The Mass Before the Council of Trent?

[GoodTony]

The Mass was changed by the Council of Trent and Vatican II. Does anyone know what composed the Mass before the Council of Trent?

 

[blackrobe]

The Mass was changed by the Council of Trent and Vatican II. Does anyone know what composed the Mass before the Council of Trent?

I lack the knowledge and competence to fully answer your question but I offer a couple of observations. One of the intents of Trent was to standardize the form of the Mass since many local rites had arisen. Most of these forms were quite similar to the Extraordinary Form of today. Even so, Trent “grandfathered” any rites which had been celebrated for a certain number of years, a number in the hundreds. The Mass that was established as the “norm” was developed under the supervision of Pope Pius V after the council. It remained essentially unchanged until the advent of the Novus Ordo under Paul VI
[edited]

Also, keep in mind that when we say “the Mass” we are talking about twenty-some forms all equally valid. Since we Latin Rite Catholics are in the majority we tend to think and act as if there were no Eastern Catholics with their own [more ancient] rites. Even the Latin Rite has several variant forms.

I hope others will correct my account with respect to any errors of fact. I will not be engaging in any debate on these matters.

AMDG
blackrobe

 

[Matthew_Holford]

The Mass was changed by the Council of Trent and Vatican II. Does anyone know what composed the Mass before the Council of Trent?

In a way similar to now. Rome was still responsible for the Roman Rite. Other dioceses that had their own rite, or arguably their own use, e.g. Salisbury in England, were responsible for their own rites too. Similarly, those religious orders with their own rites were the “composers” of their rites. The Council of Trent reduced the number of non-Roman rites in the Latin Catholic Church. Trent only allowed rites to continue if they could show they’d been in continuous use for 200 years prior to Trent.

 

[drforjc]

A reasonably understandable summary would be Adrian Fortescue’s “The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy.” Fortescue traces the Roman Rite from the New Testament through the early 20th century.

 

[Chatter163]

The last gospel was added to the Order of Mass in the 1570 missal. Other than that the Mass at Rome was as it was in the Tridentine missal. Local variations and rites disappeared from that point, except for authorized exceptions, such as in Milan (Ambrosian rite) and Toledo (Mozaribic rite).

 

[ProVobis]

Hope this helps.

ecclesiadei.nl/docs/timeline.html

 

[japhy]

Generally speaking, the Roman Rite of 1570 was very much like the Roman Rite of 1560.

 

[liturgyluver]

The Mass was changed by the Council of Trent and Vatican II. Does anyone know what composed the Mass before the Council of Trent?

There were many rites in existance prior to Trent. George Guiver’s book Vision upon Vision is a very readable account of the rites in use, their development and the significant differences that exisited across Europe, and how the Roman Rite came to dominate.

If you want to go back to the really early Church, try Paul Bradshaw’s book Eucharistic Origins.

 

[jimrob]

How far back do you want to go? The earliest extant version of a liturgical Eucharistic service is the Liturgy of St John of Jerusalem, still used by Greek speaking Orthodox Churches and Byzantine Rites of the Catholic Church on special occasions. If you’re good at Koine Greek, you’ll find much of it is familiar.

It is believed that the Church in Rome used a Latin liturgy from the earliest times although it wasn’t until St Damasus in the 4th century that we acquired a ceremony that we would recognise as Mass. After that, there were a lot of regional variations - mostly from additions. The most common form used in England during the Middle Ages was Sarum Rite - which could take up to 4 hours. The Mass we received from the Council of Trent was designed to standardise Mass throughout the Latin Church, but it wasn’t a major departure from what went before. It was more a pruning exercise to determine what was the Mass and what were ancillary celebrations (such as Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament) that could be left out or held separately.

 

[ProVobis]

The Mass we received from the Council of Trent was designed to standardise Mass throughout the Latin Church, but it wasn’t a major departure from what went before. It was more a pruning exercise to determine what was the Mass and what were ancillary celebrations (such as Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament) that could be left out or held separately.

This is my understanding too. The non-verbal rubrics and the Latin were to be standardized throughout the Latin Church, with some spot exceptions.

There was a further clarification of this in Quo Primum where Pope Pius V abrogated all liturgies created after 1370 AD.

 

[Jordan_Rizk]

How far back do you want to go? The earliest extant version of a liturgical Eucharistic service is the Liturgy of St John of Jerusalem, still used by Greek speaking Orthodox Churches and Byzantine Rites of the Catholic Church on special occasions. If you’re good at Koine Greek, you’ll find much of it is familiar.

It is believed that the Church in Rome used a Latin liturgy from the earliest times although it wasn’t until St Damasus in the 4th century that we acquired a ceremony that we would recognise as Mass. After that, there were a lot of regional variations - mostly from additions. The most common form used in England during the Middle Ages was Sarum Rite - which could take up to 4 hours. The Mass we received from the Council of Trent was designed to standardise Mass throughout the Latin Church, but it wasn’t a major departure from what went before. It was more a pruning exercise to determine what was the Mass and what were ancillary celebrations (such as Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament) that could be left out or held separately.

The earliest version of a liturgical Eucharistic service is the Divine Liturgy of St James and is still in continuous use by the Syriac Orthodox Church, Syrian Catholic Church, Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, Maronite Church, and Malankara Orthodox Church.

 

[Chatter163]

This thread is nearly two years old.