MASQUERADE, or MASKED BALL, a festive meeting in which the host and gutsts assume fictitious characters, and disguise themselves more or less for the occasion, the name being derived from the use of the mask. The public mummeries of former times, Easter plays, festivals of fools, etc., which were frequent in most parts of Europe, but somewhat various in different countries, probably suggested the idea of the masquerade, which, however, was not open to all, according to the well-understood rules of these ancient amusements, but was limited to some select class, or to those who paid a certain sum for adrnission. Catharine de' Medici introduced the regular masquerade at the French court. It found its way to England in the reign of Henry WM., but did not reach any of the courts of Germany till the end of the 17th century. The bal costume is a very modified and much less objectionable form of the masquerade. During the carnival, public masquerades are held in all tLe theaters and dancing-saloons of Paris, and on these occasions scenes of the most disgraceful profligacy are said to be enacted in spite of the strict supervision of the police.
MASS (Lat. Missa), the name given in the Roman Catholic church to the eucharistic service which in that church, as well as in the Greek and other oriental churches, is held to be the sacrifice of the new law, a real thoug,h unbloody offering, in which Christ isithe victim, in substance the same with the sacnfice of the cross, and instituted as a com memoration of that sacrifice, and as a means of applying its merits, through all ages, for the sanctification of men. The doctrine of the mass, as understood by Roman Catholics, pesupposes the eucharist, although the latter doctrine does not necessarily involve the notion of a. sacrifice, and may even be held by those who deny the sacrificial character of the eucharistic rite. The arguments for and against this belief, on which the mass is founded, do not fall within our province, which limits us to a brief history and explana tion of the rite as it is found among Catholics and the members of other communions in which it is observed. Without entering into discussions as to the primitive character of the eucharistic rite, it will be enough to observe that the very earliest records of Christian history, whether in the Acts of the Apostles, the canonical Epistles, or' the writing,s of the most ancient of the fathers, plainly evince the existence from the beginning of a rite, which it is impossible not to regaril as in its general character identical with that which still constitutes in most Christian communities the chiefest and most solemn part of their public worship. This rite is believed by Roman Catholics to have been partly a sacrifice, partly a communion and participation thereof by the faithful; and of the names by which it is called in the works of the early fathers, some—as for example, agape, and kagia Runaxis, refer to the latter, while others--as thusia, prosphore, Mereion—indicate the for mer signification. The etymology of the name now in use is somewhat olascure, but it is commonly referred to the proclamation made by the deacon at the close of the service— " Ite; missa est" ("Go; the assembly is dismissed "). By primitive use the communion of the faithful appears always, unless in exceptional cases, to have formed part of the eucharistic service; but afterwards it came to pass that the officiating priest only com municated, whence arose, especially in the Western church, the practice of " private masses," which has been in later times a ground of complaint with dissentients from Rome, even those who in other respects approach closely to the Roman doctrine. In the ancient writers a distinction is made between the " mass of the catechumens" and the " mass of the, faithful"; the former including all the preparatory prayers, the latter all that directly regards the consecration of the elements and the communion, at which the " discipline of the secret" forbade the presence of the catechumens. With the cessation of this discipline, the distinction of names has ceased, but the distinction of parts is still preserved, the masS of the catechumeng CoMprising all the first part of the DIttS8 a,s far as the preface." The mass is now, in general, denominated accortang to the solemnity of the accompanying ceremonial, a " low mass," a " chanted mass," or a "high mass." In. ',the first a single priest simply reads the service, attended by one or more acolytes or ,clerks. The second form differs only in this, that the service is chanted instead of being read by the priest. In the high mass, the service is chanted in part by the pries*:,, in part by the deacon and sub-deacon, by whom, as well as by several ministers of inferior rank, the priest is assisted. In all these, however, the service, as regards the form of prayer, is the same. It consists of (1) an introductory prayer composed of the 41st Psalm,
together with the " general confession"; (2), the introit, which is followed by the thrice repeated petition, " Lord, have mercy," " Christ, have mercy," and the hymn, "Glory to God on High"; (3), the collect, or public and joint prayers of priest and people, fol lowed by a lesson either from the Epistles or some book of the Old Testament, and by the gradual (q.v.); (4), the gospel, which is commonly followed by the Nicene creed; (5), the offertory (q.v.), after the reading of which comes the preparatory offering of the bread and wine, and the washing of the priest's hands in token of purity of heart, and the "secret," a prayer read in a low voice by the priest ; (6), the preface, concluding with the trisagion or " thrice holy"—at which point, by the primitive use, the catechumens and penitents retired from the church; (7), the "canon," which is always the same, and which contains all the prayers connected with the consecration, the elevation, the breaking, and the communion of the hoot and of the chalice, as also the commemora tions both of the living and of the dead; (8), the " communion," which is a short scrip tural prayer, usually appropriate to the particular festival; (9), the " post-communion," -which, like the collect, was a joint prayer of priest and people, and is read or sung aloud; (10), the dismissal with the benediction, and finally, the first chapter of St. John's gospel. 4-Great part of the above prayers are fixed, and form what is called the " ordo" or " ordi nary" of the mass. The rest, which is called the " proper of the mass," differs for differ ent occasions; some masses being " of the season," as of lent, advent, passion-tide, ." quarter-time,' etc. , others, ot " mysteries," DS of the nativity, the circumcision, the resurrection; others again, of saints, as of an apostle, a martyr, or a confessor; others again, " votive," as " of the passion," " of the dead," " for peace," etc. In all these vari ous clas.ses, as well as in the individual masses under each, the " proper" portions of the mass differ according to the occasion, and in some of them certain portions of the " ordi malty," as the " Glory to God on High," the "gradual," or the " Nicene creed " are -omitted. On one day in thc year, Good-Friday, is celebrated what is called the "mass .of the presanctified," in which no consecration takes place, but in which the priest com municates of the host which was consecratea or the preceding day. This usage is found .also in the Greek church, not alone on Good-Friday, but on every day during the lent, .except Saturday and Sunday. In the celebration of mass the priest wears peculiar vest ments, five in number—two of linen, called " alnico' and " alb"; and three of silk or precious stuffs, called " maniple," " stole," and " chasuble," the alb being girt with a cincture of flaxen or silken cord. The color of these vestments varies with the occasion, fiNT colors acing employed on different occasions—white, red, green, purple or violet, .and black, and they are often richly embroidered with silk or thread of the precious ;metals, and occadonally with precious stones. The priest is required to celebrate the mass fasting, anc., unless by special dispensation, is only permitted to offer it once in the -day, except on Christmas day, vvhen three masses may be celebrated.
In the Greek and oriental churches the euchanstic service, called in Greek theia Zeitourgia (the divine liturgy), differs in the order of its parts, in the wording of most of Its prayers, and in its accompanying ceremonial from the mass of the Latin church (see LITURGY); but the only differences which have any importance as bearing upon doctrine :are their use of leavened bread instead of unleavened; their more frequent celebration -of the " mass of the presanctifiea,' to which reference has already been made; the Latin use of private masses, in which the priest alone communicates; and, iu general, the much more frequent celebration of the mass in tbe Latin church. The sacred vest ments, too, of the Greek and eastern rites differ notably from those of the Latin; and in some of the former—as, for example, the Armenian—a veil is drawn before the altar during that part of the service in which the consecration takes place, which is only withdrawn at the time of the communion. The service sometimes used on shipboard, and improperly called missa sicca Wry mass), consists simply of the reading of the prayers of the mass, but without any consecration of the elements. It was resorted to with a view to avoiding the danger of spilling the sacred elements, owing to the imsteady motion of the ship. It is sometimes also called missa nautica (ship mass).