22 May 2011

More gems from Universae Ecclesiae

If you want to engage seriously with today's point, you would be well advised to reread what I wrote, just before Universae Ecclesiae came out (honest, nobody broke the embargo by sending me an early copy; nobody ever does; I just have to rely upon my telepathic understanding of the Holy Father's mind), on April 27, the third piece of my Ratzinger-and-liturgical -law series. I was concerned to distinguish between the gradual changes made over the centuries in the Missal of S Pius V, and the radical, ruptured, novelty of the Paul VI Missal.

UE para 4 makes my point with delightful succinctness. It records that the old Missal "prolabentibus saeculis incrementa novisse". That's (almost) exactly right. The old rite had additions made to it; new propers, new votives, new prefaces. Fathers: if somebody gave you a copy of the first printed Roman Missal of 1474, you'd have very little trouble using it ... just three or four handwritten changes needed in the Ordo Missae ... as long as you were prepared to glue new feasts and Prefaces in. Additions constituted overwhelmingly the evolutionary development of the rite. [The English crib inaccurately and most deplorably translates incrementa novisse as "was kept up to date".] Then UA goes on to contrast this with its description of the post-Conciliar Missal as novum.

Exactly.

And para 25 makes clear that the evolutionary development per incrementa of the EF will continue "quam primum".

5 comments:

Bryan said...

Since a google for Universae Ecclesiae does not bring up an obvious link to the text here is a link to the Vatican website:

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_commissions/ecclsdei/documents/rc_com_ecclsdei_doc_20110430_istr-universae-ecclesiae_en.html

Bryan said...

New Prefaces:

I have compared a Clementine Typical Edition MR (1604) published in about 1630 with an on-line** Clementine-Urban Typical Edition MR (1634) published in 1862 and they each contain exactly the same number of Prefaces. The only difference is that the former gives the titles "in die Ascensionis" and "in die Pentacostes" and the latter "de Ascensione" and "de Pentacoste".

Now comparing these two MR with the 1962 MR (thanks to the link on the Wiki entry for "Roman Missal") there are some new Prefaces in the 1962 MR - viz - Ferial tone Prefaces for the Nativity, Epiphany, Ascension and Pentecost. However there are just three completely new Prefaces in the 1962 MR - ad Missam Chrismatis, de SS. Corde Jesu and de DNJC Rege and the latter two new Prefaces have both Solemn and Ferial Tone versions, so let's call that five new Prefaces added since 1604 and let's not quibble over three or five for the moment.

Am I therefore justified in reading into the text of Universae Ecc. at: 4. pro the words "valde perpauca" so that it reads: ".....labentibusque saeculis [vide. valde perpauca] incrementa novisse"?

Makes more sense now and suitably modifies and neuters the "novisse".

PS: **There is a link from the Wiki entry on the "Roman Missal" to a scan of the 1862 MR very well done by Google. Pity they do not have a 1570ish MR as well. Gratias t'ago whoever in Google chose to scan and distribute those MR.

Joshua said...

Acc. to Jungmann:

Requiem Preface (1919)
Preface of St Joseph (1919)
P. of Christus Rex (1925)
P. of the S. Heart (1928)

As discussed much earlier, the Trinity Preface was only extended to Sundays by Clement XIII in 1759.

Bryan said...

New Votive Masses:

I have just compared the Index Missarum Votivarum in the said 1862 Missale Romanum at page xlvi (at page 911 of the Google scan) with the said Missale Romanum published in about 1630 which has the 1604 Typical Edition of Clement VIII. [Sorry to be vague about date but still working on that]. For simplicity I shall refer to the latter MR as the 1630 MR.

So both have twenty Votive Masses in common. The difference between the two is that the 1862 MR has but the 1630 MR lacks the following two Votive Masses:

Pro Gratiarum Actione
Ad postulandam Gratiam bene morendi
and the following Missae:

de Ven. Secramento Feria V per annum
de Conceptione B. V. M. in Sabb. per annum
de Imm. Conceptione ejusdem B.V.M.
Votiva pro fidei Propagatione

but the 1630 MR has and the 1862 MR lacks:

Pro concordia in congregatione servanda

and in a supplement at the back of the 1630 MR it has more Votive Masses missing from the 1862 MR:

De Sancta Anna
Missa ad Honorem Virginis Gloriosae pro mulieribus praegnantibus & aut alias in partu laborantibus (Ev: Jn 16: Mulier cum parit)
Missa Dominae de Pietate , per Sixtum quartum edita
De sancto Sebastiano tempore pestis
Pro infirmo in agonia

**

The 1962 MR has thirty-one Prefaces, if one ignores the Votives for Blessings of Abbots and Abbesses and Votives for pleading for Vocations and Blessings Cemeteries. Compared with the 1862 MR the 1962 has the following new Votive Masses:

de S. Joseph
de omnibus SS Apostolis
de DNJC summo et aeterno Sacerdote
de SS~MO Corde Jesu
de omnibus Sanctis
In die Coronatione Papae

and the old ad Tollendum Schismata, which was in the 1630 MR as well the 1862 MR is re-named in the 1962 as "Missa pro Ecc. Unitate". Likewise the Contra Paganos of the 1630 MR is renamed as "Missa pro Ecclesia Defensione".

Bryan said...

Joshua,

Thanks - yes I omitted St Joseph as an new Preface (in both Solemn and Ferial tones) in the 1962 MR missing from the 1862 MR.

Had not spotted Defunct. though - thanks again: for pointing that out - work in progress...

Both added in 1919 - I wonder whether the great loss of life in the Great War and the disruption to families and the (I assume) inevitable increase in numbers of orphans and step-fathers increased the devotion to St Joseph, as the model father and step-father, which devotion in the 20th Cent has eclipsed even St John the Baptist and he after all, like Our Lady, has a Feast of his Nativity as well as the Decollatio...