In the celebration of mass the priest wears peculiar vestments, five in number — two of linen, called "amice" and " alb ;" and three of silk or precious stuffs, called " maniple." " stole," and " chasuble," the alb being girt with a cincture of flaxen or silken cord. The color of these vestments varies with the occasion, five colors be- ing employed on different occasions — white, red, green, purple or violet, and black ; and they are often richly embroidered with silk or thread of the precious metals, and occasionally with precious stones. The priest is required to celebrate the mass fasting, and, unless by special dispensation, is only permitted to offer it once in the day, except on Christmas day, when three masses may be celebrated.
In the Greek and Oriental churches, the Eucharistic service, called in Greek Thna Leilonrr/ia (The Divine Liturgy), differs in the order of its parts, in the wording of most of its prayers, and in its accompanying ceremo- nial, from the mass of the Latin Church [see Liturgy] ; but the only differences which have any importance as bearing iqion doctrine, are their use of leavened bread instead of unleavened ; their more frequent celebration of the " jMass of the Presanctified," to which reference has already been made ; the Latin use of private mass- es, in which the priest alone communicates ; and, in gen- eral, the much more frequent celebration of the mass in the Latin Church. The sacred vestments, too, of the Greek and Eastern rites differ notably from those of the
Latin ; and in some of the former — as, for example, the Armenian — a veil is drawn before the altar during that part of the service in which the consecration takes place, which is only withdrav;n at the time of the communion. The service sometimes used on shipboard, and improp- erly called Missa Sicca (Dry IVIass), consists simply of the reading of the prayers of the mass, but without any consecration of the elements. It was resorted to with a view to avoiding the danger of spilling the sacred ele- ments, owing to the unsteady motion of the ship. It is sometimes also called Missa Nautica (Ship Mass). (For detailed information on the practices of the Riisso-Greek Church, see John Glen King, Rites and Cei-emonies of the Greek Church in Russia [London, 1772, 4to]. For the Eastern Church generally, see Neale, Eastern Church: Introduction,')
Frequency of tlie Mass. — "At first," says Walcott (p. 366), "celebration occurred only on Sundays (1 Cor. xvi, 1) ; and in the time of Justin jMartyr, after the 2d cen- tury, the Western Christians communicated on Sundays, and Wednesdays, and Fridays. In the 4th century the Greek Church added Saturday ; now it maintains daily celebration. St. Augustine says that the practice dif- fered in various countries; in some celebration was daily, in others on Saturdays and Sundays, but in some on Sunday only ; the daily celebration was practiced in Af- rica, Spain, and at Constantinople ; in the 6th century it was general. St. Ambrose mentions three celebrations in the week, St. Francis one daily mass at Rome. After the 5th century priests were allowed on certain days, called PolyUturgic, to celebrate twice. Pope Deusde- dit first enjoined a second mass in a day; vUexander I permitted a priest to celebrate only once a day ; Leo IV forbade private masses, but still there were several fes- tivals besides Christmas when the priest said mass three times in a day ; Leo III sometimes celebrated seven or eight times in twelve hours, and it was not untU the close of the 11th century that Alexander III directed that the same priest shoidd say no more than one mass on the same day, Christmas excepted. The Council of Seligenstadt forbade a priest to exceed saying more than three masses in a day. From the 6th century these repeated masses said by some priest may be dated, when private masses were not in common use, and were permitted (as St. Leo says) in order to satisfy the need of crowds of communicants, and he calls it a form of tradition from the fathers. At length, when the press- ure no longer existed in the 8th centmy, there were four masses at Christmas, two on the Circumcision, and three on SS. Peter and Paul's day, and on IMaundy- Thursday. In France every priest was allowed to say two masses a day in Holy Week. Three masses were said on St. John Baptist's day : one in the eve, in com- memoration of his being the Lord's messenger ; a second on his feast, in memorial of the baptism in the Jordan ; and the third because he was a Nazarite from his birth. In 1222, in England, mass might be said by a priest twice on the same day, at Christmas, Easter, and in the offices of the dead. The three Christmas masses were in hon- or of Christ, as the only-begotten of the Father, his spiritual birth in Christians, and his nativity of a wom- an. A restriction by the Council of Autun (613) was in force until the 10th century, against celebration by a priest at the same altar twice in one day, or where pon- tifical mass had been said. Priests who celebrated more than once collected all the ablutions of their fingers in one chalice, and the contents being emptied into a cup, were drank at the last mass by a deacon, clerk, or lay- man in a state of grace or innocent. The day when no mass was offered,"except that of the Mass of the Pre- sanctified, was called a liturgic. The Holy Commu- nion was celebrated at first at night, or, as Pliny says, before daybreak, and Tcrtullian calls the meeting the Night Convocation, or that before light. Put in time the Church prescribed the mass to be said in tierce of festivals, but always after tierce in England in 1322 ; on common days at sexts ; in Lent and on fasts at nones,