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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07609	A treatise of the holy sacrifice of the masse, and excellencies therof. Written in Spanish by the R. F. Ant. de Molina, a Carthusian monke, & translated into English by I.R. of the Society of Iesus. VVith order, hovv to be present at the said Holy Mystery, vvith deuotion & profit	Molina, Antonio de, d. 1619?; Floyd, John, 1572-1649, attributed name.; Wilson, John, ca. 1575-ca. 1645?	1623 (1623)	STC 18001; ESTC S112780	50,509	307

for this end is the Aultar built Aultar and Sacrifice being correlatiues Wherefore the errour of vnfortunate Heretickes is in this particular so strange and so contrary to the light of reason that it could haue entred but into minds afore through malice obstinate and through infidelity blinded who from errours run into errour still greater and more foule But heerin they are Ministers of the Diuell who by their mediation endeauoureth to doe the holy Church all the mischiefe he is able and the cursed Caytiffe knowes the greatest mischiefe he can doe is to driue away or hinder the most holy sacrifice of the Altar as de facto he hath driuen away and exiled the same out of townes and countries wherin preuayle these errours and pestilentiall doctrines Wherin also they declare themselues Percursors of the most wicked Antichrist cōcerning whome the Saints of God commonly affirme that the first and principall thing he shall attempt to the detrimēt of the Church is with most extreme rigour to inhibite the exercise of the most holy sacrifice of the Aultar Thus many Fathers and graue Authours vnderstand that which Daniel sayth in his prophecy That in the thousand two hundred and ninety dayes that is in the three yeares and halfe that Antichrists raigne shal continew the continuall sacrifice shall be taken away frō the Church he shall cause his image to be placed in the Temple that himself alone may be adored as God the text sayth He shall take away the continuall Sacrifice and destroy the place of sanctification strength against the cōtinuall sacrifice is giuen him in regard of sinnes This drift which the Diuel shall then prosecute by the meanes of Antichrist he now endeauours to settle by the help of these Hereticks who by procuring to take frō the Catholicke Church the most holy Sacrifice bringe therwith innumerable and inestimable mischiefes and would haue the Christian people which hath receaued more of God and greater benefits to be more vngratefull vnto their God then any other Nation in the world This the holy and venerable Abbot Petrus Cluniacensis liuing in the same age with S. Bernard well noted and signified in these wordes They that attempt to take from the Church of Christ the sacrifice by the Diuells suggestions doe their best that that nation which hath byn graced of God with more singular benefits and fauours should be lesse thankefull to him and yield him lesse worship and honour But I will leaue these Heretickes as men without discretion and common sense to thēselues my purpose not being to dispute this controuersie with them but only to giue a warning vnto the faythfull of their errours impertinēcies Al Catholike Christians are to belieue as a most sure and infallible principle that in the Catholicke Church there is a proper true and most excellent sacrifice which is offered vnto the eternall Father by the handes of Priests as being Minister of Christ Iesus the high Priest and soueraigne Bishop For this hath euer byn the beliefe of the holy Church since the tyme of the Apostles this the doctrine perpetually deliuered by the holy Fathers this the fayth determined established in the sacred Councels and last of all in the holy Councell of Trent in these words Whosoeuer shal say that in the masse is not offered a true and proper sacrifice vnto God or that the sacrifice is no other then the giuing of Christ to be eaten let him be accursed The holy Masse then is the only and most holy Sacrifice of the new Testamēt instituted by Christ our Lord not when he did offer himselfe on the crosse though then he offered a Sacrifice but that was a bloudy sacrifice consumed with payne and wounds the conuulsions of death in which manner only he would offer it that tyme but in his last supper when he consecrated his pretious body bloud vnder the formes and accidents of bread and wine For then he not only gaue it vnto his Disciples as a sacramentall food for the sustenance of their soules but also offered the same vnto his eternal Father as an vnbloudy sacrifice made them Priests with faculty to offer in the like manner granted vnto them vnto their successors vnto the worldes end saying Do this in remembrance of me that is the same thing that I doe you likewise doe in my name memory Wherfore two doctrines as most firme and Catholicke truth are settled by the premisses the one that in the Christiā Church there is a true and proper Sacrifice the other that this sacrifice is offered only in the Masse of the excellencies whereof we now are to treate That the Masse was giuen vnto this Sacrifice by the Apostles euer vsed in the Church And the signification thereof CHAP. II. HERETICKES not only deny and would take from the Church the most holy Sacrifice of the Masse but also cannot endure the very word name of Masse and soe they haue declared to affirme with sacrilegious mouth that the Masse is the inuention of the Pope and his followers The most impious Martin Luther Captayne of these wicked sectaries hath written a booke with this title De abroganda Missa The title is lyke the booke and the booke lyke the Authour and the whole lyke the matter hādled therin wherin he doth acknowledge that by conferēce had with the Diuell appearing to him he was perswaded to abrogate the best thing the most sacred and venerable that is in the Church And though neyther my drift nor the ayme of this Treatise be to dispute with Heretickes which thinge graue writers of this age haue fitly performed yet for the confirmation of Catholickes as also for confusion of Hereticks who sticke not to vtter whatsoeuer they can imagine to be disgracefull to the Church without care whether they speake true or false I thinke it reason briefly to set downe the truth of this matter It is therfore to be known that not only the Sacrifice of the Masse was instituted by our Sauiour in his last supper but also the name of Masse was giuen vnto it by the Apostles themselues frō that tyme hath euer been vsed by the holy Church The first that sayd Masse after our Sauiours Ascension is thought to haue byn S. Iames the yoūger termed Brother of our Lord. For though S. Peter were superiour and head of all as being the soueraigne Bishop yet he would yield that honour vnto this glorious S. Iames because he was Bishop of Hierusalem which was the first Church in the world it is thought this Church to haue byn the sacred Cenacle where Christ kept his last supper and where afterward the holy Ghost came downe vpon the Disciples In this Masse did the holy Apostles and Disciples communicate and the most sacred Virgin then first receaued in the most holy Sacrament her glorious and immortall Sonne whome before she had receaued and apparelled with flesh in her immaculate wombe This Blessed Apostle

did ordayne a certayne forme of seruice or saying Masse and gaue it the title of Masse as Baronius a most learned and exact Hystorian affirmes and proues Of this Liturgy or Masse composed by S. Iames mention is made in the sixt generall Synod in 32. Canon thereof and by S. Proclus Bishop of Cōstantinople The same title of Masse is vsed by S. Cyrill Bishop also of Hierusalem who receaued and amplified the Office or Liturgy left by his predecessour the Apostle S. Iames. S. Clement Pope and Martyr disciple of S. Peter in one of his Epistles commandes that Clergy-men and Priests doe nothing but with the Bishops leaue in particular let them not say Masse without his consent and agayne It is not lawfull to sacrifice or celebrate Masse but in the places which their proper Bishop shall appoint Abdias Bishop of Babilon ordayned by the Apostles who doth affirme of himselfe to haue seene our Lord Iesus Christ in flesh in his history of the Apostles sayth of S. Matthew that he was martyred by the Aultar hauing celebrated the Mysteries of our Lord and sayd the Masse of the Church S. Alexander Pope and Martyr the sixt after S. Peter sayth that with the solemnities of the Masse the Passiō of our Lord is to be mingled so to celebrate his Passion S. whose body and blood is consecrated Telesphorus also Pope and Martyr in his Epistle vnto the faythfull ordaynes that in the Masse the Angelicall Hymne be sayd and that three Masses be solemnized in the night of the Natiuity of our Lord. All this was appointed in the primitiue Church within the first hūdred yeares afterward the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church as S. Cyprian Ambrose Gregory Leo and many sacred Councels haue vsed the sayd word This supposed let vs now declare the signification of this name deriued by successiue tradition from the Apostles which may giue light towards the vnderstanding of the Excellencyes of the Masse concerning which laying a side some significations of lesse credit I will only prosecute two that are most followed by graue and learned Authors The first makes the word Missa to be latin deriued of the word Mitto which signifies to send because in the holy Sacrifice of Masse the eternall Father sends vs his only begotten Sonne that we may offer him in sacrifice As in the beginning he sent him to become man to offer him for men on the Crosse so now he sends him that vnder the sacramētall formes he may offer himself an vnbloudy sacrifice also the holy Church retournes him and sends him vnto his eternall Father offering him in Sacrifice vnto him as S. Thomas signifyes saying That the sacrifice is tearmed Missa because the people by the Priest the Priest by the Angel sends prayers vnto God The second explication makes the word Missa to be deriued of the hebrew word Missach which signifies a voluntary oblation as appeares by the 16. Chapter of Deuteronomy v. 10. where our translation hauing Spontaneous Oblation the Hebrew word corresponding therunto is Missach This explication or Aetymology is also of great credit approued by graue Authors amongst whom Cardinall Baronius sayth that he doth not doubt but the Blessed Apostles tooke this name of the Hebrew and the Latin Church receauing it of them hath still cōserued the same And seing the Apostles and their Disciples euen before Masse was sayd in latin vsed the word Missa as hath byn proued it is very probable that Missa is an Hebrew word signifying a voluntary offering made vnto God in gratitude for his benefits and specially for that of the freeing his people frō the seruitude of Aegypt For this signification doth very properly agree to our most holy Sacrifice of the Masse in which is offered vnto the eternall Father his only-begotten Sonne who voluntarily and of self-accord offered himself as Esay testifieth he was offered because he would and our Sauiour to his enemies that were solicitous to lay plots how to bereaue him of life I giue my soule and take the same againe no man is able to take it from me but I of my self giue it For I haue power to giue it and power to take it againe On mens behalfe likewise the oblation is voluntary because with free and liberall hart they offer vnto God that most holy Sacrifice in thankes giuing for all the benefits receaued from his bountifull hande and singularly for the benefit of mans redēption which this Sacrifice doth represent Eyther of these explications or etymologies is probable and of authority and from each of them doctrines and cōsideratiōs may be drawne of great importance to make the Excellency of the sacrifice of the Masse vnderstood as we shall now declare That the Masse is an Embassage vnto the most holy Trinity in the behalfe of humane kind about the most important affaires in the World CHAP. III. THE Masse contaynes in it so many so hygh so Diuine so Soueraigne mysteries that one definition is not sufficient to declare the same nor to make manifest the notion therof Wherfore to explicate what the Masse is we shall vse the way vsed in declaring thinges that are immense and imbrace within thēselues a kind of infinity which are declared by many different descriptions because many put togeather may discouer what one only by it selfe were not able to do Let this thē be the first descriptiō gathered frō the first Etymology of the word Missa to wit that the Masse is an Embassadge sent by mankind vnto the most holy Trinity that is vnto the true and liuing God By mediation of the Priest that in the name of all he treate the affaires of most weight and moment that euer were or can be treated of in the world as now we shall declare First the Masse to be an Embassadge sent vnto the most B. Trinity is cleere because to God only sacrifice is to be offered and not to any creature no not vnto the most holy virgin Mary the most Excellent of all creatures So the Priest whē he beginnes to offer sayth suscipe Sācta Trinitas hanc oblationem accept o holy Trinity this Oblation which in the Canō he repeats againe To thee they offer their vows and prayers the true eternal liuing God That this embassage to be sēt by mākind or by the whole Catholicke Church the Preist himselfe signifies saying in the Canon This oblation of our seruice and of thy whole family It is tearmed the offering or sacrifice of our seruice that is of vs Priests and Ministers of the Aultar who are peculiarly your seruāts dedicated vnto your diuine worship and seruice and we offer this sacrifice in acknowledgment of the seruice and subiection we owe you And it is not only our offering that as consecrated Ministers offer it but of your whole family that is of the whole Catholicke Church and all your faithfull who by our handes and ministery offer

of all which it is sufficiently proued that this one Sacrifice of the new Testament contaynes in it most excellētly with great excesse all the perfection sanctity and efficacy of all the Sacrifices of the old as the same afornamed Saint doth elegātly briefly set down in these words It is cleere that no Sacrifice can be offered more acceptable vnto God eyther to giue him honour or to render him thankes or to obtayne pardon or to deserue glory then the most holy Sacrifice of the Body and Bloud of Christ. The Masse is the thing most Venerable that is in the Church CHAP. XI OVT of that which hath byn sayd we may cōclude that the Masse is a thing of greater reuerence grauity and sanctity then any other in the Catholicke Church there being nothing eyther equall or comparable to it So that neyther the Benediction of the Agnus Dei which the Pope doth with so great solemnity nor the Consecration of a Bishop which with so many graue and solemne ceremonyes is performed all which of necessity three Bishops are to present besides him that is consecrated nor the Dedicatiō of a Church nor any other thing done with the greatest and solemnest Rites none of these thinges are comparable for Reuerence Grauity Sanctity with the Masse This is the reason that the Saints adorne this Sacrifice with so many choice exquisite Epiphets and tearmes calling it a Mystery Dreadfull Terrible Diuine Deificall Sacro-saynt full of Diuinity Honorable Supreme Singular and other such Names that euery where occurre in the writings of the Holy Fathers Out of whome omitting many very excellent thinges which they say of the dignity of the Masse I will only set down two or three short sentēces which to me seeme most notable S. Chrysostome writes that being present at Masse we must not imagine we are vpon earth but that we are carryed vp into Heauen that we are seated amongst the Quires of Angels and Seraphims His wordes are these When thou doest behold our Lord sacrificed the Priest performing his office therin and the people bedewed and as it were grained and purpled with his pretious Bloud do not thinke that thou art amongst men nor that thou dost abide vpon earth but rather that thou art transtated into Heauen and so casting away all carnall imaginations and earthly thoughts with a pure minde contemplate the things of that Celestiall Court Oh Miracle Oh Benignity of God! who sitting aloft with the Father at the same tyme is taken into the handes of men and giues himselfe vnto such as will receaue him To the same purpose S. Gregory wryteth in this sort What Christian can doubt but that in the tyme of Consecration the Heauens open at the voyce of the Priest and at this very Mysterie of Christ Iesus the Quires of Angels assist Earth is conioyned with Heauen this wale of teares with the pallace of Blisse and that visible and inuisible things meete togeather in one A wonderfull dreadfull venerable thing that at the voyce of a Priest the Heauens should open that the glorious Court should come down vnto earth that with the Faythfull of the Militant Church though poore and sinfull the Triumphant Church should ioyne the King of glory and his Courtiers descēding so that of Heauen and earth is made one Company and Church What thinge of greater veneration or more strange then that when the Priest is at the Aultar many millions of Angells kneele with greate reuerence about the same adoring the most holy Sacrifice the handes of the Priest that holds it acknowledging his dignity in this regard to be greater then theirs seeing to none of them such power and authority was euer giuē praysing our Lord giuing him the thankes which wee through our grosnes do not render vnto him and supplying other defects which we in this duty commit Oh holy Angels how often am I ashamed do I blush to consider that you are present seeing you shall be at the day of Iudgment witnesses of our vngratitude rudenes that God hauing placed vs in so high a state of honour we do neyther know it nor esteeme it nor exercise it with the decency and reuerence that is due In fine that quires of Angells assist at the time that Masse is sayd is a most setled and receaued doctrine of the Saynts namely of S. Ambrose in his Bookes written of the dignity of Priest-hood And S. Chrysost. deposeth to haue heard the same of venerable and holy men to whome God granted the fauour to see this euen with corporall eyes S. Cyrill in the life of S. Euthimius relates of him that at the tyme when he sayd Masse he saw Angels assisting about the Aultar some ministring vnto the Priest some prostrate adoring the Sacrament and all shewing great reuerēce And the Apostle S. Paul may seeme to insinuate this thing making a comparison and differēce betweene the Mysteries of the old Testament and these of the new and betweene the Maiesty wherwith God descended to giue the Law on the Mount Sina that Maiesty wherwith now he comes downe vpon the holy Aultar in an inuisible manner he sayth thus You are come not vnto a Mountayne that is felt with the handes nor vnto a fire which is seene with the eyes nor vnto stormes and mystes tempests the sound of trumpets but you are come to the Mount Sion and the Citty of the liuing God and the Heauenly Ierusalem and vnto the company of many thousand Angels and vnto the Mediatour of the new Testament Iesus and the sprinkling of his Bloud speaking in better manner then that of Abel And without doubt if God should opē our eyes as he did vnto the seruant of Elizeus we might there behold celestiall Armyes and we should learne the veneration and reuerence wherwith they assist vnto their King and Lord perceaue how much they are offēded at our irreuerence and rudenes And to conclude this point omitting many other sayings of the Saints concerning the veneration and reuerence due to the holy Sacrifice of the Masse I will only relate the words of the most deuout learned and elegant Father Saint Laurence Patriarch of Venice who wrytes in this manner There is not any oblation greater none more profitable none more amiable none more gracious in the sight of the Diuine Maiesty then the holy Sacrifice of the Masse which restores honour vnto God company vnto Angels Heauen vnto banished men which causeth the worship of Religion the right of Iustice the rule of Sanctity the obedience of the Law giues Fayth vnto Nations ioy vnto the World comfort vnto Belieuers peace vnto People light vnto the minde hope vnto them that trauayle the sight of God vnto them that runne out their race For by the celebration of these Diuine Mysteries is renewed the memory of the tormēts of our Sauiour the contumelies he endured the scourges he receaued the drafts of vinager and gall the woundes

reason that we who thinke ourselues happy in that we are Catholicke Christians and by Gods singular mercy true children of the sayd Catholicke Church it is good reason I say that we should think it part of our honour to be opposite vnto the foolish fancies of Hereretikes as much as may be by how much they more reprehend and despise the sayd ceremonies by so much we ought to be more careful and religious to performe them with the greatest reuerence exactnes that may be And to vnderstand the ground of these externall Ceremonies and Rites we are to note that man being compounded of two substances to wit soule and body and God being Creatour and Authour aswell of the one as of the other is boūd to acknowledg worship to God and adore him not only with soule but also with body for with the hart one belieues vnto Iustice with the mouth he confesseth his fayth vnto saluation So that it is not inough to belieue with our hartes but also we must make professiō thereof with our mouth and so religion bindes vs not only to worship God internally with our soule but also to yield vnto him externall reuerence and honour with our bodyes Thus we see that from the very first beginning of the world iust godly mē began to honour God with externall ceremonyes bending their knees lifting vp their hādes casting vp their eyes vnto Heauen building Aultars and offering Sacrifices as did the Iust and Innocent Abel which practise went still continuing and increasing in all iust men Religious towardes God as doth appeare by diuers Hystories of holy Writ Prophane Hystory lykewise shewes that the Gentills in their impious worship of Idols vsed sundry and diuerse crremonies For the Diuel who was adored by thē in those Idols as he still perseuered in his first pride and sottish enuy seeking to vsurpe to himselfe the honour and adoration due vnto God knowing that externall Reuerence is a signe and a character of the interiour and in this respect most due vnto the true God required of his deceaued adorants and ordayned that they should adore him and sacrifice vnto him with great variety of externall Reuerences Rites and Ceremonyes And in the holy Scripture we reade that those most vnfortunate Priests of Baal did inuocate him with Sacrifices with clamors bending their knees prostrating themselues on the ground and being barbarous inhumane lyke to the Diuell they serued with knifes did lance themselues till they were all embrued in blood The difference which in this poynt hath been according to the variety of liues and states is that in the first state called The Law of Nature as God had not giuen them any written forme of Religion or Law there was no set order of these kind of Ceremonies but euery one followed the internall instinct and inspiration of God who taught them in what manner he would be honored worshipped by them But afterward when God gaue vnto his people a written Law a most principall part therof pertayned vnto the ceremonyes and diuerse sorts and fashions of Worship to be by them vsed in their offering Sacrifices praying and other duetyes belonging to the Diuine seruice Also there were appointed diuers kindes of Ministers for the more full accomplishment of these thinges some being Priests some Leuits some Singers some Porters some Exorcists and diuerse other kindes euery one hauing his office and Ministery assigned him with most strict and seuere commandments that each of them should be most punctuall exact in his owne office without medling with the office of others enacting most grieuous punishment vnto any that should fayle though but in small matters all which appeares by the Books of the Law specially by that of Leuiticus and Deuteronomy It is true that all these Precepts and ceremoniall Lawes are now ceased and abrogated by the Law of the Ghospell that now is not necessary yea now it were a sinne to obserue them but in their place other ceremonies doe succeede better and perfecter more proportionable and conueniēt with the perfection of the Law of Grace which the Church gouerned by the ho. Ghost hath established as receaued and deriued by tradition from Christ and his Apostles For though some particular ceremonyes haue been altered and changed according to the state and conueniency of tymes yet most certaine it is that some of them were vsed by Christ himselfe in tyme and place and as they were conuenient to his person Thus we reade that sometymes he prayed on his knees positis genibus orabat sometymes standing as in the prayer he made after his last supper sometymes prostrate on his face Procidit in faciem suam sometymes lifting vp his eyes vnto Heauen Subleuatis Iesus oculis dixit And whē he instituted the most venerable Sacrament hauing ended the ceremonies of the old Testament he washed the feete of his Disciples sat downe at the Table tooke bread into his hands cast vp his eyes vnto Heauē gaue thankes vnto his Father blessed the bread consecrated it deuided it gaue it to his Disciples which were the ceremonyes for that tyme place and season After our Sauiour was ascended vnto Heauen the Blessed Apostles hauing receaued the holy Ghost begā presently to vse ceremonyes in the Masse and ordayned such as were to be obserued as appeares by most auncient formes of Masse by thē composed and by S. Clement their Disciple and successour of S. Peeter and by the decrees of other Popes and Councels very aunciēt which to auoyde prolixity I omit The Apostle S. Paul in his Epistle to those of Corinth appoints that Womē be in the Church with their heades couered and Men with their heades bare as also many thinges concerning the order that they were to keepe when they did meete togeather to receaue the most Blessed Sacrament saying in the end Cetera cùm venero disponam I will giue order by word of mouth about the rest of these thinges when I come my selfe Certayne it it that the Apostle was not to appoynt the thinges essentiall vnto the Sacraments for these our Sauiour ordayned and he only could and had power to ordayne them but only certayne ceremonies concerning the vse of the Sacraments And so it is a most certayne truth that the ceremonies of the Church speaking of them in generall be very auncient many particular ceremonies come by traditiō from Christ and his Apostles others frō the chiefe Bishops and Councells For it was not conuenient that the vse of ceremonies and exteriour Religious Rites in the holy Sacrifice of Masse should be left to the liberty of euery one because such liberty might be occasiō of many errours ignorances and superstitions but that the Church should haue the appointment of them The ground of which exteriour obseruances is found in the holy Scripture set downe by S. Paul in the first Epistle to those of Corynth the 14. Chapter Omnia secundum ordinem