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The Extraordinary Form of the Mass Explained
by Fr Richard Whinder
All booklets are published thanks to the generous support of the members of the Catholic Truth Society
CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY PUBLISHERS TO THE HOLY SEE
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Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 The Context of Summorum Pontificum . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 The Historical Development of the Mass . . . . . . . . . . .14 An Outline of the Extraordinary Form . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 The Introit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 The Prayers of Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 The Kyrie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 The Gloria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 The Collect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 The Epistle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Gradual, Alleluia, Tract, Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 The Gospel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 The Homily and Creed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 The Offertory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 The Secret . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 The Preface and Sanctus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 The Canon of the Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 The Lord’s Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 The Fraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Agnus Dei and Rite of ‘Pax’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 Holy Communion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 The Communion verse and Postcommunion . . . . . . . .39 The Dismissal and Blessing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 The Last Gospel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 Some suggestions for further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
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Introduction The Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum is a short document but an important one. It has some profound implications for the way in which we understand and celebrate Catholic liturgy. The text of Summorum Pontificum is published separately by the CTS, and deserves to be read in full. In this short booklet, which has been inspired by the appearance of the Motu Proprio, we aim to do three things. Firstly, to place Summorum Pontificum in its historical context and explain the motivations which produced it. Secondly, to offer a brief history of the Mass, so that those attending the Extraordinary Form can have some idea of its development over the centuries. Lastly, we offer a short commentary on the structure of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, which may help those attending this liturgy for the first time. Obviously there are far larger and more detailed books which can be studied by those who wish, and we offer some suggestions for further reading at the end.
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The Context of Summorum Pontificum ‘Let us generously open our hearts and make room for everything that the faith itself allows’ On 7th July 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued a document ‘motu proprio’, (‘on his own initiative’) entitled Summorum Pontificum. The effect of this document was to enable far wider use of the traditional liturgy of the Church, as codified by the Council of Trent and celebrated up until the reforms following the Second Vatican Council (1962 - 1965). The Pope’s document has generated a wide variety of responses. On the one hand, it has been greeted with joy by some. Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, President of the Ecclesia Dei Commission which has the job of applying Summorum Pontificum, has described the document as ‘a gift from God’.1 Others, however, as Pope Benedict himself noted in his Letter to the Bishops of the World which accompanied the Motu Proprio, have responded negatively, and even ‘with harsh opposition’. It has been suggested that the Pope is turning his back on the reforms of Vatican II - though to anyone who has read the Pope’s many works referring to the Council this is clearly unthinkable, and has no basis whatsoever in Summorum Pontificum itself, nor
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elsewhere. It is not a question of rejecting any good that has come out of Vatican II - rather, it is a question of preserving the heritage of the Church alongside those reforms, and in the Pope’s own phrase ‘making room for everything that the faith itself allows’. ‘The fruit of prayer’ What was the Holy Father intending to achieve in his Motu Proprio? He himself describes it as ‘the fruit of much reflection, numerous consultations and prayer’. Clearly, it was not an action lightly undertaken. By carefully reading both Summorum Pontificum itself and the letter accompanying it, and by referring to writing and statements of Joseph Ratzinger both before and after his Papal election, it is possible to discern the motivations which have inspired him to undertake this initiative at the present time, as we shall now attempt to show. A ‘liturgical’ Pope Firstly, we must realise that Pope Benedict XVI has an instinctive love and reverence for the sacred liturgy that goes back many years. This is not to say that he is a ‘professional’ liturgist - quite a different thing - but simply that he responds at a very deep personal level to the riches of the Church’s worship and that it has formed him both as a believer and a theologian. He himself has said ‘the inexhaustible reality of the Catholic liturgy has
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accompanied me through all the phases of life’, and in his book of memoirs, Milestones2, he testifies particularly to the effect the liturgy had on him as a child and a young man, doing much to inspire in him his priestly vocation. Growing up in the dark days of the 1930s and ’40s in Germany, the future Pope observed the way in which Catholic culture - the product in no small part of Catholic liturgy - was able to offer a genuine alternative to the poisonous doctrines of Nazism, and proved resilient enough to survive the Nazi period intact. This concern for authentically Catholic culture - and the role of the liturgy in fostering that - is one to which we shall return. For now, let us add that the Pope’s deep instinctive love for the liturgy has always made him sensitive to abuses in worship, and cautious about the value of sweeping changes and wholesale reforms. Certain aspects of the renewal in worship after Vatican II have been consistently applauded by him. For instance, he has often spoken about the value of having the Scripture readings proclaimed in the vernacular, and indeed Summorum Pontificum makes explicit provision for this possibility in the Extraordinary Form as well. However, other aspects of the changes have sometimes worried him. Speaking broadly, we can say that there were two impulses driving the liturgical reforms after Vatican II. One was concerned to return the Church’s liturgy to a more pristine state, to allow the oldest traditions to shine again through
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centuries of accretion and decadence. Another impulse was to adapt the liturgy to the conditions of the modern world, to make worship more relevant to the contemporary believer (or indeed, non-believer). Both these concerns have their good aspects, but they can be dangerous if pushed too far. In a book he wrote as Cardinal, The Spirit of the Liturgy, the future Pope compared the liturgy to an ancient and beautiful fresco. Once covered with layers of whitewash, but at least preserved from harm, the fresco was now in danger of destruction from the very people who claimed to love it: the liturgical ‘experts’ were like insensitive restorers, who with their harsh chemicals and extravagant theories were tampering with something they had not fully understood while at the same time exposing it to danger from ‘climatic conditions’, namely the secular, utilitarian ideologies of the modern world. There can be little doubt, reading his many published works, that Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Pope, had become increasingly concerned that the Catholic liturgy was in grave danger of suffering incalculable harm. Moreover, he declared that harm done to the liturgy would result in serious harm to the Church itself, and indeed, that damage had already been done. In 2001, at Fontgombault Abbey in France, Cardinal Ratzinger called together and participated in a liturgical conference at which he said the following: ‘What we previously knew only in theory has become for
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us a practical experience: the Church stands and falls with the liturgy’. And in another place he wrote: ‘I am convinced that the crisis in the Church we are experiencing today is to a large extent due to the disintegration of the liturgy’. There can be little doubt that the provisions of Summorum Pontificum are in large part a response to the Pope’s own sensitivities about the liturgy and the threat he sees it as facing. Healing and harmony As one who has himself been gravely concerned by the pace and direction of liturgical change, Joseph Ratzinger has naturally been sympathetic to others who share those anxieties. This is an experience he brings to the Papacy, and another motivation behind Summorum Pontificum. Indeed, he himself declares its importance. In the Letter to Bishops accompanying the Motu Proprio, he writes at some length about those people who remained attached to the traditional liturgy as celebrated before Vatican II. Some of these, following Archbishop Lefebvre, rejected all or many aspects of the Council itself, and were even prepared to separate themselves from the Church for the sake of the older liturgy. There were many others, however, ‘who clearly accepted the binding character of the Second Vatican Council, and were faithful to the Pope and the Bishops’ but who also wished to worship according to the older forms. In 1988, Pope John Paul II
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issued the Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei, which sought to draw the followers of Archbishop Lefebvre back into full communion, and to encourage others attached to the traditional liturgy, by making the older forms more readily available. Cardinal Ratzinger was heavily involved, both in the negotiations with Archbishop Lefebvre, and later, with providing for those who wanted to be in full communion with the Catholic Church. With this background it is not surprising that as Pope he has done everything possible to bring an end to this harmful division within the Church, and to bring about healing. In his Letter to Bishops he writes ‘Looking back over the past, to the divisions which in the course of centuries have rent the Body of Christ, one continually has the impression that, at the critical moments when divisions were coming about, not enough was done by the Church’s leaders to maintain or regain reconciliation and unity’. In the current situation, at least, Pope Benedict has truly opened his heart and arms to those whose attachment to the older liturgy has caused them to separate themselves from full communion, and has done his very best to bring harmony. Indeed, the provisions of Summorum Pontificum have been welcomed by the followers of Archbishop Lefebvre, the Society of St Pius X, but as yet they have not returned to the visible unity of the Church. It is certainly the Pope’s prayer that they will still do so.
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‘Interior reconciliation’ While Pope Benedict’s desire to heal division in the Church is undoubtedly an important factor behind Summorum Pontificum, it is certainly not the case that the Motu Proprio is only directed towards the Society of St Pius X and kindred groups - although some commentators may have given that impression. On the contrary, the text of the Papal documents themselves reveal a much wider intention. The Letter to Bishops, for instance, refers to ‘young persons too [who] have discovered this liturgical form, felt its attraction and found in it a form of encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist particularly suited to them’. The Motu Proprio is not solely directed at one group, but offered to everyone. To quote Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, cited earlier, ‘The Holy Father is willing to offer to all the people this possibility… so that everybody knows this way of celebrating the Eucharist in the Catholic Church.’ In the text of the Papal Letter, Pope Benedict says to the Bishops ‘the positive reason which motivated my decision to issue this Motu Proprio’ was the desire for ‘interior reconciliation in the heart of the Church’. This does not just refer to reconciliation with the Society of St Pius X but to something deeper. To understand what this is, we should look to an earlier Papal statement. Not long after his election, in an address to the Roman Curia in
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December 2005, Pope Benedict drew attention to two very different ways of interpreting Vatican II and the developments which followed it. On the one hand there is the ‘hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture’. This approach effectively suggests ‘a split between the preConciliar Church and the post-Conciliar Church’ as if they were two entirely different things. On the other hand, Pope Benedict praises what he calls a ‘hermeneutic of reform and continuity’, which affirms (together with all the Popes and the documents of the Magisterium) that there is a fundamental identity between the Church before Vatican II and the Church after it. As the Pope stated in his address, ‘the essential constitution of the Church comes from the Lord and was given to us so that we might attain to eternal life and, starting from this perspective, be able to illuminate life in time and time itself’. In the light of this ‘hermeneutic of reform and continuity’ Summorum Pontificum can be seen in its true significance. To quote the Pope’s Letter to Bishops once again: ‘In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress but no rupture. What earlier generations held as sacred remains great and sacred for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or considered harmful’. The virtual disappearance of the old liturgy after Vatican II (despite the fact that it was never officially abrogated, a point the Pope emphasises) was a powerful tool in the hands of those promoting a ‘hermeneutic of
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discontinuity and rupture’, suggesting some fundamental change in the Church’s concept of worship. By contrast, allowing the Extraordinary Form its proper place in the Church’s spectrum of worship underlines the unbroken continuity of Catholic liturgy. Indeed, a greater access to the Extraordinary Form will enable us to understand more clearly what true liturgy is, particularly if, as the Pope suggests, a greater familiarity with the older use influences the way the Ordinary Form is celebrated as well: ‘The two Forms of the usage of the Roman Rite can be mutually enriching… The celebration of Mass according to the Missal of Paul VI will be able to demonstrate, more powerfully than has been the case hitherto, the sacrality which attracts many people to the former usage’. ‘The power of love’ This brings us to the last and perhaps most important motivation behind Summorum Pontificum. It must not be thought that this Motu Proprio is some arcane or academic document, concerned with the minutiae of ceremony and ritual. Rather, it is a reflection of Pope Benedict’s own over-riding priority - to make Christ and his Gospel known in the world of today. He spoke of this on a trip to Brazil in May 2007, shortly before Summorum Pontificum was issued. He said on that occasion: ‘The Church does not engage in proselytism.
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Instead, she grows by ‘attraction’: just as Christ ‘draws all to himself’ by the power of his love, culminating in the sacrifice of the Cross’. The Pope is convinced that nothing is so ‘attractive’ in this sense as the power of the liturgy, above all the Mass, which in its essence is nothing other than the sacrifice of the Cross made present on the altars of the Church. We have spoken before of the Pope’s concern for an authentically Catholic culture, and of the place of the liturgy in making this possible. For many years, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger was on the front line of what Pope John Paul II termed a conflict between ‘the Gospel of life’ and ‘the culture of death’. Today, as Benedict XVI, he wishes the liturgy to shine forth in all its splendour, illuminating the truth of the Gospel and drawing the faithful ever closer to Christ, the source of all love. It is not a question of preferring one form of liturgy to another, but rather of throwing open the whole treasure-house of the Church’s heritage to a needy and hungry world, holding back nothing which might feed and save a hungry soul. In the words of the Pope’s own beautiful appeal: ‘Let us generously open our hearts and make room for everything that the faith itself allows’. That is an invitation addressed to us all.
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The Historical Development of the Mass ‘What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too.’ In Summorum Pontificum Pope Benedict does not only refer to the Mass. He allows clerics the use of the Breviary of 1962, and asks pastors to provide all the sacraments for the faithful ‘if the good of souls would seem to require it’. Nevertheless, the Mass is the summit of the Church’s liturgy, and is the service most frequently attended by Catholics, so it makes sense to concentrate on the Mass in this brief presentation. It must be obvious that what follows is in no way a thorough history of the Mass. Rather, it offers a brief sketch, which may help those discovering the Extraordinary Form to understand why it is celebrated in the way that it is. Origins of the Mass The first Mass was celebrated by Jesus at the Last Supper. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#1323) tells us: ‘At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Saviour instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice
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of the Cross throughout all ages until he should come again‌’ At the time of the Last Supper, the Apostles who were present could not fully understand the mystery they were witnessing. It was only later, after they had been instructed by the Risen Lord, and particularly after they had received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, that they could begin to comprehend the great gift which Christ had left them. From this time on, the Eucharist became part of Christian worship, as read in the Acts of the Apostles (Ac 2:42). From the very beginning, it was realised that this was no ordinary meal, but a sacred rite, in which the Sacrifice of Calvary was mysteriously made present. After all, the Last Supper itself was a ritual meal, its ceremonies carefully prescribed by centuries of Jewish law and custom. There was no question of Jesus and his friends simply meeting for a convivial dinner party. Likewise, in the early Church, a clear distinction was drawn between the Eucharist and other festive Christian gatherings. St Paul, writing to the believers in Corinth, (1 Co 11) rebukes them for obscuring this distinction, and carefully lays down the proper way in which the liturgy was to be celebrated. Roughly a century later, we have the first record of Mass as it was celebrated by the Church at Rome, c.150 AD. This is given to us by St Justin, a philosopher turned theologian, in his work the First Apology. Justin describes many elements which will remain constant throughout the
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history of the Church. The Mass is celebrated on Sunday: there are readings from the Old and New Testaments, followed by a homily. After Bidding Prayers and the Kiss of Peace, bread, and wine mixed with water are brought to the celebrant who offers them in a sacrificial prayer concluding with a doxology. Communion is given, and is taken by deacons to the sick. St Justin emphasises the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist: ‘For we do not receive them [the consecrated elements] as common bread and common drink, but as the flesh and blood of Jesus’. St Justin lived in a persecuted Church - and himself died a martyr. It was not to be expected that ceremony and ritual would flourish under such conditions. But the records we have of candlesticks, lamps and sacred vessels confiscated from house churches by the pagan authorities show that the Christians wished to use the best they had in the service of God. They were willing and ready to add magnificence to their celebrations when the opportunity arose. This became possible once Christianity was made legal in the 4th Century AD. Public places of worship could now be built, and were. An early description of such a church comes to us from the pen of Eusebius, one of the earliest historians of the Church. Writing in Books 8-10 of his Ecclesiastical History, he describes a church built shortly after Christianity was first tolerated. The donor of the church, he writes, ‘when he had thus completed the temple, provided it with lofty thrones in honour of those
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who preside, and in addition seats arranged in proper order throughout the whole building, and finally placed in the middle the holy of holies, the Altar, and that it might be inaccessible to the multitude, enclosed it with a wooden lattice-work, accurately wrought with artistic carving, presenting a wonderful sight to the beholder. And not even the pavement was neglected by him; for this too he adorned with beautiful marble of every variety…’ This picture of the church gives us a good impression of the solemn, dignified and increasingly elaborate way in which the early liturgy was carried out. While speaking about architecture, we may say a word about the position of the altar. In celebrations of the Extraordinary Form, it is often said that the celebrant ‘turns his back’ on the congregation while reciting the prayers of the Mass. In fact, this is a misunderstanding of a practice which goes back to the very earliest days of the Church. As historical research has shown us, the early Christians always preferred to face East when celebrating the Eucharist.3 This was because the East, the direction of the rising sun, was believed to be the place from which Christ would return at the Last Judgement. In many places, therefore, the altar itself was placed at the Eastern end of the church. The celebrant, when offering the Eucharistic Prayer, would stand in front of the altar, facing in the same direction as the whole of his flock and leading them in prayer. In other places, such as Rome, the altar
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was at the Western end of the church. The celebrant, in order to face East, stood behind the altar, facing down the church. It seems likely, however, that the congregation turned Eastward too for this part of the Mass - that would explain the deacon’s invitation ‘conversi ad Dominum’ (let us turn to the Lord) which we find placed before the Eucharistic Prayer in many of the ancient liturgies.4 In any case, the concept of ‘facing the people’ for the Eucharistic Prayer is a very modern one, and can have the unfortunate effect of placing too much emphasis on the celebrant. By contrast, when priest and people are all facing in the same direction for this prayer, as is invariably the case in the Extraordinary Form (and is an entirely legitimate practice in the Ordinary Form as well5) the ancient image of a Church turned towards its Saviour is preserved. The Age of St Gregory the Great Pope Gregory I, the Great, is singled out for special praise in Summorum Pontificum. He holds a special place in the history of the liturgy, because most scholars believe that it was during his pontificate that the Roman Rite crystallised in all its essential elements. What were those elements? We have already seen many of them in St Justin’s account. By St Gregory’s time, the basic components of the Mass can be described as follows. In the first part of the Mass (known as the ‘Mass of the Catechumens’ because it could be attending by those still preparing for baptism), we have
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the scripture readings, culminating in the solemn proclamation of the Gospel, followed by a homily. Chants such as the Introit, Kyrie and Gloria were added gradually. After this came the ‘Mass of the Faithful’, attended only by the baptised. This again followed the most ancient models. There was the offering of bread, and of wine mixed with water. Then the Eucharistic Prayer containing the Words of Consecration and concluding with a Doxology - by the time of St Gregory this had already assumed the form of the Roman Canon, still used exclusively in the Extraordinary Form (and retained as Eucharistic Prayer I in the Ordinary Form). Gregory the Great himself placed the ‘Our Father’ directly after the Canon, and also by this time the Kiss of Peace had moved to its current position just before Communion. Communion itself was preceded by the Fraction, or Breaking of Bread, which was done with considerable solemnity, and after Communion Mass concluded with the Dismissal (Ite, missa est). Again, this part of the Mass was gradually adorned with suitable chants, such as the Offertory and Communion verses (which like the Introit were invariably taken from Scripture) and the Agnus Dei, introduced by Pope Sergius, c.700 AD. We must add to the above the three very important prayers known as the ‘orations’ - the Collect, Secret and Post-Communion prayers. These prayers of the celebrant, which again owe their composition to this period (5th-7th Century) reflect
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the particular characteristics of the Roman Rite, a spirit summed up by Dom Fernand Cabrol as ‘simplicity, a certain austerity, and good sense’.6 A more modern writer has this to say: ‘In the orations we have the voice of the Roman Church, which adopted the heritage of the Roman Empire, transforming a universalism of Church and State into a spiritual universalism. Schooled by contact with the most brilliant examples of ancient rhetoric, the matter of the Church’s prayer is here shaped most elegantly into priceless forms… The Roman Church never showed herself more beautiful than in these orations, which are a school of sacred sentiment. They express the distinctive nature of the Catholic Church, her concern for the sinner, her cautious guidance of souls, her dependence on the treasury of grace with which she has been endowed, her hope that hardened hearts will eventually be softened.’7 The Extraordinary Form of the Mass has preserved many of these beautiful priestly prayers. It has also preserved all those ‘essential elements’ of the Rite outlined above, inherited from the time of St Justin and codified by St Gregory. Little wonder it has sometimes been dubbed ‘the Gregorian Rite’. Charlemagne and the Middle Ages Though the ‘spirit’ of the Roman Rite was fixed by the time of St Gregory, nevertheless the Mass continued to grow organically for many centuries. Gregory himself had
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great missionary zeal, and as the Roman Empire collapsed, so there were many new tribes to be converted to Christianity. It is interesting that although the Liturgy until this time had been celebrated in the vernacular (Aramaic, Greek, Latin etc) there never seems to have been a serious attempt to translate the Mass into the languages of these ‘new peoples’ of Europe. There were probably two reasons for this. Firstly, Latin, the language of Rome, could be seen as a unifying force on a divided continent. Secondly, it would have been very difficult to translate complex theological doctrines, worked out so laboriously at the Ecumenical Councils of the Church, into the languages and dialects of the newcomers. It has to be said that neither of these factors has diminished with time. One person who appreciated the value of Latin, and the Roman Rite, as a unifying force was Charlemagne, who was crowned Emperor of the West by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day 800. Although no man of culture himself (he could barely write his name) Charlemagne gathered around him a brilliant court of scholars, including the Englishman, Alcuin of York. Under their influence, the Roman Rite was introduced all over Charlemagne’s dominions, although embellished with additions from local ‘Gallican’ Rites. These tended to be rather more florid than the austere Roman prayers, but eventually the Romans came to accept them into their own Rite, and even welcome them as adornments. As well as more elaborate
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prayers, vestments, art, music and ceremonial all multiplied as well, and this process continued throughout the Middle Ages. Sometimes these new elements were a response to heresy - doubts cast on the reality of Transubstantiation inspired genuflection before the Blessed Sacrament, and the Elevation accompanied by torches and incense. Such inspiring and symbolic ceremonies also helped the illiterate and less educated to take part in the liturgy. Though it used to be commonplace to scoff at the piety of the Middle Ages, the work of Eamon Duffy8 and other revisionist scholars has shown this to be untenable. Though they might not be able to understand every word being uttered in the sanctuary, even the simplest of the faithful could be moved to open their hearts to the rhythm of the liturgy, and participate at the deepest level in the Sacrifice being offered. On the eve of the Reformation, the Roman Rite had spread its influence across the whole of Western Europe and into every area of life. Although different ‘uses’ of the Mass were celebrated from place to place - for example, the Sarum Use in England - these owed a great deal to the Roman Liturgy, and were often almost indistinguishable from it. Local customs flourished, yet the essential elements were never extinguished. A pilgrim could have travelled from Walsingham to Rome, from Paris to Santiago, attending Mass in every church, cathedral and chapel along the route, and yet in all of
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them he would have felt at home. Indeed, he would feel just as much at home if he attended a celebration of the Extraordinary Form today. The Reformation and the Council of Trent The Protestant Reformers - Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and so on - all rejected certain elements of the Catholic Faith. They likewise rejected the Catholic liturgy, in which the doctrines of that faith were expressed. Indeed, Protestantism might even be called an ‘anti-liturgical heresy’, in that the Protestant leaders had very little time for rites, ceremonies or prayers derived from the past. Turning their backs on the living Tradition, they devised their own, new services based on their own antiquarian researches, which frequently bore little or no resemblance to the authentic practices of the early Church. The worst aspect of this was that they downplayed the importance of the Eucharist, savagely attacking the doctrines of Sacrifice and Transubstantiation in the Mass, and, in most cases, celebrated the ‘Lord’s Supper’ only infrequently. The Church’s response to the Protestant challenge was the Council of Trent, which met for a considerable period between 1545 and 1563. While determined to defend the Church against her enemies, the bishops assembled at Trent were by no means closed to genuine reform. They knew that corruption and scandal were present in the religious orders; that the lower clergy could be ignorant
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and unchaste, and the higher clergy avaricious and worldly. Moreover, they accepted that there were genuine abuses present in the liturgy itself. With so many local customs allowed to flourish, problems inevitably arose. Saints were celebrated who had never existed; ceremonies sometimes owed more to pagan tradition than to genuine Christianity, and services grew so complex and prolix that they did little to foster piety. The answer, the Bishops decided, was to impose the ‘pure’ Roman Rite upon the whole of the Western Church, and to do away with local uses. Henceforth, one Missal would be used by everyone. However, with the prudence and generosity typical of the Catholic Church, the bishops also decided that any Rite which could prove itself more than 200 years old should be permitted to continue. This ‘Tridentine’ Missal was promulgated by Pope St Pius V in 1570. It is, in fact, virtually identical to the Missal approved for the City of Rome in 1474. As a recent scholar has written: ‘The Tridentine liturgical reform, initiated in order to correct abuse and ensure doctrinal orthodoxy, was thoroughly traditional. It produced nothing radically new’.9 The Fathers of Trent had succeeded in preserving the best from the past, while also equipping the Church for the future.
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From Trent to Vatican II In 1913, Fr Adrian Fortescue10 wrote as follows: ‘Our missal is still that of Pius V. We may be very thankful that his commission was so scrupulous to keep or restore the old Roman tradition. Essentially the Missal of Pius V is the Gregorian Sacramentary; that again is formed from the Gelasian Book, which depends upon the Leonine collection … So our Mass goes back, without essential change, to the age when it first developed out of the oldest Liturgy of all. It is still redolent of that Litrurgy, of the days when Caesar ruled the world and thought he could stamp out the faith of Christ, when our fathers met together before dawn and sang a hymn to Christ as to a God … there is not in Christendom another rite so ancient as ours.’ What Fortescue wrote is true. From the time of Trent onwards, there was never a wholesale reform of the Roman Rite until Vatican II. Of course, there were prayers added for newly canonised saints, and some new prefaces; certain Popes made other minor changes. Pius XII in 1955 made quite a radical change to the Holy Week services, removing many medieval elements. Nevertheless, the Missal itself remained virtually unchanged, and this was still the case in 1962, when Blessed John XXIII promulgated what is now recognised
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as the last typical edition of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. Following Vatican II, a wholesale reform of the liturgy did take place, and the Extraordinary Form, we must say, virtually disappeared. It was kept alive only by a handful of dedicated groups - such as the Latin Mass Society in England and the international Una Voce movement worldwide. Yet as Pope Benedict has reminded us, this form of Mass ‘was never juridically abrogated and consequently in principle was always permitted’. Summorum Pontificum has now created a juridical situation, and opens a new chapter in the history of the Mass. Access to the older liturgy is no longer the preserve of a privileged few - a whole new generation will be able to experience for itself these treasures preserved from the past.