MASS, THE. The word Mass •seems to be derived from a Latin word " missa," which is another form of " missio" and means " dismissal." Originally it was employed in law-courts and churches to denote dismissal from further attendance. Then in the churches it came to mean the services from which certain persons were dismissed. Thus the service for catechumens, who were dismissed after the Gospel and sermon, was called Missa Cateehumenorum, and the rest of the service (including the Eucharist) for which the faithful remained Missa Fidelium. Later the term came to be used specifically of the Eucharist or Holy Communion. In the Anglican Prayer Book of 1549 the title of the Eucharist was " The Supper of the Lord and the Holy Communion, commonly called the Mass." In that of 1552 the term Mass, " which had been common for more than a thousand years In the Western Church," was dropped, " no doubt from its association with Roman ceremonial and teaching" (W. R. W. Stephens. Book of Common Prayer). According to Roman Catholic doctrine, " the Mass is a sacrifice of adoration, of praise and thanksgiving; it is also a sacri fice of propitiation for sin, and a means of obtaining all graces and blessings from God " (Cath. Diet.). Accord
ing to Article xxxi. of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, " the sacrifices of Masses, in the which it was commonly 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." The Roman Church recognises various kinds of Masses. High Mass is " Mass with incense, music, the assistance of deacon and sub-deacon. etc." Low Mass is " Mass said without music, the priest at least saying, and not singing, the Mass throughout." Missa cantata is " a Mass sung, but without deacon and sub deacon and the ceremonies proper to High Mass." Votive Masses " are those which do not correspond with the office of the day, but are said by the choice (rot/ern) of the priest. Requiem Mass is a Mass for the dead. It is so called from the opening words of the Introit : Requiem reternam dona eis, Domine. Missa Adventitia or Manualis is " a Mass for the intention of a person who gives an alms."