Essai de sociographie de la messe, 1200-1700

The mass as social institution 1200-1700. This essay is an attempt to analyse the social implications of the mass as a ritual during the later mediaeval and early modern periods, with a view to suggesting some reasons why it came to prove unacceptable in much of Europe during the sixteenth century. After an account of the structure and ideology of the mass as expounded by mediaeval commentators, it analyses first the sacrificial element of the mass, the canon, then the sacramental aspect, the communion : the Christian community is taken to be represented segmentally in the sacrifice. (attention is given to possible contexts for this view in the theory of sacrifice in general) and unitarity in the sacrament. The essay concludes with an exposition of the decline of social ritual (notably of the pax), both in the eucharistie rites of the Reformation and in the mass itself, from the sixteenth century onwards.Bossy John, Wane-Touzeau Marie-Solange. Essai de sociographie de la messe, 1200-1700. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 36ᵉ année, N. 1, 1981. pp. 44-70