John Sutherland Black

“ With this end King Wenceslaus of Bohemia had requested the co-operation of the archbishop and his clergy, and also the support of the university, in both instances unsuccessfully, although in the case of the latter the Bohemian “nation,” with Huss at its head, had only been overborne by the votes of the Bavarians, Saxons and Poles. There followed an expression of nationalist and particularistic as opposed to ultramontane and also to German feeling, which undoubtedly was of supreme importance for the whole of the subsequent career of Huss. ”

“ Then turning to the people with “Dominus Vobiscum” he reads the post-communion (one or more) ; turning once more to the congregation he uses the old dismissal formula “Dominus vobiscum” (R. “Et cum spiritu tuo”) , and “Ite, missa est” or “Benedicamus Domino,” in those masses from which Gloria in excelsis has been omitted (R. “Deo Gratias”) . Bowing down before the altar he offers the prayer “Placeat tibi, sancta Trinitas,” then turning round he makes the sign of the cross over the congregation with the words of the benediction (“Benedicat”) . ”

“ Those present communicate in their order under this species also. As the pontiff descends into the senatorium to give the communion, the schola begins the communion Antiphon, and continues singing the Psalm until, all the people having communicated, they receive the sign to begin the Gloria, after which, the verse having been again repeated, they stop. The celebrant, then, facing eastward, offers the Oratio ad complendum, which being finished the archdeacon says to the people, “Ite, missa est,” they responding with “Deo gratias.” ”

“ To complete our idea of the Roman communion office as it was prior to the end of the 8th century we must now turn to the Gregorian Antiphonarius sive gradualis liber ordinatus per circulum anni, which as its name implies contains those variable portions of the mass which were intended to be sung by the schola or choir. It gives for each day for which a proper mass is provided: (1) the Antiphona (Antiphona ad Introitum) and Psalmus ”

“ The account of the mass (qualiter Missa Romana celebratur) as given by the sacramentarium gregorianum is to the effect that there is in the first place “the Introit according to the time, whether for a festival or for a common day; thereafter Kyrie eleison. (In addition to this Gloria in excelsis Deo is said if a bishop be [the celebrant] , though only on Sundays and festivals; but a priest is by no means to say it, except only at Eastertide. When there is a litany (quando letania agitur) neither Gloria in excelsis nor Alleluia is sung.) ”

“ This safe conduct, which had been frequently printed, stated that Huss should, whatever judgment might be passed on him, be allowed to return freely to Bohemia. This by no means provided for his immunity from punishment. If faith to him had not been broken he would have been sent back to Bohemia to be punished by his sovereign, the king of Bohemia. The treachery of King Sigismund is undeniable, and was indeed admitted by the king himself. The safe conduct was probably indeed given by him to entice Huss to Constance. ”

“ In the 8th century we find in Ecgbert of York’s De remediis peccatorum, i., that those who devote their lives to sacred orders are supposed to furnish themselves with a psalter, lectionary, antiphonary, missal, baptismal office and martyrology. The adoption of the Roman liturgy by Charlemagne explains the great quantity of missals within this period; e.g. the missal of Worms in the library of the Arsenal at Paris. From the 10th century we have the missal of St Vougay, although badly mutilated, and several others. ”

“ The sacramental elements having previously been placed on the altar or on a credence table, the celebrant enters the church and takes his stand before the lowest step of the altar, having the deacon on his right and the subdeacon on his left. After invoking the Trinity (In nomine Patris, &c.) he repeats alternately with those who are with him the psalm “Judica me, Deus,” which is preceded in the usual way by an antiphon (Introibo ad altare Dei) , and followed also by the Gloria and Antiphon. ”

“ At, or only a very little beyond, the usual age he entered the recently (1348) founded university of Prague, where he became bachelor of arts in 1393, bachelor of theology in 1394, and master of arts in 1396. In 1398 he was chosen by the Bohemian “nation” of the university to an examinership for the bachelor’s degree; in the same year he began to lecture also, and there is reason to believe that the philosophical writings of Wycliffe, with which he had been for some years acquainted, were his text-books. ”

“ The regulations for the assembling and marshalling of the procession by which the pontiff is met and then escorted to the appointed station are minutely given, as well as for the adjustment of his vestments “ut bene sedeant,” when the sacristy has been reached. He does not leave the sacristy until the Introit has been begun by the choir in the church. Before the Gloria he takes his stand at the altar, and after the Kyrie Eleison has been sung (the number of times is left to his discretion) he begins the Gloria in excelsis, which is taken up by the choir. During the singing he faces eastward ”

“ After he had been tied to the stake and the faggots had been piled, he was for the last time urged to recant, but his only reply was: “God is my witness that I have never taught or preached that which false witnesses have testified against me. He knows that the great object of all my preaching and writing was to convert men from sin. ”

“ The celebrant then says the Agnus Dei three times.
5. While the choir sings the Agnus Dei and the Communion, the celebrant proceeds, still “secrete,” with the remainder of the office, which though printed as part of the canon is more conveniently called the communion and post-communion. After the prayer for the peace and unity of the Church (“Domine Jesu Christe, qui dixisti”) he salutes the deacon with the kiss of peace, saying, “Pax tecum”; the subdeacon is saluted in like manner, and then conveys the “pax” to the rest of the clergy who may be assisting. ”

“ That there was no absolutely fixed set of rubrics in use in France during the 8th century is shown by the fact that each priest was required to write out an account of his own practice (“libellum ordinis”) and present it for approbation to the bishop in Lent (see Baluze, Cap. Reg. Franc. i. 824, quoted in Smith’s Dict. of Chr. Antiq. ii. 1521) . ↑ For the genealogical relationships of the Roman with other liturgies, see Liturgy. ”

“ Masses fall into two great subdivisions: (1) ordinary or regular (secundum ordinem officii) , celebrated according to the regular rotation of fast and feast, vigil and feria, in the calendar; (2) extraordinary or occasional (extra ordinem officii) , being either “votive” of “for the dead,” and from the nature of the case having no definite time prescribed for them. ”

“ Not many words are needed to convey a tolerably adequate estimate of the character and work of the “pale thin man in mean attire,” who in sickness and poverty thus completed the forty-sixth year of a busy life at the stake. The value of Huss as a scholar was formerly underrated. ”

“ But it was only slowly that the growing sympathy of Huss with Wycliffe unfavourably affected his relations with his colleagues in the priesthood. In 1408, however, the clergy of the city and archiepiscopal diocese of Prague laid before the archbishop a formal complaint against Huss, arising out of strong expressions with regard to clerical abuses of which he had made use in his public discourses ”

“ In compliance with this feeling a royal edict (January 18, 1409) was issued, by which, in alleged conformity with Paris usage, and with the original charter of the university, the Bohemian “nation” received three votes, while only one was allotted to the other three “nations” combined; whereupon all the foreigners, to the number of several thousands, almost immediately withdrew from Prague, an occurrence which led to the formation shortly afterwards of the university of Leipzig.
It was a dangerous triumph for Huss ”

“ Among the propositions he could heartily abjure was that relating to transubstantiation; among those he felt constrained unflinchingly to maintain was one which had given great offence, to the effect that Christ, not Peter, is the head of the church to whom ultimate appeal must be made. The council, however, showed itself inaccessible to all his arguments and explanations, and its final resolution, as announced by Pierre d’Ailly, was threefold: first, that Huss should humbly declare that he had erred in all the articles cited against him ”

“ It may be added that this early position of the Gloria in excelsis is one of the features distinguishing Roman from Ephesine use. ↑ The tract is peculiar to certain occasions, especially of a mournful nature, and is sung by a single voice. By a sequence is understood a more or less metrical composition, not in the words of Scripture, having a special bearing on the festival of the day. ”

“ A popular demonstration, in which the papal bulls had been paraded through the streets with circumstances of peculiar ignominy and finally burnt, led to intervention by Wenceslaus on behalf of public order; three young men, for having openly asserted the unlawfulness of the papal indulgence after silence had been enjoined, were sentenced to death (June 1412) ”

“ For the doctrines involved in the “sacrifice of the mass,” see Eucharist. ↑ Some editions do not mention the Offertory here. ↑ This was one of the points discussed at the council of Florence, and Cardinal Bessarion for a time succeeded in persuading the Greeks to give up the Epiklesis. ↑ Quam collect am dicunt, Ord. Rom. II. ↑ After singing “Credo in unum Deum,” Ord. Rom. II. ↑ This antiphon is not to be confounded with the Antiphona ad Introitum further on. This use of the 43rd Psalm goes as far back at least as the end of the 11th century, being mentioned by Micrologus (1080) . ”