Of the liturgies of Basill and Chrysostome, looke in the defence against Gardiner, Page 2.
1 BEcause in manie places there is oftentimes mention made of this Hebrew worde Mas, 2 which signifieth tribute, whereof is deriued Masah, which word by some is taken for the tribute that hath bin accustomed to be paid by each person: In very déede diuers bondslaues of the Pope haue thought that their Masse hath taken his name fro~ thence. Wherefore perhappes it shall not be vnprofitable to write somewhat thereof. We haue that word in the 16. Chapter of Deuteronomie, when God commaundeth that after Easter vii wéekes should be numbred, and then should be held the feast of Pentecost: Thou shalt appeare (saith he) before the Lord and thou shalt giue Missath Nidbhath Iadeca, that is, a freewill offering of thine owne hand. And so is that oblation called as it were a yeerelie tribute, which neuerthelesse should come willinglie. Howbeit others (and that perhaps more truelie) interprete that word a sufficiencie, namely, that there should so much be giuen as might be enough and sufficient. For in the 15. Chapter of the same booke, where the Lord commaundeth the Israelites, that they should open their handes vnto the poore, and should lend them sufficient: 3 that particle De, the Chaldie Paraphrast interpreteth Missah. In which place I perceiue there must be a consideration had aswell of the want of the poore as of the habilitie of the giuer: for this was méete to be obserued in voluntarie oblations, to wit, that so much should be giuen as the power of the giuers would suffer, and as much as might be comelie for the seruice of GOD. Hereof these men of ours, thinke that the Masse tooke her name, as though it were a tribute or freewill offering, which is euerywhere offered to God in the Church for the quicke and the dead. But I doe not so thinke. Doubtlesse I know very wel, 4 that y e Church hath borrowed certaine wordes of the Hebrewes: as Satan, Osanna, Zebaoth, Halleluia, Pesah or Pascha, and such other. Howbeit it must be considered that those wordes came not vnto the Latin Church but by the Gréeke: 5 seeing those wordes are found in the new Testament as it was first written in Gréeke, and also in the Translation of the olde Testament, as it was translated by the seuentie. Wherefore we haue no Hebrew wordes deriued vnto our Church which the Gréeke Church had not before. But if wée diligentlie examine the Gréeke bookes of the Fathers, we shall neuer finde the word Masse vsed by them. Wherefore I doe not thinke that the name of Masse is deriued from the Hebrewes.
2 The Gréeke Church called the holy supper ⟨…⟩, 6 which word signifieth a common and publike worke. Neither is it proper to holy things, nay rather it is applyed euen to prophane actions which were publike. And who is ignorant, that the administratio~ of the Lordes supper is a matter pertaining to the Christian people? For so manie as be present, ought to be partakers thereof, and to communicate together. And that they doe not passe ouer this: 7 there is an Argument of some weight taken against priuate Masses out of the Etimologie of that word. Furthermore that word, belongeth not onelie vnto y e Eucharist, but it is applied vnto other holie functions. Wherefore in the 13. 8 Chapter of the Actes it is written of the Apostles, ⟨…⟩, the which some haue turned, They sacrificing, whereas they should rather haue sayd: They ministring or woorking publikelie, to wit, in the holy seruice: which no doubt but they did in preaching of the Gospell. Among the Latins there were other names of this holy function. For sometime it is called a Communion, 9 otherwhile the supper of the Lord, now and then the Sacrament of the bodie of Christ, or the breaking of bread: and many times our fathers, as did the Gréekes called the fearefull mysteries, ⟨…⟩. 10 I omit that they very ofte~ vsed the name of sacrifice, not certainlie as our aduersaries fondlie imagin, that therein is offered vnto God by the priest, the bodie and bloud of Christ for the quicke and the dead, notwithstanding that the fathers also themselues haue not mislyked of that manner of speach wherein they said, that the bodie, and bloud of Christ is offered vnto God. But what they meant by these wordes, if they be attentiuely read, they plainlie declare: namelie, that then thankes are giuen vnto God, who for our sakes gaue his sonne vnto death and vnto the crosse. 11 By these names haue the most auncient Fathers called it the supper of the Lord: but of Masse, they haue made no mention. For if thou wilt read Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Hilarius and their equals, thou shalt neuer finde that word among the~ in that signification. 12 Augustine made mention thereof at two seuerall times: namely in his 237. Sermon, De Tempore, where he speaketh of the Masse of the Catechumeni. There he exhorted men to the forgiuing of iniuries one toward an other. For (saith he) we must come to y e Masse of the Catechumeni, where we shall pray, Forgiue vs our trespasse, euen as we forgiue them that trespasse against vs. Also in the 91. Sermon De Tempore he writeth: In the historie which is to be read at Masses. Some haue doubted whether these were Augustines sermons. Truely they séeme vnto me to be the stile and sentenses of Augustine. 13 And if I shall follow mine owne coniecture, I thinke that this name of Masse began in a manner at that time to be vsed, seldome in déede, but not often: for if that word had bin vsuall at that time, there would haue bin more often mention thereof, especiallie by Augustine, who applyed his speach vnto the common people.