Catholic mass in medieval times

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You will note that @adamhovey1988 has directed you to the Catholic Encyclopedia Web site article on the Sarum Rite. I would further that and encourage you to do research in to the Sarum Rite. There is a lot of material available on the Internet about this rite. Of course, the period in which your book is set pre-dates the Council of Trent and there were many local rites. Sarum was one of the most widespread rites in England. You should note that it was not the only one. Bangor, Hereford and York are not infrequently cited. However, Sarum is the one on which you will find the most information. There have also been several attempts to get revive use of the Sarum Rite again even if only on an irregular basis.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
almost no one receives Holy Communion. In medieval times, the vast majority of people received very infrequently, and only when their confessor decided they were holy enough to receive, which was not often.
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I wonder if this was true in all places… throughout the Middle Ages? Or if infrequency was more characteristic of a later period, for instance during Jansenism?

Martin Luther, after the Medieval period, demanded the chalice be offered to the Laity, as well, but I don’t think he noted infrequency of Communion.

I have mixed feelings about frequency. I think St Pius X was responding to one culture in Europe, a tendency to focus in the supernatural in that sacrament and the fact we feel unworthy (with good reason).

I wonder if he had lived in today’s culture, where anyone who takes the trouble to drive 20 minutes to Mass feels entitled. The idea that there ever are times when a given person should refrain from receiving is almost totally lost. How would he respond to the 2019 situation?

The earliest sermon I remember, about 1955, was a priest urging people to come up for Communion more often. This was just a few decades after St Pius, and back then trends happened slower.
 
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TomH1 said:
There have also been several attempts to get revive use of the Sarum Rite again even if only on an irregular basis.
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I wouldn’t mind having the Sarum Rite back for occasional use, for historic value.
Of course I would not want Sarum Rite for my every Mass, any more than I want every Mass I attend to be a TLM.
 
commenter said:
I wonder if this was true in all places… throughout the Middle Ages ? Or if infrequency was more characteristic of a later period, for instance during Jansenism?
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My understanding is that the restrictions on receiving Communion began around the 600s and just continued for about 1000 years. Jansenism began around the 1600s so the decline in Holy Communion was not something that sprang from Jansenism.
Here is a representative source - it’s not the only one as I have read about this in several different books as part of understanding better the First Fridays devotion which I practice.

https://www.biblia.work/dictionaries/communionfrequency-of-reception-of/
commenter said:
The earliest sermon I remember, about 1955, was a priest urging people to come up for Communion more often. This was just a few decades after St Pius, and back then trends happened slower.
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As the article explains, the idea of frequently receiving Communion at Mass only started to be pushed again in the 20th century. Probably in 1955 there would have been Catholics in the pews who were born before 1900 or in the early 1900s, and thus were more used to the old way of refraining from Communion a lot.

I don’t like the idea of people seeing Communion as an entitlement either, but at most Masses I attend I see at least a few people sitting in the pews, and at some Masses I attend (TLM, Spanish language) there are a lot of people sitting in the pews. Unfortunately we always hear about the people who are insisting on trooping up to Communion no matter what and never hear about the people who stay in the pew without too much heartburn.
 
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FaithFox said:
I am a writer who like to write Christian fantasy novels and i had a question. How did Catholic masses work in medieval times?
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No pews. People were standing or kneeling. No sitting.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
I wouldn’t mind having the Sarum Rite back for occasional use, for historic value.
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Could it be done in the USA? The Sarum Rite was the rite of Salisbury and adopted by some English dioceses without their own. I’ve heard of difficulties of its use here in its homeland. Therefore, I don’t know whether it could be celebrated across the pond. You may have to make a long haul flight to attend one. Another good reason to make it occasional 😄
 
TheMortenBay said:
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Irishmom2:
I am glad it is not like that anymore.
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Why? I don’t see how getting rid of 1500+ years of tradition is an improvement…
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I think your math and methodology is off…

The Gospels weren’t even fully completed until about 100 A.D…

Christianity had to be practiced on the sly up until Constantine gave it the okay around 300AD, and the Council of Nicea didnt really set down the creed until around the same time.

St Jerome didn’t complete the vulgate until around 400AD.

Plainchant wasnt standardized until the late 9th century.

And so on…

The development of the liturgy was always a continual process of improvement…
 
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I am not sure whether the Ordinariate might possibly be able to get permission for such a thing. Or whether they’d even have any interest in doing so.
They would be the group most likely to do it though.
 
I think there are several rites to consider. Also, here’s one point about that in light of the ordinary form, according to Pope Benedict XVI, from

“Prior to Trent a multiplicity of rites and liturgies had been allowed within the Church. The Fathers of Trent took the liturgy of the city of Rome and prescribed it for the whole Church; they only retained those Western liturgies which had existed for more than two hundred years. This is what happened, for instance, with the Ambrosian rite of the Diocese of Milan. If it would foster devotion in many believers and encourage respect for piety of particular Catholic groups, I would personally support a return to the ancient situation, i.e. to a certain liturgical pluralism.”
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Yes, that would probably be the route. If it happens inform me and see if you get send me sponsored tickets to get there 😆
 
TheMortenBay said:
I like the separation of for example an altar rail. Good with a physical representation between the sanctum sanctorum and the earthly realm.
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There does seem to be a slow returning of altar rails. I hope it continues and grows in frequency. Over these last several decades we have lost the understanding of the holiness of the sanctuary. People trample through it like it’s just another room with nothing special about it. The altar rail helped to remind people that when entering the sanctuary they are entering somewhere holy.
 
TheMortenBay said:
The Tridentine Mass was however not something that was invented in the 1500s, it was primarily a unification, where most of the Church were now supposed to celebrate the Roman Rite.
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The Latinization of the western churches 🤣😱🤣

Prior to Trent, the Mas was anything but uniform in the west. I’ve seen guesstimates of about half of the west using the form of the church Rome.

The eastern liturgies were in use in some places, the vernacular in some, local liturgies in some . . .
 
It’s certainly a tragic loss, but there was more to it at the time than just Luther.

There were abuses (although not quite on the level Luther claimed), and there were others before Luther.

Even had Luther somehow been provided with modern psychiatric care, a huge blowup was inevitable. Luther wasn’t even the first along his general lines . . .

but, again, such a loss of so much tradition. When you look at the variety in the East, and realize that there may well have been more in the west . . . . so much lost . . .
 
commenter said:
The idea that there ever are times when a given person should refrain from receiving is almost totally lost.
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The casual reception of the Eucharist is the heart of today’s problems. All of them.

When I returned to the Church after 10 years of blasphemy, sacrilege, atheism, and other sins, I refrained from taking the Eucharist until I had convalidated my marriage and made a long confession. It hurt, that time waiting to receive communion.
 
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There is nothing wrong with frequent reception of Communion. What is wrong is unprepared reception of Communion.

There were a lot of medieval people who did desire frequent Communion, and who therefore joined lay third orders, or other prayer sodalities. This allowed them to prepare more often, go to Confession more, do good works more, amend faults and do reparations more, and so on.

Early Christians took a lot sterner view of sins than we usually do. Their frequent reception of the Eucharist demanded this.

We modern people are the odd ones out.
 
There is one think that I don’t think the video of renaction of the medieval mass up shows.

Medieval churches had often (or usually? commonly?) wall paintings that had been recovered after, in the Modern Times, following the Trent Council. The things evoluated slowly, so the counter reformation made decades or centuries to be applied everywhere.

The colors and design probably evolved around the times.
Roman art churches
In what centuries do you wants your novel to be?

Wooden and stone statues where commonly painted. Cistercian abbey could been less sober.

Many churches had colored stained glass windows.

You have to imagine churches with colors, not white ones.

And makes your own serious historical studies before writting something close to historical novels, it is very very important!

an exemple
http://medieval.mrugala.net/Roman/L'art%20Roman%20(L'Histoire%20N°320,%20mai%202007).htm
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A 15th century mural
http://www.sudmayenne.com/decouvrir/patrimoine/lart-sacre
 
There was a church that had one built recently too(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
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