Pre-Tridentine Mass Explained

Pre-Tridentine Mass refers to the evolving and regional forms of the Catholic Mass in the West from antiquity to 1570. The basic structure solidified early and has been preserved, as well as important prayers such as the Roman Canon.

Following the Council of Trent's desire for standardization, Pope Pius V, with his bull Quo primum, made the Roman Missal obligatory throughout the Latin Church, except for those places and congregations whose distinct rites could demonstrate an antiquity of two hundred years or more.

Development

Earliest accounts

See also: Origin of the Eucharist, Eucharist in the Catholic Church and Agape feast. The earliest surviving account of the celebration of the Eucharist or the Mass in Rome is that of Saint Justin Martyr (died c. 165), in chapter 67 of his First Apology:[1]

In chapter 65, Justin Martyr says that the kiss of peace was given before the bread and the wine mixed with water were brought to "the president of the brethren". The initial liturgical language used was Greek, before approximately the year 190 under Pope Victor, when the Church in Rome changed from Greek to Latin, except in particular for the Hebrew word "Amen", whose meaning Justin explains in Greek (γένοιτο), saying that by it "all the people present express their assent" when the president of the brethren "has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings".[2] According to some scholars, the early Christian liturgy was a continuation of the liturgy of contemporary Jewish synagogues (as distinct from the temple liturgy): Duschesne comments "the only permanent element, on the whole, which Christianity added to the liturgy of the synagogue was[...]the sacred meal instituted by Jesus Christ as a perpetual commemoration of himself."[3] This tradition included unaccompanied chant.

Early changes

It is unclear when the language of the celebration finished changing from Greek to Latin. Pope Victor I (190–202), may have been the first to use Latin in the liturgy in Rome. Others think Latin was finally adopted nearly a century later.[4] The change was probably gradual, with both languages being used for a while.[5]

With regard to the Roman Canon of the Mass, the prayers beginning Te igitur, Memento Domine and Quam oblationem were already in use, even if not with quite the same wording as now, by the year 400; the Communicantes, the Hanc igitur, and the post-consecration Memento etiam and Nobis quoque were added in the fifth century.[6]

Early Middle Ages

Before the pontificate of Pope Gregory I (590–604), the Roman Mass rite underwent many changes, including a "complete recasting of the Canon" (a term that in this context means the Anaphora or Eucharistic Prayer).[7] At the time of Gregory I, regional customisation of liturgies were encouraged in missionary areas: according to Bede Gregory instructed Augustine of Canterbury to select "any customs in the Roman or the Gaulish Church or any other Church which may be more pleasing to Almighty God", and to teach them to the church of the English.[8]

In Gaul, the Merovingian period in (approx. 500-750) has been called "the experimental age of liturgy," with the propers constructed freely: according to historian Yitzhak Hen "each bishop, abbot or priest was free to choose the prayers he found suitable." Cross-pollenation and recycling of liturgical prayers was common, as priests and bishops took sacramentaries (manuscripts of liturgical prayers) between regions, and new prayers were composed.[8]

Numerous regional styles of chant thrived, including Old Roman chant, Gallican chant, Ambrosian chant (still in use) and Beneventan chant. Following Gregory I came substantial changes in what became known as Gregorian chant.

In the eighth century the Meringovian dynasty had been replaced by the Carolingians in Frankish Gaul. In the late eighth century, Pepin the Short ordered the Roman chant be used throughout his domains.[9] However, some elements of the preceding Gallican rites were fused with it north of the Alps, and the resulting mixed rite was introduced into Rome under the influence of the emperors who succeeded Charlemagne. Gallican influence is responsible for the introduction into the Roman rite of dramatic and symbolic ceremonies such as the blessing of candles, ashes, palms, and much of the Holy Week ritual.[10]

The chants and musical settings of the Mass were divided into

The major difference between the various rites or uses was not the basic structure or components of the ordinary parts of the liturgy, but of different arrangements, selection and allocation of prayers on different days, as well as mention of regionally-popular saints, and different rubrics.[12]

Late Middle Ages

Towards the end of the first millennium, organ, previously a secular instrument, was introduced as did more complicated singing of components of the mass by choirs.[13] Important liturgies might be preceded, followed or interrupted by elaborate processions with songs, dramatic rituals involving props, and acted plays or tableau, with the laity trained to understand the symbolism.[14] In several locations, the story of the Three Magi would be enacted by three costumed men who would follow a star through the church, search at various locations, until finding the altar, while singing the Gospel alternatively and polyphonically.[15]

The recitation of the Credo (Nicene Creed) after the Gospel is attributed to the influence of Emperor Henry II. Gallican influence explains the practice of incensing persons, introduced in the eleventh or twelfth century; "before that time incense was burned only during processions (the entrance and Gospel procession)". Private prayers for the priest to say before Communion were another novelty. About the thirteenth century, an elaborate ritual and additional prayers of French origin were added to the Offertory: previously, the only prayer said by the priest was the Secret; these prayers varied considerably until fixed by Pope Pius V in 1570.[16] The rites had some differences in the prayers on the boundaries of the Mass: Pre-Tridentine prayers said mostly in the sacristy or during the procession to the altar as part of the priest's preparation were formalized in the 1570 missal of Pope Pius V as the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar; prayers that followed the Ite missa est changed or changed position (for example, in the 1570 edition, the Canticle of the Three Young Men and Psalm 150 in Pius V's edition the priest was to say while leaving the altar were later ommitted.)

Renaissance

Between 1478 and 1501, the bishops of 52 dioceses, including the primates of France, Castile, England, the Holy Roman Empire and Poland each independently published, in print, official liturgical texts for their diocese, because of the extent of parish and monastery variation. [17] In some places, this involved stripping variations back to the Cathedral's missal; however in others it involved adding material for new saints, offices and customs.

From 1474 until Pope Pius V's 1570 text, there were at least 14 different printed editions that purported to present the text of the Mass as celebrated in Rome, rather than elsewhere, and which therefore were published under the title of "Roman Missal" (Latin: Missale romanum.) These were produced in Milan, Venice, Paris and Lyon. Even these show variations. Local Missals, such as the Parisian Missal, of which at least 16 printed editions appeared between 1481 and 1738, showed more important differences. The Milanese Roman Missal of 1474, which reproduces the Papal Chapel missal of the late 1200s, "hardly differs at all" from the initial Tridentine missal promulgated in 1570, apart from local feasts.[18]

Other rites

Apart from the Roman rite, before 1570 many other liturgical rites were in use, not only in the East, but also in the West. Some Latin liturgical rites, such as the Mozarabic Rite, were unrelated to the Roman Rite which Pope Pius V revised and ordered to be adopted generally, and even areas that had accepted the Roman rite had introduced changes and additions. As a result, every ecclesiastical province and almost every diocese had its local use, such as the Use of Sarum, the Use of York and the Use of Hereford in England. In France, there were strong traces of the Gallican Rite. With the exception of the relatively few places where no form of the Roman Rite had ever been adopted, the Canon of the Mass remained generally uniform, but the prayers in the "Ordo Missae", and still more the "Proprium Sanctorum" and the "Proprium de Tempore", varied widely.[19]

Languages

In most countries, the language used for celebrating Pre-Tridentine Masses was Latin, which had become the language of the Roman liturgy in the late 4th century. However, there have been exceptions:[20]

At various times there were calls for the prayers of the Mass to be in the vernacular, such as by Erasmus.[24]

Legacy

The Pre-Tridentine Mass survived post-Trent in some Anglican and Lutheran areas with some local modification from the basic Roman rite until the time when worship switched to the vernacular. Dates of switching to the vernacular, in whole or in part, varied widely by location. In some Lutheran areas this took three hundred years, as choral liturgies were sung by schoolchildren who were learning Latin.[25]

Vernacular and laity in the medieval and Reformation eras

Historian Virginia Reinburg has noted that the medieval eucharistic liturgy as experienced by (French) lay people, and shown in their prayer books, was a distinct experience from that of the clergy and the clerical missal.[26]

Setting

In the Carolingian period, the mass was increasingly performed as sacred drama, with the people as active participants not passive spectators:[27] Archbishop Amalarius of Metz (c.830) was accused of imparting "theatrical elements and stage mannerisms" to the Frankish liturgy.[28]

The medieval lay experience was often highly sensory:[29] churches featured chanting and singing, bells, high-tech organs, incense, busy paintings, brilliant robes, rare colours, shiny utensils, clouds of saints and angels, and stained-glass light, not to mention the taste of the host, the splashing of baptism, or even, perhaps, the feel of the silk of the priest's violet stole in absolution.[30] Some larger churches even had articulated puppet/statues to delight and inspire the congregation.[31]

By the Renaissance, churches were full of depictions in art of biblical and hagiographical people and events to illustrate notable days in the church calendar; cathedrals could have artwork on a monumental scale: for example Luca Signorelli and Fra Angelico's frescoes in Orvieto Cathedral are based around the liturgy for the Feast of All Saints.[32] In Northern Europe, such art rarely survived the iconoclasm of the Protestant Reformation.

Lay experience

The priests and deacons attended to the ceremony in the chancel or side altar:

The laity enjoyed the ceremony from the nave:

Lay prayer-books, for the educated middle and upper classes, not only gave the communal actions of the liturgy, but provided almost an unofficial parallel liturgy of silent prayers and devotions for the laity to perform in between and in preparation for the actions.[33]

Notable parts of the lay experience of the liturgy (especially the Sunday mass) included:

It was universally folded into the Sunday mass by the Council of Trent and with collated bidding prayers such as Peter Canisius' German: Allgemeines Gebet.[40] (In Ireland (c. 1785), "the prône" became the name for a book of prepared sermons and prayers which were "a key tool in remodelling older oral versions of the (vernacular portion of the) liturgy to newer standardised ones."[41])

There are few records about the liturgy in remote, rural areas.

Comparison of the Mass, c. 200 to c. 2000 AD

This table is indicative. Depending on calendar, occasion, participants, region and period, some parts might be augmented or commented on (tropes)[45] or removed or rearranged or varied from standard forms. The specific collects, readings, sequences, psalms, saints, blessings, and performance instructions (or rubrics), similarly vary. The Canon of the Mass (the key section with consecration and elevation) had less textual variation in the West, and often was the standard Roman Canon.

Such local variants are called Uses (of a Rite) when relatively minor, or a new Rite when relatively major, and typically reflect the living practice at a cathedral, whose liturgical books might then be copied by other dioceses. Mixing was common: a cathedral might adopt the Liturgy from one Rite, but keep its traditional Rubrics, Sequences etc., and use the Psalms or Calendar of some other rite. Over time, the parts may be grouped or re-named to reflect the contemporary theological or pastoral priorities, but were typically known by the first words of the Latin of the prayer.

For example, the Ambrosian Rite has different prayers, prefaces, readings, calendar and vestments to the Roman Rite. It omits the Agnus Dei. The Gesture of Peace occurs before the Offertory.[46] [47]

Note: Below, "Gifts" primarily means the unconsecrated bread, wine and water.

c. 200-350 [48] c. 400 [49] c. 1000 c. 2000 [50]
Greek, then LatinLatinLatinVernacular
Synaxis (Meeting)Misa of the Catechumens Fore-Mass Liturgy of the Word
Greeting: "Grace of our Lord"Introductory greeting Entrance ceremonies Introductory Rites
Lessons (Readings)
interspersed with Psalmody
Service of readings Liturgy of the Word
Sermon - vernacular "words of comfort"Vernacular Sermon or paraphrase of Gospel readingHomily
  • Dismissal of "hearers" and unbelievers[51]
  • Bidding prayers
  • Collect for the catechumens
    and their dismissal
  • Collect for the energumens
    and their dismissal
  • Collect for the competentes and illuminandi
    (candidates for baptism)
    and their dismissal
  • Collect for the penitentes
    and their dismissal
  • Credo
    • (Nicene Creed introduced 1014)
  • "Oremus"
    • (Vernacular bidding prayers/Prône)
Eucharist (Thanksgiving)Communion of the Faithful Sacrifice-Mass Liturgy of the Eucharist
Offering of gifts



Prayer over the offerings
Offertory rites
  • Offertory
  • Prayers and Psalm 25
  • Little Canon (Preparation of gifts)
  • Secret (Preparation of the altar)
Anaphora (Canon):
  • Collective prayer
  • Consecration
  • Thanksgiving
  • Amen of the people
Eucharistic prayers



Eucharistic prayers Eucharistic prayers
Communion rites
  • Psalm accompanying Communion
  • Communion
    • Leavened bread loaves, from people's offering, in hand
    • Wine and water, frequently drunk with straw (or calamus) or spoon[52]
    • Briefly in the 490s Pope Gelasius I made communion under both kinds mandatory.[53]
  • Prayer
Communion cycle
Collection for the needyDismissal of the faithful Ite, missa est or Benedicamus DominoConcluding rites
  • Announcements
  • Final Blessing
  • Dismissal

See also

Western Catholic

Eastern Catholic

References

Sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Fathers. New Advent. .
  2. .
  3. Book: Duschesne . L. . Christian Worship: its Origin and Evolution . London . 1912.
  4. "The complete and definitive Latinization of the Roman liturgy seems to have happened toward the middle of the fourth century."
  5. "The first Christians in Rome were chiefly people who came from the East and spoke Greek. The founding of Constantinople naturally drew such people thither rather than to Rome, and then Christianity at Rome began to spread among the Roman population, so that at last the bulk of the Christian population in Rome spoke Latin. Hence the change in the language of the liturgy. [...] The liturgy was said (in Latin) first in one church and then in more, until the Greek liturgy was driven out, and the clergy ceased to know Greek. About 415 or 420 we find a Pope saying that he is unable to answer a letter from some Eastern bishops, because he has no one who could write Greek." .
  6. .
  7. "...the Eucharistic prayer was fundamentally changed and recast" .
  8. Hen . Yitzhak . The liturgy of St Willibrord . Anglo-Saxon England . 1997 . 26 . 41–62 . 0263-6751.
  9. Book: Hen . Ytzhak . Medieval Manuscripts in Transition: Tradition and Creative Recycling . 2006 . Leuven University Press . 978-90-5867-520-0 .
  10. Web site: The Franks Adopt the Roman Rite. Liturgica. January 31, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20131024132337/http://liturgica.com/html/litWLCarol.jsp. 2013-10-24. dead.
  11. Web site: Renaissance Mass (chants) . tegrity.columbiabasin.edu.
  12. Book: Church . Catholic . Wilson . Henry Austin . Liber sacramentorum Romanae Ecclesiae . 1894 . Clarendon Press . la.
  13. Caldwell . John . The Organ in the Medieval Latin Liturgy, 800-1500 . Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association . 1966 . 93 . 11–24 . 0080-4452.
  14. Bedingfield . M. Bradford . Reinventing the Gospel: Ælfric and the Liturgy . Medium Ævum . 1999 . 68 . 1 . 13–31 . 10.2307/43630122 . 0025-8385.
  15. Göllner . Theodor . The Three-Part Gospel Reading and the Medieval Magi Play . Journal of the American Musicological Society . 1971 . 24 . 1 . 51–62 . 10.2307/830892 . 0003-0139.
  16. .
  17. At least 107 of these still exist: regions also included modern Hungary, Sweden, Switzerland and even two dioceses in the Kingdom of Naples. Furthermore, at least 490 editions were made by private publishers before 1501 for clergy. Nowakowska . N. . From Strassburg to Trent: Bishops, Printing and Liturgical Reform in the Fifteenth Century* . Past & Present . 1 November 2011 . 213 . 1 . 3–39 . 10.1093/pastj/gtr012. free .
  18. Book: Lauren Pristas . Collects of the Roman Missals A Comparative Study of the Sundays in Proper Seasons Before and After the Second Vatican Council . 2013 . Bloomsbury Academic . 9780567033840 . 67.
  19. Encyclopedia: Missal. Thurston. Herbert. Catholic Encyclopedia. 1913.
  20. Gratsch . Edward J. . The Language of the Roman Rite . American Ecclesiastical Review . 139 . 4 . October 1958 . 255–260 .
  21. "The right to use the Glagolitic language at Mass with the Roman Rite has prevailed for many centuries in all the south-western Balkan countries, and has been sanctioned by long practice and by many popes." Web site: Krmpotic . M.D. . Dalmatia . 1908 . March 25, 2008 . .
  22. "In 1886 it arrived to the Principality of Montenegro, followed by the Kingdom of Serbia in 1914, and the Republic of Czechoslovakia in 1920, but only for feast days of the main patron saints. The 1935 concordat with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia anticipated the introduction of the Slavic liturgy for all Croatian regions and throughout the entire state." Web site: Japundžić . Marko . The Croatian Glagolitic Heritage . 1997 . March 25, 2008 . Croatian Academy of America .
  23. Book: Bonniwell . William R. . A History of the Dominican Liturgy, 1215–1945 . 2nd . New York . Joseph F. Wagner, Inc. . 1945 . 207–208 .
  24. Pabel . Hilmar M. . Promoting the Business of the Gospel: Erasmus' Contribution to Pastoral Ministry . Erasmus of Rotterdam Society Yearbook . 1995 . 15 . 1 . 53–70 . 10.1163/187492795X00053.
  25. https://books.google.com/books?id=JWoSDAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Congregational+Singing+In+the+Mass%22+%22Gloria+and+Et+in+terra%22&pg=PA210 Tables of years of switch to the vernacular
  26. Reinburg . Virginia . Liturgy and the Laity in Late Medieval and Reformation France . The Sixteenth Century Journal . 1992 . 23 . 3 . 526–547 . 10.2307/2542493 . 2542493 . 0361-0160.
  27. Book: Rose . Els . Plebs sancta ideo meminere debet. The Role of the People in the Early Medieval Liturgy of Mass . 2019 . De Gruyter .
  28. Calkins . Robert G. . Liturgical Sequence and Decorative Crescendo in the Drogo Sacramentary . Gesta . 1986 . 25 . 1 . 17–23 . 10.2307/766893 . 766893 . 0016-920X.
  29. Williamson . Beth . Sensory Experience in Medieval Devotion: Sound and Vision, Invisibility and Silence . Speculum . 2013 . 88 . 1 . 1–43 . 23488709 . 0038-7134.
  30. There is an obscure report of an improvised pre-medieval practise of a bishop to whack penitants with his pallium in proportion to their sins. Murray . Alexander . Confession before 1215 . Transactions of the Royal Historical Society . 1993 . 3 . 51–81 . 10.2307/3679136 . 3679136 . 0080-4401.
  31. Swift . Christopher . Robot Saints . Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural . 2015 . 4 . 1 . 52–77 . 10.5325/preternature.4.1.0052 . 10.5325/preternature.4.1.0052 . 2161-2196.
  32. James . Sara Nair . Penance and Redemption: The Role of the Roman Liturgy in Luca Signorelli's Frescoes at Orvieto . Artibus et Historiae . 2001 . 22 . 44 . 119–147 . 10.2307/1483716 . 0391-9064.
  33. Book: Salisbury . Matthew Cheung . Worship in medieval England . 2018 . Arc humanities press . Leeds . 9781641891158.
  34. Book: Weston . Lindy . Gothic Architecture and the Liturgy in Construction . 1 June 2018 . 194823224 .
  35. Web site: Prône Encyclopedia.com . www.encyclopedia.com.
  36. Lualdi . Katharine J. . Persevering in the Faith: Catholic Worship and Communal Identity in the Wake of the Edict of Nantes . The Sixteenth Century Journal . 2004 . 35 . 3 . 717–734 . 10.2307/20477042 . 20477042 . 0361-0160.
  37. Corresponding to the Anglo-Saxon/Anglo-Norman/Middle English "bidding the beads" Book: Rock . Daniel . The Church of Our Fathers as Seen in St. Osmund's Rite for the Cathedral of Salisbury: With Dissertations on the Belief and Ritual in England Before and After the Coming of the Normans . 1849 . C. Dolman . en.
  38. Book: Palacios . Joy Kathleen . Preaching for the Eyes: Priests, Actors, and Ceremonial Splendor in Early Modern France . 2012 . UC Berkeley . 13 October 2023 . en.
  39. Book: Bergin . Joseph . Church, Society and Religious Change in France, 1580-1730 . 25 August 2009 . Yale University Press . 978-0-300-16106-9 . en.
  40. Web site: Hofschulte . Benno . "Allgemeines Gebet" . Deutschland braucht Mariens Hilfe . 12 October 2023 . en . 4 June 2020.
  41. Book: Millerick . Martin . The Roman Catholic Communities of Cloyne Diocese, Co. Cork, 1700 -1830. . 2015 . Maynooth University .
  42. See, for example, the Middle English Old Kentish Sermons (c. 12th century) in Web site: Morris . Richard . An Old English miscellany containing a bestiary, Kentish sermons, Proverbs of Alfred, religious poems of the thirteenth century . 2006.
  43. Nico Fassino (2023). The Epistles & Gospels in English: A history of vernacular scripture from the pulpit, 971-1964. Part of the Hand Missal History Project. https://handmissalhistory.com/Feature-Epistles
  44. Book: Jungmann . Josef A. . Brunner . Francis A. . The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development (Missarum Sollemnia) . 1951 .
  45. Friel . David M. . The Sequences of the Missale Romanum: Popular Works of Liturgical Creativity . Adoremus Bulletin . 1 January 2017 .
  46. Web site: Ambrosian rite and Roman rite: let's see the differences together . Holyart.com Blog . 7 July 2021.
  47. Web site: A detailed explanation of the Ambrosian rite and San Simeon Piccolo . New Advent.
  48. Web site: Muñoz . Edgard Abraham Alvarez . The Shape of the Liturgy (Review) . 20 October 2023.
  49. Roman Rite,
  50. Roman Rite, Web site: Order of Mass . www.usccb.org . en.
  51. Maskell suggests that the dismissals and simplicity are caused both because of unwillingness to "cast pearls before swine" (p. xxviii) and immanent danger from persecution (p. xxi).
  52. Web site: Belcher . Kimberly Hope . History of infant communion, part 2: Medieval and modern periods (500-2015 AD) . PrayTellBlog . 26 May 2015.
  53. Emmons . D. D. . COMMUNION UNDER ONE KIND: Exploring the Church history and norms of receiving the body and blood of Christ at Mass . Our Sunday Visitor . 28 June 2020 . 109 . 10 . 14–15.
  54. Web site: CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Frequent Communion . www.newadvent.org.
  55. Web site: Viar . Lucas . Eucharistic Utensils . Liturgical Arts Journal.
  56. Note 17, Web site: The Composition of the Second Eucharistic Prayer . www.arcaneknowledge.org.
  57. Book: McGowan . Anne . Eucharistic Epicleses, Ancient and Modern: Speaking Of The Spirit In Eucharistic Prayers . 15 May 2014 . SPCK . 978-0-281-07156-2 . en.
  58. Web site: The Liturgy of the Eucharist: The Eucharistic Prayer (3) . RC Spirituality.
  59. Romano . John F. . The Fates of Liturgies: Towards a History of the First Roman Ordo . Antiphon . 2007 . 11 . 2 . 43–77 . 19 October 2023.
  60. Web site: Dipippo . Gregory . The Theology of the Offertory - Part 7.3 - Medieval English Uses . New Liturgical Movement.
  61. Karlsen . Espen . Hareide . Sigurd . The Nidaros Missal (1519) . Missale Nidrosiense, Edited by Ingrid Sperber . 21 May 2019 .
  62. Kolář . Pavel . Witnesses of a New Liturgical Practice: the Ordines missae of Three Utraquist Manuscripts 1 . The Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice 9.
  63. Web site: CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: The Gallican Rite . www.newadvent.org.
  64. Kuhar . Kristijan . Košćak . Silvio . Renhart . Erich . The content of the glagolitic missal of count Novak in the digital environment. Crkva U Svijetu . 31 December 2021 . 56 . 4 . 619–634 . 10.34075/cs.56.4.4. free .
  65. Book: Maskell . William . The Ancient Liturgy of the Church of England: According to the Uses of Sarum, Bangor, York, & Hereford, and the Modern Roman Liturgy . 1846 . W. Pickering . en.