MASS, a name for the Christian eucharistic service, practically confined since the Reformation to that of the Roman Catholic Church. (Eccl. Lat. Missa.) The various orders for the celebra tion of Mass are dealt with under LITURGY ; a detailed account of the Roman order is given under MISSAL ; and the general develop . ment of the eucharistic service, including the mass, is described in the article EUCHARIST. In the 4th century Pilgrimage of Etheria (Silvia) the word missy is used indiscriminately of the Eucharist, other services, and the ceremony of dismissal. F. Kattenbusch (Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklop. s.v. "Messe") ingeniously, but with little evidence, suggests that the word may have had a double origin and meaning: (I) in the sense of dimissio, "dismissal"; (2) in that of commissio "commission," "official duty," i.e., the exact Latin equivalent of the Greek Xarovp-yla (see LITURGY), and hence the conflicting use of the term. It is, however, far more probable that it was a general term that gradually became crystal lized as applying to that service in which the dismissal represented a more solemn function. In the narrower sense of "Mass" it is first found in St. Ambrose (Ep. 20, 4, ed. Ballerini) where the Missa is identified with the sacrifice. It continued, however, to be used loosely, though its tendency to become proper only to the principal Christian service is clear from a passage in the i 2th homily of Caesarius, bishop of Arles (d. 542). (See also Isadore of Seville, Etym. V. 19.) 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 i6th century controversies concerning the Eucharist, it soon became identified with that sacrificial aspect of the sacrament of the altar which it was the chief object of the reformers to overthrow. In England, so late as the first Prayer
Book of Edward VI. it remained one of the official designations of the Eucharist, which is there described as "The Supper of the Lorde and holy Communion, commonly called the Masse." Bishops Ridley and Latimer denounced "the Mass" with unmeasured vio lence; Latimer said of "Mistress Missa" that "the devil bath brought her in again"; Ridley said "I do not take the Mass as it is at this day for the communion of the Church, but for a popish device," etc. (Works, ed. Parker Soc. pp. 120, seq.). 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 common language of English people it passed entirely out of use except in the sense in which it is defined in Johnson's Dictionary, i.e., that of the "Service of the Romish Church at the celebration of the Eucharist." In connection with the Catholic reaction in the Church of England, which had its origin in the "Oxford Movement" of the 19th century, efforts have been made by some of the clergy to reintroduce the term "Mass" for the Holy Communion in the English church.
See Du Cange, Glossarium, s.v. "Missa"; F. Kattenbusch in Herzog Hauck, Realencyklopddie (ed. 1903) s.v. "Messe, dogmengeschicht lich." Fortesque, Catholic Encyclopaedia vol. ix. s.v. "Mass." For the facts as to the use of the word "mass" at the time of the Reforma tion see the article by J. H. Round in the Nineteenth Century for May, 1897. (See ART, Music.) (A. N. J. W.)