or three may be celebrated; because the Romans also do this on the day of the Lord's Nativity." Later on in the same century, Petrus Cantor wrote openly against the "plurality of Masses ;" and from him we learn that some who did not venture to say two or more whole Masses in the same day, used to celebrate a Mass of two or more faces,2 as the phrase went; that is, a Mass in which all down to the Offertory was repeated according to the number of special objects for which it was celebrated, but the Canon was said only once. About the same time, viz. A.D. 1185, Sicardus lays down the same rule as Honorius; but long after their time more cases were considered to be of necessity than they admitted. John de Burgo, our countryman, A.D. 1385, says:"On other days (than Christmas) a Priest may celebrate two, and not more, Masses in case of necessity; to wit, one for the Dead and another of the Day, if it be necessary; nor does it appear that we should distinguish whether he do this for the corpse, or the anniversary (of the death), or from devotion... Also for the necessity of stranger pilgrims on their journey, and of the sick, and perhaps on occasion of a marriage, and when the [canonical] time would otherwise pass away, according to Raymundus [de Pennaforti, A.D. 1228]:

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and Hostiensis [1262] (De Celebr. Miss.) agrees, and adds a case, viz. when by reason of the paucity of the Clergy or the poverty of the Churches two Churches are committed to one Parson." In the fifteenth century both Nicholas de Plove, 1434, and Gabriel Biel, 1480, professing to follow the "Summists," allow a second Mass on several occasions. Thus the former says, "If a funeral occur, after the Mass for the day has been celebrated. Again, if some great visitor should make his appearance, as a prince or great lord, who has not heard Mass. Again, if an espoused couple shall come wishing to hear Mass." He adds the case of pilgrims and of a pluralist, as allowed by De Burgo. Biel, who agrees in other respects, does not mention the case of a great visitor. That of pilgrims was excluded more than a century before by the author of the Manipulus Curatorum" (A.D. 1333), who, rather than permit a second celebration on their account, recommends the alternative of a Dry Mass.

Pupilla Oculi, P. iv. c. vii. fol. 24, 1.

5 Tract. Sacerd. sig. 1. 7, 2.

6 Lect. lxxxvii. fol. 192, 1.

7 Pars i. tr. iv. c. vii. fol. xxxii. 2. See before, p. 817.

SECTION IV.-More than one Celebration on especial Days.

In the Church of Rome, says Bona,1 there flourished an ancient custom of offering the Sacrifice twice or thrice on certain festivals. Before the Circumcision was commemorated, an observance which seems to have begun in the eleventh century,2 one Mass of the Blessed Virgin was said on the First of January, and another of the Octave of the Nativity. This custom continued long after the Feast of the Circumcision was instituted.3

On Maundy-Thursday, S. Augustine tells us, there was a Celebration in some churches both in the morning and evening. There was no ritual reason for the earlier; for he thinks that it was instituted merely to meet the case of those who wished to receive fasting, and if they fasted long could not bear the exhaustion of the bath, which was usual on that day. The evening Communion might be received either fasting, or, according to the canon of Carthage,5 A.D. 397, after the commemorative feast peculiar to the day. At a later period there was a custom for the Bishop to celebrate three Masses on this day, one for the reconciliation of Penitents, a second for the making of Chrism, and a third for the day, the last being said in the evening. Sicardus, who became Bishop of Cremona in 1185, mentions the last two as if they were the custom in his day. To the three above mentioned two MSS. add another for those preparing for Baptism, which came after that for the Penitents.8

On Easter Day9 three Masses were said, one on the Eve for the Night, the second for the Day,10 and a third when Orders were conferred, as was then usual at that season.

1 Rer. Lit. L. i. c. xviii. n. v.

2 Ivo, 1092 (Serm. de Circumc. Hittorp. col. 816), and Pseudo-Alcuin

of the same century, are the first who recognise it.

3 See Beleth, A.D. 1162, Div. Off. Explic. c. lxxi.; or Durandus, 1286, Rat. L. vi. c. xv. n. 16.

4 Ad Inqu. Januar. Ep. liv. c. vii. tom. ii. col. 169.

5 Can. xxix. Labb. tom. ii. col. 1171.

6 See the Gelasian Sacramentary, L. i. Murat. tom. i. coll. 553-8.

7 Mitrale, L. vi. c. xii. coll. 306, 7, 310, 1.

8 Martene, Lib. iv. c. xxii. § v.

9 Frontonis Kalendar. 2 10, in Bona, L. i. c. xviii. n. vi.

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10 See examples of the first two in Murat. Sacram. Gelas. L. i. tom. i. coll. 571-3. The third was from the Ordinal. In Murat. col. 579 is a Mass in commemoration of the Baptisms of the previous Easter, which was said as well as the Office of the day. See on this Micrologus de Eccl. Obs. c. 56; Hittorp. col. 764.

In the part of Gaul under the Goths, a Mass was said each day in Easter week for the newly baptized, as well as one for the day.1

On the Eve of Ascension Day one Mass was said for the Rogations, and another for the Day.2 These are still said in Collegiate Churches, but not by the same Priest. In the Gelasian Sacramentary, the copy of which is of the ninth century, two Masses are provided for Ascension Day1 itself, both of the Feast.

On the Ember Days in Whitsun-week some Priests in the twelfth century used to celebrate Mass at the third hour for Whitsuntide, singing the Gloria in Excelsis, and again at the sixth for the Fast, without it.5 Two or more Masses were also said on the same day, when the Festivals of two or more Saints fell on it; as those of S. Sebastian and S. Fabian on the 20th of February, etc. Two or more were sometimes said by the same Priest, when the bodies or relics of Saints commemorated together were in neighbouring churches. Thus on June 30, even in the fifth century, the Bishop of Rome used to celebrate both in the Basilic of S. Peter and in that of S. Paul. Similarly, when two or more places near to each other were sacred to the same Saint. Thus there were said on S. Laurence's Day, one on the eve, the second early in the morning, the third at the usual hour. There were also several Saints' Days on which, according to local custom, two or three Masses might be sung. Lastly, Votive Masses and Masses for the Dead, whether at their burial or in commemoration, might be said on the same day. The only day on which a Priest of the Roman Communion may now celebrate more than once is Christmas Day. An attempt to establish this rule seems to have been made in the thirteenth century. The Bishop of Worcester had consulted. Innocent III., A.D. 1212, on the subject. In his reply he says

"We answer that, Christmas Day excepted, it is sufficient for a Priest to celebrate only one Mass in the Day, unless

1 Missale Gothicum, Mabill. Liturg. Gallic. L. iii. p. 254; Murat. tom. ii. col. 598.

2 Sicard. L. vii. cc. vi. vii. col. 369, 371.

3 Rubric of present Missal.

4 Murat. tom. i. coll. 587-9.

5 Micrologus, de Eccl. Obs. c. 58; Hittorp. coll. 765.

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"Transtiberina prius solvit sacra pervigil Sacerdos ;
Mox huc recurrit duplicatque vota."

Prudent. De Coron. Hymn. xii. sub finem, p. 165.

7 Bona, Rer. Lit. L. i. c. xviii. n. vii.

8 Martene, De Eccl. Rit. L. i. c. iii. Art. iii. § xii.; where an example

for S. Benedict's Day may be seen.

9 Bona, u.s.

Honorius, 1220, was

some reason of necessity induce him." 1 asked by another Bishop whether, after celebrating in one Church for the confection of Chrism on Maundy-Thursday, according to the custom there, he should continue to celebrate a second time in another, where he had to receive penitents, etc. The answer of the Pope was that he should celebrate only in the former.2

A Priest celebrating more than once in the day was, and is, bound to receive each time. See Part II. Ch. ix. Sect. i. p. 693. With a view to this it has become a rule in the Church of Rome that on Christmas Day he should not drink the "ablutions" of the Chalice until after his third reception; as the water is supposed to break his fast. The earliest notice of this regulation occurs long before a plurality of Masses was restricted to the Nativity, viz., in the writings of Peter Damian, A.D. 1057, who says, "We have both learnt and hold this rule of custom in well-ordered Churches, that we defer the pouring (of water) on the Chalice at the end of Masses, if we expect that we shall ourselves again offer the Sacrifice. on the same day." The Synod of Salisbury,5 A.D. 1217, decrees the same rule, but permits the ablution to be drank by a Deacon, if present, " or other respectable Minister or innocent person, who can take it without hurt of conscience."

SECTION V.-More than one Celebration in a Church on
the same day.

The several Masses which were celebrated by one Priest, as mentioned in the last Section, would generally be celebrated in the same Church. This is not often specified; but there are some clear examples. Two are of the fifth century. An unknown writer, who tells us that he had suffered under the Vandals in Africa, after speaking of the ordinary Communion at a certain time in a Church at Carthage, mentions that an Oblation was again offered "of thanksgiving" for a woman who was supposed to have been delivered from the power of Satan at the former Celebration. S. Leo,7 who became Bishop of Rome in 440, in a letter to the Bishop of

1 Corp. Jur. Canon. Decr. Greg. L. iii. tit. xli. c. iii. Consuluisti.

2 Ibid. c. xii. Te referente.

3 See the Rubric in the Missal at the end of the Office for Christmas Eve.

4 Ep. ad Ubert. Lib. v. n. xviii. tom. i. col. 174.

5 Cap. xxxviii. Labb. tom. xi. col. 258.

De Prom. Dei; Dimid. Temp. c. 6; Opp. Prosperi, p. 161.

7 Ep. xi. ad. Diosc. c. ii. p. 120.

Alexandria, speaks of a repetition of the Office in the same Church, when it would not hold all the Communicants at once, as if it were the established practice at Rome:"That our observance may agree in all things, we wish this also to be kept; viz., that, when each more solemn Feast shall have announced the assembling of the people in greater numbers, and such a multitude of the Faithful has come together as one Basilic cannot hold at one time, the oblation of the Sacrifice be without hesitation repeated; . . . since it is a thing full of piety and reason that, as often as the presence of a fresh set of people shall fill the Basilic in which the Celebration takes place, so often the Sacrifice be offered immediately after." He calls this a “tradition of the fathers." Deodatus or Deusdedit,1 Bishop of Rome, A.D. 614, is said, by Anastasius, to have "appointed a second Mass in clero.” The necessity of providing for a large concourse of the people had probably ceased by this time; but the old arrangement may have become desirable in some Colleges of Clergy or Monasteries owing to the increase in the number of their inmates.2

For a considerable period no Church in the West had more than one Altar. It was also a rule that no Priest should celebrate at the same Altar twice in the day. Where these conditions co-existed, the recommendation of Leo could not be carried out, unless there was more than one Priest attached to the Church. See Part I. Chapter iii. Sections ix. x.

1 De Vit. Pontif. Rom. n. lxix. p. 45.

2 Clerus sometimes means the order of Monks; Ducange in v.