our opinion, enters into the number
of those which, most effectively, have contributed to the decline of so
sensible and generous a nation.

CHAPTER IV.

THE MASS--Its introduction but modern--The Spaniard Lainez opposed it--On
what grounds--Description of the ceremony--Its religious and secular
peculiarities--Sacerdotal vestments worn while celebrating it--High and
Low Mass--Both performed in an unknown tongue--Consequent indifference of
the congregation--Mercenary character of the mass--"_Masses for the
intention_"--Masses for the dead--The solemn mass on Christmas eve, or
_Noche buena_--Its profane accompaniments--Passion week--Thursday--Good
Friday--Adoration of the Cross--Processions--Anecdotes of Isabella
II.--Brilliant rites and ceremonies on the day after Good
Friday--Uproarious conduct of the faithful on that occasion--The mass as
celebrated at Toledo--Judicial combat, or judgment of God.

The mass is the chief rite in the Roman Catholic worship. The obligation
for all members of that church to hear it, on every Sunday and every
feast-day, is imperative and absolutely indispensable; and the infraction
of it is considered a mortal sin. Although the obligation does not
extend to those days of labour on which masses are said, yet pious and
devout persons go to hear it, and this act is considered as eminently
commendable and meritorious.

The introduction of the mass into Roman Catholic worship is of an epoch
comparatively modern. In the first centuries of the church, the divine
offices were but those of singing hymns and psalms, reading the Sacred
Scriptures, and the sermon. These rites being terminated, a collection
was made among believers for the relief of their poor; and the portion of
these alms which was _sent_ to such of them as could not attend the place
of worship was called _missa_, or _sent_, from the participle of the
Latin verb _mittere_, to send.

Many have been the disputes between Roman Catholic writers themselves
touching the epoch at which that part of the ceremonial called the mass,
used in the present day, was first introduced. There is no doubt that
many ages of the church passed away before it was considered as a
sacrifice; and even the Council of Trent were much divided in their
opinions on this point, and the fathers vacillated much before they
decided respecting it. The Spaniard Lainez, general of the order of
Jesuits, was one of the most strenuous opposers of the novelt