Heortology

by K. A. Heinrich Kellner

V

(p. [79])
The Word Mass as a Name for the Sacrifice of the Altar

The term mass does not owe its position to theology, but became established in the course of centuries by popular usage. The most ancient writers of the church speak frequently, and with all the precision desirable of the holy sacrifice of the altar, but they speak of it by other names which fully indicate its essential character, such as oblatio and sacrificium, or even sacramenta and collecta. These two last names have a more general significance; collecta is the late Latin abbreviation for collectio, and means an assembly of men for some given purpose, in this case for divine service. Colligere appears in the same sense in the Latin translation of Irenæus and in Tertullian; the substantive is found in Jerome and other ancient authors; a survival of this primitive usage appears in the name collecta given to the first prayer of the Mass.[841] It owes its name of collecta to the fact that according to the most ancient ritual it formed the commencement of the Mass. In the service-books, collecta was merely a name which served to distinguish the prayers of the Mass from those which preceded or followed. According to the Roman rite, the Mass began with the prayer of the priest at the altar as soon as the invitatorium sung by the choir was finished, the psalm Judica me, the Confiteor, the Kyrie and Gloria being later additions. Thus the name collecta became attached to this opening prayer, and is so given to it in most mediæval and Roman missals, until the reform under Pius V., when it was replaced by the name oratio now in use. At the same time the name postcommunio replaced the older title ad complendum. Whenever we find in prayer-books and explanations of the Mass, that the prayer was called the Collect because the priest “collected” the petitions of the faithful, we can only regard such an interpretation as silly and unhistorical; the same could be said equally well of all, or, at any rate, of most of the prayers of the Mass.

The term sacramentum or sacramenta served also not unfrequently as a name for the Mass,[842] and so gave rise to the name sacramentarium, generally given to the missal in ancient times. In addition to these names, oblatio and sacrificio were especially employed as having the advantage of adequately expressing the essential character of the rite. The former was the particular favourite of Tertullian, the founder of Latin ecclesiastical terminology, and afterwards of St Cyprian, but it may be said to belong to all writers and to all periods.[843] St Augustine, who had already propounded a formal theory of the sacrifice of the Mass, shows a preference for sacrificium.[844]

When we turn to the word missa, we must not treat it as a participle, even in the Ite missa est, for there is nothing with which the feminine participle can agree, and so it must be a substantive. In order to explain the meaning of this substantive, and to show how it acquired its position as the technical term for the most sacred act of the Church’s worship, requires an excursus dealing with the matter from the point of view of etymology, patrology, and liturology. As regards the etymology of the word, attempts have been made from time to time to derive missa from the Hebrew, (‎‏מסּה‎‏ Deut., xvi. 10), in the belief the name must be as old as the thing it signifies, an attempt abandoned as absurd at the present day.[845] A better idea was that of the mediæval liturgists who explained the word as equivalent to transmissio in the sense of the offering up and presentation of the oblation before God. But fortunately there is one man, thoroughly conversant at first hand with primitive usages and terminology, who has left us an explanation of the word and of the origin of its application to the sacrifice of the altar. Bishop Avitus, of Vienne († 518), flourished at the period between the ages of antiquity and the mediæval period, and is, therefore, a reliable witness in this matter. He was asked by his sovereign, King Gundobad of Burgundy, what was the meaning of the word missa, and replied that missam facere was the same as dimittere, and was used by the Romans at both audiences in the royal palace and sittings of the law courts to intimate to the assembly that the audience or session was at an end and that they were free to depart; it was used in the same way in the churches. Avitus[846] himself uses missa simply for divine service.

It is clear that the explanation given by Avitus is correct. For since the conclusion of every session and assembly must be officially announced with words such as, “The session is at an end,” so in church, where a still greater number of men meet together, it is necessary to make known to them the conclusion of divine service. Such was the custom of the ancient Romans at their sacrifices and religious ceremonies, and the Christians naturally did the same. Tertullian speaks already of a dimissio plebis,[847] and we find the same thing in the Greek liturgies, although the formulæ vary in some respects from that in use among the Latins.[848]

It was not, however, the Mass which was first called by this name, but the other services of the ancient Church—the Psalmody, or, in other words, the Canonical Hours. From the striking account given by the so-called Silvia,[849] we can see how important these services were and what a prominent position they occupied in the worship of the Church. “Every day, in the early morning, the doors of the church were opened, and all the monks and nuns, as well as many of the laity, assembled, and until sunrise, sing hymns and psalms, in alternate choirs, along with the antiphons and prayers. About sunrise they begin to say the ‘matutinas ymnos.’ The bishop arrives with the clergy and sings the prayer within the chancel. Then he comes forth and blesses the people one by one. Et sic fit missa,” i.e. so the service ends, which comprised Nocturns, Lauds, and Prime, as they would now be called. The same ceremonies were observed at the Little Hours which followed later. Vespers were performed with more ceremony; at the conclusion the deacon directed the faithful to bow their heads in order to receive the bishop’s blessing. Again the pilgrim ends her description with the words, “Et sic fit missa.”

We must notice that the Psalmody took place daily in this way, while the Mass, especially in the East, was not celebrated daily; in Lent, for example, it was celebrated on Saturdays and Sundays only. At each hour there took place a dismissal, missa, and thus it was brought about that this word came to be used as a name for each of the canonical hours. The name was far-fetched and unsuitable, but popular usage does not form its nomenclature upon scientific principles, but from what most strikes the popular fancy. Thus the pilgrim, who expresses herself in popular language, speaks of missa vigiliarum, for Mattins, and missa lucernaris for Vespers. The word missa in itself means dismissal and nothing more. Once, in her naïve manner, she explains what sort of dismissal she means; it is dismissal out of the church (“missa de ecclesia,” c. 37, § 3, line 20). Which of the various dismissals out of the church is intended in a given case is shown by an additional phrase, as in the cases given above, when it is not clear from the context. Of course it may mean the dismissal which took place at the Mass, but not the sacrifice of the Mass itself. How far missa is from being in the pilgrim’s diary the technical term for Mass—which is all we are concerned with here—is sufficiently clear from the circumstance that wherever she lets slip the word missa for Mass, she at once hastens to add that the missa of which she speaks is the oblatio.[850] When she wishes to express herself with precision, she always calls the Mass oblatio, and in a few cases sacramentum (singular or plural). Of course missa, as a general term, may have been used as a name for the Mass, since there are one or more dismissals therein; had it not been so, missa could never have become the name par excellence for the Mass.

The same terminology is found at a somewhat later date in Cassian, to whom we are especially indebted for our intimate knowledge of monastic observances. An important part of these observances were the daily hours of prayer, the canonical hours, and we naturally expect to find the technical terms for them in Cassian’s writings. And so, indeed, we find the names formed with the help of the word missa, as in Silvia’s diary; Mattins and Lauds are called missa nocturna or missa vigiliarum,[851] while the Mass, on the other hand, is called oblatio or sacrificium.

From these passages it appears that missa in its strict sense means “dismissal,” and is a general term capable of receiving a particular significance by the addition of vigiliarum, etc. The same thing appears in Pope Innocent I. (Epist. 17, c. 12; Migne, xx. 535), where he speaks of the priests belonging to the party of Bonosus, and asks if they have celebrated Mass, which he calls sacramenta conficere, if they have given Holy Communion (si populis tribuit), and if they have performed the customary dismissals (si missas complevit). Apart from the fact that in the same passage two different terms cannot well stand for the same thing, the use of the plural shows that it is not the Mass which is meant but the other missæ, the hours, the performance of which concerned both the bishop and the priests. There is no doubt as to which term Leo I. used for the Mass, for oblatio and sacrificium occur several times in his writings. When in one passage we find the word missa as well, this can only mean the dismissal, the conclusion of divine service.[852] Thus even in the fifth century missa by itself always meant merely dismissal, never Mass; for Mass, the terms sacrificium and oblatio were employed.

This was the correct use of the terms in question during that period. But since, as we have said, the ceremonial dismissals (missæ) at the end of divine service gave rise to the name, and since dismissals of this kind occurred in the Mass,[853] once at the end and once after the sermon at the dismissal of the Catechumens, it is not remarkable that missa came into use as a name for the Mass, and came to be regarded as its special name in proportion as the canonical hours became less services for the laity than of obligation for clergy and religious. There was however an intermediate period before missa became solely and exclusively the popular name for the Mass. This transitional state of affairs extended over the whole of the sixth century, and appears in the writings of St Benedict and St Gregory the Great, who both employ missa without distinction as a name for the Mass and for the canonical hours.[854] The same thing appears in Gregory of Tours and in other writers. The last appearance of missa as a name for both kinds of divine service without distinction appears to be a passage in the life of St Ludgerus by Altfrid.[855]

The terminology employed by the official organs of the Church is naturally of weight in this matter. When the authorities of the Church made use of a term so little expressive of the nature of the thing as missa, which had already taken the popular fancy, it was inevitable that it should become the only recognised name for the Mass; and this is just what happened. On glancing through the canons of the ancient Councils of the West, we find all the terms with which we are already familiar—oblatio by the Council of Arles in 314 (Canons 5 and 19), and sacrificium by the Councils of Carthage (that of 390, Canon 8; that of 397, Canon 14), etc. We also find the term missæ applied to the particular parts of the Psalmody,[856] and to the other services composed of Psalmody and Mass together.[857] As a term clearly and unmistakably applied to the Mass by itself, missa appears for the first time in the fourth Synod of Arles in 524 (Canon 4), and then in sundry other Gallic synods of the sixth century.

On the other hand it must be stated once for all that missa in the sense of Mass is not to be found in the fourth century. The one solitary instance which for a long time seemed to countenance such a view is in a letter of St Ambrose,[858] in which he tells his sister of the attempts made by the Arians on Palm Sunday 385 to gain possession of the principal church of Milan. Ambrose was performing divine service, the homily was concluded, and he was just on the point of dismissing the catechumens, when the alarming news arrived that the Arians has seized a basilica situated outside the walls; he did not allow himself to be upset by the news, but remained where he was, dismissed the catechumens, and commenced the Mass, during which he received further information concerning the tumult. The question turns upon the words, “Ego tamen mansi in munere, missam facere cœpi. Dum offero,” etc. Hitherto missa has here been always taken in the sense of Mass, but it has really the sense of dismissal. For on Palm Sunday in Milan, the so-called traditio symboli to the more advanced class of catechumens was performed with much ceremony, something like a first Communion with us; on this day a twofold dismissal of the catechumens was necessary, the first of the lower class of catechumens, because they must not yet learn the creed which was now to be recited by the more advanced, and then followed the dismissal of the more advanced catechumens, the competentes, because these, as being still unbaptised, could not yet assist at the Mass.

Against this interpretation it has been urged[859] that missa must mean Mass, because, the act of dismissal being so short, Ambrose could scarcely have said, “Missam facere cœpi,” had he meant only the dismissal of the catechumens. How long an act must continue in order that its beginning, middle, and ending may be observable depends upon circumstances, but the dismissal of the competentes was sometimes far from brief. The Apostolic Constitutions, for instance, give a formula for this act, and the prayers used cover three printed pages (Constit. Apost., 8, 5, § 6 to 6, § 4). At the dismissal of the candidates for baptism, three prayers were recited (ib. 8, 7, § 2, to c. 7, § 1), one by the deacon, one by the catechumens, and one by the bishop, who then gave his blessing. Then followed an address by the bishop, of which we have two examples, in the 215th and 216th of the sermons of St Augustine. The act lasted long enough to have a beginning, middle, and ending.

From what has been said, we conclude, missa appears in the fourth century as a technical name for the various parts of divine service, especially for the canonical hours. During the sixth and seventh centuries it became a technical term for the Mass, and gradually usurped the place of other names for the Mass. These, however, survived in isolated instances until the ninth century, but disappeared entirely in the Middle Ages.