action alike, was a simple one. The choir sang an introit, the
priest a collect, epistle and gospel were read, and a psalm was sung:
the gifts were offered, the prayer or "preface" of the day was followed
by the Sanctus, as in the East, and then came the Canon or actual
Consecration. After this was the Lord's Prayer, communion of priests,
clergy and people, a psalm and a collect and the end. The ceremonial
was equally simple, and was connected almost exclusively with the
entrance of the celebrant and his ministers, at which incense was used,
and with the reading of the gospel, where also lights and incense were
prominent. All else was simple and of dignified reticence. "Mystery
never flourished in the clear Roman atmosphere, and symbolism was no
product of the Roman religious mind. Christian symbolism is not of
pure Roman birth, not a native product of the {182} Roman spirit." [1]
This reticent character is most clearly found in the Gregorian missal,
which has been believed to represent the period of Gregory the Great.
More probably the assertion of John the Deacon that Gregory revised the
Gelasian Sacramentary is an error, and what is called the Gregorian
Sacramentary is simply the book which was sent by Pope Hadrian I. to
Charles I. between 784 and 791. But that S. Gregory did make certain
alterations is certain. They were three in the Liturgy, two in the
ceremonial of the mass. The Alleluia was ordered to be more frequently
chanted than before; and we find it used outside the Easter season
almost immediately after this by S. Augustine in England. He added
words to the "Hanc igitur" in the Canon of the mass, praying for peace
and inclusion in the number of the elect. He inserted the Lord's
Prayer immediately after the Canon. He also forbade the deacons to
sing any of the mass except the gospel and the subdeacons to wear
chasubles at the altar.

[Sidenote: The eighth century.]

It is thought that the great change, which made the Roman mass into the
elaborate rite it became, is due to the influence, at the end of the
eighth century, of Charles the Great, who with the determination of a
ruler and the interest of a liturgiologist made one rite to be observed
throughout his dominions, but enriched the Gregorian book with details
and ceremonies derived from uses already common in France. The study
of liturgies became common in the ninth century, and in Gaul additions
were made to the book sent by Pope Hadrian