MISSALE ROMANUM

                          by Joseph Pope

If ever a tome were incorrectly and inappropriately named, it must be
that which these days is all too often referred to as the Tridentine
Missal. It will be the object of this article to show that the Latin
rite used for the celebration of the Mass by those members of the
Catholic Church who come under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate
of the West, which rite had its use severely diminished in 1969 by
Pope Paul VI, was not formed or brought into use by a decree of the
Council of Trent.

While the missal generally in use today is quite properly called the
Roman Missal, that name, or perhaps <Missale Romanum> (M.R.), is
actually the proper name for the missal which had been in general use
for a great deal longer than the four hundred odd years that elapsed
between Pope Saint Pius V's decree of July 14th, 1570 and Pope Paul
VI's decree of 1969.

The decree of Pope Saint Pius V was not drafted to impose a new rite
on Latin Christianity as did the decree of Paul VI.

Its main purpose was to bring about conformity by insisting that a
very old rite would henceforth be used in uniform fashion throughout
the Western Church. Before the Council of Trent the M.R., while
actually in use throughout the Western Church, had been adapted in
various ways to suit the uses of different dioceses and different
religious orders. With the advent of printing in the second half of
the fifteenth century, these numerous adaptations found their way
into print, so that by the first half of the sixteenth century
printed missals could be found for the uses of the dioceses of Paris,
Lyons, Le Mans, Salisbury, Milan, Venice, Wurzburg, and Tournai to
name just a few.  Then for the religious orders missals had been
printed for the use of Benedictines, Carmelites, Carthusians,
Cistercians, Dominicans, and Premonstratensians. There was even a
missal for the use of the abbey of Monte Cassino itself. Admittedly
it differed only slightly from the one for general Benedictine use.
According to the catalogue of Weale and Bohatta there were all of 208
differing missals, all M.R.'s of course, for the use of various
dioceses and even towns, quite apart from at least 32 for the use of
various religious orders and congregations. The Benedictines rather
outdid things in having different uses for 13 of their abbeys. Of
course the printers had a wonderful time of things, creating as they
did any number of differing missals by the substituting of title
pages onto books that did not always differ that much one from the
other.

This lack of uniformity was not appropriate to the spirit of the
Counter Reformation; it bordered rather on the chaotic. Accordingly
Pope Saint Pius V by his decree of 1570 attempted to change chaos to
order by declaring that the missal <secundum consuetudinem Romanae
Curiae> was to be used throughout the Western Church. That it was not
a new missal at all was made clear enough by the use of the word
<restitutum> on the title page. He did allow exceptions for those
places which could claim having had a particular use for at least two
hundred years. Some did make such a claim. The Dominicans for
instance kept their use until the advent of the Paul VI missal.
Paris kept its until the French Revolution.

We see then that to call the missal of the use of Rome the Pius V or
Tridentine Missal is to ignore for instance that on September 16th,
1549 Pope Paul III authorized the use of virtually the same missal
<secundum usum sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae>. One has only to compare at
random the prayers for any Sunday of the year to find that they are
identical. It is also to ignore that since 1570 the M.R. has
undergone numerous revisions, quite minor however in nature, none of
which changed the propers of time.  The first of these took place in
1604 during the reign of Clement VIII. One can say then to those who
like to use the term Tridentine that quite unwittingly and ironically
they are referring to a missal that enjoyed a rather short life of
some thirty-four years, as it was in authorized use only from July
14, 1570 to July 7, 1604. Other revisions that followed were those of
Urban VIII in 1634, Leo XIII in 1884, Pius XII in 1955, and even John
XXIII who is remembered for having arranged that due honour be paid
to St.  Joseph during the canon. It makes as much sense then to call
M.R. the missal of John XXIII as it does to call it the missal of
Pius V.

Missal dates back to c.1025

Now this missal of John XXIII (M.R.) goes back a very long time
indeed. Recently this writer was accorded the very high and special
privilege of being allowed to examine in depth over a period of many
weeks a missal written on parchment c.1025 in the very scriptorium at
Tours which was founded by Alcuin himself c.795. Its shelf-mark is
Bergendal MS 46.

Unfortunately, as well might be expected for a manuscript codex
nearly one thousand years old, this Tours missal is not complete. Not
a page nor a folio is to be found for the canon. As for the Proper of
Time while it does run from the First Sunday in Advent to the 25th
Sunday after Pentecost, there is a gap from Low Sunday up to and
including the Third Sunday after Pentecost. As for the Proper of
Saints it starts with December 26th, the Feast of Saint Stephen, and
runs with no gap to August 28th, the Feast of Saint Augustine.
Missing then are the feasts for all of September, October, November,
and most of December.

For those who imagine that the M.R. originated in 1570 with Saint
Pius V it will be quite a surprise then for them to learn of the very
great similarities that are to be found between missals used in the
first part of the twentieth century and those that were used in the
first part of the eleventh century. To choose for example practically
at random the Wednesday of the Second Week in Lent we find that all
the prayers from the Propers are the same in each case namely:

Introit: Ne derelinquas me Domine Deus . . .  Psalm 37 Collect:
Populum tuum, quaesumus Domine. . .  Epistle: Book of Esther IV 17
Gradual: Salvum fac populum tuum . . . Psalm 27 Gospel: St. Matthew
XX 17-28 Offertory: Ad te Domine levavi animam . . . Psalm 24 Secret:
Hostias Domine quas tibi . . .  Communion: Justus Dominus et
justitiam . . . Psalm 10 Postcommunion: Sumptis Domine sacramentis .
.
Prayer over the People: Deus innocentiae restitutor . . .

In the present Roman Missal of Paul VI only the introit for this
Lenten Wednesday has not been changed, but these days it is rarely
used given that the entrance hymn is now <ad libitum> of the pastor
of the place if used at all. For the Masses after Pentecost certain
inconsistencies in the Epistles and Gospels are to be noted between
Bergendal MS 46 and M.R. However bearing in mind that we are dealing
here with a missal prepared in all likelihood for the use of the
Abbey of Saint Julian in Tours (to judge for one thing by the litany
for Holy Saturday) a reference to any early sixteenth century printed
M.R. for the use of either Tours or Le Mans quite resolves the
problem.

Our eleventh century Propers for Sundays after Pentecost are
identical with those used in Tours until that place conformed to the
standardization ordered by Saint Pius V.

A point of interest is that in the eleventh century there were ferial
Masses for most of the Wednesdays in the weeks after Pentecost. This
is a relic of the times in the Church's early history when fasts were
practised on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays to replace the Jewish
fasts of Mondays and Thursdays. The ember days during one week in
each of the four seasons, which were abrogated a generation ago, were
the last vestige of this admirable practice.

Of course knowledgeable liturgists are aware that the M.R., as used
in the Latin rite in the first half of the twentieth century, did not
originate with St. Pius V in 1570, but had been in use for centuries
previous to that date. There is general agreement that prior to the
development of a book known as missal that there were three books
used at Mass, that is, for the celebrant himself there was the
sacramentary containing collects, secrets, prefaces, the canon, and
postcommunions, for the deacon there was the lectionary containing
the epistles and gospels, and lastly the gradual or antiphonary for
the parts sung by the choir, being the introits, graduals, sequences,
offertories, and communions.

There is no general agreement among students of the liturgy as to
when the three books were combined. Some suggest that this did not
happen until well into the thirteenth century. Those holding to this
view point to the fact that the missal of the Roman Curia as reformed
by Innocent III was adopted by the newly established Franciscan order
and propagated by them throughout most of Europe. Later this Curia
missal as used by Franciscans was imposed on the diocese of Rome in
1277 by Nicholas III.

It is not easy to find agreement on this matter as manuscript
witnesses of any missal for the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth
centuries are so very rare. It would appear that on the evidence of
Bergendal MS 46 those who hold to a thirteenth century date for the
merging of the three liturgical books into the missal may have to
acknowledge that they are out in their reckoning of things by some
two hundred years at least. What seems the safest opinion is that
throughout the eleventh century both missals and sacramentaries were
used for the celebration of Mass but that from the beginning of the
twelfth century missals more and more quite replaced sacramentaries.

That missal done for use in Tours can be dated on script and other
internal evidence as having been written c. 1025. As has been
explained it contains complete propers with introits, collects,
epistles, graduals, sequences, gospels, offertories, secrets,
communions, and postcommunions. A point of considerable additional
interest for students of music is that it contains as well the
earliest form known of mediaeval music notation expressed in neumes
without staff for those parts derived from the gradual.

In the bibliography of things liturgical over the past three hundred
years no mention is to be found, in any book written by a competent
authority, of the existence of this codex. It had lain unsold for
several years on the shelves of a second hand book dealer until it
was discovered in 1983 by the present curator of the little-known
Bergendal Collection. One may opine that in time it will be
recognized as being of considerable significance and interest to
students of the development of the liturgy in general and the M.R. in
particular. At the same time the codex is not without interest for
students of both palaeography and musical notation. In this latter
respect it is similar in many ways to the manuscript of a gradual
done in Toulouse c 1050 and known now as MS Harleian 4951 in the
British Library.

Bergendal MS 46 is a witness then to the fact that the sacramentary,
lectionary, and antiphonary had been merged into the M.R. by the very
beginning of the eleventh century in at least some places. As for the
prayers and Mass formularies themselves there is general agreement
that they go back possibly to the time of Saint Gregory the Great,
who reigned towards the end of the sixth century.

These things are not easy to determine as so few early missals or
sacramentaries remain in existence. They were subject to much wear
and use. In the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana there exists a very
early one known as <Sacramentarium Gelasianum> or in English the
Gelasian Sacramentary. It is named after Pope St. Gelasius I
(492-496) who composed many of its propers. There is general
agreement that it was written c.740 in northern France. It is also
accepted that it was a copy of a sacramentary from the fifth or sixth
century. It is famous and of great importance for being the most
ancient and the most complete manuscript of the oldest sacramentary.
It is known by its shelf mark of <Reginensis latinus> 316. If, when
in Rome, one asks politely of the present Prefect of the Vatican
Library, who is a most obliging, patient, and kind Dominican priest
from Ireland, one stands just a chance of being allowed to examine
it, even if one is lacking the usually necessary qualification of
being acknowledged as a doctoral student engaged in research or else
at the very least of being a curator from a recognized library.
Points of similarity between it and the M.R. are the Collect for Palm
Sunday on folio 51r, the Collect for the Feast of Saint Thomas
Apostle on folio 162v, and the Collect for the Feast of the Holy
Innocents on folio 10r. The canon from the <Te igitur> through to the
<Pater Noster> and <Libera nos quaesumus Domine> to the <Pax Domini
sit semper vobiscum> are virtually identical to the same prayers in
the M.R. Accordingly those celebrants who choose to recite a canon
other than the Roman Canon, or first eucharistic prayer, are
abandoning then a tradition going back some fifteen hundred years at
least. Then too one can find in it most of the Collects, Secrets, and
Postcommunions running from the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost to the
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost as are found in M.R.

In the solemn prayers for Good Friday, in the Gelasian Sacramentary,
one reads "<Oremus et pro Christianissimo imperatore nostro ut Deus
omnipotens subditas illi faciat omnes barbaras nationes ad nostram
perpetuam pacem.>" This prayer is found unchanged in sacramentary
after sacramentary and missal after missal, including Bergendal MS
46, until well into the nineteenth century. Apparently by the turn of
the twentieth century it was felt no longer appropriate to pray that
savage peoples for the sake of peace and good order become subject to
a most Christian Emperor, and that possibly because a most Christian
Emperor had become a pretty hard thing to find by then anyway.

Bergendal MS 46 is a true missal combining as it does the prayers
from the sacramentary, the lectionary, and the gradual. It is an
important documentary witness to two facts. The first is that the
missal as such came into use quite a bit earlier than has been
recognized by many writers on the subject. The second is that our
M.R. of John XXIII goes back at least one thousand years, and not
just to 1570, given the virtual complete similarity to be found
between readings and prayers printed around 1965 and those of the
Bergendal MS 46 written around 1025.

It remains to be determined how far back into time one can find
examples of such extraordinary similarity. The lack of manuscript
witnesses does not help one find an answer. This writer does not know
of the existence of a complete missal done during the first
millenium. Then there is the virtual impossibility of finding a
sacramentary, a lectionary, and a gradual all written at about the
same time during either the ninth or tenth centuries. Some are
tempted to suggest that the prayers of the M.R. reached their
definite form at the time of the reform of the liturgy during the
reign of Gregory the Great (590-604). While quite possibly so, it
could well prove rash to succumb to the temptation as the earliest
copy known of a Gregorian Sacramentary dates from c.800.  One would
actually be on firmer ground in suggesting that the Sacramentary
which resulted from the reforms instigated by Charlemagne and Alcuin
in the years 801-804 is the first one to have prayers virtually
identical to the ones used during the times of both Saint Pius V and
John XXIII.

We know that Charlemagne (768-814) was anxious that uniformity
prevail throughout his kingdom in the matter of liturgy. To this end
he prevailed on Pope Adrian I (772- 795) to send him a copy of the
<Sacramentarium Gregorianum>, which owed its origin to the reforms of
Gregory the Great (590-604). It seems that Alcuin (735-804) modified
it and ensured its use throughout the Frankish Kingdom. Precision is
difficult on this point as some authorities hold that the
modifications were done actually by Saint Benedict of Aniane
(750-821). Then by the tenth century this modified Gregorian
Sacramentary had returned, as it were, to Rome and became the one
used throughout the West.

The existence of the Gelasian Sacramentary proves the Mass for many
centuries prior to 800 was very similar in form but tended to differ
from M.R. in choice of prayers and readings. Even at that, as has
been shown, many of the propers adopted by Alcuin had been in use two
or three hundred years earlier.

What can be said with relative certainty is that the M.R. as used
during the reign of John XXIII had taken its form as a complete
missal by the turn of the second millenium.  There is general
agreement that the very same prayers were in use from 800 AD to 1000
AD but were to be found in sacramentaries, lectionaries, and graduals
rather than in missals. In other words over a period of one thousand
two hundred years the ordinary and propers of the Mass hardly
suffered the slightest change. We can say too that the canon as we
know it was used in the fifth century and that many propers of Time
and propers of saints used in the middle of the twentieth century
were also used in the fifth century. What is intriguing is that the
Roman Canon has come down to us unchanged from the very earliest
times of Christianity of which we have the slightest liturgical
record.

One is allowed to wonder whether or not the composers of the Paul VI
Roman Missal truly realized the extent of the tradition they were
throwing overboard when they put together the prayers of the Mass now
in general use in the Latin rite. It was an unbroken tradition of
about twelve hundred years of use of virtually identical prayers and
a tradition of more than 1,500 years of use of any number of prayers
and readings that were unchanged during all that time.

Fortunately the M.R. of Saint Leo III, Saint Pius V, and John XXIII
is still with us as its use was never entirely abrogated. During the
reign of Paul VI it is true that its use was restricted to priests
whose advanced age made it difficult for them to adapt to anything
new. However during the reign of John Paul II its use has been
increased considerably.  In law, if not in practice, its use should
be available to one and all. There is no reason why one can not
contemplate this renewed use increasing rather than not. A tradition
of one and a half millenia is not one to be given up lightly.

A liturgical calendar has been pre pared which shows all the saints'
days as found in Bergendal MS 46. It bears a striking resemblance to
the calendar that was used during the reign of Pope John XXIII.
Naturally enough those who have been canonized in relatively recent
times such as St. Anthony of Padua (1232), St. Thomas Aquinas (1323),
and St. Pius V (1712) are not to be found in it. However many old
favorites such as Saints Sixtus, Lawrence, Stephen, Mathias,
Barnabas, Agnes, and Agatha are there in full holy force. May those
martyrs from the dawn of Christianity pray for us.

This article appeared in the March 1995 issue of "The Homiletic &
Pastoral Review," 86 Riverside Dr., New York, N.Y. 10024,
212-799-2600, $24.00 per year.

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