THE MASS: A STUDY OF THE ROMAN LITURGY BY FATHER ADRIAN FORTESCUE

The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy
Father Adrian Fortescue
2007 429 pages (first published 1912) reprint of 1930 ed. / hardback with dust jacket

First published in 1912, Fr Fortescue’s liturgical-archeological classic, The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy, remains one of the most erudite works ever written in English on the subject of the historical development of the ancient Roman Mass up to its present “Tridentine” form.

As an authority on the liturgies of the various Eastern Rites as well as the Latin, Fr Fortescue had a unique expertise in comparing the few historical liturgical fragments available from the New Testament, Apostolic and Patristic times to the learned opinions of his contemporaries, thereby skillfully outlining how the Roman Mass perhaps developed over the centuries.  He especially focused on how the Mass organically developed from Our Lord’s First Mass, and definitively demonstrated that the traditional Roman Mass is the most ancient and venerable rite existing in the entire Church.

Preserving Christian Publications reprinted the 1930 edition which is essentially the same book as the 1912 printing except for the editor’s preface added to the 1930 printing. 

“. . . the Roman Missal promulgated by St. Pius V. . . [was] never abrogated . . . .”
– Pope Benedict XVI, motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, July 7, 2007