We will present a few
specimens, which may be multiplied by any one who will take Article
XXIV. of the Confession and read it, substituting either Lord's Supper
or eucharist in place of the word mass.
"By which means the people are attracted to the communion and the
_eucharist_, (the mass;") which is equivalent to saying, they were
attracted to the eucharist and the eucharist.
"An annual fair was made, at which _eucharists_ (masses) were bought
and sold." This would be historically untrue.
"And the greater part of them (the _eucharists_) in all the churches,
were performed for money." To this the same remark applies.
"These money-_eucharists_ and closet _eucharists_ (masses,) have ceased
in our churches:" but the eucharist certainly had not ceased.
"Hence also arose the controversy, whether a _eucharist_ (mass)
performed for (not by) a number of persons collectively, was as
efficacious as a separate _eucharist_ for each individual." This
question applies only to the mass proper, and was never mooted about
the eucharist.
"The ancient canons also show, that one of the priests performed or
celebrated (halten, celebrare) _eucharist, and administered the
communion to the other priests and deacons." [Note 34] This specimen,
like the first, would be purely tautological.
5. That the word mass is used in Article XXIV., distinctively for the
mass, is evident from the fact that the _Romanists so understood_ it,
and in their answer to the Confession attempt to refute the Protestant
rejection not of the Lord's Supper, but of the private _masses_, the
closet _masses_, and the sacrificial and vicarious nature of the _mass_
in general whilst they applaud the retention of public mass by the
Reformers, if they would only celebrate it according to canonical
regulations.
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