(The following was first printed in the 10/98 Nordic Saga of the Barony of Northkeep, Kingdom of Ansteorra)

The Plain FAQS

by Berengaria Ravencroft (Berengaria@hotmail.com)

"A rough, unordered mass of things."

         I would like to apologize for how this month's column comes out,  but I haven't gotten any questions from people, and so I was a bit out of pocket  with what to do about it.  I asked and most of the research staff said that I ought to go ahead and write about whatever I wanted to write about.  After a bit of thought, the part of my staff that suggested I just blow off this month's column did mention that there was going to be a Latin service offered for educational purposes in conjunction with a demo the Barony was doing this weekend, and that since many people in the SCA come from a Protestant background, some of the details might not be as clear.  So I asked for more on this, and soon found myself with a 50 page research synopsis on the meanings of ritual in the Latin Mass, and how the modern mass is different from the mass in the Middle Ages.  What follows is an abridgment of that thesis.  I hope I've got the major points and left out any dogma that might offend anyone.  If anyone is offended, or thinks I might have left stuff out, please write me and say so.
        The modern Catholic service is traditionally called the Mass, from the Latin term missa, or the celebration of the Lord's Supper.  This ritual recreation of the Last Supper of Jesus Christ is also known as Holy Communion and the Eucharist, and is a main focus of most kinds of Christian wordship.  The Tridentine Mass is the modern form of the Latin Mass as established by the Council of Trent (1545-1563), and decreed by Pope Pius V, in 1570.  It remained the unalterable form of the service until the Second Vatican Council in 1963.  The Council of Trent was one of the Roman Church's responses to the Protestant Reformation, and was a symbol of the Counter-Reformation within the Church.
        The Mass consists of two basic parts - the Mass of  the Catachumens (or the part of the service that traditionally anyone could attend) and the Mass of the Faithful (which, again traditionally, only baptised Christians could attend).  The altar is faced away from the Congregation.
        The Mass of the Catacumens began with Introductory Prayers, followed by the Introit, or Entrance prayer  proper to the feast day, or the occasion. The Kyrie is asking all three parts of the Trinity for mercy.  The Gloria is a hymn of  praise and thanksgiving to the Trinity.  The Collect is the gathering up of the prayers for the Congregation into a single prayer (the holding up of the hands is how the Prophets in the Old Testament were told to pray).  The Epistle is a meaningful item from the New Testament (read while "holding on" to the teachings).  The Gradual, or Intermediary Verses, are sung in preparation to reading the Gospel.  The Gospel, often read from a different corner than the Epistle, is something from the actual words of Jesus Christ, and is accompanied by a lot of crossing and bowing.  The Creed is the basic statement of what is believed as set down by the Council of Nicea in 325.
        At this point the Mass of the Faithful begins with the Offertory marked by a Verse and the Offering of the Bread, then the Wine (the water and the wine mixed refer to the mixed Divine and Human natures of  Jesus).  The Priest then offers himself as the representative of the faithful who are offering their sacrifices (usually today, this is of money).  He then invokes the Holy Spirit and purifies himself by washing his hands and offering a Prayer, and then leads in to the Canon of the Mass.  It is in the Canon that the Priest transforms the Bread and the Wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and is the center point to the whole ceremony (There's a lot more involved here, including the Priest momentarily becoming the personification of Jesus Christ).  After the Canon is the Communion, beginning with the Lords Prayer, followed by the breaking of the Bread, some more prayers to prepare first the Priest and the Faithful for the Communion.   This Communion  begins with the Confiteor, or confession and absolution by the Priest.  The Priest then gives the consecrated Bread to the Faithful while blessing them (under normal circumstances in this form of service, the Faithful only receive one form, not both, of the Corporal, or the Body of Christ).  This is followed by a Thanksgiving, some closing prayers, and then the closing Gospel describing the Mystery of Incarnation from the Gospel of John.  And then, unless there is further business, you can go home.
        So, still with me?  The Medieval Church, as much as they were supposed to have been so hot on liturgical uniformity, didn't have one single standard service.  They had a number of them that were similar, but were different in some details from one another.  Different areas had their own "Uses".  One of the more popular was the Use of Sarum (or Salisbury), which was used in most of England south of York, and in a few places throughout the Continent.  Even so, individual churches might have differences in usage as well.  It was in part to deal with this lack of uniformity that both the Council of Trent and the English Protestant Book of Common Prayer came about.

Some suggested readings:
 Bailey, Terence.  The Processions of Sarum and the Western Church.  Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1971.
 The Traditional Latin Roman Catholic Mass.  Trans. Father Gommar A. De Pauw, J.C.D.  New York:  Catholic Traditionalist Movement, 1977.

If you have any questions about things that interest you, please send them to me, either directly, or by way of  the Chronicler. 1