Pre-Tridentine Mass refers to the evolving and regional forms of the Catholic Mass in the West from antiquity to 1570. The basic structure solidified early and has been preserved, as well as important prayers such as the Roman Canon. Following the Council of Trent's desire for standardization, Pope Pius V, with his bull Quo primum, made the Roman Missal obligatory throughout the Latin Church, except for those places and congregations whose distinct rites could demonstrate an antiquity of two hundred years or more.

Development

Earliest accounts

The earliest surviving account of the celebration of the Eucharist or the Mass in Rome is that of Saint Justin Martyr (died c. 165), in chapter 67 of his First Apology: "On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons." In chapter 65, Justin Martyr says that the kiss of peace was given before the bread and the wine mixed with water were brought to "the president of the brethren". The initial liturgical language used was Greek, before approximately the year 190 under Pope Victor, when the Church in Rome changed from Greek to Latin, except in particular for the Hebrew word "Amen", whose meaning Justin explains in Greek (γένοιτο), saying that by it "all the people present express their assent" when the president of the brethren "has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings". According to some scholars, the early Christian liturgy was a continuation of the liturgy of contemporary Jewish synagogues (as distinct from the temple liturgy): Duschesne comments "the only permanent element, on the whole, which Christianity added to the liturgy of the synagogue was[...]the sacred meal instituted by Jesus Christ as a perpetual commemoration of himself." This tradition included unaccompanied chant.

Early changes

It is unclear when the language of the celebration finished changing from Greek to Latin. Pope Victor I (190–202), may have been the first to use Latin in the liturgy in Rome. Others think Latin was finally adopted nearly a century later. The change was probably gradual, with both languages being used for a while. With regard to the Roman Canon of the Mass, the prayers beginning Te igitur, Memento Domine and Quam oblationem were already in use, even if not with quite the same wording as now, by the year 400; the Communicantes, the Hanc igitur, and the post-consecration Memento etiam and Nobis quoque were added in the fifth century.

Early Middle Ages

Before the pontificate of Pope Gregory I (590–604), the Roman Mass rite underwent many changes, including a "complete recasting of the Canon" (a term that in this context means the Anaphora or Eucharistic Prayer). At the time of Gregory I, regional customisation of liturgies were encouraged in missionary areas: according to Bede Gregory instructed Augustine of Canterbury to select "any customs in the Roman or the Gaulish Church or any other Church which may be more pleasing to Almighty God", and to teach them to the church of the English. In Gaul, the Merovingian period in (approx. 500-750) has been called "the experimental age of liturgy," with the propers constructed freely: according to historian Yitzhak Hen "each bishop, abbot or priest was free to choose the prayers he found suitable." Cross-pollenation and recycling of liturgical prayers was common, as priests and bishops took sacramentaries (manuscripts of liturgical prayers) between regions, and new prayers were composed. Numerous regional styles of chant thrived, including Old Roman chant, Gallican chant, Ambrosian chant (still in use) and Beneventan chant. Following Gregory I came substantial changes in what became known as Gregorian chant. In the eighth century the Meringovian dynasty had been replaced by the Carolingians in Frankish Gaul. In the late eighth century, Pepin the Short ordered the Roman chant be used throughout his domains. However, some elements of the preceding Gallican rites were fused with it north of the Alps, and the resulting mixed rite was introduced into Rome under the influence of the emperors who succeeded Charlemagne. Gallican influence is responsible for the introduction into the Roman rite of dramatic and symbolic ceremonies such as the blessing of candles, ashes, palms, and much of the Holy Week ritual. During the Carolingian period, the language diverged with Latin going back to its classical forms and the vernacular recognized as separate tongues. Consequently, the Council of Tours (813) mandated that sermons be given in the Romance or Teutonic vernacular. The chants and musical settings of the Mass were divided into The major difference between the various rites or uses was not the basic structure or components of the ordinary parts of the liturgy, but of different arrangements, selection and allocation of prayers on different days, as well as mention of regionally-popular saints, and different rubrics.

Late Middle Ages

Towards the end of the first millennium, organ, previously a secular instrument, was introduced as did more complicated singing of components of the Mass by choirs. Important liturgies might be preceded, followed or interrupted by elaborate processions with songs, dramatic rituals involving props, and acted plays or tableau, with the laity trained to understand the symbolism. In several locations, the story of the Three Magi would be enacted by three costumed men who would follow a star through the church, search at various locations, until finding the altar, while singing the Gospel alternatively and polyphonically. The recitation of the Credo (Nicene Creed) after the Gospel is attributed to the influence of Emperor Henry II. Gallican influence explains the practice of incensing persons, introduced in the eleventh or twelfth century; "before that time incense was burned only during processions (the entrance and Gospel procession)". Private prayers for the priest to say before Communion were another novelty. About the thirteenth century, an elaborate ritual and additional prayers of French origin were added to the Offertory: previously, the only prayer said by the priest was the Secret; these prayers varied considerably until fixed by Pope Pius V in 1570. The rites had some differences in the prayers on the boundaries of the Mass: Pre-Tridentine prayers said mostly in the sacristy or during the procession to the altar as part of the priest's preparation were formalized in the 1570 missal of Pope Pius V as the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar; prayers that followed the Ite missa est changed or changed position (for example, in the 1570 edition, the Canticle of the Three Young Men and Psalm 150 in Pius V's edition the priest was to say while leaving the altar were later omitted.)

Renaissance

Between 1478 and 1501, the bishops of 52 dioceses, including the primates of France, Castile, England, the Holy Roman Empire and Poland each independently published, in print, official liturgical texts for their diocese, because of the extent of parish and monastery variation. In some places, this involved stripping variations back to the Cathedral's missal; however in others it involved adding material for new saints, offices and customs. From 1474 until Pope Pius V's 1570 text, there were at least 14 different printed editions that purported to present the text of the Mass as celebrated in Rome, rather than elsewhere, and which therefore were published under the title of "Roman Missal" (.) These were produced in Milan, Venice, Paris and Lyon. Even these show variations. Local Missals, such as the Parisian Missal, of which at least 16 printed editions appeared between 1481 and 1738, showed more important differences. The Milanese Roman Missal of 1474, which reproduces the Papal Chapel missal of the late 1200s, "hardly differs at all" from the initial Tridentine missal promulgated in 1570, apart from local feasts.

Other rites

Apart from the Roman rite, before 1570 many other liturgical rites were in use, not only in the East, but also in the West. Some Latin liturgical rites, such as the Mozarabic Rite, were unrelated to the Roman Rite which Pope Pius V revised and ordered to be adopted generally, and even areas that had accepted the Roman rite had introduced changes and additions. As a result, every ecclesiastical province and almost every diocese had its local use, such as the Use of Sarum, the Use of York and the Use of Hereford in England. In France, there were strong traces of the Gallican Rite. With the exception of the relatively few places where no form of the Roman Rite had ever been adopted, the Canon of the Mass remained generally uniform, but the prayers in the "Ordo Missae", and still more the "Proprium Sanctorum" and the "Proprium de Tempore", varied widely.

Languages

In most countries, the language used for celebrating Pre-Tridentine Masses was Latin, which had become the language of the Roman liturgy in the late 4th century. However, there have been exceptions: At various times there were calls for the prayers of the Mass to be in the vernacular, such as by Erasmus.

Legacy

The Pre-Tridentine Mass survived post-Trent in some Anglican and Lutheran areas with some local modification from the basic Roman rite until the time when worship switched to the vernacular. Dates of switching to the vernacular, in whole or in part, varied widely by location. In some Lutheran areas this took three hundred years, as choral liturgies were sung by schoolchildren who were learning Latin.

Vernacular and laity in the medieval and Reformation eras

Historian Virginia Reinburg has noted that the medieval eucharistic liturgy as experienced by (French) lay people, and shown in their prayer books, was a distinct experience from that of the clergy and the clerical missal. "'What the lay prayer books reveal—and missals do not—is the pre-Reformation mass as a ritual drama in which the priests and the congregation had distinct, but equally necessary parts to play.'"

Setting

In the Carolingian period, the Mass was increasingly performed as sacred drama, with the people as active participants not passive spectators: Archbishop Amalarius of Metz (c.830) was accused of imparting "theatrical elements and stage mannerisms" to the Frankish liturgy. The medieval lay experience was often highly sensory: churches featured chanting and singing, bells, high-tech organs, incense, busy paintings, brilliant robes, rare colours, shiny utensils, clouds of saints and angels, and stained-glass light, not to mention the taste of the host, the splashing of baptism, or even, perhaps, the feel of the silk of the priest's violet stole in absolution. Some larger churches even had articulated puppet/statues to delight and inspire the congregation. By the Renaissance, churches were full of depictions in art of biblical and hagiographical people and events to illustrate notable days in the church calendar; cathedrals could have artwork on a monumental scale: for example Luca Signorelli and Fra Angelico's frescoes in Orvieto Cathedral are based around the liturgy for the Feast of All Saints. In Northern Europe, such art rarely survived the iconoclasm of the Protestant Reformation.

Lay experience

The priests and deacons attended to the ceremony in the chancel or side altar: "'For the priest, the most important important parts of the mass would be scripture readings, offertory of bread and wine, consecration, and priest's communion.'" The laity enjoyed the ceremony from the nave: "For the lay congregation, however, the mass was a series of collective devotions and ritual actions; the most important elements would be the Gospel, prône ('bidding prayers', see below), offertory procession, and distribution of the pain bénit at the end of the mass.[…]The laity's mass was less sacrifice and sacrament than a communal rite of greeting, sharing, giving, receiving and making peace.'" Lay prayer-books, for the educated middle and upper classes, not only gave the communal actions of the liturgy, but provided almost an unofficial parallel liturgy of silent prayers and devotions for the laity to perform in between and in preparation for the actions. "'For the congregation, which would not have heard the sacred words 'This is my body', the elevation was the emotional climax of the mass. It was also the focus of popular liturgical devotion. Virtually no lay books actually explain the consecration… the doctrine of transubstantiation.[…]Yet the ritual of the elevation was intended to express the real presence of Christ on the altar.'" Notable parts of the lay experience of the liturgy (especially the Sunday Mass) included: "If any priest says he cannot preach (i.e. give composed or extemporized vernacular sermons), one remedy is: resign; [...] Another remedy, if he does not want that, is: record (i.e., recollect or write out) he in the week the naked text of the Sunday's gospel, that he understands the gross story, and tell it to the people, that is if he understands Latin and does it every week of the year. And if he understands no Latin, go he to one of his neighbours that understands, which will charitably expound it to him, and thus edify he his flock[...]" There are few records about the liturgy in remote, rural areas.

Comparison of the Mass, c. 200 to c. 2000 AD

This table is indicative. Depending on calendar, occasion, participants, region and period, some parts might be augmented or commented on (tropes) or removed or rearranged or varied from standard forms. The specific collects, readings, sequences, psalms, saints, blessings, and performance instructions (or rubrics), similarly vary. The Canon of the Mass (the key section with consecration and elevation) had less textual variation in the West, and often was the standard Roman Canon. Such local variants are called Uses (of a Rite) when relatively minor, or a new Rite when relatively major, and typically reflect the living practice at a cathedral, whose liturgical books might then be copied by other dioceses. Mixing was common: a cathedral might adopt the Liturgy from one Rite, but keep its traditional Rubrics, Sequences etc., and use the Psalms or Calendar of some other rite. Over time, the parts may be grouped or re-named to reflect the contemporary theological or pastoral priorities, but were typically known by the first words of the Latin of the prayer. For example, the Ambrosian Rite has different prayers, prefaces, readings, calendar and vestments to the Roman Rite. It omits the Agnus Dei. The Gesture of Peace occurs before the Offertory. Note: Below, "Gifts" primarily means the unconsecrated bread, wine and water.

Western Catholic

Eastern Catholic

Sources