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Date :
Place :
From the Edit of Milan, 313 AD
Beginning in Rome and spreading to the Christian
Time :
Mediterranean
From 300s to 1500s
Attending : Baptized Catholics
Preparation : A single altar in a room fit for a King
Environment : A grandiose setting; a meeting with royalty
BASILICA, a palace, a large hall. (Latin from the Greek.) Latin basilica, royal; feminine of basilicus , royal. Greek. βασιλικός, basilikos, royal.
Greek. βασιλεύς, basileus, a king .
In Rome, applied specifically to the seven principal churches founded by
Constantine.
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Basilica: a large public gathering place for large groups of Christians after the Edict of Milan.
Made up of the following areas:
Apse, the sanctuary area where the altar was located;
Transept, a section that crosses the main section ;
Nave, the central open area leading from the front door to the apse;
Aisle, placed on the sides leading toward the front;
Narthex, open area just before entering nave, an outer porch;
Atrium, from the Roman house, it is a foyer or receiving area near the entrance.

Emperor Constantine
(c.274 – 337)
His Edict of Milan in 313 recognized
Christianity; he set out building great churches through Rome fit for a king.
and named with the title of king (basileus).
Constantine and His Mother, St Helena

The Basilica of Maxentius or the Basilica of Constantine (begun by
Maxentius in 306, but finished by Constantine after 313; hence, the two names) was the last non-Christian basilica built on the Roman forum. It was built for commercial and administrative purposes. Parts of the Velia ridge between the Esquiline and the Palatine hills had to be leveled for the basilica.

The so-called Basilica, Constantine's throne room, is the largest surviving single-room structure from Roman times, built in 310.The Romans wanted the architecture to express the magnificence and might of the emperor.

QVOD DVCE TE MVNDVS SVRREXIT IN ASTRA TRIVMPHANS HANC
CONSTANTINVS VICTOR TIBI CONDIDIT AVLAM
“Because the world under Your conduct has risen triumphant to the very heavens, Constantine the conqueror has built this temple in
Your honor.”

Rome –Holy Cross in Jerusalem
Rome – St. Lawrence outside the walls.
Rome -- St. Sebastian; ca. 312-313 (?)
Rome – St. Paul’s Outside the Walls
St. Mary Major
Lateran Basilica (St. John Lateran).
Started ca. 313.
Rome -- St. Peter's; begun ca. 320 (?).
On the Vatican Hill.

St. Paul’s outside the Walls
St John Lateran
St John Lateran
St. Mary Major

Sts Marcellinus and Peter
St. Lawrence outside the Walls
St. Sabina

The Basilica of Bethlehem, c. 333

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Processions
Courtly ritualized movement in the sanctuary
Metered chant
Sung litanies
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Incense
Mid 4 th Century (350s) to 5 th Century (400s)
Bells
Kissing sacred objects
Genuflections
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Mid 4 th Century (350s) to 5 th Century (400s)
Use of candles
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Mid 4 th Century (350s) to 5 th Century (400s)
Clothes worthy of a Roman senator
Simple plates and cups become elaborate chalices and patens
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Mid 4 th Century (350s) to 5 th Century (400s)
Communion by the faithful was in the hand, following the Last Supper and the custom of house churches.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem (313386) counsels the faithful to “make a throne of your hands in which to receive the King [in Holy Communion]. Great care must be taken for any fragments which might remain in one's hands, since just as one wouldn’t let gold dust fall to the ground so one should take even greater care when it is a question of the Body of the Lord.”
St. John Damascus ( c. 730)
“ The bread and the wine are not merely figures of the body and blood of Christ (God forbid!) but the deified body of the Lord itself: for the Lord has said, "This is My body," not, this is a figure of
My body: and "My blood," not, a figure of My blood. And on a previous occasion He had said to the Jews, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.
For My flesh is meat indeed and My blood is drink indeed. And again, He that eateth Me, shall live. Wherefore with all fear and a pure conscience and certain faith let us draw near and it will assuredly be to us as we believe, doubting nothing. Let us pay homage to it in all purity both of soul and body: for it is twofold. Let us draw near to it with an ardent desire, and with our hands held in the form of the cross let us receive the body of the Crucified One: and let us apply our eyes and lips and brows and partake of the divine coal, in order that the fire of the longing, that is in us, with the additional heat derived from the coal may utterly consume our sins and illumine our hearts, and that we may be inflamed and deified by the participation in the divine fire. Isaiah saw the coal. But coal is not plain wood but wood united with fire: in like manner also the bread of the communion is not plain bread but bread united with divinity. But a body which is united with divinity is not one nature, but has one nature belonging to the body and another belonging to the divinity that is united to it, so that the compound is not one nature but two.” ( De Fide Orthodoxa Book IV, ch. XIII)
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Mid 4 th Century (350s) to 5 th Century (400s)
Rise of extraordinary bishops--Church Fathers--Augustine, Chrysostom, etc.
Decline in active participation, removal of the assembly by screens of stone hid choir; the Mass remained in Latin, side altar Masses, priest faced the wall, prayed in Latin;
People ceased going to Communion because the Eucharist was presented as being beyond people’s holiness; Church mandated “Easter duty”.
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Mid 4 th Century (350s) to 5 th Century (400s)
Estrangement prompted people to ask the priest to hold up the Host for their viewing and adoration; “Hold it higher, sir priest”; priests were stipended to hold the Host longer; people went from church to church to “see” Jesus.
From a prolonged elevation of the Host, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament became popular.
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The beginnings of the Latin mass in Rome are wrapped in almost total darkness. [Jungman, S.J., p. 37]
The only difference between the Latin Mass as we know it and the Greek
Mass of Hippolytus are one or two prayers by the celebrant in the fore-Mass, a prayer over the gifts, an ever-changing text for the Praefatio before the
Sanctus , and a prayer after Communion.
There was a stability in the canon, the unchanging text of the prayer from the Te igitur to the concluding doxology, and the continuation of text from the Pater noster to the dismissal.
Benedict XIV (1744 - 1758 ) wrote: "Canon is the same word as rule, the Church uses this name to mean that the Canon of the Mass is the firm rule according to which the
Sacrifice of the New Testament is to be celebrated." ( De SS. Missæ Sacr ., Lib. II, xii)
The Mass of Rome developed in Rome itself. Between the 200s and
500s, the first thing was to translate the liturgy from Greek into Latin.
The core of the Roman canon existed by the end of the 300s (fourth century).
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5th Century (400s) to 6 th Century (500s)
The beginning of the Latin Mass in Rome (and the West generally) is not until the sixth century (500s) . [Jungmann, S.J., p. 33]
The core of the Mass canon , from Quam oblationem on, including the sacrificial prayer after the consecration, was already in existence by the end of the fourth century (300s). The only new elements that this canon exhibits is the prayer that the gifts will be graciously accepted, and the explicit prayer for a change in these gifts.
[Jungmann, S.J., p.40]
By the early 400s the canon included: Te igitur, Memento Domine and the Quam Oblationem . Not found: Communicantes, Hanc igitur, Memento etiam and Nobis quoque . Pope Gelasius I (492-496) finished a canon.
No fixed canon; but a living custom .. a tradition.
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5th Century (400s) to 6 th Century (500s)
There were various other liturgies during this period: the Roman-African and the Gallic (the Gallic subdivided into Gallican, Celtic, Old Spanish or
Mozarabic, and the Milanese or Ambrosian). This liturgy did not last long.
Someone, to preserve such traditions, in the 300s, worked out the basic text of the Roman canon; in the same era, other portions of the Roman
Mass were altered and amplified; regular tripling (even quadrupling) the priests’ prayers--one (or two) at the beginning, one over the sacrificial offerings, and one after the communion. [Jungmann, S.J., p. 43]
Documents of the 500s still show the Mass beginning with the readings followed by the general prayer (prayers of the Faithful?) for the Church.
General prayer for the Church was part of the Roman rite under Pope
Felix I (483-492). Pope Gelasius I (492-496) removed the general prayer for the Church and had substituted the Kyrie litany.
The framework of the Roman Mass must have been essentially determined by the turn of the fifth century (450s) especially for the prayers said by the priest.
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5th Century (400s) to 6 th Century (500s)
The word missa , (meaning missa = missio = dimissio ) a dismissal, from ite missa est , emerges around the end of the fourth century, the late 300s.
The divine service referred to as a unit, a missa , “a mass,” appeared about 400.
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5th Century (400s) to 6 th Century (500s)
Books of the old Roman liturgy were collected; there appeared the liber sacramentorum or sacramentarium ) for the Pope or celebrating bishop; the apostolus for the reader of the epistle; and the evangelium for the deacon reader of the gospel; texts for groups of singers ( schola cantorum ) and the cantatorium for the individual chanter/singer; a book of directions. the ordines —rubric books for clerics
Three sacramentaries or versions of the ritual and content for the Eucharist exist: the Leonine Sacramentary (600s--finished about 540), the Gelasian Sacramentary early 700s--a Roman Mass book in all essentials; and the Sacramentarium Gregorian (no earlier that the 800s).
Pope St. Gregory actually produced this Mass book --prayer texts still in use today and the prefaces of Easter and Ascension!
There appeared a book, a papal feast-day and stational missal.
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Gregory the Great (590-604) modified the Kyrie , the Pater Noster , the preface and Hanc igitur . To him is accredited singing, especially old simple chants between the readings, processional chants at the beginning, at the offertory and Communion.
At Rome, simple services were held Sundays and feast days, and a community service conducted by the Pope (in the day’s statio ).
Station churches are the churches that are appointed for special morning and evening services during Lent, Easter and some other important days. The tradition started in order to strengthen the sense of community within the Church in Rome, as this system meant that the Pope would visit each part of the city and celebrate
Eucharist with the congregation.
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