The history of the Roman Catholic Mass: Part III

(This is part three of a series of articles on the history of the Roman Catholic Mass.)

In 476 A.D., the Germanic king Odoacer overthrew Romulus, the last Roman emperor in the West. This ended the 1,000 years of the Roman Empire rule of Western Europe. With the Fall of Rome, Western Europe became fragmented. Local dialects began to develop into the modern European languages; however, the church retained Latin in the liturgy to signify church unity. Among all the faithful, Latin was spoken less and less in the homes and on the streets.
                                Medieval reformer Pope Gregory VII

Clovus I, the first Frankish king to unite all the Frankish tribes, was baptized in 496 A.D. He later defeated the Arian Visigoths and established Roman Catholicism as the religion of the Frankish states. In 768 A.D., Charlemagne became the Frankish king and was crowned the first Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 800 A.D. Charlemagne united most of Western Europe for the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire, and he attempted to unify the liturgy. The Roman rite adapted certain features from the Gallican rite. The Hadrianum was a product of this effort, so they named this Sacramentary after Pope Hadrian I (pope from 772-795 A.D.).

Otto I became the Holy Roman Emperor in 962 A.D., and he introduced the Mainz Pontifical to Rome. The Roman rite became ever more influenced with Franco-Germanic customs. The procession on Palm Sunday, the foot washing on Holy Thursday, and the veneration of the Cross on Good Friday were all introduced in the liturgies of Holy Week.

The Frankish rites emphasized the mystical side of the liturgy. They introduced the use of incense and the observance of silence during the Eucharistic Prayer. They made several changes during the reception of holy Communion such as the use of unleavened bread, kneeling when receiving holy Communion, and receiving Our Lord on the tongue. They also introduced the practice of distributing Communion with one species (the Host without the Precious Blood).

In 1054 A.D., the Great Schism occurred when the Western Church in Rome and the Eastern Church in Constantinople separated. Pope St. Gregory VII (pope from 1073-1085 A.D.) sought to reform the church and to secure its autonomy against civil rulers. Gregory undertook liturgical reform and affirmed the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. He suppressed the Mozaribic and Celtic rites and promulgated the Roman rite.

From 1100 up to the mid-1500's, there were ups and downs in the history of the church. The Golden Age of Revival in the 12th and 13th centuries produced cultural advances like monastic education and Gothic architecture in the churches. In the 14th century, a period of decline existed in which seven popes resided in Avignon (1309-1376) rather than in Rome.

The Mendicant Orders, particularly the Dominicans and Franciscans, traveled around preaching and celebrating the Eucharist carrying with them their liturgical practices and supplies as they traveled. In the same period, there was the development of Private Masses such as Votive Masses that priests offered for various private intentions, Requiem Masses for the dead and Monastic Masses. These Masses became the norm instead of the regular Roman standard Mass.

In the Private Masses, the priest used a missal that contained everything necessary for the celebration of the Mass. In addition, the priest did everything including the readings. The people merely attended and observed. As a result, the offertory procession was removed in the Private Mass and the bread was no longer baked and brought in by the people. Seeing the host was more important than receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus; monetary donations replaced the offering of bread, and the altar was connected to the apse instead of freestanding altars. The Rood Screen was introduced to divide the choir from the nave.

(Father Wilmer Todd is a retired priest of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux.)