ed by the Apostles and their contemporaries, was simply to break the bread intended for distribution, to repeat the words used by our Saviour at the institution of the Holy Supper', and to add the Lord's prayer. In process of time, as the Church enlarged her borders, and a mixed multitude gladly listened to her voice, it became the general opinion, that if the Communion service were judiciously augmented, it would be rendered more beneficial to Christian congregations, constituted as they then were. Hence pastors accompanied the Eucharistic feast with prayers, thanksgivings, exhortations, and the reading of

St. Matt. xxvi. 26, 27. 1 Cor. xi. 23, 24, 25.

"Gregorius M. lib. 8. ep. 7. testatur, nude et simpliciter juxta Christi institutionem ab Apostolis Cœnam administratam fuisse, adjecta solummodo Oratione Dominica. Mos, inquit, Apostolorum fuit, ut ad ipsam solummodo Orationem Dominicam oblationis hostiam consecrarent. Habet hoc absque dubio ex Hieronymo, qui lib. 3. contra Pelagianos dicit, Dominum docuisse Apostolos, ut Orationem Dominicam dicerent super sacrificio corporis. Hinc etiam Durandus scripsit lib. 4. Dominum instituisse quidem Conam; nec aliis verbis usum esse quam consecrationis; quibus Apostoli adjecerint Orationem Dominicam. Atque hoc modo idem author refert D. Petrum primum in Oriente missam celebrasse. Adstipulatur etiam his Antoninus tit. 5. cap. 2. 1. Chronicon Martini et aliorum. Platina etiam in vita Sixti 1. dicit Orationem Dominicam præmisisse: Nuda, inquit, ab initio fuit sacrosanctæ illius actionis omnis ceremoniarum ratio, plus pietatis habens quam apparatus. Apostolus enim Petrus in consecratione Cœnæ tantummodo Oratione Dominica usus est, et paucissimis quibusdam preculis. Et Innocentius III. in prologo librorum 6. mysteriorum Missæ, Primus, inquit, B. Petrus Apostolus missam Antiochiæ dicitur celebrasse, in qua tres tantum orationes in primordio nascentis Ecclesiæ dicebantur." Hospinian, 13.

passages selected from Scripture. These additions, however, were not prescribed by any paramount authority, but were left to the discretion of such as governed particular churches'. At length, in order to bring about uniformity in the Christian assemblies, and to prevent the needless increase of liturgical offices, some of the earlier Bishops of Rome undertook the task of compiling a complete service, partly from the materials which were already in use, and partly from compositions of their own. The last considerable undertaking of this kind was accomplished towards the close of the sixth century, by Gregory the Great ". Of his compilation chiefly, is the Communion-service, or mass ", as Romanists have long exclusively termed that office, which has been since generally used in the Papal Church. It must not, however, be supposed that the mass has descended to modern times exactly as Gregory left it; for such is not the fact. Since his days this service has been interpolated, and has been augmented by various

1 Ibid. 21.

"Orationum varii fuerunt doctores; quarum numerus et varietas in tantum excrescebat, quod octavum Africanum concilium constituit, ut nullæ preces, vel orationes, vel missæ, vel præfationes, vel commendationes, vel manuum impositiones dicantur, nisi in concilio fuerint approbatæ. Et Gelasius Papa tam a se quam ab aliis compositas preces dicitur ordinasse. Beatus Gregorius, seclusis his quæ nimia vel incongrua videbantur, rationabilia coadunavit, congrua multa nihilominus per se necessaria superaddens." Durandi Rationale, 44.

"For the origin of this word, see Hist. Ref. under King Henry VIII. I. 322.

rubrics prescribing what may be designated as the pantomime of the mass. By the bowings, crossings, kissings, finger-washings, and other such contemptible ceremonies enjoined in these multitudinous rubrics, the whole service is rendered to the eyes of an ignorant Romish worshipper, highly superstitious and idolatrous. On the other hand a Protestant spectator unless captivated by fine music, and gaudy decorations, can seldom look upon those things without an invincible feeling of their frivolity and absurdity. Mass has not been celebrated in all places exactly as Gregory, or his successors have enjoined. On the contrary, before the Reformation, different churches owning the papal supremacy, used missals of their own. Of all these, however, the groundwork was the Roman missal which claims for its original compiler, Gregory the Great. In this service are discernible two principal divisions, answering to the mass of the catechumens, and the mass of the faithful, in the primitive Church. The catechumens were persons under a course of religious instruction previous to baptism, and to them the liberty of being present at the holy Communion, even as spectators, was denied. Accordingly, when a Christian congregation had reached that part of the church-service at which the faithful were preparing to communicate, a deacon proclaimed aloud, "Those that are cate

chumens, go out." It was not until after this order had been obeyed, that the Communionservice, or mass of the faithful, began among the early Christians. In the Roman mass, all that part which reaches to the offertory corresponds to the primitive mass of the catechumens, the rest of the service, to that of the faithful. The first part of the Roman mass is composed of the following members: an invocation of the Trinity : the forty-third Psalm : a general confession of his own sins made by the priest not only to the omniscient God, but also to the archangel Michael, to the Virgin Mary, to St. John the Baptist, to the Apostles, to all the other dead persons indiscriminately, who have been canonised at Rome, and to the congregation present; this the priest concludes by requesting the prayers for himself, of the archangel, of the various persons deceased either named, or generally described as saints, and of the people present: a prayer for the priest's absolution offered by the choir, and a similar one offered by himself for his own pardon, as well as for that of the congregation: some short sentences; a prayer that both priest and people may be pardoned, and may deserve to enter into the holy of holies for Christ's sake: a prayer for the priest's own par

4 Ibid. 282.

"Aufer a nobis, Domine, quæsumus, omnes iniquitates nostras: ut sancta sanctorum puris mentibus mereamur introire." Portiforium seu Breviarium ad usum Ecclesiæ Sariburiensis. Lond. 1555.

don, through the merits of the saints': some short devotional sentences in Greek: the angelic hymn: the collect for the day: the epistle for the day the gradual, or responsory, consisting of short, devotional sentences: the gospel for the

• This prayer, which is to be recited in a low tone of voice, does not appear in the Breviary cited above. That book, however, is said in the title-page to be "castigatum," and therefore, it seems not unlikely, that, having been published in Queen Mary's reign, when men had learnt from King Edward's Reformers to doubt the powers of saintly merit, a prayer so offensive to scriptural Christians was politicly expunged. The following is this omitted piece. "Oramus te, Domine, ut per merita sanctorum tuorum, quorum reliquiæ hic sunt," (some relics are always placed in altars) "et omnium sanctorum, indulgere, digneris mihi omnia peccata mea. Amen." Missale ad SS. Rom.

Eccl. us. Paris, 1529. f. 118.

* "Lord have mercy upon us," &c.

"Glory to God in the highest," &c. (St. Luke ii. 14.) together with the additions which may be seen, in the hymn thus beginning, towards the close of the English Communion-service. Of this beautiful hymn, "the latter part is, by Hugo de St. Victor, lib. 2. said to be composed by St. Hilary, Bishop of Poictiers, but by Rabanus Maurus, who lived two hundred years before the said Hugo, it is ascribed to Telesphorus, about the year of Christ 139. Certain it is, that it was added by the Ecclesiastical doctors, as we are informed by the fourth council of Toledo, celebrated about one thousand years ago." Comber's Companion to the Temple, Lond. 1688. p. 160.

"These prayers are called the Gradual, because it was sung when the deacon went up the steps or stairs of the pulpit for to read, as Rhenanus upon Tertullian saith." Du Moulin's Mass, Lond. 1641. p. 250.

"Responsoria ab Italis manasse, eoque nomine appellata, quod, uno canente, chorus consona voce respondeat, prodidit Isid. lib. 6." Durant. de Rit. Cath. Eccl. 337.