Origin and Meaninr) of the Word. — "The first names given to the administration of the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ," says Walcott (s. v.), "were the Breaking of Bread (Acts xx, 0,7), the Lord's Supper (1 Cor. ii, 20), or Communion (1 Cor. x, 18). It was also called, by way of eminence, the mystery, the sacrament, the oblation or prosphora, the sacrifice, Dominicum (the Lord's), agenda (the action), synais and coUecta (the assembly), the solemnities, the service, the supplication, the mystical or divine Eucharist or eulogy (the thanks- giving), the office, the spectacle, the consecration, the unbloody sacrifice, the supper, the table, the latria (wor- ship), the universal canon ; and, by the Greeks, also the hierurgia (sacred action), and the good by excellence, metalepsis (the communion), in the Apostolical Canons. These terms served either to explain to the faithful the meaning of the service, or, in times of persecution, to conceal its real nature from the profane and persecutors. In Acts xiii, 2, it is spoken of as the liturgy."
The term Mass is ancient, having been used by Cle- ment I, Alexander, Telesphorus, Soter, and Felix (cir. 100-27o). In a letter of St. Ambrose to his sister Mar- cellina (of the 4th centurj'), we have this passage : "Ego mansi in munere, missam facere coepi, dum oifers, rap- tum cognovi" {Ep. xxxiii). Its origin and use, howev- er, have given much trouble. There are at present three principal derivations of the word : (1.) From the Anglo- Saxon vuese, a feast, in which sense the word is of more ancient date than the Eucharist. It seems proba- ble that the ancient word is embodied in such names as Christ;«3«, Michaelwrfs, Martin?;j(M ,- but it is very doubtful whether the suffix, as thus used, has any refer- ence at all to the holy Eucharist, and it is much more probable that the coincidence of the Anglo-Saxon word iox feast, with mass and missa, the holy Eucharist, is pure- ly accidental. (2.) From the Hebrew il&p, missah', which signifies an oblation, as in Deut. xvi, 10. This derivation would tend to show an association between the original idea of the Eucharist and the oblations of the .Jewish ritual ; but it is extremely improbable that the Jewish word should have found its way into every language of Europe, and yet be entirely absent from the liturgical vocabulary of the Oriental churches. (3.) From the "Ite, inissa est" of the ancient liturgies of the West, which was equivalent to the 'Ev dpnvy Xpiarov 7roptiOw/(f )', " Let us de]iart in peace," of the Greek litur- gies. But the words "Ite, missa est," have two senses given to them by ancient writers ; thus, in Micrologus, it is said, "In festivis diebus 'Ite, missa est' dicitur, quia tunc generalis conventns celebrari solet, qui per hujus- modi denuntiationem licentiam discendi accipere solet" (Microloy. xlvi). St. Tliomas Aquinas, on the other hand, explains the phrase as meaning that the sacrifice of the Eucharist has been sent up to God by the admin- istration of angels (Thomas Aquinas, iii, qu. 83, art. iv). Both these meanings are combined in a very ancient exposition of the mass, printed by Hittorpius : " Tunc demuui a diacona dicitur, Ite, missa est, id est, Ite cum
pace in domus vestras, quia transmissa est pro vobis ora- tio ad dominum ; et per angelos, qui nuncii dicunter, allata est in divinte conspectum majestatis" (Expos. Miss, ex vetitst. cod. in Ilittorp. p, 587).
The proper technical sense of the word undoubtedly is the one in which it is employed by the early Church • — that of " offering" or " oblation," which, as we have seen above, are ancient names for the Lord's Supper. In such a sense the English Church used the word, and it thus occurs in the first vernacular litiurgy of the Church of England (A.D. 1549) : "The Supper of the Lord, and the holy Communion, commonly called the Mass." Indeed it was only abandoned by the Anglican clergy when it was found that Eomanists attached to the word mass a perverted sense. It was first dropped in the revised Prayer-book of 1552. In Germany the Reformers hesitated not to protest against the accusa- tion that they opposed mass. Thus, e. g., the Augsburg Confession " protests agamst any notion that it abolishes mass" (comp. Schott, Auyshuryische Confession, p. 137, 141). The doctrine of the mass, as interpreted by Ro- man Catholics, presupposes the Eucharist, and involves the notion of a sacrifice. On the latter point hinges the controversy between Romanists and Protestants : the question being whether it is a positive sacrifice, renew- ed at every celebration, or only a solemn feast on a sac- rifice once offered by Jesus Christ ; whether Christ in body and blood is absolutely and corporally, or only spiritually and really present in the elements. See Real Pkesence ; Teansubstantiation.
By primitive use, the communion of the faithful ap- pears always, unless in exceptional cases, to have form- ed part of the Eucharistic service ; but afterwards it came to pass that the officiating priest only communi- cated, whence arose, especially in the Western Clnirch, the practice of " private masses," which has been in later times a ground of complaint with dissentients from Rome — even those who in other respects approach close- ly to the Roman doctrine. In the ancient writers a distinction is made between the " mass of the catechu- mens" and the " mass of the faithful ;" the former in- cluding all the preparatory prayers, the latter all that directly regards the consecration of the elements and the communion, at which the " discipline of the secret" forbade the presence of the catechumens. With the cessation of this discipline the distinction of names has ceased, but the distinction of parts is still preserved, the mass of the catechumens comprising all the first part of the mass as far as the " preface."