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MASS (O.E. maesse; Fr. messe; Ger. Messe; Ital. messa; from eccl. See also: Reformation to that of the See also: Roman Catholic See also: Church
.
The various orders for the celebration of Mass are dealt with under
See also: LITURGY; a detailed account of the Roman See also: order is given under See also: MISSAL; and the general development of the eucharistic service, including the Mass, is described in the article EUCHARIST
.
The See also: present article is confined (I) to the consideration of certain See also: special meanings which have become attached to the word Mass and are the subject of somewhat acute controversy, (2) to the Mass in See also: music
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The origin of the word missa, as applied to the Eucharist, is obscure
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The first to discuss the See also: matter is Isidore of Seville (Etym. vi
.
19), who mentions an " evening office " (officium vespertinum), a " See also: morning office " (officium matutinum), and an office called missa
.
Of the latter he says: " Missa tempore sacrificii est, quando catechumeni foras mittuntur, clamante levita ` si quis catechumenus remansit, exeat foras.' Et inde
missa,' quia sacramentis altaris interesse non possunt, qui nondum regenerati sunt " (" The missa is at the See also: time of the sacrifice, when the catechumens are sent out, the deacon crying, ` If any See also: catechumen remain, let him go forth.' " Hence missa, because those who are as yet unregenerate—i.e. unbaptized—may not be present at the sacraments of the altar)
.
This derivation of
the word Mass, which would connect it with the special See also: formula of dismissal still preserved in the Roman liturgy—Ile, missa estonce generally accepted, is now disputed
.
It is pointed out that the word missa long continued to be applied to any church service, and more particularly to the lections (see Du Cange for numerous examples), and it is held that such services received their name of missal from the solemn See also: form of dismissal with which it was customary to conclude them; thus, in the 4th century Pilgrimage of Etheria (Silvia) the word missa is used indiscriminately of the Eucharist, other services, and the ceremony of dismissal
.
F
.
Kattenbusch (Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklop. s
.
" Messe ") ingeniously, but with little evidence, suggests that the word may have had a See also: double origin and meaning: (1) in the sense of dimissio, " dismissal "; (2) in that of commissio, " commission," " official duty," i.e. the exact Latin See also: equivalent of the See also: Greek Xerrovpyta (see LITURGY), and hence the conflicting use of the See also: term
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It is, however, far more probable that it was a general term that gradually became crystallized as applying to that service in which the dismissal represented a more solemn See also: function
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In the narrower sense of " Mass " it is first found in St See also: Ambrose (Ep
.
20, 4, ed
.
Ballerini): " Missam facere coepi
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Dum offero
...
" which evidently identifies the missa with the sacrifice
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It continued, however, to be used loosely, though its tendency to become proper only to the See also: principal Christian service is clear from a passage in the 12th See also: homily of Caesarius, See also: bishop of See also: Arles (d
.
542) : " If you will diligently attend, you will recognize that missae are not celebrated when the divine readings are recited in the church, but when gifts are offered and the See also: Body and See also: Blood of the See also: Lord are consecrated." The See also: complete service (missa ad integrum), the bishop goes on to say, cannot be had at home by See also: reading and prayer, but only in the See also: house of See also: God, where, besides the Eucharist, " the divine word is preached and the blessing is given to the See also: people."
Whatever its origin, the word Mass had by the time of the Reformation been long applied only to the Eucharist; and, though in itself a perfectly colourless term, and used as such during the earlier stages of the 16th century controversies concerning the Eucharist, it soon became identified with that sacrificial aspect of the See also: sacrament of the altar which it was the chief See also: object of the Reformers to overthrow
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In See also: England, so See also: late as the first Prayer-See also: book of See also: Edward VI., it remained one of the official designations of the Eucharist, which is there described as " The Supper of the Lorde and See also: holy Communion, commonly called the Masse." This, however, like the service itself, represented a compromise which the more extreme reformers would not tolerate, and in the second Prayer-book, together with such language in the See also: canon as might imply the See also: doctrine of See also: transubstantiation and of the sacrifice, the word Mass also disappears
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That this abolition of the word Mass, as implying the offering of Christ's Body and Blood by the See also: priest for the living and the dead was deliberate is clear from the language of those who were chiefly responsible for the change
.
Bishops See also: Ridley and See also: Latimer, the two most conspicuous champions of " the new See also: religion," denounced " the Mass " with unmeasured violence; Latimer said of " See also: Mistress Missa " that " the devil hath brought her in again "; Ridley said: " I do not take the Mass as it is at this See also: day for the communion of the Church, but for a popish See also: device," &c
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(See also: Works, ed
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See also: Parker See also: Soc., pp
.
121, 120), and again: " In the See also: stead of the Lord's holy table they give the people, with much solemn disguising, a thing which they See also: call their mass; but in deed and in truth it is a very masking and mockery of the true Supper of the Lord, or rather I may call it a crafty juggling, whereby these false thieves and jugglers have bewitched the minds of the See also: simple people
.
. . unto pernicious idolatory " (ib. p
.
409)
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This language is reflected in the 31st of the Articles of Religion of the Chinch of England: " Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses, in which it was commonly said that the Priest did offer Christ for the See also: quick and the dead, to have remission of See also: pain and See also: guilt, were blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits." Clearly the word Mass had ceased to be a colourless term generally applicable to the eucharistic service; it was, in fact, not only proscribed officially, but in the See also: common language of See also: English people it passedentirely out of use except in the sense in which it is defined in See also: Johnson's
See also: Dictionary, i.e. that of the "Service of the Romish Church at the celebration of the Eucharist." In connexion with the Catholic reaction in the Church of England, which had its origin in the " See also: Oxford See also: Movement " of the 19th century, efforts have been made by some of the See also: clergy to reintroduce the term " Mass " for the Holy Communion in the English Church
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See Du Cange, Glossarium, s.v
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" Missa "; F
.
Kattenbusch in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie (ed
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1903), s.v
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" Messe, dogmengeschichtlich "; for the facts as to the use of the word " Mass " at the time of the Reformation see the article by J
.
H
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Round in the Nineteenth Century for May 1897
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