participants. And the practice of the Church is to apply the special fruit of the M. to one alone or to a few. If the contrary opinion were true, it would always be better to offer for all the dead, indeed for all the faithful living and dead. Moreover, it is the common sentiment of the faithful and of priests that one cannot with a single M. satisfy several obligations of justice. Nor does it help to assert that the merits of Christ's passion applied to us through the Eucharistic Sacrifice are of infinite value; for the manner of applying them depends on the will of Christ who instituted the Sacrifice of the M. That Christ willed to establish a finite manner of application is deduced from the sentiment and the practice of the Church. The opposite opinion is judged by St. Alphonsus (Theologia moralis, I, VI, n. 312, ed. L. Glaudé, III, Rome 1909, pp. 290-94) to be more probable. He, however (like all the other supporters of this opinion), does not admit that one can with a single M. satisfy several obligations of justice.

Moreover, whoever looks favorably on this opinion, as indeed anyone else, acts rightly if to the absolute intention of applying according to the will of the one who gave the alms he adds another, conditional one (that is, if the first has no effect or if the sacrifice is of such efficacy that, without prejudice to the right of the one who requested the application, it may benefit others as well).

IV. APPLICATION OF THE MASS

The application of the Mass is the offering of the special or ministerial fruit for a determined person or cause. It is made through the intention of the celebrant, who exercises this power by virtue of the very ordination (Pontif. Rom., De ordinatione presbyteri, cf. Denz-U, 1530).

The power to apply is so inherent in the priestly character and so dependent on the applying priest that no one, not even the Church, can effectively annul the intention, if it has been made, or supply it if it has not been made. She can only command it or veto it in determined cases. For the application, the habitual intention is sufficient. In order for the application of the Mass to be valid, it must be made at least before the Consecration of the chalice and for a person or persons at least implicitly determined. If one has had two or more intentions for the same Mass, ordinarily the last prevails, except when the first is such that, had it been adverted to, no other would have been added. The subjects of the application are all the wayfarers and the deceased.

1. The wayfarers

In general it may be affirmed that the Mass may licitly be applied to any wayfarer, provided it is done with an honorable end and without scandal. In particular: a) the Mass may also be applied for unbelievers, not only for their conversion, but also for any honorable end of theirs. And the alms offered may be accepted. The Mass may be applied for them even publicly, provided there is no danger that the priest's manner of acting must be ascribed to greed for gain, or that the faithful be persuaded that God can be duly honored even outside the Church. Care must also be taken that the unbelievers, in requesting the celebration of the Mass, are not moved by superstition (cf. S. Congreg. of Propaganda Fide, 11 March 1848; 13 July 1865). b) For apostates, heretics, schismatics and excommunicates not to be avoided, the Mass may be applied for any honorable end of theirs, provided there is no danger that the faithful be persuaded that eternal salvation can be obtained even in the non-Catholic sects, or that the censures be held in no account.

Regularly it is licit to apply only privately, that is, as many think, without pomp and solemnity, avoiding all publicity; therefore with an intention formulated by the priest as minister of Jesus Christ (cf. F. M. C. Cappello, De Sacramentis, I, 5th ed., Turin 1947, n. 592). However, in the case of a reigning non-Catholic prince, it is licit to celebrate the Mass solemnly. For excommunicates to be avoided, it is licit to apply the Mass only for their conversion (can. 2262 § 2, n. 2). c) For sinners, even public ones, but not excommunicates to be avoided, it is licit to apply the Mass for any honorable end of theirs, and this even publicly and solemnly, provided scandal is avoided.

2. The deceased

With regard to them, the following must be noted: a) The Mass cannot be applied for the deceased who are known not to be in Purgatory. Such are those who died before the use of reason and those who by solemn decree of the Church were placed in the canon of the saints or of the blessed. b) The Eucharistic Sacrifice benefits the souls in purgatory (Conc. Trid., sess. XXV, Decretum de Purgatorio; sess. XXII, De Sacrificio Missae, can. 3; Sum. Theol. Suppl., q. 71, a. 9). c) It is an almost common doctrine that the souls of the just, not yet enjoying celestial beatitude, are infallibly succored by the Eucharistic Sacrifice, whose fruit is applied ex opere operato. It is not, however, equally certain that the fruit of the Mass is always applied to the soul for which it is offered. It can in fact happen that God, for a just reason unknown to men, prevents the satisfactions offered for a determined soul from benefiting it (cf. A. Lehmkuhl, Theol. moralis, II, 12th ed., Freiburg im Br. 1914, n. 288). d) To the souls in purgatory, therefore, the fruit of the Mass can be of benefit, not only the satisfactory fruit, but also the impetratory and propitiatory. The impetratory, inasmuch as through the Eucharistic Sacrifice the application of the satisfactions to that soul for which it is offered is implored from God. The propitiatory, inasmuch as through the Eucharistic Sacrifice the just wrath of God is appeased, so that He may cease from preventing a soul from receiving the satisfactions offered for it (F. Suárez, De Eucharistia, in Opera omnia, XX, Paris 1860, disp. 79, sect. X, n. 4). This premised, it is licit to apply, at least privately, the Mass for any deceased person who passed to the other life after the use of reason and has not been canonized or beatified.

Not excluded from the suffrages are: a) Those who died without Baptism or separated from the communion of the Church, or who lived even publicly in a state of mortal sin, and gave no sign of repentance. For it cannot be known what passed between them and God before their death. b) Those of whom the heroicity of virtues or martyrdom was authentically declared; because, besides the infallibility of such a decree not being established, from it one cannot conclude that these servants of God already enjoy the beatific vision of God (S. Congregation of Propaganda Fide, 6 Aug. 1860).

The public application of the Mass is forbidden for those whom the CIC excludes from ecclesiastical burial (cann. 1241, 2262 § 1). Such are: those who died without Baptism, except in the case of a catechumen involuntarily deprived of the Sacrament; notorious apostates from the faith or those notoriously enrolled in a non-Catholic or impious sect (such as freemasonry); those excommunicated or interdicted by sentence; those who deliberately took their own life; those who died in a duel or from a wound received therein; other public and manifest sinners. All these are deprived of the public application of the Mass, if before death they gave no signs of repentance.

V. OBLIGATION TO CELEBRATE MASS

The obligation to celebrate Mass can arise: from the priesthood itself, from a precept, from the office with which one is invested, from an ecclesiastical benefice, from a promise or from a pact.

1. Obligation to celebrate by reason of the priesthood

By ecclesiastical law the priest, as such, is bound to celebrate Mass several times a year (can. 805), and this under pain of mortal sin. That he is bound also by divine law is taught by many, basing themselves on the words of St. Paul: "Every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins" (Hebr. 5, 1), and of Jesus Christ: "Do this for a commemoration of me" (Lk. 22, 19; cf. Council of Trent, sess. XXII, De Sacrificio Missae, chap. 1; Sum. Theol., 3a, q. 82, a. 10; F. Suárez, De Eucharistia, in Opera omnia, XX, Paris 1860, disp. 80, sect. I, n. 3). But many others deny it, among them St. Bonaventure, In IV Sent., d. 12, pars 2a, a. 2, f. 1; and J. Lugo, De Sacramento Eucharistiae (in J. B. Migne, Cursus theol. compl., XXIII, Paris 1862, disp. 20, n. 2). The words of St. Paul, according to them, express not the precept but only the power to offer. Those of Jesus are without doubt a precept, given however to the college, not to individuals.

The ecclesiastical precept mentioned above, according to the more common opinion, is satisfied by one who celebrates three or four times a year, on days of his own choosing. It is not sufficient to celebrate only twice a year; for if the legislator had so intended, he would have used this or a similar formula: "At least twice a year," as he expressed himself elsewhere (can. 552). It is not established that the priest must celebrate on the greater solemnities, nor even at intervals (St. Alphonsus, Theologia mor., VI, n. 313, ed. cit., III, Rome 1909, p. 294 ff.). In itself, one who celebrates only three or four times a year does not sin even venially: he can however sin by reason of some circumstance, e.g., of a bad intention or of scandal. And the latter today would almost always be present, not to say always, if a priest were to behave in this way. In accordance with can. 805, confirmed by Trent (sess. XXIII, chap. 4, De reformatione), bishops and religious superiors must see to it that the priests subject to them celebrate Mass at least on the individual Sundays and on feast days of precept; and this they must do not only with exhortations and admonitions, but also, when necessary, with the threat of penalties and censures.

2. Obligation to celebrate by reason of a precept

A priest can be bound to celebrate also by a legitimate precept, given either directly, when the Mass itself is commanded, or indirectly, when an office is imposed to which the obligation to celebrate is attached.

a) The Supreme Pontiff can command the celebration of Mass either directly or indirectly. b) The local Ordinaries: a) can directly command their subjects to celebrate on feast days of precept, when the need of the faithful requires it, naturally establishing a suitable stipend; b) on other days they can command it only indirectly (cf. can. 128); c) they can probably command their subjects also to apply the Mass, indeed they can certainly command that the pro populo Masses and the binated Masses be applied in favor of pious causes with the obligation of transmitting the entire alms to the diocesan Curia (S. Congr. of the Council, 8 May 1920; 18 Nov. 1937). c) Religious superiors must see to it that their subjects celebrate Mass not only on feast days of precept, but also on the other days established by their own Constitutions, imposing this, when necessary, even by virtue of obedience. Moreover they can command their subjects, even by virtue of obedience, to celebrate according to the intention prescribed by the Constitutions or by the superiors themselves, save for the exceptions sanctioned by the Constitutions or by legitimate custom (S. Congr. of Religious, 21 March 1914).

3. Obligation to celebrate by reason of office

Pastors of souls by divine law must celebrate for the faithful entrusted to their care (Hebr. 5, 1; Council of Trent, sess. XXII, chap. 1, De reformatione). Bishops, whose office was divinely instituted, are bound to this law in an absolute manner; therefore they can be dispensed from this obligation by the pope only for a most grave reason. Other pastors, whose office is of ecclesiastical institution, are bound to this obligation only conditionally, that is, as long as the Church does not dispense them. Pastors of souls are bound not only to celebrate, but also to apply for the faithful entrusted to their care. Of the pastors of souls, some are bound to celebrate and apply for the faithful entrusted to their care on all feast days, even suppressed ones, others instead only on the more solemn days. To the first category belong: a) those who govern dioceses, that is, residential bishops (can. 339, 240); apostolic administrators permanently constituted (can. 315, col. 313); capitular vicars and others placed over a vacant diocese (can. 440); abbots and prelates nullus (can. 323); b) those who govern parishes even non-territorial ones (cf. cann. 216 § 4; 451 § 3), that is, parish priests even regulars (can. 416 § 1); actual vicars (can. 471 § 4); vicars economus (can. 473 § 1). To the second category belong: a) apostolic vicars and apostolic prefects (can. 306); b) quasi-parish priests who govern a quasi-parish of an apostolic vicariate or apostolic prefecture (can. 466 § 1).

The obligation to celebrate and apply of parish priests and quasi-parish priests is personal and local. As personal, they must celebrate themselves, not through others, except when they are legitimately impeded; and if impeded, they must have themselves supplied (can. 466, col. 339, § 4). As local, they must celebrate in the parish church (can. 466 § 4), except when particular circumstances require or suggest otherwise. Moreover they must celebrate and apply on the established days, save for exceptions permitted by the Ordinary. Pastors of souls are bound to celebrate for the people by a grave obligation of justice.

4. Obligation to celebrate by reason of an ecclesiastical benefice

What is at issue here is an obligation of justice, whose extent depends on the conditions laid down by the will of the founder (can. 1475 § 1).

When it is not established otherwise, in general the obligations of the beneficiary are the following: a) the celebration of Mass implies also the application; b) the beneficiary can celebrate and apply also through others; c) if he is bound to celebrate himself, he is not obliged to have himself supplied in case of illness, provided the suspension does not last more than one or two months; d) if he is bound to celebrate every day, he can for a just reason abstain once a week; he can also celebrate five or six times a year gratuitously for himself or for others.

The beneficiary who without reasonable cause omits even a single Mass sins gravely. Likewise if he often celebrates in another church or on another altar, with grave detriment to those for whom he must celebrate; or if, bound to celebrate on a privileged altar, he often celebrates on another non-privileged one, except when he enjoys the indult of a personal altar, or applies another plenary indulgence; if he often celebrates arbitrarily on different days, with grave detriment to those for whom he must celebrate.

5. Obligation to celebrate by reason of a promise

One who makes a gratuitous promise to celebrate Mass is bound to keep it by a duty not of justice but of fidelity; he is therefore bound only under pain of venial sin. To satisfy this obligation a single Mass suffices even when the promise was made to many, provided however that a separate Mass was not promised to each; thus it suffices to apply with a second intention a Mass already owed by pact to others.

6. Obligation to celebrate by reason of a pact

By reason of a pact, whoever has received the alms for it is obliged to celebrate the Mass (v. below: M. M. MANUALI).

VI. REDUCTION, CONDOMATION AND TRANSLATION OF THE MASS

The reduction and condonation of manual Masses is the exclusive competence of the Holy See, to which recourse may be had in very particular cases, for example, of one who, after having celebrated many Masses, comes to discover that one of the matters used, for example, the wine, was invalid, and his poverty does not permit him to make up for it with another celebration of Mass. For the reduction of founded Masses, v. below: MASSES, FOUNDED.

One who has Masses available for others must distribute them promptly. But, unless it is otherwise established, the time available for their celebration begins from the day on which the celebrating priest received them (can. 837). One who has Masses available may distribute them to priests of his confidence, provided that it be certain to him that they are in every respect worthy or are presented as such by their Ordinary (can. 838). One who has transmitted to others Masses received from the faithful or in any way entrusted to him is bound to answer for them until he has obtained a declaration of assumption of the burden and of receipt of the alms (can. 839). The alms of manual Masses must be transmitted intact, except when the offerer expressly permits a part to be retained, and it is certain that the excess of the diocesan stipend was given with regard to the person. For quasi-manual Masses, if it is not established that the will of the founder was otherwise, the excess may legitimately be retained, and it is sufficient to remit only the manual alms of the diocese in which the Mass is celebrated, if the larger alms is part of the endowment of the benefice or of the more important cause (can. 840).

VII. DISPOSITIONS REQUIRED FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE MASS

To celebrate the M. lawfully, the celebrant must have the proper dispositions of soul and body.

1. Disposition of soul

These are the state of Grace and immunity from irregularities and from any other penalty that forbids the exercise of the priestly Order. Furthermore, the priest must prepare himself suitably for the celebration of the M.

a) State of Grace. — It is required by the exalted dignity of the action that the priest performs in the name and in the person of Jesus Christ; that is, the admirable conversion of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ; the offering to God of Jesus Christ, immaculate Victim, and the reception of Christ himself. Therefore, whoever celebrates the M. knowing that he is in mortal sin commits sacrilege.

Whoever knows he is in mortal sin must, as a rule, attain the state of Grace through sacramental Confession (can. 807); and this by law is not known to be divine, but certainly ecclesiastical. There are, however, cases in which one who knows he is in mortal sin may celebrate without confessing, namely when there is a necessity of celebrating and at the same time an impossibility of confessing.

The necessity of celebrating arises: a) when one must celebrate by reason of office or obligation; b) when otherwise the faithful cannot fulfill the precept of a holy day of obligation, or a dying person cannot receive Viaticum; c) when it is not possible to omit the celebration without danger of scandal, or of infamy, or of another grave evil. The impossibility of confessing arises when there is no priest provided with jurisdiction or capable of understanding the penitent's language; or when the available priest cannot hear the Confession without harm to himself or to a third person; or when it is not possible to have a confessor without grave inconvenience, either because there is no time to confess, or because the confessor lives very far away, or because there is a danger of encountering grave difficulties. Even a grave extrinsic inconvenience, for example, of reverence, can excuse one from the obligation of confessing to the only available priest. Whoever, conscious of being in mortal sin, must celebrate and cannot confess, is bound: a) before the celebration to make an act of perfect contrition; b) after the celebration, to confess as soon as possible, that is, within three days; even earlier, if he wishes to celebrate, or if he must celebrate and has the opportunity to confess.

b) Immunity from irregularities or from a penalty forbidding the exercise of the priestly Order. — Therefore, apart from grave necessity, whoever celebrates while bound by an irregularity or by a censure or by another penalty forbidding the exercise of the priestly Order commits a grave sin.

c) On the prayers to be said before the celebration of the M. — Before the celebration of the M., according to the prescriptions of the rubrics (Ritus servandus in celebratione Missae, tit. I, n. 1), there must be said beforehand: a) the recitation of Matins with Lauds (this, however, is only a directive rubric); b) the oration (cf. can. 810), which does not appear to be obligatory even sub levi.

2. Dispositions of the body

The principal one is that of the eucharistic or natural fast, to be observed from midnight with such rigor that it does not permit the reception of even the smallest part of food or drink (can. 808). This is a most grave ecclesiastical law that does not admit of parvity of matter (v. COMUNIONE EUCARISTICA; DIGIUNO).

From the law of the eucharistic fast are excused: the necessity of completing, after the consecration, the eucharistic Sacrifice and, probably, also that of administering Viaticum; the harm or grave inconvenience arising from not celebrating; the dispensation granted by the pope through the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office (can. 247 § 5). Indeed, the local Ordinaries, on the basis of a provision of the Holy Office of 23 March 1923, may grant the faculty (which in the most urgent cases they have by right), even habitual, of dispensing celebrating priests from the law of the eucharistic fast, provided that: a) this be required by the spiritual good of the faithful; b) they take only liquid foods, excluding intoxicating drinks; c) scandal be avoided.

In some countries the Holy See permits that on holy days of obligation the M. may be celebrated in the afternoon hours at a determined interval from meals (cf. the Indult of the Holy Office of 28 Jan. 1947 to the Belgian bishops, and the other of 28 Oct. 1947 to Card. Suhard; cf. Il monitore ecclesiastico, 72 [1947], pp. 111-12; 73 [1948], pp. 78-80).

VIII. TIME AND PLACE FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE MASS

The Mass may be celebrated every day, except those excluded in the proper rite of the celebrating priest. In the Roman rite the only aliturgical day is Good Friday; moreover, not all priests may celebrate on the days of Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday (can. 820). The Mass may not be celebrated except in the time between one hour before dawn and one hour after noon (the beginning of the celebration). An exception is made for the night of Christmas (for other exceptions made not by common law but by indult, we have already spoken), on which the conventual and parochial Mass may begin at midnight; and, beginning at midnight, three Masses may be celebrated by a single priest in the oratories of the more religious houses, which have the faculty of habitually reserving the Blessed Eucharist (can. 821). The Mass may be celebrated only in churches (Catholic ones, and not in those of heretics or schismatics: can. 823 § 1) or in public or semipublic oratories. Churches and public oratories (can. 1191) must however first be consecrated or at least solemnly blessed (can. 1165 § 1). To celebrate in a semipublic oratory no blessing is required, however much it may be given.

To habitually celebrate the Mass in a private oratory an apostolic indult is required (can. 1195 § 1).

In the indult ordinarily only one low Mass a day is granted, and even such a Mass is forbidden on days of greater solemnity. The bishop may permit it once or twice, even on these days, per modum actus, for reasons other than those for which the indult was given (can. 1195 § 2). In the private chapels of cemeteries, which the CIC considers private oratories (can. 1190 § 1), the Ordinary may permit even the celebration of several Masses in a day, whereas in other private oratories he may permit only one Mass per modum actus and after inspection of the place (can. 1194).

The celebration of the Mass in a place that is not a church or oratory, or in the open air (sub divo), may be permitted by the bishop and by the Ordinaries of exempt religious only for a just and reasonable cause, in some extraordinary case and per modum actus (can. 822 § 4). They can never grant that the Mass be celebrated in a bedroom (loc. cit.); they may however grant, under certain conditions (among them the exalted dignity of the deceased), that Masses (no more than three) be celebrated in the so-called funeral chamber (AAS, 18 [1926], p. 388). The celebration of the Mass on ships can be granted only directly by the Holy See (it belongs by privilege to cardinals and bishops, including titular ones: cann. 239 § 1, n. 8°; 349, n. 1°) through the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments, which is accustomed to attach certain conditions. The Mass in the field, on the occasion of profane commemorations or political festivities, can never be granted; and if the promoters insist for special reasons, the bishop must forward the request to the Congregation of the Sacraments (26 July 1924: AAS, 16 [1924], p. 370).

The Mass must be celebrated only on a consecrated altar (can. 822 § 1). The privilege of the portable altar, however, for one who has it, carries with it the faculty of celebrating anywhere, except at sea, provided it is a decent place and the celebration takes place upon the sacred stone (v.; cf. can. 822 §§ 2-3). Lacking an altar of one's own rite, it is lawful to celebrate on a consecrated altar of a different rite, but not on the antimensia of the Greeks (can. 823 § 2). On the so-called papal altars no one may celebrate without an apostolic indult (can. 823 § 3; see also ALTAR).

1942; J. I. Guiniven, The precept of hearing Mass, ibid. 1942; I. Vitoria, El pan y el vino eucarístico, Bilbao 1944; A. Verhamme, De materia remota S.mae Eucharistiae, in Collat. Bruges., 41 (1945), pp. 415-18; id., De pane ad Consecrationem requisito, ibid., pp. 418-22; id., De vino ad Consecrationem requisito, ibid., 42 (1946), pp. 18-22; id., De verbis essentialibus Consecrationis, ibid., pp. 22-27; I. Thomas, La Consécration, partie essentielle de la Messe, in Rev. diocés. de Tournai, 1 (1946), pp. 46-49; id., La Messe et ses parties principales, ibid., pp. 411-15; R. Michel, Le pain eucharistique, ibid., 1 (1946), pp. 49-51; id., Le vin eucharistique, ibid., pp. 296-97; id., De quelques accidents qui peuvent survenir pendant la Messe, ibid., pp. 415-17; I. Dermine, Les dispositions spirituelles requises pour célébrer licitement la sainte Messe, ibid., pp. 500-504; J. A. Henry, The Mass and Holy Communion, Washington 1946; I. Godley, Time and place for the celebration of Mass, ibid. 1948, Andrea Gennaro

IX. FOUNDED MASSES

1. Nature

Those Masses are called founded whose alms are received from the revenues of pious foundations (can. 826 § 3). Under the name of pious foundations are understood temporal goods in any manner handed over to a determined moral person of the Church, with the perpetual or long-lasting burden of celebrating with the revenues determined founded Masses, or of performing other determined ecclesiastical functions, or determined works of piety and charity (can. 1554 § 1).

It falls to the local Ordinary (if it is a question of pious foundations even in the parochial churches of exempt religious) or to the major superior of an exempt clerical religion, to determine the norms pertaining to the constitution of the endowment, the distribution of the fruits, the placement of the capital. For the acceptance of the foundation the written consent of the same Ordinary or of the major superior is required (cans. 1545, 1546 and cf. can. 1550).

Foundations, even if made orally, must be consigned in writing, in duplicate, one copy of which is to be carefully preserved in the archive of the episcopal curia or of the major superior, the other in the archive of the moral person to which it belongs. Moreover in every church a table must be compiled, to be kept in a safe place with the rector, in which are noted all the burdens weighing upon the pious foundations. Finally, besides the book of manual Masses, another book must be kept with the rector in which are noted the individual perpetual and temporary burdens and their execution and alms, so that an exact account of them may be rendered to the local Ordinary or to the major superior (cans. 1548, 1549 and cf. can. 1550).

All and each of the founded Masses must be celebrated and applied under pain of mortal sin. It is likewise obligatory to fulfill all the prescribed conditions: of quality, of place, of time; so that he gravely sins who, without reason, frequently (that is, more than twice a month) neglects circumstances prescribed for a grave reason.

2. Commutation

It falls to the Apostolic See to commute or diminish the burdens of pious foundations, unless the founder has left such faculty also to the Ordinary (can. 1517 § 1). It is however probable that the Ordinary may, for a just reason, temporarily permit that the Mass be celebrated at another hour or in another place, provided that the end established by the founder is not gravely impaired.

Moreover, if because of the diminution of revenues or for another reason not imputable to those charged with the pious foundation, it is no longer possible to sustain all the burdens, the Ordinary, having heard the opinion of the interested parties, and respecting as far as possible the will of the founder, may diminish the burdens, but not the number of Masses. But even this may be diminished, if the founder has left the faculty to do so (can. 1517 § 2; cf. 1551 § 2). The same Pontifical Commission for the authentic interpretation of the

CIC, when asked «whether the Ordinary, in accordance with cans. 1517 and 1551, may, because of diminished revenues, reduce the burdens of Masses, when this is expressly indicated in the tables of foundation», replied in the affirmative (AAS, 14 [1922], p. 529).

If the revenues are totally extinguished without fault of the one upon whom the burden of celebrating falls, by this fact the obligation of celebrating the Masses ceases (cf. Sacred Congregation of the Council, 8 Aug. 1705).

The general indult of reducing the burdens of pious foundations must be understood in the sense that, if it does not otherwise appear, the indultary must reduce the other burdens rather than the Masses (can. 1551 § 2).

At the expiration of 31 Dec. of each year in which the founded Masses ought to have been celebrated, the sums corresponding to those not celebrated must be consigned to the proper Ordinary according to the modalities established by him (can. 841 § 1).

Andrea Gennaro

X. GREGORIAN MASSES (GREGORIAN SERIES, tricenarius Gregorianus)

Thus is called, from the name of the institute of the pious practice (St. Gregory the Great), the celebration of 30 Masses in suffrage of a soul, for 30 continuous days.

1. Origin and nature of the Gregorian Masses

The first example of the kind is reported in the Dialogues of St. Gregory (bk. IV, ch. 55: PL 77, 420-21), who, as abbot of the monastery of St. Andrew in Rome, after having taken, during the mortal illness of the monk Justus, guilty of violation of the vow of poverty for having kept hidden three gold coins, at the latter's death ordered the burial of the corpse in a place not sacred. Subsequently he ordered the prior Pretiosus to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice «for 30 consecutive days... without omitting a single day». On the 30th day the deceased monk appeared to his brother Copiosus, a monk in the same monastery, announcing: «until now I have suffered, but now I am well».

The monastery of Cluny preserved among its customs this pious practice of the 30 Masses, which spread among the people with the conviction that the Lord had granted, through his mercy, the benefit of liberating from the pains of Purgatory the soul for which they were celebrated. The Church approved the pious custom, while condemning deviations or false interpretations. With Benedict XIV (Inst. eccl., XXXIV, n. 22) the Church forbade giving the name of Gregorian Masses to a number of 30 Masses celebrated not consecutively, but with an interval of time.

The Holy Office (17 March 1934) reproved the practice, which had spread in Poland, and precisely in the diocese of Przemyśl, by which it was inculcated that the celebration of 44 Masses, applied for a person still living, after three days from death liberated his soul from Purgatory, and this was certain by divine Revelation.

2. Conditions

a) The 30 M. must be celebrated over 30 continuous days; b) it is not necessary that the Requiem M. be celebrated on the days permitted by the rubrics; c) it is not required that all the M. be celebrated by a single priest, but they may also be celebrated by several; d) during the last three days of Holy Week, the series is not interrupted, but by continuing afterward the privilege is not lost; e) if the series is culpably interrupted, it must be begun again, because the obligation remains; f) if the series is interrupted without fault through a legitimate impediment, according to some it would be necessary to begin again from the start; according to others, if the alms are equivalent to that of the manual M., then the obligation of justice to complete the number of 30 M. remains, along with the obligation of fidelity to begin again from the start; if the alms are greater than that of the manual M., in the case of a blameless interruption one must either begin again or return the entire sum to the offerer, unless he grants a remission and reduction. According to a third opinion, more common, in the case of a blameless interruption it suffices to add the M. not celebrated, advising the priest to celebrate one of the M. at a privileged altar or to apply a plenary indulgence there. In practice, to remove all doubt, it suffices to place the intention for the entire Gregorian series at the beginning, noting that, if through forgetfulness another intention should be made, that of the Gregorian series prevails.

It should further be observed that the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences (15 March 1884) declared pious and approved in the Church the faithful's confidence in holding that every Holy M., celebrated at the altar of St. Gregory in his church on the Caelian in Rome, is effective in liberating a soul from the pains of Purgatory.

Giuseppe Sirna

XI. MANUAL MASSES

These are those whose alms are offered, as it were by hand, by the faithful, whether out of their own devotion, or to satisfy obligations, even perpetual ones, imposed by the testator on his heirs (can. 826 § 1).

Similar to manual Masses are the so-called quasi-manual Masses (ad instar manualium); that is, founded Masses that cannot be applied in the place assigned or by those who must apply them according to the tables of foundation, and which therefore by law or by indult of the Holy See may be transferred to other priests to celebrate them (can. 826 § 2).

Regarding manual or quasi-manual Masses, the CIC establishes the following: 1) no one may accept burdens of Masses, to be celebrated personally, in a number greater than he can celebrate within the year (can. 835); 2) without doubt the superior of a religious house may accept as many burdens of Masses as his subjects can satisfy within the year: just as he may accept a greater number who undertakes to have them celebrated within the year by others, even though not his subjects (cf. cann. 836, 837); 3) indeed he may accept a greater number even if he celebrates them personally, if the offerer knows that they cannot all be celebrated within the year, and consents to it.

The obligation to apply the Mass according to the intention of the one who gave the alms is grave. This obligation is not extinguished either by prescription or by the loss, even accidental, of the alms (can. 829).

It is never lawful: 1) to apply the Mass according to the intention of one who will request it by offering the alms but does not yet request it, and to consider the alms given afterwards as for the Mass already applied (can. 825, n. 1). An exception, according to many, is the case of the application of a Mass for a cause already existing at the time of the application, e.g., for a deceased person for whom the relatives have not yet requested the celebration of Mass. 2) To receive the alms for a Mass that is owed and applied for another title of justice (can. 825, n. 2). 3) To receive a double alms for the application of the same Mass (can. 825, n. 3). 4) To receive one alms for the celebration alone and another for the application of the same Mass; except where it is established with certainty that one alms was offered for the celebration without the application (can. 825, n. 4). Except on Christmas Day, one who on the same day celebrates more than one Mass and applies one by reason of justice cannot receive a stipend for the application of the others (can. 824 § 2).

As many Masses must be celebrated as there were alms, even tiny ones, accepted (can. 828). Cf. proposition 10, condemned by Alexander VII with the decree of Sept. 24, 1665 (Denz-U, 1110). If a sum of money was offered for the application of Masses without indication of number, this must be determined according to the alms of the place in which the offerer resided, unless another intention can legitimately be presumed in him (can. 830).

Masses must be celebrated at the time fixed by the offerer either expressly or equivalently, e.g., for the happy outcome of a matter that is known will take place on a determined day. If the time is not fixed even equivalently, nor is it expressly left to the priest's discretion, the Masses must be celebrated within a short time, according to the greater or lesser number of Masses. In this regard the following formula may be used in the calculation: X = N + (N : 2) - 30; that is, X = the time available for the celebration of the Masses; N = the number of Masses. Therefore if the Masses to be celebrated are 40, the formula is expressed thus: X = 40 + 20 = 30 = 90. Thus 40 Masses can be celebrated in 90 days. If finally the offerer expressly left to the priest freedom to determine the time of celebration, the latter may celebrate them whenever he wishes, provided he celebrates them within the year, computed from the day of the undertaking (can. 834).

Quasi-manual Masses, however, must be celebrated before December 31 of each year (can. 841 § 2). Besides the time, the celebrating priest must also observe the circumstances of the celebration that the offerer, in delivering or promising the alms, has expressly declared and that the priest has accepted, even if only tacitly (can. 833). For the juridical relationship between the offerer and the priest, v. ELEMOSINA, III.

Andrea Gennaro

III. THE MASS IN THE LITURGY OF THE LATIN RITE.

I. THE FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS

The M. draws its origin from the institution of the Lord, made at the Last Supper, according to which the fundamental rites are three: 1) the Offering of the bread and wine; 2) the Consecration, preceded by a prayer of thanksgiving; 3) the Communion.

In the earliest times these rites were performed successively, first those of the bread, then those of the wine, then the Consecration and the Communion of the eucharistic bread, followed at a distance by that of the chalice. Following the example of Christ, the prayer of thanksgiving and the Consecration were also made first over the bread, and then over the wine; between the two the meal was held, as appears from St. Paul (I Cor. 10:16; 11:23-25). When later the common supper was separated from the eucharistic celebration, the two prayers of thanksgiving were united into one, with the twofold consecration followed by the twofold Communion.

The distinction made by H. Lietzmann, between the Jerusalemite type and the Pauline one, whereby the first is a simple meal ("fraction of the bread") in imitation of friendly meals (chaburoth, from chaburoth, chaber = friend) and the second, with the use of wine, commemorates the Last Supper, the Passion and the Death of the Lord, is not well founded. Both the Gospels and St. Paul refer the Consecration of the two species to the Last Supper and suppose (Mt. and Mk.) or command (Lk. and Paul) their renewal.

The prayer of thanksgiving, not yet fixed in writing, was made freely by the celebrant following formulas used by the Jews in the thanksgiving after the meal; but to the type of the Jewish euchologies (celebrating the benefits of God in the creation of the world and in the history of the Jewish people) a Christological type of thanksgiving was added for the redemption wrought by Christ (cf. the prayers of the Didache). At the Consecration the account of the eucharistic institution was recited and the actions of the celebrant were in imitation of those of Christ. The formulas that are found in all the ancient liturgies show themselves to be almost independent of the biblical accounts, which means that they go back to a usage already existing when the Gospels were written, and before the letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians. Then, according to the laws of symmetry (in actions and in words) and of biblical influence, they varied and theological reflections were added to them. In Mt. and Mk. the mandate of renewal is not found, but it is supposed, because the narrative itself shows the influence of liturgical usage, given the symmetrical arrangement of the actions of Christ. In conformity with the Lord's admonition, there followed an anamnesis or commemoration of the Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ.

Besides this eucharistic action, in the worship of the first Christians there are found preaching, the reading and other prayers and hymns, purely didactic parts. An attempt was made to explain this by the imitation of the synagogal custom of reading the sacred books (Law and Prophets) on the Sabbath; a custom that would have continued even when participation in the sacrifices of the Temple was entirely replaced by the Eucharist (Duchesne). But this theory of a double cult: eucharistic and non-eucharistic or synagogal, does not seem acceptable. The whole Christian cult is one. According to the example of St. Paul, at Troas the preaching was placed before the eucharistic Supper (Acts 20:7-11); in the Apostolic Letters the reading in the assemblies is presupposed (Col. 4:16; II Pt. 3:16); St. Paul (I Tim. 2:1-3) alludes to "supplications, prayers, petitions, thanksgivings for all men," elements that recur later in the prayer of the faithful. Of hymns too there is mention in the letters of St. Paul, and especially in the Apocalypse. The distinction between eucharistic cult and merely didactic cult therefore has no foundation. The didactic M., as it will be described by Justin Martyr, is not the result of an evolution, but is found in germ already in apostolic times.

II. THE ROMAN MASS IN THE 1ST-4TH CENTURIES

The first traces of the Roman liturgy are found in the first letter of Pope Clement to the Corinthians, from 96 (40, 1-3; 41, 1-4; 44, 4-5), where he speaks of a sacrificial rite, performed by the bishops and the priests ("to offer the gifts") and cites some texts of the Mass, not as a reproduction of a fixed formula but as a fine example of that improvised prayer proper to the eucharistic assembly (Duchesne) or didactic (Baumstark), namely: a) the oratio fidelium (59-60); b) the eucharistic prayer (in two forms: 20, 1-12; 33, 2-6 and 59, 2-3); c) the trisagion (34, 5-7); d) the solemn conclusion of the eucharistic prayer with the people's response Amen (20, 12 and 61, 3). The words of the institution and of the consecration are not reported, but in their place reference is made to another kind of litanic prayers (59, 4).

Fifty years later (in 150), in his Apology (chaps. 65, 66, 67) for the Christians to the emperor Antoninus Pius and in the Dialogue with Trypho (41, 70, 117), St. Justin gives the first description of the Roman Mass, in which he distinguishes two parts: the didactic and the sacrificial; in the first, the sacred scriptures of the Apostles and the prophets were read "as long as time permits" (Apology, 67, 3); there followed the bishop's homily (67, 4). The dismissal of the catechumens is presumed, because at the following prayer only the baptized were present. The prayer of the faithful, on behalf of all classes of persons (65, 1; 67, 5), concluded with the kiss of peace (65, 2). The sacrificial part began with the Offering of the bread and wine made by the bishop (65, 3; 67, 3); there followed the eucharistic prayer or anaphora, recited by the bishop "expressing praise and glory to the Father in the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (65, 3); and it was not yet interrupted by a song of the people, the Sanctus.

Agnus of q toll' perata mūdi dona
nobis parē. Omine ihu spē q disiti
apostol' tuis - parē meā do 'obis parē
relinquo 'ob ne respirias perata mea
sed sitē earlele tue cāqs from 'olūratē
tuā parifirate -tustodire -et roadunare
dignare. Dui viuis z regnas cum do
parte in vinitate spūis sancti duis. Per
omīia ferula ferulos amen 30 as tibi
z earlele di? -abete virulum paris et
raritatis ut apti liris sarrofactis my-sterys spī 30 ne ihu spē fili di viui q
re 'olūratē patris roopate spū sacto p
morte tuā mūdū viuifirasti libera me
p lpr sars corpus z sāguinem tuū ab
omibus inigratibus meis z vniuerlis
malis et far me tuis sep obedire mā-
daris. Et a re nūēp impetuū leperaris

(from A. Ruppel, J. Gutenberg, Leipzig 1917, p. 159)
MASS - Prayers before Communion in the Mistule abbreviatum, printed by J. Gutenberg (ca. 1457) - Benedictine Abbey of St. Paul in Carinthia.

The central part is the memorial of the Lord's Passion, with the recitation of the institution and with the Consecration (66, 2-3; Dial., 41), which in Justin is also accompanied by the epiclesis, an invocation of the Logos upon the elements to be consecrated to him. The people conclude by saying: Amen (65, 5; 67, 5). He then alludes to the fraction of the eucharistic bread and to Holy Communion, which was distributed under both species and was brought to the absent by the deacons (65, 5; 67, 5).

The third witness is St. Hippolytus in his Apostolic Tradition (of 218 or 220), where we have the most complete and detailed description of the Mass, because it also contains a text of the eucharistic prayer presented as a model. Hippolytus does not treat of the didactic part of the Mass, which can be omitted on certain occasions, as in Baptism, in the consecration of bishops and the like, but he presupposes it, because he had already treated of the office of the reader and described his ordination. There followed the oratio fidelium and the kiss of peace. All this didactic part was done as in the time of St. Justin. The second part too is set forth as by St. Justin, but with some particulars; at the Offertory, the faithful bring their oblations to the altar. In Hippolytus is found the first example of an anaphora; in particular Dominus vobiscum, Sursum corda, Gratia agamus. The anaphora, which was still left to the inspiration of the celebrant, is composed of: a) a thanksgiving in a christological sense (the theological element is missing, and also the trisagion); b) the account of the institution (the text of the Consecration is quite archaic and simple); c) the anamnesis; d) the epiclesis. There follow the fraction of the bread (as in St. Justin, without the Pater noster) and Holy Communion under both species. There is no dismissal, nor a special prayer of thanksgiving, and it concludes: festinet unusquisque operam bonam facere. The Mass is said in the Greek language. The deacons are assisted by the subdeacons, mentioned here for the first time.

III. THE AFRICAN LATIN MASS IN THE 3RD-5TH CENTURIES

When the liturgy was still celebrated in Greek at Rome, the African Church from its very beginnings used the Latin language, as Tertullian (197-222) and St. Cyprian (249-58) attest. In the didactic part are found the readings from Holy Scripture (Cyprian, Ep., 38, 2; 39, 4-5) interspersed with the singing of psalms (Tertullian, Ad ux., 2, 9); after the Gospel the homily takes place as a rule (Cyprian, De mortal., 1); then the dismissal of the catechumens and penitents. At the oratio fidelium the names of those who offered the oblations were read from the diptychs (v.); it ended with the kiss of peace, omitted only on Good Friday (Tertullian, De orat., 18; Ad ux., 2, 4). The faithful brought bread and wine for the sacrifice. A little water was added to the wine in the chalice (Cyprian, Ep., 63, 13). The eucharistic prayer begins with the verses Sursum... Habemus..., called the Preface (Cyprian, De orat., 31). St. Cyprian (Ep., 63, 9, 10, 17) reports the words of the institution, of the Consecration and of the commemoration of the Passion. There follow the fraction of the consecrated bread and the Pater noster, here mentioned for the first time by Cyprian (De orat., 2) and by Tertullian (De orat., 3-4). The Holy Eucharist under the species of bread was distributed by the celebrant and placed on the hand of the faithful; the chalice was presented by the deacons. The Eucharist was also carried by the faithful to their homes and kept in a special box.

These indications are then completed by the writings of St. Augustine (d. 430). In them are found: a solemn entrance of the bishop (without singing); his greeting Pax vobis (not followed by any prayer); immediately afterward the threefold reading of the Old Testament, of the Acts or of the Apostolic Letters, and of the Gospel, interspersed with the singing of psalms; the dismissal of the catechumens, usually the prayer of the faithful (with the diptychs); but the kiss of peace follows the Pater noster. In Augustine's time a chant is introduced at the Offertory (Retract., 2, 37), and he cites the words of acclamation Dignum et iustum est. Another novelty: after the fraction of the consecrated bread and the recitation of the Pater noster comes the kiss of peace followed by a blessing of the people before Communion (Ep., 149, 2, 16; Serm., fragm. 3 contra Pelag.). As at the Offertory, so too at Communion a psalm is sung (Psalm 33). The Eucharist is given under the formula: Accipite et edite corpus Christi... Accipite et potate sanguinem Christi or more briefly: Corpus Christi - Sanguis Christi, to which the faithful respond: Amen (Serm. ined., 3, 3; PL 46, 827; Serm., 272; PL 38, 1274). It concludes with a thanksgiving (gratiarum actio cuncta concludit, Ep., 149, 2, 16), whose content in detail and text are unknown.

IV. THE ROMAN MASS IN THE 4th AND 5th CENTURIES

In Hippolytus' time the Roman Mass was still in the Greek language. But very soon the Latin language prevailed. Marius Victorinus still cites, in 360, a passage from a Greco-Roman oblation prayer. Between 374 and 380 the author of the Quaestiones Veteris et Novi Testamenti (109, 20) alludes to the use of Latin in worship. However, even earlier the sacred reading, in Greek, was followed by a translation into Latin. A step forward was made with the translation also of the eucharistic prayer (Canon). At the same time, some changes were introduced into its text. Beginning with the Prefatio, interrupted by the Sanctus, the Canon continued with the Te igitur, to which were added Quam oblationem and Qui pridie. Before Innocent I (401-17) the intercessory prayers of the Memento were introduced with the reading of the names (the diptychs); in the course of the 5th century the others were added: Communicantes, Hanc igitur (only in special Masses), Nobis quoque, prayers that already belong to the most ancient form of our Canon, perhaps from the time of Gelasius I (492-96). The entire Canon shows in every part the same style (parallelism of members, a certain predilection for the use of the number three, a tendency to richness of expression in the use of the odd number (cf. A. Baumstark, Antik-römischer Gebetstil im Messkanon, in Miscellanea Mohiberg, I, Rome 1948, pp. 300-31). The most ancient form of the Latin Canon is found in the opuscule attributed to St. Ambrose De sacramentis (I, IV, chap. 5). It is not clear whether Milan took the Canon from Rome or vice versa, but the Latin Canon was elaborated at Rome.

With the translation and the formation of the fixed Canon, the other prayers of the celebrant were also established. While the Canon no longer varies, the Preface varies according to the season of the ecclesiastical year, which from this epoch begins to influence the prayers and readings of the Mass. The structure of the Mass receives other additions: before the readings an oration is recited; at the Offertory follows the Super oblata, preceding the Canon; Communion closes with the prayer the Postcommunio. At the beginning and, until Gregory I, to the first oration another was added, whose placement is not yet precisely known: it was the oration after the reading of the Gospel (post Evangelium) or the one before the Offertory on the model of the Milanese oration Super sindonem. Moreover, to the Post Communionem oration a second was added, called Super populum, with which the people were blessed before being dismissed.

From the 4th and 5th centuries the arrangement of the orations in the Mass was: two collects, before and after the readings; an oration Super oblata; the Preface with the Canon, the Postcommunio and the oration Super populum (Leonine and Gelasian scheme = 3-VD = preface and Canon) - 2). St. Gregory abbreviates and abolishes the second collecta or oration of the readings and reserves the Super populum only for the days of Lent (Gregorian scheme: 2-VD-1). The celebrant may formulate the prayers, but well-made formulas are collected in a book of the archive.

Another novelty: until the time of Felix II [III] (483-92) the intercessory prayers were recited after the readings, that is, before the Mass of the faithful; but from this time the Oratio fidelium disappears and an introductory part in the form of a litany appears before the reading: the Kyrie followed by the collect oration. Presumably this novelty occurred under Gelasius I (492-96), the successor of Felix. From this time the intercessory prayers also appear in the Canon: Memento, Communicantes, Nobis quoque. Perhaps there is a relation between these two novelties, and the abolition of the Oratio fidelium, the introduction of the Kyrie and of the orations before and after the readings, as well as the intercessory prayers in the Canon, are attributed to Gelasius. In this time are found the first collections of liturgical books (v.).

The rite of the Mass at the end of the 5th century thus unfolds in this way: it begins with the litany of the Kyrie, followed by the orations (preceded by the greeting of the celebrant), one before the reading, the other after; between the readings the Gradual and the Alleluia are sung. There are still, before the Gospel, two lessons from the Old and New Testament (Apostolus), the Gospel comes third; after which there is the second oration (post Evangelium), later abolished; there remains the Dominus vobiscum with the Oremus. After the Gospel or after the homily the faithful bring their offerings to the altar; the Oratio fidelium is no longer recited (replaced by the Kyrie). At the end of the offerings, the celebrant recites the oration Super oblata (still aloud); no singing during the offerings.

There follow in this order: the Canon, the fraction of the Host, the Pater noster and the kiss of peace. The latter, which occurred at the end of the Oratio fidelium, is moved after its suppression. At the end of Communion the Postcommunio and the oration Super populum are said. The dismissal is intimated with the Ite, missa est.

V. IN THE 6TH AND 7TH CENTURIES

The Mass assumed great solemnity from the presence of the pope. At his entrance the Introit was sung, an antiphonal chant, perhaps already introduced at the time of Celestine I in 431. Another chant was sung at the Offertory, that is, during the offerings of the faithful, and similarly at the Communion of the people; all these chants were performed by the Schola cantorum, which also performed the Gradual, before the solo chant. The singing of the Gloria in excelsis is brought from the morning Office to the Mass, first at Christmas, then also on the other feasts, but it is reserved to the pontiff.

In this century certain changes are made in the rite or in the prayers, attributed to St. Gregory I. The daily acclamations of the Kyrie are shortened, there is added the Christe eleison. Gregory I suppresses the prayer after the readings; he reserves the Super populum for the days of Lent; he reforms the Hanc igitur, adding diesque nostros. An important change is the transposition of the Pater noster, immediately after the Canon and before the fraction of the Host. At the fraction of the Host the Agnus Dei is sung from the time of Pope Sergius (d. 701). Prayers, chants and rites are codified, and thus the solemn Latin Roman M. receives the more or less definitive form which appears in the various liturgical books.

VI. FROM THE 8TH CENTURY TO THE 12TH CENTURY

The Roman liturgy began to spread beyond Italy as well, starting from the 5th-6th century. Indeed, for Spain the bishop Profuturus desired the Roman Canon (in 538), and the Synod of Braga in can. 4 (in 563) ordered the assimilation of the Spanish liturgy to the Roman one. In England, with the mission of Augustine ordered by Gregory I, the Roman liturgy was also introduced. In Gaul the reform, established by Pepin and continued by Charlemagne, with the aim of replacing the Gallican Mass with the Roman one, in the course of the years in turn influenced the rite and the prayers of the Roman Mass itself.

In the regions of the Gallican Mass there was a predilection for performing the rites in a more dramatic form: they therefore grew in number and grandeur. The incensation, used in the Roman Mass only at the entrance of the pontiff, was also practiced at the beginning of the Offertory: the altar was incensed from the four sides and the oblata were also incensed. The incensation of the altar was also added immediately after the entrance, before the Gloria or the Dominus vobiscum (Pax vobis). The incense is carried in procession for the announcement of the Gospel, as a triumph of the Lord himself; the book is incensed and also the celebrant, the acolytes, the people. The incense to the people was reserved only after the incensation of the oblata, to indicate that with the offerings the offerers too are included in the Sacrifice. Before the announcement of the Gospel, the deacon greets the people, like the celebrant, and at the announcement the people respond with Gloria tibi, Domine. The rite of the Orate fratres is introduced before the beginning of the Canon.

The prayers also increase. To the single prayer of the feast others are added, but not beyond the number of seven. As in the Gallican rite (cf. the African rite of the time of Augustine), the solemn blessings of the pontiff are given after the Pater noster before Holy Communion.

In Gaul the signs of the Cross in the Canon are encountered for the first time. The ancient rite of blessing was the imposition of hands; in Gaul, instead, the sign of the Cross was used, which is found in seven points of the Canon: a) in the Te igitur, at the words haec dona, haec munera, haec sancta sacrificia; these are the first signs and the most ancient (already in the ancient Gelasianum of the 8th century [cod. Vat. 316], a sign is also added earlier, at the benedicas); then from the 8th-9th centuries come: b) in the Quam oblationem (five signs, as today; c) in the Qui pridie and Simili modo (account of the institution); d) in the Unde et memores; e) in the Supplices; f) in the Per quem (these six groups are found in the most ancient codices of the 8th-9th centuries and are alluded to in the Ordo Romanus II, 10). At the end of the 10th century they appear in group g) from the Per ipsum to the Pax domini for the commingling of the particles. These signs of the Cross are made for four purposes: a) to reinforce the idea of blessing or sanctification, b) to highlight certain sacred words, c) for an ancient rhetorical gesture of indication, d) for a gesture of oblation. There is a certain predilection for odd numbers (3 or 5).

From France, beginning in the 9th century, the various tropes and versicles were inserted into the melodies of the Ordinary and into the texts of the Mass: a) into the Ordinary of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Ite (never into the Credo), b) into the proper of the Masses de tempore and of the saints, that is, into the Introit, Gradual, Offertory, Communion; sometimes also into the Epistle, rarely into the Gospel. Similarly, the so-called sequences were sung at the Alleluja. All these chants flourished until the 13th century but only the sequences were preserved in use: of Easter (Victimae), of Pentecost (Veni), of Corpus Domini (Lauda Sion), of the Sorrowful Mother (Stabat) and of the dead (Dies irae).

In addition to this, the celebrant privately recited prayers, called Apologiae; for the preparation for the Sacrifice, in assuming the sacred vestments, during the singing of the Gradual, the celebrant recites with the deacon a prayer for the announcement of the Gospel; as the offering of the faithful diminishes, the rite and the prayers of the preparation of the elements increase: special prayers for the Offering of the bread, of the chalice, etc. Thus the new rite of the Offertory is formed. The celebrant prepares himself with special prayers for Holy Communion. Typical of these apologiae is the awareness of one's own guilt. While the ancient Church prayed with hands open and raised, as today in the prayers of the Mass and in the Canon, the apologiae were recited with hands joined (a gesture derived from the homage of the Germanic vassal who placed his joined hands in those of the lord).

In the 8th-11th centuries these four parts of the Mass were formed: 1) for the entrance: the preparatory prayers of the vesting, special prayers at the approach to the altar (Iudica and Confiteor); 2) for the Offertory: the prayers for the Offering of the bread and of the chalice; the Lavabo after the incensation comes into use; 3) for the Communion: the singing of the Agnus Dei is prolonged until the Communion, because there was no fraction of the Hosts. During this chant, the celebrant recites special prayers for his preparation. The rite of the ablution of the chalice also begins in these centuries; 4) finally, after the Ite, missa est the blessing is added (before the Placeat); in the sacristy special prayers are recited at the removal of the priestly vestments.

Other changes prepared in these centuries: the prayer Super oblata is recited in secret, in a low voice, beginning from the middle of the 8th century. The word Secreta occurs for the first time in the Capitulare Ecclesiae ordered by the Archcantor John and comes from the Gallican use. The Canon too is no longer recited aloud. The moment of the sacrifice is surrounded with a solemn silence « Quae dum (the Sanctus) espleverint, surgit solus pontifex et tacite intrat in canonem » (Ordo Romanus II, 10: PL 78, 974a). The celebrant himself begins this act with a sacred trembling; from this the new rite of the Orate, fratres is explained!; the clergy recites for him sometimes special prayers and psalms (for example, the gradual psalms). In the Memento the words pro quibus tibi offerimus are added, to indicate that only the priest is the minister of the Sacrifice.

The altar no longer stands between the celebrant and the people, but at the back of the apse in the place of the cathedra, so that the celebrant sacrifices with his back to the people; the clergy no longer assist behind the altar next to the cathedra, but in front like the people. The altar receives a new form, in width: at the center only the prayers of the Sacrifice itself are recited; those outside the Canon are said at the right or the left. Subsequently the reading of the Epistle and the Gospel is also done at the sides of the altar.

With the use of unleavened bread the use of a large Host for the celebrant and of small Hosts for the Communion of the people is introduced: the paten becomes smaller, because the fraction of the Hosts for the Communion of the people is no longer necessary and is used only for the Host of the celebrant: for the Communion of the people, the pyx is introduced and the people receive the Holy Eucharist kneeling.

These customs are introduced also in Italy and even in Rome. Significant is the introduction of the Credo into the Roman Mass, made by Benedict VIII at the request of the emperor Henry (1014), but limited, afterward, to certain days. In Gaul and in Germany the Credo was sung after the Gospel already from the end of the 8th century, introduced on the occasion of the condemnation of Adoptionism at the Council of Frankfurt (794). In Rome the Credo was recited only in the administration of Baptism.

VII. FROM THE 12TH CENTURY TO THE 15TH CENTURY

To determine the Roman M. in the 12th century and following, the starting point is the Micrologus of Bernold of Constance (v.; written ca. 1089), the endpoint is the Ordo of Burchard (d. 1506); in between stand the book of Pope Innocent III De sancto altaris mysterio of 1198, the Rationale divinorum Officiorum of William Durand of Mende (d. 1296), the Ordo Romanus XIV (ca. 1311) of Card. Stefaneschi (d. 1343) and the Ordo Romanus XV of Pietro Amelio (d. 1401). In this period the Ordo and the Missal (v.) were compiled for the private use of the Pope and his court. The Friars Minor spread everywhere the Roman use « secundum consuetudinem Romanæ Curiae ». The private reading of all the texts read or sung was imposed on the celebrant. Already according to the Ordo Ecclesiae Lateranensis of 1145 by Bernard, Prior Cardinal, and the Rationale of Durand, the bishop read cum ministris the texts of the Introitus, Kyrie, Gloria, Epistola, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei! The Ordo XIV, on the other hand, does not yet mention the Epistle, Gradual, Gospel, Offertory and Communio. The Ordo of Burchard contains these prescriptions.

The prayers used in Gaul at the Offertory, and in Italy, known from manuscripts of the 11th century, are not yet found in Innocent III, but are in the Ordo Romanus XIV, 53. The Ordo of the papal Chapel does not yet have the great Elevation after the Consecration, which instead was introduced shortly afterward and is found in the Ordo Romanus XIV. The minor Elevation was made in the Chapel at the Per omnia, while the Ordo XIV does not speak of it, supposing it at the Omnis honor. Both in the Ordo of the Chapel and in the Ordo XIV the Fiat commixio was said. The prayers at Communion are identical to ours. The Agnus Dei in the time of Honorius of Autun (d. between 1145-52, in the « Gemma animae », ch. 111) was sung three times, always with miserere nobis, and also under Innocent III; but in Gaul (Durand, Rationale, 4, 52) it is said the last time with the dona nobis pacem. In the Ordo XIV at the Ite, missa est there followed the papal blessing and then the Placeat; no mention of the last Gospel of St. John.

The Ordo of the papal Chapel contained certain other peculiarities: it introduced at Rome the incensation of the oblations and of the altar at the Offertory; unlike present-day use, the celebrant, having gone up to the altar, gave the peace to the deacon and washed his hands before offering the bread and wine.

In the 12th century the elevation of the consecrated Host was introduced into the ceremonies of the M., making it the culminating point of the M. The first to speak of it is Odo of Sully, bishop of Paris (1196-1208). In comparison with the minor Elevation at the end of the Canon, honor et gloria, which is older, because it contains the gesture not of showing to the people but of offering the gifts to God, the new rite is called the « major » Elevation. The desire to see the Host becomes one of the most characteristic devotions of the 13th-15th centuries; sometimes the whole M. consisted for the faithful in seeing the Host (« ocular Communion »). The Elevation of the chalice, after the Consecration of the wine, was not done at the same time, but was introduced by symmetrical analogy; Durand in the Rationale gives the first certain notice of it; practiced in the papal Chapel in the 14th century, it was made obligatory with the Missal of Pius V (1570).

This major Elevation brings into use the genuflections in the Canon, which were likewise imposed only by the Pian Missal. Previously, the celebrant and the ministers bowed profoundly. The same is to be said of the incensation of the eucharistic species, introduced around the middle of the 12th century. In the 13th century (Durand) the last Gospel of St. John was added.

The Roman Ordo, that is, that of the papal Chapel spread by the Minors, was the last stage of the evolution of the Ordinary of the Roman M.

VIII. FROM THE REFORM OF PIUS V TO OUR TIMES

The diffusion of the Ordinary of the Papal Chapel does not yet represent the unification of the rites that was aimed at. Particular rites remained, both of the dioceses and of the great Orders; unfortunately, abuses also remained. To put an end to a near liturgical anarchy, the Council of Trent instituted a special commission; but the task was then left to the pope: Pius V, on 14 July 1570, by publishing the new Missal, determined that the texts and rites of the Roman Mass be observed throughout the whole Church of the West, except for those Churches that had possessed one of their own for at least 200 years. New revisions took place under Clement VIII (1604), Urban VIII (1634) and finally under Pius X.

List of the additions to the Mass over the course of the centuries. Ps. Judica, 11th-12th century; Aufer a nobis (Roman style) and Oramus te (Gallican style), 12th-13th century. Incensation of the altar at the Introit, 9th-13th century; more than one collect, from the 11th century. Sequences: Victimae (11th century), Veni sanctae (11th century), Dies irae (13th century), Lauda Sion (13th century), Stabat (14th century); accepted at Rome in the 18th century. Munda cor meum, 11th century. Sequentia 1. Evangelii, 9th century (in Gaul). Gloria tibi Domine-Dominus vobiscum, 13th century. Per evangelica dicta: after 1570 (at Rome). Incensation of the oblations, 11th century. Per intercessionem, Incensum istud, Accendat, 13th century, Ps. Lavabo (the gesture already in the 7th century), 11th century. The Orate fratres and the Suscipiat (as a response) added after 1200. Elevation of the Host, around 1200. Elevation of the chalice, 14th century. Genuflections instead of inclinations, toward the end of the 14th century. Haec commixtio, 9th-13th century. Confiteor, Agnus Dei, Domine non sum dignus (for the Communion of the faithful), 13th century. Communion of the faithful under the single species of bread, 14th century. Purification with wine and water, 14th century. Blessing of the people, at first a privilege of the bishop from the 7th-8th century (in Gaul), begins to be imparted also by the priest. The Placeot, in the 11th century a prayer that was recited after the Mass, was introduced by the Pian Missal of 1570. Kiss of the Altar, Benedict vos, last Gospel, Pian Missal of 1570. The prayers at the foot of the altar were added by Leo XIII.

IX. THE MASS OUTSIDE ROME: AMBROSIAN, MOZARABIC, CELTIC, GALLICAN

Besides the Roman-Latin rite and the African-Latin one, there existed four other great Latin liturgical families: the Ambrosian (the more ancient Roman or archaic-Roman rite), the Mozarabic (an autochthonous national liturgy), these two rites still in use today: the Celtic (a varied complex of liturgical uses) and the properly Gallican one. While the Ambrosian Mass is more of the Roman type, the other three form an almost common family, despite the particularities of each.

It is therefore enough to describe the rite of the properly Gallican Mass as the general type.

In it three parts are clearly distinguished: introductory, didactic and sacrificial (= Mass of the faithful). The offerings of the faithful (bread, wine and other things) are brought into the sacristy before the Mass. Here the oblations for the Mass are also prepared in advance and placed in a vessel to be brought to the altar after the litany of the faithful; the offerings not needed for the Mass are placed at the side of the altar to be blessed at the end of the Canon, for the use of the clergy and of the poor.

1. Introductory part: at the entrance of the celebrant the "antiphona ad praelgendum" is sung (= before the exhortation), corresponding to the Roman Introit (or Ambrosian ingresa, called Officium in the Mozarabic liturgy). The deacon bids silence "Silentium facite" and the celebrant greets the people "Dominus sit semper vobiscum" (at Milan as at Rome "Dominus vobiscum" or "Pax vobis"). Three chants follow: a) the "Aius" in Greek and Latin (Trisagion), introduced already before the Council of Vaison (529) which ordered it to be sung at every Mass (in the Roman Mass it is used on Good Friday, "agios o Theos"); b) the Kyrie, performed in unison by three children, only three times; c) the "Propheta", that is the "Benedictus" (Lk. 1:68-79), sung by two choirs. Then follows the "Collectio post prophetiam" composed of a Praefatio (allocution to the faithful) and the Collect. In place of the Trisagion, in the Ambrosian and Mozarabic liturgy the "Gloria in excelsis" is said (Roman influence).

2. Then follows the didactic part: three readings, the first from the Old Testament, the second from the Apostolic letters (after Easter the books of Acts or of Revelation are also read; on the feasts of saints, their lives). After these two lessons the hymn of the three children in the furnace is sung (Dan. 3:51), followed by a gradual responsory. With the repetition of the Trisagion, in a procession with seven candles, the book of the Gospel is brought to the ambo for the third reading, that of the Gospel; the bishop's homily follows. This practice was observed in Gaul better than at Rome, because in the absence of the bishop the priests also preached, or the deacons read some passage of the Fathers, a custom extended also to rural parishes, from the Council of Vaison (529). The Mass of the faithful begins with a litanic prayer, intoned by the deacon, to which the people respond. In the Ambrosian liturgy a trace of this prayer is preserved on the Sundays of Lent, but immediately after the ingresa; and also in the triple Kyrie after the Gospel. The litany is closed with the prayer called "Collecta post precem", after which the penitents and the catechumens are dismissed. In the Roman liturgy of this litany the solemn prayers of Good Friday have remained; now a detachment is noted after the "Dominus vobiscum" before the Offertory. After the prayers of the litany, in solemn procession, the deacon brings to the altar the oblations prepared in advance, the bread enclosed in a tower-shaped casket, the wine in a chalice, covered by a precious veil. During the procession the sonus is sung, similar to the Byzantine Cherubikon; this chant is closed with Alleluia (called laudes in the Mozarabic liturgy; in the Ambrosian liturgy "Antiphona post Evangelium"). This rite of the carrying of the oblations must be distinguished from the offerings of the faithful, made at the same moment according to the Roman rite. Once the oblations have been placed on the altar, a little water is poured into the wine; a triple Alleluia is sung (Laudes, Sacrificium, in the Mozarabic liturgy, Offerenda in the Ambrosian one). The priest recites the prayer of the "veil" (so called because at that moment the oblations are covered with a great veil), composed like all the other prayers of a Praefatio, and of the Collect "ante nomina" (in the Ambrosian and Mozarabic liturgy preceded by a greeting), corresponding to the "Secreta" or "Super oblata" of the Roman rite. The names of the bishops and of the faithful, both living and dead, are recited according to the diptychs (v.), followed by the "collectio post nomina". All give each other the kiss of peace, while the priest recites the "Collecta post pacem".

3. Then comes the "contestatio" ("immolatio", "illatio"), a eucharistic prayer corresponding to the Preface of the Roman rite, followed by the "Sanctus". The "Post sanctus" is a brief formula of transition to connect the Praefatio and the Sanctus with the account of the institution. The text of this account is not known, because it is often indicated with a few words and recited from memory, in a low voice (as opposed to the loud voice in the Roman rite), but it was similar to the Roman one, in analogy with the following prayers called "Post pridie" (and also "post secreta", from their recitation in a low voice).

After the final doxology of the "post pridie," the fraction of the Host was performed, accompanied by the singing of the confractorium; then the Pater noster was recited, in accordance with the Greek usage, by the celebrant and the people; the prayer "Ante orationem Domini" was placed before it; the "post orationem dominicam" was, as a rule, shorter than the Roman "Libera," but of identical content. The rite of the "Commistio" follows. As a preparation for Communion, the bishop imparted a special blessing; priests used (in the Celtic and Ambrosian rite) a shorter formula: "Pax et communicatio D. N. J. C. sit semper vobiscum."

Communion was administered under the two species of bread and wine at the altar (in Spain, for the faithful outside the choir). Men received the Host on the bare hand, women on a hand covered by a "dominical" cloth; the deacon presented the eucharistic chalice. The "Trecanon" was sung, a chant composed of Psalm 33 "Gustate et videte," interspersed with Alleluia; sometimes, as a variant, the hymn "Sancti venite" (Antiphonale of Bangor: PL 72, 587). The prayer of thanksgiving, the "Post Communionem," also preceded by a praefatio, closes the Mass. The dismissal formula in the Gallican rite, corresponding to the "Ite, missa est," is unknown; in the Stowe Missal (Celtic rite) one says "Missa acta est. In pace."

X. NOMENCLATURE, CLASSIFICATIONS AND DIVISIONS OF THE MASS

1. The oldest names of the Mass are "fraction of the bread" (1 Cor. 10:16) or "Lord's Supper" (ibid. 11:20). From the 1st century the name "Eucharist" also comes into use, and even the gifts themselves and the consecrated species of the Mass are called "Eucharist" (in the Didache, in St. Ignatius of Antioch, Tertullian and St. Cyprian). In St. Cyprian and St. Augustine the term "Sacrifice" also occurs; in the writings of Egeria the word "Oblation" is found; St. Ambrose uses "Action" from "agere" = "to offer" (cf. Canon Actionis, Gelasian Sacramentary). Among the Greeks, the Mass is called "Synaxis," then "Liturgy."

The Latin word missa certainly derives, as was mentioned, from missio = dimissio, in the original sense of dismissal, still in use today in the dismissal formula "Ite, missa est." Between this original sense and the present meaning, four senses must be distinguished (already indicated by Egeria, Peregrinatio ad Loca sancta): a) the etymological sense of "dimissio": "ut fiat missa Ecclesiae," Egeria, ch. 25, 1 (about 70 times); Florus, De expositione missae, ch. 92: PL 119, 72; "Missa catechumenorum," Council of Carthage IV (of 398); "Missa catechumenorum," equivalent in the present sense to the first didactic part of the Mass, occurs in Ivo of Chartres (d. 1116); b) the act of dismissal joined with a blessing or a prayer (the rite of dismissal or the final prayer) "et sic fit Missa" (Egeria, 24, 6); "Missam facere coepi," St. Ambrose, Ep. 20, 4 = dismissal of the competentes; "et missa," "et missae sunt," "oratione dominica fiat missae," "et benedictione missae fiant," St. Benedict, Reg., ch. 17; the blessing itself is called "missa"; c) the whole liturgical action joined with a blessing or final prayer is called "missa" (Cassian, De instit., II, 13, 15; III, 5, 8, 11, "missa nocturna, vigiliarum missa"; Council of Agde [506] "missae matutinae, vespertinae"); d) finally and in a special way the whole eucharistic action is called "missa," because it is joined with a blessing. The first witness is Leo I (of 445), Ep. 9, 2; from this time "missa" is used everywhere in Italy, Gaul, and Africa in the sense of the eucharistic action; by St. Gregory and others in the plural form "missae" or "missarum sollemnia."

2. According to the rite or the solemnity, the Mass is solemn (pontifical, presbyteral); sung; private.

a) Pontifical Mass. - It is the solemn Mass officiated by a bishop or by a priest having the use of the pontificals, whether by canon law (cann. 325 and 625; abbates regiminis benedicti, abbates nullius, praelati nullius), or by apostolic concession, according to the rite prescribed by the Caeremoniale episcoporum (of 1600). The rites of the present pontifical Mass come from the ancient solemn papal Mass described in the Ordines Romani and have preserved some of its peculiarities. The ordinary bishop is assisted by a representation of his clergy, by the assistant priest (beginning from the 12th century), by the deacon and subdeacon ministers and by two assistant deacons; he has the privilege of the seven candles on the altar (instead of the 7 acolytes of the solemn papal Mass), he greets the "sancta" at his entrance, adoring the Most Blessed Sacrament, kisses the book of the Gospels at the beginning of the Mass, presides, from his throne, over the liturgical assembly during the didactic part of the Mass (before the Offertory), uses the Lavabo before the Offertory. The ancient use of the fraction and of Communion performed at the throne are reserved to the papal Mass. In ancient times only the bishop, as hierarchical head, celebrated the Mass on Sundays and feast days; the other priests concelebrated with him (v. CONCELEBRATION). In accordance with that ancient use, even today the deacon and subdeacon receive Holy Communion in the papal Mass.

The solemn papal Mass has furthermore these peculiarities: at the entrance 7 acolytes with candles precede; as in the Ordines, at the altar the three youngest cardinal priests greet the pope with the kiss of peace; the readings of the Epistle and Gospel are done in Latin and Greek; at the Offertory the pregustation is done, that is, the sacristan must pregust two of the three Hosts and the wine; at the Elevation after the Consecration, the pontiff shows the sacred species toward three directions, in the middle, to the right and to the left; the pope, after the fraction of the Host, goes to the throne and there communicates, reserving a part of the sacred Host and of the consecrated chalice for the deacon and the subdeacon. For the communion of the Precious Blood the pope uses a metal straw (fistula, calamus, pugillaris).

b) Presbyteral Mass. — The solemn Mass, officiated by the priest with deacon and subdeacon, with the chanting of the officiants and of the choir, with other solemn rites of incense etc., derives from the pontifical type, and is an adaptation of the papal Mass of the Ordines Romani to occasions when a bishop was not present (v. the "Capitulare ecc. ord.," ed. by Silva-Tarouca). Also the De officiis ecclesiasticis of John of Avranches (of 1065; PL 147, 32) grants many peculiarities of the pontifical rite (except the throne) to the simple priest. The rite is simplified afterward: a deacon and a subdeacon alone, the priest greets with "Dominus vobiscum," everything is done at the altar (Gloria, Oratio, Credo), Lavabo after the incense. These simplifications are already seen in a Dominican ordinarium of 1256. There are also the bows to the celebrant and the many kisses in presenting and accepting. The celebrant recites with the assisting ministers the texts sung by the choir.

c) Sung Mass. — From the second type, the presbyteral, the sung Mass derives. There was a Mass used in the presbyteral churches of Rome: the priest with a deacon or at least with a lector or acolyte. The latter read the Epistle, recited the Gradual with the response of the faithful, performed the auxiliary services of the Mass. There were no chants of the Introit,

Offertory or Communion on the part of the singers. The faithful responded to the greeting and at the end of the Orations and of the Canon, sang the Sanctus. Afterward, this sung Mass developed in the manner of the pontifical Mass, that is, it assumed the rite of the solemn entrance with the chant of the Introitus, first, already in the time of Gelasius I, that of the Kyrie and of the Oration, afterward also of the Gloria (Credo), Agnus Dei; the celebrant recited by himself from the 12th century the part of the chant. This form of the sung Mass (by the celebrant alone) was ordinary in small rural parishes, where there was not a sufficient clergy. The form of the sung Mass was ordinary also in convents, called from the Middle Ages the conventual Mass. The Carthusians even today have only one deacon to assist the celebrant, a lector who reads the Epistle; the same holds for the Cistercians in the ferial rite. The conventual Mass in convents is that of the day, in which all the members take part. The Mass, corresponding to the Office of the day, is celebrated as a rule after Terce, on ferial days after Sext, on days of fasting after None.

All these three types of Mass, celebrated on Sundays and feasts, are also called public Mass, because they are intended for the community. Today, in order to satisfy the Sunday obligation of the faithful, the public Mass is not always sung or solemn, but simply read suffices.

d) Private Mass. — In the original and strict sense it was the one said in private houses or at the shrines of the martyrs, used from the earliest centuries, especially in times of persecution (Tertullian, Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, Augustine "qualiter poterant et ubi poterant"), and in the Middle Ages in the villas of great landowners or lords. From the Council of Trent onward, Masses in private houses were forbidden. From this form, more or less public, the private (or solitary) Mass of the celebrant alone with his minister is distinguished. It was celebrated out of devotion in the form of a votive Mass, especially for the dead, from the 7th century to satisfy the personal piety of priests and monks and to foster the devotion of the faithful. From the 9th century the presence of at least two persons was prescribed. It was celebrated with the simplest rite, in a low voice ("in directum"), omitting all the chanted parts; the priest vested at the altar. Thus the private Mass became the read or low (or secret) Mass. Today in the rite or in the prayers there is no difference between the private or read Mass and the public or sung one. Indeed, the read Mass recognized by the Missal of Pius V is almost its ordinary form, because the rubrics speak of the read Mass in order to add to it the special rites of the solemn or pontifical Mass. A more recent form is the dialogue (recited) Mass, which adds nothing to the rite but intensifies the participation of the faithful; the faithful respond to the celebrant, recite with him the Gloria, Credo and Pater; the didactic texts of the Epistle are read, besides by the celebrant, by a lector, sometimes also those of the Gospel; silence is kept after the Sanctus. Another variety is that the people sing in the vernacular texts corresponding to the Latin of the celebrant.

3. According to the text, there is the temporal, sanctoral, common, and votive Mass. Masses of the time are the formularies composed for the feasts of the Lord: Christmas, the Resurrection, Pentecost, for the Sundays that precede or follow Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. Another series of of the sacred species consecrated on Holy Thursday, preceded by the readings, the prayers and the veneration of the Cross. Having come from Gaul, it was already in use in Rome in the 9th century. In the Greek liturgy it was in use first every day of Lent, except Sundays, then twice in the weeks of Lent, and on the first three days of Holy Week.

Nowadays only one Mass a day is said by the same priest; only on the feast of Christmas and, after Benedict XV, on the day of all the faithful departed is each priest permitted to say Mass three times. At the beginning of the 5th century, the private and daily celebration of the Sacrifice, performed by the same priest, reached such multiplicity that some allowed themselves three, four or more (Leo III "una die septem vel novem Missarum solemnia saepius celebrabat", Walafrid Strabo, De exord., chap. 21). Pope Innocent III (d. 1216) forbade multiple celebration, outside of Christmas, "nisi causa necessitatis". This necessity arises when on Sundays or holy days of obligation a notable part of the faithful would be left without holy Mass.

4. As a historical reminiscence, the so-called bifaciated, trifaciated Mass of the 13th century is to be remembered. Especially in France, a determined formulary was read up to the Offertory, in order to begin a second, then a third, and then continue the Mass regularly. Different is the dry Mass practiced from the 9th century (Pontifical of Prudentius) until the time of Durandus (d. 1296). It was a Mass without Consecration and Communion, while the ceremonies were performed both by the celebrant and by the two ministers; in Rome it was in use until the time of Burchard of Strasbourg (d. 1506). Durandus distinguishes two modes: a) a lesser one: it consisted of the Epianola, the Gospel, the Pater noster and the Blessing (the priest used only the stole); b) a greater one: all the texts were recited, except the minor Canon of the Offertory and the greater one "Te igitur"; that is, the Preface, Pater noster, Agnus Dei etc. were sung (without Communion); the celebrant and the ministers wore the sacred vestments. Perhaps today's blessing of the palms was made on the model of a dry Mass.

M. is that of the proper of the saints; that is, the Masses of the saints who have as their own the one or the other prayer and the readings. Then follows the common of the saints, that is, the Masses for groups of saints who do not have a formulary of their own (Apostles, Supreme Pontiffs, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, and non-Virgins). A votive Mass is called that which is celebrated not according to the Office of the day or of the feast, but for a vow or for a marriage, illness, calamity or similar private or public circumstances, or to honor a saint outside the day of his feast.

In the Roman rite, the Mass praesantificatorum is used only on Good Friday; that is, with pre-consecrated Species; lacking the Offertory and the Consecration, it is reduced to being a solemn rite of Communion

Pietro Siffrin

IV. THE MASS IN THE LITURGY OF THE ORIENTAL RITE.

I. GENERAL NOTES

Among the Greeks and those who follow the Byzantine rite, the Mass is called the "holy and divine liturgy," thus emphasizing the concept of a sacred public function; the Armenians say baradak, the Syrians and Maronites qārbānā, that is, oblation, sacrifice, the Chaldeans qādālā, understanding by this word sanctification, consecration; the same may be said of the Coptic word haghiasmos and of the Ethiopian qēdāsē.

In several Catholic churches of the Eastern rite the use of the so-called private or read Mass has been introduced; others, on the other hand, seek to take away from the celebration of the simple rite as little as possible of that solemnity which confers on it its character of publicity. Although "a simple liturgy," as the Greeks call it, is not unknown to the dissidents, they, faithful to the ancient principle of one Mass on one altar on a feast day, generally celebrate the Mass with pomp: deacon, lector, choir, people, all for their part collaborate in the solemn function with the priest or with the concelebrating priests. Understanding the obligation of the Sunday and feast-day Mass in a manner different from that which became established in the West, they content themselves with a single synaxis on these days, since they do not understand that multiplication of liturgies among the Eastern Catholics and are amazed at the shortenings these practice and at the haste with which they celebrate. Among the dissident Syrians the Sunday Mass lasts two and a half hours, among the Copts more than three hours and, as it is possible to observe, the faithful remain present until the end.

In the present Mass of the Easterners one can find again the division into Mass of the catechumens and Mass of the faithful, or rather into an instructive and exhortatory part and a eucharistic part. In the eucharistic part the liturgical actions can be grouped around the three principal acts: the Offertory, the Consecration and the Communion. However, in all the Eastern rites the Offertory, or preparation of the bread and wine, has come to be placed before the Mass of the catechumens and has been united, often increasing its rites, to the prayers of preparation that already preceded the exhortatory part of the Mass. For clarity of exposition the Eastern Mass is divided into six chapters: 1) rites of preparation; 2) liturgy of the catechumens; 3) transfer of the gifts, symbol of the faith and kiss of peace; 4) anaphora with the Consecration; 5) Lord's Prayer, fraction and Elevation; 6) Communion and thanksgiving. In this division the most ancient parts (2, 4 and 6) remain clearly distinct from the secondary creations, less essential and often more complicated.

What is described here is the ordinary Mass, that is, the sung Mass, with the assistance of the deacon, of the choir, not the pontifical one which introduces certain particular rites.

II. THE "LITURGY" OF THE BYZANTINES

1. The priest with the deacon, vested in the rjassa, bow before the iconostasis (v.), recite in a low voice certain prayers, kiss the image of the Savior and that of the Mother of God; then the priest says, with arms outstretched, a prayer for himself. Having entered the sanctuary, they kiss the altar, put on the liturgical vestments and wash their hands. At the altar of the prothesis the priest first prepares the principal offering, extracting from the bread the central part called the Lamb, with the inscription frac{IS | XS}{NI | KA} and the chalice by pouring wine and water into it, then the secondary offerings; for this purpose he places in the discos around the Lamb a particle of bread in honor of the Mother of God, nine others in honor of nine categories of saints, others for the living, for the dead and for himself. The bread that remains is cut into small pieces which, blessed after the Consecration, will be distributed at the end of the liturgy as antidoron. After covering and incensing the offerings, the priest recites the prayer of the prothesis: "O God, our God, who sent the heavenly bread, the food of the whole world, the Lord and God Jesus Christ, savior, redeemer and benefactor, who blesses us and sanctifies us: do you yourself bless this prothesis and accept it on your altar above the heavens...". The deacon incenses the altar, the iconostasis and the whole church to purify the place of sacrifice. Then the veil of the central door is drawn; the priest and the deacons are seen kissing the altar, the deacon goes out from the sanctuary and takes his place before the door, near the people whose prayer he will lead; but first he says to the priest: "Bless, master," and the priest, raising the Gospel which always lies on the altar, exclaims: "Blessed be the Kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...". The choir: Amen. And the deacon begins the great Collect, followed by the shortened Office of three antiphonal psalms; each psalm is accompanied by a litany and a priestly prayer. These three ancient Byzantine prayers are most beautiful in their conciseness.

2. The ancient beginning of the M. is found again in the rite of the entrance with the Gospel, called the little entrance. The deacon, carrying the Gospel and followed by the priest, comes out from the sanctuary, stops before the royal doors and, after presenting the Gospel to the priest to be kissed, raises it saying: "Wisdom! Let us stand upright!". And while they enter the sanctuary, the choir sings: "Come, let us adore and prostrate ourselves before Christ...". There follow the singing of the troparia of the feast or of the mystery of the day and that of the trisagion: "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us". When the hymn is finished, a reader takes his place in the middle of the nave, pronounces the verses of the prokeimenon and reads the Epistle of the day. When this is finished, the deacon incenses the sanctuary and the people, the choir sings the Alleluia and the deacon, standing at the door of the sanctuary or on the ambo, reads the Gospel. As in the ancient Church, fervent supplications are now made for the needs of all, in particular for the catechumens, who are dismissed with these words of the deacon: "All you who are catechumens, go out; catechumens, go out; catechumens, all you who are, go out; let none of the catechumens remain here," and in so doing, passing to the M. of the faithful, he immediately adds: "All we who are faithful, again and again, let us pray to the Lord in peace". The deacon's litany is twofold, the priestly prayer is twofold.

3. The deacon (in fact, often the priest) takes the censer and incenses the altar, the iconostasis, the people; then he joins the priest to recite the cherubic hymn and the two go to the prothesis where the deacon takes the discos and the priest the chalice. Meanwhile the choir sings devoutly: "We who mystically represent the cherubim, and to the life-giving Trinity sing the thrice-holy hymn, come then, let us lay aside every worldly care". At that moment the procession comes out from the sanctuary; holding the offerings in their hands, the deacon and the priest express their vows for the supreme pontiff, the hierarchy, the authorities and the faithful, and while they re-enter the sanctuary, the choir finishes the hymn: "To receive the King of the universe, invisibly escorted by the angelic hosts. Alleluia". This is the solemn transfer of the gifts or the "great entrance". The deposition of the gifts on the altar is accompanied by a dialogue between the priest and the deacon. The latter resumes his place before the iconostasis and begins the litany of petitions. To it there follows the kiss of peace and after the ancient exclamation of the deacon: "The doors! The doors! Let us stand wisely attentive!", the Symbol of faith is sung or recited.

4. Thus we come to the central part of the M., the most ancient eucharistic prayer. The deacon admonishes: "Let us stand devoutly, let us be attentive to offer in peace the holy oblation". The priest greets and blesses and, after the dialogue of the Preface, says secretly the first prayer which ends with the Sanctus of the choir. If in the preceding prayer the priest has praised God for his greatness and his magnificence, in this one the most holy Trinity is exalted and the love of the Father who sent his beloved Son into the world, who, "on the night he was betrayed... took bread in his hands," and thus with the narration of the last Supper the words of Christ are sung, to which the people respond with the Amen of their faith. And after the anamnesis, quite brief, the deacon crosses his arms and raises the discos and the chalice while the priest says aloud: "Your own things, chosen from among those that are yours, we offer to you in all and for all". The epiclesis, with which the priest now asks the Holy Spirit to descend upon these gifts to transform them into the Body and Blood of Christ, so that they may be of spiritual profit for the communicants, is made with repeated signs of the cross and bows, but secretly. There follows the commemoration of the Theotokos (the Madonna), in whose honor the choir sings, then that of the saints, of the dead and that of the living, among whom the supreme pontiff is named first, and finally the deacon concludes: "And of those whom each one has in mind, and of all and of all" and the choir repeats: "and of all and of all". A beautiful doxology of the priest brings the anaphora to an end.

5. The following part is a remote preparation for Communion. After the blessing of the priest and the litany of the deacon, the Pater noster is sung or recited, followed by a prayer with the head bowed. Then the deacon exclaims: "Let us be attentive" and the priest, raising the holy bread, says aloud: "The holy things to the holy". The choir responds: "One alone is the holy, one alone is the Lord, Jesus Christ, in the glory of God the Father". Meanwhile the priest breaks the holy bread into four parts and puts the part marked IC into the chalice; the deacon adds to it a little hot water, called zeon.

6. Meanwhile the two recite the prayers preparatory to Communion and communicate with the consecrated bread and wine. Then the deacon, with the chalice in his hand, having come out to the door, exclaims: "With fear of God, with faith and charity, draw near". Then the priest distributes Communion with the small spoon to the faithful who receive it under the two species. In some regions the custom has been introduced of giving Communion in this way: on the discos the priest keeps prepared the pieces of consecrated bread, fine and long; he takes them one by one and, after dipping them in the wine, offers them to the communicants. The deacon carries the discos back to the prothesis and the priest the chalice. A chant of the choir, a brief litany of the deacon and a prayer of the priest constitute the thanksgiving. Having come out from the sanctuary and standing before the image of the Savior, the priest recites the prayer of inclination called epistambona (= behind the ambo). Then he gives the blessing and pronounces the apolysis. Meanwhile the deacon has gone to the prothesis where he consumes what remains of the sacred species.

III. IL « BADARAK » ARMENO

1. While the priest, after some preparatory prayers, begins to vest himself with the sacred vestments in the sacristy, the choir, which takes its place in the middle of the nave, sings the hymn: "O profound mystery...", and, when the priest with the ministers advances in procession, it intones the antiphon: "O heavenly King, keep your Church unmoved and guard in peace the worshipers of your name." Having arrived at the foot of the altar, the priest washes his hands, invokes the Mother of God, recites the Confiteor with the Misereatur while two clerics recite Psalm 99; then he says the first part of a prayer for the Church, interrupts it to recite "introibo ad altare Dei" and the psalm Iudica, and resumes the prayer as he ascends the steps of the altar; then the great curtain before the sanctuary is closed. It is easy to recognize in this beginning the introduction of Latin elements. What follows, on the other hand, is taken from the Byzantine rite: the preparation of the bread and wine without the secondary offerings, the prayer of the prothesis: "O God, our God, who sent the bread...", the recitation of Psalm 92 used in the Byzantine rite while the offerings are being covered, the general incensation, the exclamation of the priest: "Blessed be the kingdom...", finally, during the singing of the hymn proper to the day, the recitation of the three prayers that in the Byzantine rite accompany the three antiphonal psalms.

2. The procession with the Gospel begins with the deacon's exclamation and the priestly prayer, which are those of the Byzantine rite. But here the Trisagion is sung while the deacon, holding the Gospel, circles behind the altar escorted by candles and fans, incensed by the thurifer; one of the faithful is invited to kiss the Gospel and the priest blesses him. The major Collect is recited now, which is probably its ancient place. Then a lector reads the antiphon and the Epistle, and after the Alleluia the deacon sings the Gospel while the thurifer incenses it. Immediately the deacon, still holding the Gospel, recites the Symbol of faith, which has a text proper to the Armenians. There follows the ancient universal prayer in the form of a litany, and after the priest's blessing the deacon exclaims: «Let none of the catechumens, none of the imperfect in faith, and none of the penitents and the impure draw near to the divine mystery».

3. The great entrance is announced by the singing of the clerics: "The Body of the Lord and the Blood of the Redeemer are about to become present. The heavenly powers sing invisibly and with ceaseless voice say: holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts." The priest at the altar secretly recites the same long prayer that the Byzantine priest says before the great entrance. Meanwhile the deacons carry the bread and the chalice to the altar, where the priest accepts them, shows them to the faithful and, having placed them on the altar, incenses them, concluding his prayer: "For you, O Christ our God, are the offerer and the offered, the one who receives and the one who distributes, and to you we render glory...". The entrance chant is called the Hagiologia and varies with the feasts. After washing his hands, the priest secretly recites an offertory prayer while the deacon makes an exhortatory proclamation to the faithful: "With faith and holiness let us stand to pray...". And then, after a blessing from the priest, he exclaims: "Greet one another with the holy kiss, and all of you who are not fit to partake of the divine Sacrament, go to the doors and pray." The chant: "Christ among us..." accompanies the kiss of peace.

4. The deacon admonishes: "Let us stand with fear, let us stand with reverence, let us stand devoutly and with steadfast attention." The priest blesses, and the deacon resumes: "The doors, the doors (keep them) with all attention and caution," and immediately adds the Sursum corda and the Gratias agamus... In his eucharistic prayer, recited in a low voice, the priest adores and glorifies the Father who through the work of his Word has removed the obstacle of the curse; "therefore let us join," he says, raising his voice, "the seraphim and the cherubim and sing the Sanctus." The secret prayer continues to develop the theme of Christ's redemptive work, who, taking the bread in his holy, divine and venerable hands... and so the Last Supper is narrated with the words of consecration spoken aloud, to which the people respond twice Amen.

At the end of the anamnesis, the priest, lifting up the offerings, says aloud: "We offer you things that are yours, from your gifts, in all things and for all." The words of the epiclesis are accompanied by signs of the cross, but said in a low voice. Note that after the Consecration the choir sings three brief hymns, one to the Father, one to the Son, and the third, during the epiclesis, to the Holy Spirit. Then follow the long prayers of intercession and commemoration: the saints, the living, the dead.

5. This part begins with the blessing of the priest and the great diaconal litany. Then the people, with arms outstretched, sing the Pater noster, to which the priest adds the embolism prayer and the prayer of the inclination of the head. Now the great Elevation takes place: all kneel, the deacon exclaims: "Let us attend!" and the priest, elevating the consecrated bread, says: "Holy things to the holy," and after the response: "One alone is holy, one alone is the Lord, Jesus Christ, in the glory of the Father," he adds: "Blessed is the holy Father... blessed the holy Son... blessed be the Holy Spirit...». And, having set down the consecrated bread, he raises the chalice while the people sing: «Holy Father, holy Son...»; then he sets down the chalice, kisses the altar and, having taken the sacred Body, dips it entirely in the most pure Blood (at least this is what the dissidents do), and, turning to the people prostrate in adoration, blesses them with the sacred species saying: «Let us taste in holiness of the holy and precious Body and Blood of our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ, who came down from heaven and is distributed among us. He is the life, the hope, the resurrection, the atonement and the forgiveness of sins. Sing psalms to the Lord our God, sing psalms to our heavenly immortal King, seated on the chariot of the cherubim». This solemn development of the Elevation into a eucharistic ostension and blessing is entirely particular to the Armenian rite. All rise and, while the choir sings, the priest breaks the consecrated bread into three parts and places one of them in the chalice.

6. The priest says the long prayers preparatory to Communion while holding the consecrated bread in his hands. As he communicates himself he says: "May thy incorruptible Body be unto me life, and the sacred Blood propitiation and remission of sins." The Communion of the faithful takes place in a rite and with formulas similar to those of the Byzantine rite, except that Catholics give Communion under the species of bread alone. Then the ablutions are performed, and as a sign of thanksgiving the choir sings a hymn, the deacon says an exhortation and the priest a prayer. He adds a prayer said aloud, which is the opistambon of the Byzantines, but then, like the Latins, he recites the last Gospel, which is that of St. John. To conclude, turning toward the people, he says the customary invocation to the Holy Cross, and the clerics recite Psalm 33 while the blessed bread is distributed; then the priest blesses and at the same time gives the dismissal: "Be blessed by the grace of the Holy Spirit; go in peace and may the Lord be with you all. Amen."

Armenien (Texte und Untersuchungen, 15), Vienna 1897 (in Armenian); V. Hatzuni, Missal according to the rite of the Armenian Church (examined and corrected according to the ancient ones), critical edition with notes, Venice 1936.

IV. THE «qūrbānā» OF THE SYRIANS

1. The preparation is clearly divided into two parts, in such a way that the first may be performed by the deacon; if the priest performs it, he has not yet put on the liturgical vestments. It begins while standing before the door of the sanctuary and saying «Glory be to the Father...»; after the response of the choir, the latter sings the hymn of light. Meanwhile the deacon, or the priest, says the prayer of the beginning, psalm 50, asks pardon of those present and enters the sanctuary. On the altar he offers the bread and places it on the discos, puts wine and water into the chalice and covers the discos and the chalice. Then he exclaims: «Stomen kalos» (Let us stand well!) and, with arms outstretched, says the sedrā, a prayer composed of a laudatory introduction (proemium), of the central part (sedrā), of a hymn of four stanzas and of the conclusion. All that precedes is called the Office of Melchizedek, that which follows the Office of Aaron. The priest puts on the liturgical vestments, before the altar says a prayer for himself, crosses his arms and, taking the discos in his right hand and the chalice in his left, raises them saying the prayer of the Offertory which commemorates the redemptive work of the Lord, the saints and the particular intentions of the Sacrifice. Then he covers the offerings with the great veil, and while another sedrā is recited, the altar, the offerings, and again the altar are incensed.

2. The procession with the Gospel takes place around the altar; the hymn that accompanies it is the Monogenès, attributed by the Byzantines to the emperor Justinian, by the Syrians to the patriarch Severus of Antioch. Then the Trisagion is sung. At present the readings are generally two: the Epistle preceded by the antiphon and, after the Alleluia, the Gospel; but in ancient times the norm was: three from the Old Testament and three from the New. The Gospel is read by the priest facing the people. There is no longer the universal prayer after the Gospel, nor the dismissal of the catechumens, except in one of the variable hymns that are sung now: «Let him who has not received the seal depart, thus proclaims the Church; and you, children of Baptism, enter the sanctuary».

3. Since the preparation of the bread and the chalice takes place on the altar itself, there is no longer the transfer of the gifts, but in ancient times it took place, because the sedrā that is sung now is called the sedrā of the entrance, and is accompanied by the blessing of the incense. The incensation, however, takes place now, while the faithful recite the Symbol of faith. The priest then, having washed his hands, asks pardon of those present and addresses to the Most Holy Trinity a prayer for himself because he is going to «offer the Sacrifice with his sinful hands», and he also prays for the living and for the dead. The deacon exclaims: «Stomen kalos!», the priest recites the prayer of peace and all give one another the kiss of peace. While the priest removes the great veil from the offerings, the deacon admonishes the people: «Let us stand well, with fear, with modesty, with purity, with holiness...».

4. After the blessing and the dialogue of the Preface, the priest in the secret prayer praises (generally this depends on the text of the various anaphoras) God for the creation of the universe and of man and, in the prayer after the Sanctus, recalls the incarnation of the Word and his redemptive work and passes to the account of the Last Supper. At the words of the Consecration, pronounced aloud, the people respond Amen. The anamnesis, which recalls the events of our Redemption and the second dreadful coming of the Son of God, ends with a supplication of the Church. The epiclesis is very solemn: the deacon says: «How terrible is this hour, how dreadful this moment in which the Holy Spirit comes from the sublime heavenly spheres, descends upon that Eucharist and consecrates it...» and the priest: «We prostrate ourselves with our face to the ground and ask you, almighty God... to send your Holy Spirit upon us and upon the offerings that are before us», and blessing he continues: «and to make of this bread the venerable Body of our Lord Jesus Christ... and of that which is mixed in the chalice the Blood...». The «intercessions» or «canons» are six: for the hierarchy, the brethren, the kings, the saints, the doctors and the dead. A doxology ends this central part of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

5. In the Syriac rites the «manual» acts precede the Pater noster. During the consignations the priest recites a splendid hymn: «O Father of truth...». After the Pater noster, followed by the embolismic prayer and by a prayer of inclination, the priestly blessing introduces the Elevation: «Holy things are given to the holy and the pure».

6. The priest says the prayers preparatory to Communion and communicates. Then, holding the discos in his right hand and the chalice in his left, he presents himself to the people, blesses them crossing his arms and should distribute Communion to the faithful (in fact, the use, or rather the abuse, has become established, even among Catholics, of giving Communion to the faithful only after the final dismissal). The thanksgiving and the prayer of inclination are followed by the final hūttāmā and by the dismissal: «...Go in peace, content, joyful, and pray for me». The veil of the sanctuary is closed and the priest, in an Office composed of various prayers, consumes what remains of the sacred species and performs the ablutions. Finally, after having laid aside the sacred vestments, he goes to kiss the altar saying: «Remain in peace, holy altar of the Lord. I do not know whether I shall return to you again or not...».

V. THE «qūrbānā» OF THE MARONITES

The principal differences from the M. of the Syrians are:

1. From the very beginning the priest washes his hands and puts on the liturgical vestments. After the preparation of the discos and the chalice, these are immediately covered with the great veil; then follows a kind of Confiteor, an incensation of the altar, of the offerings and of the people, other prayers and a series of psalmodic verses introduced by the words: «Gloria in excelsis Deo». At the end of these rites of preparation the incensation does not follow but precedes the sedrā.

2. During the singing of the Trisagion the priest incenses the offerings, the crucifix and the altar. The entrance with the Gospel takes place around the altar while a hymn is sung that precedes the reading of the Epistle. After the Gospel the rubrics prescribe that the deacon say, addressing the catechumens: «Go in peace».

3. There is no sedrā but a chant of the entrance that ends thus: «... And behold now the priests carry me (that is, the Bread of life) with their hands upon the altars». The choir sings the Symbol of faith while the priest incenses the offerings, the cross, the altar and the people, an incensation that must be connected with the ancient transfer of the gifts; so too the Lavabo that follows.

4. The narration of the Last Supper and the words of the Consecration are a literal translation of the Roman Canon. Before the epiclesis, the priest prostrates himself on both knees and repeats three times aloud: «Hear me, O Lord», and each time he touches the altar with his fingers and kisses it. The words of the epiclesis have been changed in this way: «May it come to pass that this mystery, which is the Body of Christ our God, be for our salvation», but the signs of the cross have remained. The Maronites often use the so-called anaphora of the Roman Church, in which the intercessions are much abridged.

5. The numerous consignations over the consecrated species are made during the prayer: "We have believed, we have offered and we seal..." followed by the other: "O Father of truth...". The fraction, the intinction and the commingling have been moved after the Elevation.

6. After his Communion, the priest blesses the people, first to the right with the holy bread, then to the left with the chalice, and then communicates the faithful under the species of bread alone, saying as the Latins do: "Behold the Agnus Dei...". Particular to the Maronites is, after Communion, that prayer for the dead sung by the deacon with the people; once this chant is finished, the priest blesses once again with the sacred species. The consumption and the ablutions take place before the prayers of thanksgiving and the final blessing.

VI. THE "quādā" OF THE CHALDEANS

1. Among the Nestorians there exists a very long rite for the material preparation of the eucharistic bread in the oven; a particle of the bread consecrated in a previous M. is always placed into the new dough: it is the "sacred" ferment transmitted, according to a legend, from apostolic times. After all this the bread is carried to the prothesis, where the chalice is also prepared. The Catholic Chaldeans have abandoned these customs. After the Lavabo and the vesting, the priest, standing before the altar, says: "Glory to God in the highest heavens, peace on earth, and good hope to men, at all times, forever." Then the people recite the Pater noster. The psalmody follows, generally Psalms 14, 150 and 116, and, after an introductory prayer, the hymn of the sanctuary; in ancient times, during this hymn, the priest would leave the sanctuary and go to take his place on the bema in the middle of the nave. The choir then sings the hymn Lahā Mārā: "To you, O Lord of the universe, we give thanks, and we glorify you, Jesus Christ, because you are the raiser of our bodies and you are the savior of our souls." Then the deacon incenses the altar and the priest.

2. The singing of the Trisagion with a priestly prayer precedes the readings, which are or can be four, two from the Old and two from the New Testament. Before the Epistle the antiphon (sūriā) is sung, and before the Gospel the Alleluia with the verses (sūmārā). During the litanic prayers (hārāzūtā) the priest, accompanied by the deacon, goes to the gazophylacium and there incenses the discos and the chalice; then he places the bread on the discos and prepares the chalice with formulas taken from the Maronites. Having returned to the sanctuary, the deacon exclaims: "Bow your heads for the imposition of hands and receive the blessing," and the priest recites the corresponding prayer, perhaps a remnant of the ancient dismissal of the penitents. Then the deacon from the door of the sanctuary says: "Let him who has not received Baptism depart. Let him who has not received the sign depart. Let him who does not receive it depart. Go, O hearers. And see to the doors!"

3. While the hymn ('ōnītā) of the mysteries is sung, the priest, having washed his hands, goes to take the offerings in the gazophylacium, and having arrived at the altar he takes the discos in his left hand, the chalice in his right, and says an offertory prayer; having set down the offerings, he covers them with the great veil. Then, having placed himself before the door of the sanctuary, he says a prayer for himself and then intones the symbol of faith, sung by the faithful. While the deacon makes the proclamation "... pray for the memory of our patriarchs...", the priest, directing himself toward the altar, makes three bows, and at each bow he takes a step forward saying supplications; having arrived at the altar, he prostrates himself, rises and kisses it in the middle; then at the right and left corners he does the same; finally he kisses the altar in the middle, on the right and on the left. After other prayers that prepare him and the people for the Sacrifice, the priest blesses and the deacon gives the invitation: "Give peace to one another." Meanwhile the diptychs are read. And while the deacon gives his admonitions: "... stand well upright and behold what is being accomplished: the tremendous mysteries are being sanctified; the priest has drawn near to pray... keep your gaze lowered... let no one dare to speak..." the priest removes the veil from the offerings and incenses the altar.

4. After the blessing he continues: "Lift up your minds." They respond: "To you, God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, glorious King." The priest: "The sacrifice is offered to God, Lord of the universe." They respond: "It is worthy and just." The eucharistic prayer, interrupted by the Sanctus, praises the name of the Most Holy Trinity and gives thanks for his clemency toward men, for the incarnation of the Word and our redemption. There follows the account of the Last Supper with the words of Christ, pronounced aloud, to which the people respond: "Amen. We believe and confess." A doxology closes this part. The intercessions are now made: the saints, the hierarchy, the Church, the needy, the dead. The anamnesis is not entirely clear, and the epiclesis is expressed thus: "Come, O Lord, your Holy Spirit, and descend upon this oblation of your servants, bless it and sanctify it, so that...". Another doxology ends this part.

5. The priest invokes the Christ of peace, thanks the Father, asks for mercy reciting Psalm 50, and then prepares himself for the fraction by having his hands incensed. He takes and lifts up the holy bread and pronounces an act of faith and adoration; then he kisses it in the form of a cross, without touching it with his lips, and breaks it; he immerses one part in the holy Blood, and with it signs the other and lays it on the discos. Lifting up the chalice, he says: "These mysteries have been separated, sanctified, completed, fulfilled, united, commingled, joined and sealed one in the other..."; however, no rubric speaks here of a commingling. After a prayer and the blessing of the priest, the deacon begins a kind of litany, to which the people respond several times: "Lord, forgive the sins and failings of your servants." The Pater noster is recited by the people; the priest says: "The Holy One is perfectly fitting for the saints," without making the Elevation. Then those who are inside the sanctuary, dialoguing with those who are outside, sing the hymn: "You are tremendous...". And while they add the first hymn of the "bema," the priest, holding the holy bread with his left hand above the chalice, says: "O Son, who have given us your Body..." or the "Agnus Dei," three times.

6. While the choir sings the second hymn of the "bema," the priest communicates. There are no true formulas of Communion. The Communion of the faithful and the ablutions follow. The thanksgiving comprises a chant of the choir, a proclamation of the deacon and a prayer of the priest, to which all respond with the Pater noster. From the door of the sanctuary the priest gives the blessing, and on returning to the sacristy he says the prayers that in ancient times accompanied the consumption of the remaining sacred species.

The Chaldean M. called "of the Apostles," Rome 1948 (exact version from the Missal of Mosul 1936). Commentaries: E. Renaudot, Liturgiarum Orientalium collectio, vol. II, Paris 1716.

VII. IL « güdāfā » DEI MALABARESI

Here we note the differences, sometimes of great importance, that separate the Eucharistic celebration of the Malabarese from that of the Chaldeans. 1. The psalmody is always reduced to three psalms, 14, 150 and 116. Further on, the incensation precedes the singing of the hymn Lakū Mārā. 2. No procession; not four but two scriptural readings; after the Gospel, the singing of the Symbol of faith, as with the Latins; during the litanies, the priest incenses the veil, the discos, the chalice, but with formulas different from those used by the Chaldeans. 3. No transfer of the gifts, because these are prepared on the altar. 4-5. Here the greatest difference is noted: after the prayer that follows the Sanctus, in all Eastern and Western rites there is found the narration of the Last Supper with the words of Christ; instead, the Malabarese pass immediately to the prayers of intercession, and only after the anaphora, having reached the prayers preparatory to the fraction, when the priest has his fingers incensed, does he take the bread in his hands, not to break it as the Chaldeans do, but to consecrate it. The formulas of consecration are those of the Roman Missal, as are also the gestures: elevations and genuflections. Further on, during the prayer of forgiveness, the Malabarese priest secretly recites the hymn: "Father of truth," which is found among the Syrians and the Maronites. 6. Among the prayers before Communion the priest says the "Domine, non sum dignus." For the distribution of Communion to the faithful he uses all the formulas in use among the Latins, including the blessing after Communion. The ablutions are done with the prayers that in the Chaldean book come after the dismissal.

VIII. THE " AGHIASMOS " OF THE COPTS

1. Clothed in the sacred vestments, the priest approaches the altar and kisses it, turns toward the people and, after blessing them, recites the Pater noster with them. The choir begins to sing the hymn that accompanies the procession with the offerings that will take place shortly. Meanwhile the priest says a preparatory prayer, arranging the discos, the chalice and the veils on the altar and, having washed his hands, chooses one of the loaves that the deacon presents to him in a basket (at least the dissidents do so), places it on a cloth, examines the wine and recites an offertory prayer, adding to it brief formulas for various intentions. Then, holding the bread at the height of his head, he makes with the deacon who carries the wine and water and with ministers who carry lights the procession around the altar. Having returned to it, he blesses the offerings three times in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, places the bread on the discos and puts the wine and water into the chalice. The prayer of thanksgiving, attributed to St. Basil and often recited at the beginning of a liturgical function, interrupts the action for a moment. Then the priest pronounces the prayer of the Offertory, which is nothing other than an ancient epiclesis, already asking for the transformation of the gifts. After having covered them with the great veil, he comes out of the sanctuary and reads over the people a formula of absolution, addressed to the Son. The priest incenses the altar, going around it three times, and incenses the church, incensing with the left hand and placing the right on the head of each of the faithful, while the people sing the most beautiful hymn: "This is the censer of pure gold... The Virgin is the golden censer, her perfume is our Savior..."

2. There are four readings, all taken from the New Testament: the letters of St. Paul, the catholic letters, the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel. Each reading is preceded by a prayer of the priest; the Trisagion is sung after the reading of the Acts. Among the diaconal supplications that follow the Gospel, one concerns the catechumens, another the rising and falling of the waters of the Nile.

3. A transfer of the gifts does not take place; however, the priest recites the prayer of the "veil" (of the sanctuary), as if he wished to enter the sanctuary now to begin his ministry. Then, going around the altar three times, he sings with the people the three prayers: for the Church, for the hierarchy and for those present; then all recite the Symbol of faith. After the prayer for peace, the deacon says: "Give one another the kiss of peace..." and adds his admonitions: "... stand with fear; look toward the East."

4. The dialogue of the Preface is exactly that of the Latin rite. If the priest takes the anaphora of St. Cyril, he intercalates into the prayer "Vere dignum..." the long prayers of intercession; instead, if he takes that of St. Basil or of St. Gregory, he will say the intercession after the epiclesis. Three times the deacon interrupts the priestly prayer to say to the faithful: "You who are seated, stand up" — "Look toward the East" — "Be attentive." The Sanctus does not have the addition: "Hosannah in excelsis. Benedictus...", and the prayer that follows links back to the "Pleni sunt." At the words of Christ the people respond with these acts of faith: "We believe and confess and glorify." The anamnesis briefly recalls the oblation, and the epiclesis, similar to the Byzantine one, is pronounced aloud and the people respond Amen. The prayers of intercession are long; the priest sings them all.

5. In this rite the fraction precedes the Pater noster, but the other manual acts follow the Elevation. This fraction is, according to the rubrics of the dissidents, very complicated; the Catholics content themselves with dividing the holy bread into three parts. After the Pater noster, the embolism prayer and that of the inclination, the priest recites the formula of absolution addressed to the Father. The Elevation, the intention, the consignation and the commingling are done in a very simple manner. But here the priest pronounces a lively profession of faith in the incarnate Word with suitable responses of the people (homologia).

6. The singing of psalm 150 serves as preparation for Communion. After his Communion, the priest turns toward the people, holding the discos in his hand, and blesses them. Among the dissidents the communicants receive first the consecrated bread, then the chalice. During Communion the people sing: "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." The ablutions are done while the priest recites the prayer of thanksgiving, which is followed by that of the inclination; then, leaving the sanctuary, he says, holding his hands extended over the people, a prayer of blessing, and after the recitation of the Pater noster by the people themselves, he blesses them. Then all approach the sanctuary and the priest sprinkles them with holy water (at least so the dissidents do). Finally the blessed bread is distributed to all.

IX. IL « qèdisè » DEGLI ETIOPI

1. The priest's personal preparation presupposes the recitation of a prayer of penance and of some psalms; likewise his going to the altar and the preparation of the altar are accompanied by various prayers. And when the priest has put on the sacred vestments and washed his hands, the ministers arrive bringing the basket with the breads freshly baked in a long [room] adjoining the church, called Bethlehem. Meanwhile the choir has intoned the Alleluia. The priest blesses the breads, chooses one of them and gives it to the assisting priest, who places it in a cloth. The latter, having made the circuit of the altar, hands the bread to the celebrant, who likewise goes around the altar before placing the bread on the discos. The deacon, holding the wine, goes around the altar and gives it to the assisting priest, who pours it with water into the chalice. With the people's Pater noster, the priest's « Unus Pater sanctus... », the singing of the psalm « Laudate Dominum omnes gentes », the deacon's admonition « Stand upright for prayer » and the priest's « Peace to you all », a new part of the M. has begun; these are the thanksgiving prayer of St. Basil, two offertory prayers, the epiclesis as in the Coptic M., and the prayer while the priest covers the offerings with veils. To the absolution « of the Son », the Ethiopian rite adds a long diaconal litany with the response: Kyrie eleison. Then the priest blesses five grains of incense, three of which he now places in the thurible. The incensation is very solemn, accompanied by chants and various formulas.

2. Four readings follow, as in the Coptic rite; after the third the Trisagion is sung and then a most beautiful hymn to the Virgin. Before the Gospel the priest places the fourth grain of incense in the thurible and a procession with the holy book takes place; meanwhile the assisting priest secretly recites the litany of supplication, which has its usual place after the Gospel; in it there is a supplication for the catechumens. After the Gospel, the people express their faith and the deacon says: « Depart, catechumens ».

3-6. In the following parts the Ethiopian rite differs little from the Coptic. The following points are to be noted: the priest removes the veil from the offerings even before the kiss of peace; he has fourteen traditional formulas for the anaphora at his disposal; the Elevation is more solemn and is followed by the deacon's admonition: « You who are in penance, bow your heads », to which the priest adds a suitable prayer; after the Communion the people interpose the Pater noster several times among the thanksgiving prayers, and after the prayer of inclination, of blessing and of forgiveness, the deacon says the « Go in peace ».

Alfonso Raes

V. THE CHANTS OF THE MASS.

From historical-liturgical study it is clear that the various parts and prayers of the M. have different dates of introduction; hence the musical repertory of the M. also took shape gradually and presents various kinds.

I. DIFFERENT STYLES

The chants of the Mass are of different styles. The Communio is generally a chant in neumatic style; in Lent, however, interspersed among the series of 26 psalmodic Communions of the ferias, there are found some Communions with Gospel texts; the psalmodic series is in neumatic style while the majority of the Gospel Communions is in syllabic style; but precisely these belong to an earlier period of composition, the beginning of the 6th century and even the 5th, whereas the very well-known 26 psalmodic Communions are from the second half of the 6th.

A first formal distinction establishes well-characterized groupings among the various chants of the Mass; the three styles are represented; the syllabic style belongs to the non-specialized soloist, that is, to the celebrant, with the Preface and the Pater noster; it also belongs to the assembly, which is likewise not always musically educated; the chant of the Creed and of the Sequence, at least in part; the Introit verse is a somewhat ornate psalmody, today alternated between soloist and schola. In neumatic style are the Introit and the Communio, some Kyrie, the Gloria in excelsis, the Sanctus, the Agnus Dei; neumatism must not be understood in the rigid sense of a neume of two or three notes for each syllable; generally the last of the three final Kyrie is a vocalization of at times considerable proportions, for example, in the Kyrie VI or in the Kyrie I ad libitum. The Sanctus also admits vocalic developments, rare in the Agnus (see, for example, the Sanctus VII). In melismatic style are treated the Graduale, the Tractus, the Alleluia and many Offertories. Here too the classification is generic, since melismatic style does not mean that every word requires a vocalization on some syllable, but suggests that in the course of the entire melody, and more often on the last syllable, there will be encountered a flowering of notes, a purely musical projection of a sentiment that speech is incapable of translating: independence, therefore, of the music with regard to the text. Syllabism intervenes now and then in the melismatic style when an attempt is made, through contrast, to set a word in evidence, for example, in the gradual Adiutor, on the word "patientia pauperum"; the ancient melodist thus obtained expressive efficacy and rhythmic prominence. In the gradual Exsurge... non praevalent, of undoubted musical value like the preceding one, one comes to a less strict syllabism on the words "inimum" and "infirmabuntur" with an accented podatus and a preparatory clivis.

The classification of the chants of the Mass according to style is not absolute, inasmuch as within one and the same piece the passage from one style to another is permissible, but also because chants assigned to one category may present examples of another, and this is explained in many cases by the fact that the composition extends over several centuries.

The same holds for the Offertories: generally adorned with vocalizations especially on the word Alleluia (Bonum est, Intonuit, In die, Erit vobis, Benedictus, etc.), they can be treated neumatically (Vir erat, Domine in auxilium, In te speravi, etc.); and, at least in one case, the style approaches the syllabic (Domine concertere) and it will perhaps be a vestige of the primitive antiphonal form of the Offertory.

II. MUSICAL FORMS

The chants of the M. are classified into two main groups with regard to their literary composition and their musical form. In fact the chants that constitute almost the entire ancient repertoire, the Proprium Missae, are taken from the psalter or from the scriptural canticles. Their structure can be: 1) Responsorial, form A¹ A² BA³ CA⁴ etc.; it is the form today reduced to that of the Gradual and the Alleluia, which is recognized as the most ancient. 2) Antiphonal, form A BC A DE A FG A etc. The Introit and the Communio are the chants of the M. in antiphonal form; its structure could vary inasmuch as the repetition of the refrain A occurred after each psalm verse A B A C A D A etc., or even after a group of 4 verses A B¹ B² C¹ C² A etc., as still in the chant of Holy Thursday Ubi caritas et amor. The difference from the responsorial form consists in the absence of the soloist and in the psalmody for two alternating choirs in the antiphony, whereas in the Responsory the psalmody is entrusted to the soloist and to the entire choir, that is, the assembly of the faithful, which repeats the refrain after each verse. 3) A third psalmodic form is called "directanea" or "in directum" and is distinguished by the absence of a refrain. It is believed that the Tractus, the only representative of this form in the M., was sung entirely by the soloist because of its ornate style, and there is no difficulty in admitting this for the two verses of the Tractus: Laudate Dominum of Holy Saturday or the three verses of the Cantemus on the same day; on the other hand the 13 verses of the Qui habitat or the 14 of the Deus Deus meus perhaps exceed the capacity of the soloist and the receptivity of an assembly with a quarter of an hour of little-varied singing, since what is involved is a typical formula repeated for each verse. It is true that the Tractus with numerous verses in the 2nd mode are originally Graduals from which the refrain has disappeared; whereas the Tractus in the 8th mode are short and easier.

This remark suggests that for the forms as for the style every idea of fossilization must be eliminated: within well-defined frameworks a certain freedom exists and evolution is a vital law. The example of the Offertory is demonstrative. At the beginning it was antiphonal: "Antiphona ad offerenda" "Antiphona ad Offertorium". Later, the verses appear highly ornate. In its present form the Offertory would be almost directanean, since it is sung without a refrain; but it no longer has verses and it lacks the musically psalmodic structure characteristic of the Tractus, that is, intonation, tenor, tonic or cursive cadence. The Offertory has therefore become a kind of motet; unfortunately it is rarely sung although it possesses some masterpieces of diatonic melodic composition, the two Iubilate Deo, the Precatus est, the Ave Maria, the Iustorum animae etc.

Not all the chants are psalmodic: whether with regard to the origin of the literary text or to the musical structure, the chants of the Ordinarium Missae stand outside this classification; the alternation of the choirs, or of the choir with the soloist, as in the Kyrie and the Gloria in excelsis, is not enough to characterize antiphonal chant; nevertheless sometimes the non-psalmodic chants of the Ordinarium recall the psalmodic formulas, as, for example, the Gloria XV.

III. LITURGICAL DESTINATION (OR FUNCTION)

The evolution in the structural form of the chants is greatest in the Offertory, but it is also noticeable in the Gradual, in the Communion and in the Introit, where the verses are reduced to a minimum or have even disappeared; it perhaps finds an explanation in the fact that the original destination of these has been forgotten.

Some are chants of action, that is, they accompany a rite or a movement: the entrance procession (Introit), the oblation of the gifts for the Sacrifice (Offertory), the distribution of Holy Communion (Communio). Other chants are called chants of rest, or, better, of contemplation; they follow readings whose purpose is to give the hearer time to assimilate the instruction received, meditating on it and savoring it. They are: 1) the Gradual Responsory after the reading of the Old Testament; and indeed sometimes the last passage is taken up again as the text of the chant: for example, at Epiphany. 2) The Tractus is not initially a chant of sorrow: it is sung after the reading of the Apostle and is sung, for example, on Easter night after the announcement of the Alleluia, the only primitive Alleluia of the Roman liturgy. 3) Finally the Alleluia, before or after the Gospel, took the place of the Tractus on Sundays and feasts and is perhaps the only chant that has remained in its original structure, responsorial and melismatic. Losing sight of the functional purpose of the Introit, people began to sing it only when the celebrant had reached the altar, and it was no longer possible or useful to multiply the psalm verses. The chants of the Ordinarium Missae do not easily fit into the above classification. Granting that the Kyrie is the closing of the litany and not the reduction of the Deprecatio instituted by Pope Gelasius I (492-96), it will have to be counted among the chants of action. The Agnus Dei too answers the purpose of accompanying an action in the papal Mass; it was introduced by Sergius I (687-701) and occupies, after the Tractio panis, the long time of the procession to the throne where the pontiff will communicate and where, as soon as he has arrived, he will sing the Pater noster, until St. Gregory the Great moved the Pater to before the Tractio panis. The repetition of the Agnus Dei, in ancient times more than three times, beyond its historical origin, suggests the true functionality of this chant. Three other chants could be considered as contemplative chants; they do not follow readings but correspond perfectly to the idea of prayer of praise, eucharistic; they are the Gloria in excelsis, the Sanctus and, to a greater extent, the Preface, which is not to be separated conceptually or practically from the Sanctus. Only the Credo is a chant of a didactic nature; it is a superficial explanation to say that the Credo is not part of the ancient Roman Mass because in Rome there was no danger of heresy: was there perhaps such a danger from the 11th century on? The public proclamation of the true faith was never lacking in Rome, but its place was in the rite of Baptism, from which it passed into the Mass, text and music.

IV. CHOICE OF TEXTS

The choice of the texts of the Proprium Missae obeys at least three criteria. 1) For the greater solemnities the melodist seeks in the psalms or in Sacred Scripture a passage applicable to the event in the Lord's life being commemorated, since the liturgy commemorates facts and not ideas. For example, the Introit of Christmas "Dominus dixit ad me... ego hodie genui te". For the Madonna or a saint a text is chosen that alludes to a particular circumstance of the life; for St. Peter "Nunc scio vere...", or to the church dedicated to the saint "Confessio et pulchritudo" for St. Lawrence, with an allusion to the splendor of his Basilica; or simply a generic text of praise "Vultum tuum deprecabuntur" for the feasts of the B. Virgin in the 7th century. But new festal texts are also written: "Gaudeamus omnes" for the feast of St. Agatha. 2) For the Sundays after Pentecost, the Psalter provides the Introit of the first 16 Sundays (Gelasian source), in order of arithmetical progression. This progression by leaps is also observed in the already mentioned 26 Communia of the Lenten ferias, beginning from psalm 1. 3) The night readings as well can suggest the choice of a text: the Offertory "Vir erat... nomine Iob" is sung at about the time when the book of Job is read. The present organization of the Liber gradualis, with regular series of Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Communio, was not universal nor obligatory even in the 10th century, where the Alleluias are still found gathered all together at the end of the Cantatorium: the free choice was left to the chief cantor, as the rather broad rubric "Quale volueris" sometimes asserts.

V. TECHNIQUE OF MELODIC COMPOSITION

In its general principles the technique of melodic composition remains identical in the various Gregorian chants of the Mass, both for the Proprium and for the Ordinarium: the melodic line develops the musical design contained in embryo in the well-declaimed text, bringing out the naturally higher, if not more intense, pitch of the verbal accent. The divisions into musical phrases, members and clauses correspond to the logical division of the literary text; the very word of the oratorical discourse often limits the elementary musical motif; at times a musical motif seems so closely bound to a word that the use of that word leads to taking up the same motif again, for example, the intonation of the Introit Dominus illuminatio is repeated in the other introits Dominus defensor, Domine ne longe, Dominus fortitudo.

It does not appear that procedures proper to composition are reserved for any category of pieces: in all the chants one will find parallelism, amplifications, imitations, inversions, etc. The composition adheres to the logic of musical discourse formulated with antecedent and consequent, that is, protasis and apodosis; the development in the one and the other is suggested by the very proportion of the text or by the importance to be given to a thought, which will be brought into relief if it reaches the culminating phraseological accent of the entire piece. Only the Offertory enjoys the privilege of verbal repetitions which, as a rule, are also accompanied by melodic repetition. And this is the procedure of the affirmation formulated A A¹ B as in the offertory Precutus est Moyses and in the two Iubilate; or A B A¹ as in the Offertory De profundis and, with a short repeated clause, the Offertory of the dedication Domine Deus in simplicitate. In the verses, moreover, these repetitions reach an excess, at least for the Offertory Vir erat, where the clause ut videat bona is repeated as many as nine times. The broader proportions both for the Offertory and for the other chants, and the repetitions themselves, are perhaps justified by the prolongation of the action of offering the gifts; the cantor could ad libitum cut short when the procession of donors was finished; but when the more ornate Offertories destined for the schola and for highly skilled soloists were composed, the offering of the gifts during the Mass was no longer in use: perhaps these chants, the longest in the repertoire, accompany an action, that of the incensing of the oblations. The purely musical intent of these anti-verbal repetitions is indicated by the fact that they are missing in the missal used by the priest.

VI. MODALITY

Not even with regard to modality do there exist rigorously observed canons, with the exception of the Tractus. There is no ideal correspondence of a particular mode to a particular category of chants; all the modes are used, or nearly all, for all the chants. One does note, however, some quite clear preferences. The Gradual, for example, chooses the tritus with predilection, so much so as to suggest that originally the typical formula of this essentially centonic chant was solely in tritus.

The absence of Graduals in mode 6 should not surprise: in reality, according to the criteria of traditional modal classification, the first part of the Gradual is normally sung in the plagal scale and the second, that of the soloist, in the authentic scale, and this especially for the Graduals in tritus.

Was it a reaction on the part of the melodists of the Alleluias, who came after those who composed the Gradual in mode 5-6, to have almost completely abandoned the tritus and to have given preference to the protus and the tetrardus, little exploited by the Graduals? Here is the picture of the Alleluias distributed according to the 8 modes in the current Vatican edition:

	Mode	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII	VIII
No. of Alleluias	76	36	23	31	10	4	36	45

The Introits and the Communions raise no questions about the choice of modes: the protus is more represented, also because it is written, as Ferretti says, in an ambitus accessible to all voices, that is, d-d; but it is known that the singers did not observe the indicated pitch, first of all because the mode was well determined but not the pitch, which was not written on lines.

Many new texts were adapted to the ancient Gradual of mode 2, later called Tractus and no longer sung by a soloist but by alternating choirs; so that mode 8 no longer appears as it probably was originally, that is, a mode reserved for a genre of chants. For not having known the true Gregorian tradition and for having respected it less, the polyphonists responsible for the Medicean edition wrote Tractus in modes 1, 3, 4 and 7. In the current Vatican edition one counts:

The minimal proportion of Offertories in mode 7 is curious:

Before basing conclusions or hypotheses on such statistics, one must bear in mind that the Vatican edition is not critical but practical, and does not reproduce the repertoire of the 7th-8th century, that is, of the period of maturity of Roman liturgical monody; the systematic compilation would be completed in the 9th century, before the corruptions, the ignorance or the new orientations of taste. These statistics will have to be revised when the hoped-for edition that the Benedictines of Solesmes are preparing has appeared. On the other hand, it is known that the figure marked today in the margin of Gregorian chants gives us only the final note, that is, the mode in which the piece ends and not always the mode of the entire piece.

Continuing the inquiry into the chants of the Ordinarium Missae, one would discover in the series of the 18 M. that the Kyrie of mode 2 and of mode 6 are missing. This does not indicate that a Kyrie in these modes was never written: the Vatican edition reproduces a selection of chants of the Ordinary and not all the pieces contained in the codices. In fact, in the addition of chants ad libitum there appear the Kyrie in mode 2 and the Kyrie in mode 6.

Comparing this last table with the preceding ones, one should rather note the lesser importance of this part of the repertoire, perhaps the best known, but not the most interesting and certainly not the most representative of the melodic genius of the Latin musicians, also because it is of later composition than the classical period of Gregorian chant.

VII. THE UNITY OF COMPOSITION IN THE GREGORIAN AND POLYPHONIC CHANTS OF THE MASS

An essential divergence of concept in the composition of a Gregorian Mass strikes anyone who knows the repertoire of classical polyphony: among the successive pieces, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, there is no unity of theme in the Gregorian; no link exists from one to the other, except in some cases, as in the first Mass for the Easter season "Lux et origo," the first words of the first, now vanished, trope. The last Kyrie begins like the intonation of the Gloria, and the Agnus Dei like the Sanctus. The diversity of the date marked above the chants of the Ordinarium Missae suggests that these are not grouped in the manuscripts as they currently are in the printed editions; this date, meanwhile, does not indicate the date of composition but the age of the oldest manuscript known at the time of the redaction of the Vatican edition. In fact, not only does the current collection leave many chants of the Ordinary unpublished, but it may be said that the order proposed today does not correspond to that of any codex. This justifies the practice certain choir masters have of changing this order, all the more so since a rubric legitimizes such freedom.

The unity of theme and mode is equally lacking in the Masses of the "proper," whether of the season or of the saints. Of no Mass for a feast or for a saint can it be demonstrated with certainty that it is the work of a single author. The Masses of the Common of saints, less than the others, answer to the criterion of contemporaneity of composition. The various chants were first composed for a determined saint; then an Introit, a Gradual, an Alleluia were gathered together, or a series already known was taken and assigned to another saint or martyr, and thus there came about a first, a second, a third Mass of several martyrs.

Some chants of the Mass are traditionally and without exception performed in Gregorian: the recitatives of the celebrant, or certain chants of Holy Week. In the course of musical history, pieces of the "proper" also were set polyphonically, especially the Introit. The part of the Mass that has given rise to the most abundant musical inspiration and composition is the Ordinarium Missae.

VIII. EXPRESSIVENESS OF THE GREGORIAN CHANTS OF THE MASS

The particular expressiveness of the Gregorian chants of the Mass cannot obviously be summed up in a single word. In general, what strikes the listener is their gentle character, the absence of contrasts. This impression perhaps results from modern systems of interpretation.

The habit of hearing music with strong contrasts will also have dulled the modern listener's faculty of perceiving subtle shadings, just as, through the teaching of instruments with harmonic temperament, he has lost the ability to appreciate the variety of modal shadings. Objectively, however, the expressive possibilities of Gregorian chant have no limits other than the appropriateness of music destined to bring the faithful closer to the most sacred mysteries: the monodic genre, pure diatonicism, the assignment of the chant to the soloist, to the schola, or to the people, impose their own requirements; on the other hand, the richness of this music shines forth more in the perfection of its form than in the abundance of its material means. The study of individual chants can only reveal the delicacy with which are rendered the elevated sentiments that must permeate a genuine sacred liturgical music: praise and admiration of God, humility and penance, gratitude and trust, supplication and hope. Certainly the greatest freedom is left to the melodist in his manner of expression; he is not even obliged to treat all the Alleluia with expansive joy: there is no need to hear the 261 Alleluia of the Gradual to realize this. Nor are these varied sentiments musically painted: Gregorian chant does not tend toward musical pictorialism, which is rare even in the polyphonic and secular field. But one sees that in the most stylized forms (the typical forms of the Tractus of the 8th mode, for example) there was no hesitation about departing from the beaten path in order to suggest the effort of a decision on the word "montes" in the Tractus "Qui confidunt." Perhaps, if one wishes to define the intention of the Gregorian musician, one might say that he fears to reveal the depths of his own soul, that he does not wish to impose himself on others, but that he always prefers to remain at the threshold of another's soul, respecting its secret and its freedom. The liturgy is classical in its verbal expression; it is restrained in its gestures; the Gregorian musician has always wished to avoid the clash and the discord of bringing an excessively romantic music into the Church.

Pietro Thomas

IX. POLYPHONIC MASS

With the 10th century the chants of the Mass also underwent the influence of the new plurimelodic vocal sensibility, and the nascent polyphony gradually insinuated itself into the Church as well, at first as an organal voice added to a cantus firmus and then as free invention for two or more voices, often alternated with the ancient liturgical chant.

After the first polyphonic attempts, consisting of detached pieces, in Kyrie (sopati (v. TROPO) etc., one must reach the 14th century to find a true and proper musical composition of the entire Mass in its five fixed singable parts that constitute the Ordinarium Missae (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei) in the so-called Mass of Tournai for 3 voices, transcribed and printed by Coussemaker from a manuscript now lost (v. Ch.-E. de Coussemaker, Messe du XIIIe siècle, Tournai 1861). However, the first organic work due entirely to a single author is the Mass of Notre Dame, composed after the middle of the 14th century by Guillaume de Machaut, for 4 voices, a true masterpiece of medieval sacred music, rich in Gregorian inspiration and at the same time exquisitely fluent with a manifold melodic vein, in its agile rhythmic framework, of a new inventive and expressive power. In the 15th century the Flemish school contributed notably to the artistic development of the polyphonic Mass, conferring on it a contrapuntal style of its own and the characteristic cyclic form that would make of it a type of composition homogeneous and well organized by an interior and exterior balance.

After the two examples cited, of the Mass of Tournai and that of Machaut, to find complete Masses one must reach the full 15th century with Dufay and the other Flemings: documentary sources are the 6 Trent codices (Trent, Archivio del Duomo, nos. 87-92) and the Old Hall ms. (Catholic College of St. Edmunds, Old Hall, England), ca. 1450. In this period one still finds Masses with choral parts (Gregorian chant) alternating with polyphonic parts, whereas at the beginning of the 16th century the Mass becomes a composition entirely unto itself, in which polyphony, independently of alternations with Gregorian chant, dominates absolutely the new well-delineated musical form. After a first period in which the individual parts of the polyphonic Mass were inspired by the corresponding parts of the Gregorian Mass from which they took their origin, there followed the phase, richer in types and examples, that flourished luxuriantly throughout the 16th century: the Mass is entirely hinged on a single thematic material (whence the strictly cyclic character of the composition), which is taken, in long notes, as the « cantus firmus » (or dominant motif), mostly by the « tenor » voice (whose name derives precisely from the function it had of « holding » the base melody) which passes it to the other voices, which in turn modify it, rhythmically or graphically. According as the « cantus firmus » is drawn from the profane or liturgical repertoire, or is invented by the composer, there are various types of Mass: those inspired by profane songs in vogue, popular and amorous (the most frequent type in the Flemish music of the 15th century, in which so fresh and luxuriant was the flowering of madrigals as to overflow even into the dark naves of the Gothic cathedrals (v. the typical example of the popular song « L'homme armé », which gave the thematic cue and the name to some thirty Masses composed by polyphonists of various countries and various times down to the 17th century, such as Dufay, Busnois, Caron, Ockeghem, Obrecht, Tinctoris, Josquin Des Prez, Brumel, De la Rue, Pipelare, Senfl, de Orto Morales, Palestrina, Carissimi etc.), those stamped with liturgical themes, mostly antiphons or hymns with which the 16th century is rich, especially in the 2nd half, and those in which the themes are composed by the author (the least abundant category of all).

The first type of Mass, the one that draws on profane motifs, persists in time, even beyond the Council of Trent, which had prohibited its use, and in that case the title of the Mass no longer hints at its content: they take vague and generic denominations, such as « Missa sine nomine », « Missa quarta » (the Palestrinian Mass that was inspired, in 1582, by the famous song « L'homme armé ») etc.

An important type is the « parody Mass », in which the melodic derivation is no longer limited to a thematic borrowing, but is an extended adaptation of a pre-existing piece (song or madrigal in the 15th century; mostly motet in the 16th), by the same or another author: with this compositional technique composed Masses: Dufay, Josquin, Ockeghem, Agricola, Palestrina, Lasso and many others. Of lesser importance is the type of Mass called « quodlibet », which brings together various motifs of profane source (v. Missa carminum by H. Isaac). Among the Masses with themes freely invented by the author, or taken from syllables or from the notes of the scale, are to be remembered the Mass « Hercules dux Ferrariae » (with theme re-ut-re-ut-re-fa-mi-re, from the vowels of the title) along with the other « Lassa fere a mi », both by Josquin Des Prez, and the various Masses based on the first notes of the hexachord do-re-mi-fa-sol-la (« Missa super voces musicales » by Josquin, Brumel, Palestrina, etc.).

The musical composition of the Mass reached its summit in the golden age of polyphony, that is in the 16th century, especially through the work of the Roman school, with Palestrina (v.) who wrote 93 Masses (for 4, 5, 6 and 8 voices) with grandiose architectural lines that clothe the cantus firmus in the most resplendent splendors, G. Animuccia (v.), whose Masses « Secundum formam Concilii » (where the purest melodies confer diamond-like gleams on the Gregorian cantus firmus) are the living expression of the Catholic Reform concretized in the Council of Trent, and then still with C. Festa, G. M. Nannino, the two Anerio, R. Giovannelli, F. Soriano, A. Cifra, A. Zoilo, Ann. Stabile, Arc. Crivelli, etc. In the same period flourishes the Venetian school, predominantly pictorial in the harmonic sense, for its exquisitely chromatic and decorative characters, whereas the Roman was the triumph of plastic and architectural counterpoint. Of this school, which is already wholly straining, in a jubilation of colors and timbral riches, toward the harmonic novelties of the imminent 17th century, luminous glories are the Fleming A. Willaert and the two Gabrielis (v.), C. de Rore, G. Croce, with the prolongation in time and space of the current called that of the Deutschvenetianer, or German followers of the Venetian style, among whom are remembered Jacob Gallus, H. Praetorius, H. L. Hassler and M. Praetorius. Nor can one pass over in silence the luxuriant flowering of polyphonic Masses in Spain, with the glorious names of Cristobal Morales, T. L. Da Victoria, Francisco Guerrero and others. Still in the full 17th century, among the ideal continuators of Rome and Venice, V. Ruffo, M. A. Ingegneri, Ludovico Grossi da Viadana; it is now the Baroque Mass, which seeks to astonish with effect and the spectacular display of voices and instruments (a most eloquent example being the Mass for 53 parts composed by Orazio Benevoli for the inauguration of the Salzburg cathedral in 1628).

In the 18th century the great Mass of Bach, « Hohe Messe in h-moll » (1733), composed for the Catholic court of Dresden, in the form of a cantata, takes away from the Mass the trappings that the Baroque had lavished on it as cumbersome superstructures and brings it back within the ambit of the symphonic Mass, an ambit in which it had indeed arrived with Scarlatti, Durante, Leo, and in which it remains with the Viennese classics. The great Missa solemnis of Beethoven (1819-22), with those of Haydn and of Mozart, remains in the sublime heights to which the Mass in music had attained with Bach, reduced by now, however, essentially to a concert composition. Closer to us, the triptych of the 3 Masses (in d-moll, in e-moll, and in f-moll) by A. Bruckner (1824-96) still speaks the word of Romanticism in this form, but the characteristic unction due to the correspondence of the notes with the sacred text is by now far off: the secularization of the Mass, apart from isolated accents of moved mysticism, is by now an accomplished fact.

The reform of sacred music in the last century led to a revaluation of traditional currents, and there then followed an abundant flowering of Masses in Germany and Italy, with Witt, Haberl, Haller, Mitterer, Griesbacher, Goller, Santini, Alfieri, etc., while in the new Mass of today an attempt is made to restore ancient immortal values in the light of a new sensibility. Besides the Masses of Lemacher, Ahrens, Haas, Refice, Perosi and many others, one last singular example of our age is cited: the Mass of J. Stravinsky, in which the sweetly archaic flavor of the most ancient Gregorian chant is joined by the echo of the liturgical melodies of the Eastern Church.

A particular genre of the M. is the "Missa pro defunctis," also called, from the first word of the Introit, the "Requiem." The characteristic parts, besides the Introit, which replaces the Kyrie, are the Sequence (Dies irae) and the Offertory ("Domine Jesu Christe"); the Sanctus with the Benedictus and the Agnus Dei are also present here, while the Gloria and the Credo are missing. Conspicuous examples of the "M. da Requiem" were left by Pierre de La Rue, Joh. Prioris, Ant. de Févin, Palestrina, Morales, Lasso, Victoria, Kerll, Cavalli (1706), Jommelli (1756), Mozart, Cherubini (1816 and 1836), Berlioz (1838), Dvorak (op. 88, 1891), Bruckner (1885), Verdi (1874), Saint Saëns (op. 54, 1878), Fauré (1887), etc. - See plates XLVI-XLIX.