Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/257

 MASS MASSACHUSETTS 245 often left to commune alone. Still, in popu- lous parishes in most Roman Catholic coun- tries, communion is distributed at most private masses, and the utility of frequent communion is sedulously inculcated. With respect to the language used in the celebration of mass, the western churches use the Latin, and the Ro- man missal. (See LITTJEGY, and MISSAL.) The eastern churches in union with that of Rome use the ancient idioms of their respec- tive peoples, and are not allowed to celebrate in Latin. The wishes sometimes expressed by larger or smaller bodies of the Catholic church to translate the liturgy of the mass into the modern languages, and to let the re- sponses at the mass be recited or sung by the entire congregation, have never been favored by the highest ecclesiastical authorities, though in some cases it has been permitted as a privi- lege, as for instance to the duke Eugene of Wurtemberg, who in 1786 received from Pius VI. permission to introduce the German mass into his court chapel. There are different kinds of masses. A high or solemn mass is celebrated with the assistance of a deacon and subdeacon, and is sung by choristers ; but the principal mass on Sundays and festivals, in which part of the service is sung by the priest without deacon or subdeacon, is usually called in this country high mass. A low mass is one of which no part is sung, and at which the priest has no assistant but his clerk. The or- dinary duration of a low mass is half an hour. The mass of the presanctified (missa prcesancti- jicatorwri) is the name given to the service celebrated in the Latin church on Good Friday, and in the orthodox Greek church on nearly all the week days in Lent. It consists in the consumption by the priest of the bread con- secrated on a previous day; and is, properly speaking, not a mass at all, the consecration being an essential part of the sacrifice. At all masses the priest wears vestments which in- dicate by their color the ecclesiastical season of the year or the stated festival which is cele- brated. Thus red is used for the feast of mar- tyrs, white for those of virgins, purple for the penitential seasons of Lent, Advent, and vigils. At the masses for the dead black vestments are used, some psalms and ceremonies omitted, and the people are dismissed without the Bene- diction. Masses may be said for any special purpose (votive masses), as for the recovery of health, for the avoiding of danger, for obtain- ing a special favor, &c. In the middle ages some practices crept in which the church con- demned,.as the celebration of the mass without the assistance of a clerk, the combination of several masses in one in order to get a greater payment, &c. The " Congregation of Rites," instituted by Sixtus Y. in 1587, watches over the purity of the ritual. The Greek church and the other eastern churches hold, in the main, the same views with regard to the mass as the Roman Catholic church. The difference is mostly limited to ceremonies. Every mem- ber of the Catholic church is bound, under pain of mortal sin, by one of the "precepts of the church," unless prevented by sickness or other grave impediment, to attend mass every Sunday and on certain holidays called days of obligation. MASSA, a town of Italy, capital of the prov- ince of Massa e Carrara, on the Frigido, 35 m. N. N. W. of Leghorn ; pop. about 5,000. It has a lyceum, a gymnasium, a beautiful castle, and important silk manufactories. MASSA E CARRARA, a central province of Italy, in Tuscany, embracing the former duchy of Massa-Carrara ; area, 680 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 161,944. The principal rivers flowing through it are the Serchio and the Magra. Branches of the Apennines conjointly with the Apuan Alps traverse the entire province. The most important product is the marble of Carrara. Wine and olives are cultivated. It is divided into the districts of Massa, Carrara, Pontremoli, and Castelnuovo. Capital, Massa. The former duchy was before 1741 the posses- sion of the house of Cibo-Malaspina, and sub- sequently, through the marriage of the daugh- ter of the last duke, a possession of the Estes of Modena, together with which it was oc- cupied by the French in 1796. After vari- ous changes it was reunited with Modena in 1829, and annexed to the dominions of Victor Emanuel in 1860. MASSAC, a S. county of Illinois, bordering on the Ohio ; area, 240 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 9,581. The surface is diversified and heavily timbered, and the soil fertile. It contains coal and lead. The chief productions in 1870 were 72,316 bushels of wheat, 133,126 of In- dian corn, 22,097 of oats, 13,125 of potatoes, 67,560 Ibs. of tobacco, 42,505 of butter, and 2,034 tons of hay. There were 762 horses, 948 milch cows, 1,263 other cattle, 2,297 sheep, and 5,424 swine ; 1 manufactory of wagon materials, 1 of tobacco and snuff, 4 saw mills, and 5 flour mills. Capital, Metropolis. MASSACHUSETTS, one of the thirteen original states of the American Union, and one of the New England states, between lat. 41 15' and 42 53' N., and Ion. 69 56' and 73 32' W. ; ex- treme length N". E. and S. W., 160 m. ; breadth from 47 to about 90 m. ; estimated area, 7,800 sq. m. It is bounded N. by Vermont and New Hampshire, E. by the Atlantic ocean, S. by the Atlantic, Rhode Island, and Con- necticut, and W. by New York. It is divided into 14 counties, viz. : Barnstable, Berkshire, Bristol, Dukes, Essex, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, Middlesex, Nantucket, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk, and Worcester. Boston, the commercial centre and the largest city of New England, is the capital ; in 1870 it con- tained 250,526 inhabitants, but by the annexa- tion of Charlestown, Brighton, and West Rox- bury, in 1873, its population was, according to assessors' returns, increased to about 360,000 in 1 874. The other cities are Cambridge, which in 1870 had 39,634 inhabitants ; Chelsea, 18,547;