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.