Low Mass (Missa privata), in which the celebrant supplies the part of the absent ministers and uses the speaking instead of the singing voice, is a late abridgment. It became a necessity when, in the early Middle Ages, the pious custom grew up practically every priest to say Mass once a day. By the 9th century we find that many priests were in the habit of saying Mass several times the same day. By the 13th century this multiplication of Masses began to be forbidden. By special indult (1746) of Pope Benedict XIV, priests in Spain and Portugal were permitted to celebrate three Masses on All Souls' Day (2 November), a privilege extended quite recently to all other countries. The rule now is that, except on that day and on the feast of Christmas (25 Decem ber), when three Masses are also allowed, and on Sundays and certain holy days when, in case of necessity, authorization for two Masses is given, a priest may say only one Mass a day. Pius the Fifth's Missal (1570) recognized Low Mass and specifically arranged its order. By direction of Pope Leo XIII certain prayers in the vernacular, in which the congregation par ticipates with the celebrant, are recited after every Low Mass. In some countries (e.g., Ireland) the 129th [130thl Psalm (De Pro fundis) is said after the Low Mass and before the vernacular prayers. There are special rites for a Pontifical Mass, high or low, and addi tional special rites for a Papal Mass. A Missa Cantata, without deacon and subdeacon, but with celebrant, choir, and singing as at High Mass, is a compromise. The MaSs of the Presanctified (Missa prwsanctificatorum, Xetrovpyia ruv rporataaptvwv), which is really not a Mass at all but a service of Com munion from an oblation consecrated and re served at a previous celebration, was once com mon in both the Eastern and the Western Church. In the Byzantine rite such a service still occurs several times in the year, but in the Roman rite it is now used only on Good Friday. Conventual or Chapter Mass (Missa conventualis or capitularis) is an official Mass celebrated in such churches as are bound to have the whole office every day. A Missa soli taria is a Mass said without an assistant. Such Masses, forbidden by many synods, may never theless be celebrated by dispensation given under special circumstances. Missa slcca, or dry Mass, was used on occasions when a real Mass could not be said, as, for example, at a wedding or a funeral in the afternoon. It consisted of the prayers of the Mass with the essential parts — offertory, consecration, com munion — omitted. Varieties of the dry Mass were Missa nautica, said at sea when the roll ing of the ship rendered a real Mass dangerous or impossible, and Missa venatoria, said for hunters. The dry Mass was in vogue from at least the 14th century, but by the end of the 17th century it was nearly entirely abolished. Requiem Mass is said for the dead, and Nuptial Mass (pro sponso et sponsa) for a marriage.
In the early ages the Mass was divided into two distinct parts, the Mass of the Cate chumens (Missa catechumenorum) and the Mass of the Faithful (Missa fidelium). This distinction, at one time fundamental, gradually disappeared as the discipline of the cate chumenate fell into disuse. It has now long been lost, and the division is so hidden in the present rite that hut few people advert to it. The Dominus vobiscum and the Oremus, fol lowing the Gospel (or the Creed, when it is said) and preceding the Offertory Act, show the line of demarcation.
The celebrant of Mass must be in priest's orders and free of irregularity and censure. He must also be in the state of grace, and be fasting from at least the previous mid night. He is bound to observe the rubrics and the laws concerning the matter (azyme bread and pure wine), the vestments, the ves sels, and the ceremonies. Mass should be cele brated in a consecrated or 'blessed church and on a consecrated altar or altar-stone. In spe cial cases, however, it may he said in a private oratory or even in an ordinary room. It is offered in the morning, though, for good and sufficient cause, the time may be extended to a limited period after mid-day.
The two great distinguishing marks of the Roman Mass are (1) that it is a sacrifice and (2) that it supposes Transubstantiation. These were the two features to which the Reformers particularly objected. They took the position that "the Eucharist and Holy Supper of the Lord" was a remembrance of Christ and a solemn setting forth of his death, and not a sacrifice, and that Transubstantiation did not take place. They were anxious, indeed, to re
tain a Eucharistic service, hut one stripped of what to them appeared to be its objectionable parts. They were also insistent that the serv ice should be in the vernacular, and that com munion, when administered to the faithful, should be administered under both kinds, that is, in the form of bread and wine, and not of bread alone as was the practice of the Catholic Church. At first they repelled the charge that they were opposed to the Mass, and the Augs burg Confession "protests against any notion that it abolishes Mass"; but the logic of events was too strong for this contention, and ulti mately the Reformation, as far as it could, did away with the Mass. In his Latin Mass (1523) and his German Mass (1526) Luther put forth the basis of the numerous liturgies promulgated by his followers in the 16th century. In the former he laid down the principle that "we cannot deny that Mass and the communion of bread and wine is a rite divinely instituted by Christ." He therefore allows the Mass, as it stood in the ancient missals, to be consonant with primitive purity, except the Offertory and the Canon, that is, everything that savored of H oblation. He did not recognize Transubstan tiation. He developed instead the theory of Con substantiation, according to which Christ's body and blood are really and corporeally present, during the celebration of the Lord's Supper, in, with, and under the substance of bread and wine, in a union not hypostatic, not of mixture, not of local inclusion, but wholly transcendent and mysterious, so that the elements may with propriety be termed either bread and wine or the body and blood of Christ. Zwinglius and Oecolampadius, and with them the main body of Helvetian Protestantism, went farther. They rejected all notion of a real presence, and recognized only figurative symbols in the ele ments which Christ had appointed as a com memoration of his death. Bullinger modified Zwinglius's doctrine without changing its es sentials, and, by divesting it of its merely com memorative character and admitting the pres ence in the communion, gave it the form in which it was adopted by the Helvetic churches. Bucer did not acknowledge the local or real presence of Christ's body and blood in the bread and wine after consecration, but con tended that the body and blood were really, and without figure, received by the worthy com municant, through faith. Calvin taught that the body of Christ is present in the Eucharist, but "dynamically," not objectively; that the be liever partakes of it, but spiritually and by faith; that the elements are unchanged; and that therefore the Catholic Mass is idolatry. In England the Reformers maintained that in the Lord's Supper there is no Transubstantia tion and no other oblation than a giving of thanks and a commemoration of the death of the Lord: in other words, that, as Cranmer phrased it, the Roman Mass is "heinous and abominable idolatry." These views found practical expression in the Book of Common Prayer, the first vernacular liturgy of the Church of England, published in the reign of Edward VI, and effective on Whitsunday,. 9 June 1549. The Eucharistic part of the service was indeed named "The Supper of the Lorde and holy Communion, commonly called the Masse," hut the whole of the oblation and offertory prayers were swept away and the former Canon changed in many of its most material parts. In the second Book of Edward VI, which went into force on 1 Nov. 1552, the word Mass was omitted, and any language in the Canon that might imply either the doctrine of Transubstantiation or of sacrifice also dis appeared. The attitude of the Anglican Church on this subject is crystallized in the 31st of the Articles of Religion: °Wherefore the sacrifices of the Masses, in which it was com monly said, that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits.° Laws were enacted con taining severe penalties for saying or hearing Mass. So important did it seem to condemn the Roman sacrifice that, for centuries, the occu pant of the English throne was bound by the oath taken at coronation to repudiate the doc trine of Transubstantiation and of the Mass. It was not until 1910 that, by the Accession Declaration Act, the oath was purged of its objectionable clauses.