Assume that I am a Roman Catholic today, if I went back to the Vatican in 1000 AD, will I be able to follow the Mass and recognize the liturgy?

by bluerobot27
kashisaur

Short answer: Yes, because you picked Rome. At the Council of Trent (1545-1563), the Roman Rite became the standard rite of Roman Catholicism, which means that unless you are in certain areas of Spain, Portugal, or Milan (which were able to demonstrate that their rites were sufficiently ancient), your rite would be modeled after the Roman Rite, and the general form has been retained.

This does not mean that there have been no changes, and certainly some parts would be difficult for you to recognize, as they have been removed or significantly truncated. However, many of those changes would only be recognizable to the priest, whose responsibilities during the mass (in the form of secrets, or private prayers said in a low voice) were much greater before the reforms of Vatican II in the 20th century. Two more obvious differences between today and the 11th century would be as follows:

  • Orientation of the priest. Before Vatican II, while celebrating the Eucharist, the priest faced ad orientem, meaning he stood with his back to the congregation, facing the cross with them. The current preference in the Roman Rite is for the priest to face ad populum, meaning he faces the people. It is still valid to stand ad orientem, and so this might not be unrecognizable depending on your liturgical sentiments.
  • The rood screen. There is a chance that the sanctuary in 1000AD would have had a rood screen. Such screens came in many forms and types, but in general they are physical barriers between the people and the chancel (which houses the altar), permitting various degrees of sight of the Eucharistic celebration. They could be fairly open or quite obscurity. At the Council of Trent, efforts were made to make the Eucharistic celebration more visible to the people, and thus rood screens fell out of use. However, they are not illicit and can still be found today, albeit rarely.

Sources / Further Reading:

The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Developments by Josef Jungmann (Ave Maria Press, 2012)

Trent: What Happened at the Council by John W. O'Malley (Belknap Press, 2013)

[The Canons of the Council of Trent] (http://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent.html) (A 19th century English translation)

TheLegendOfNick

Follow up question: If I attend a latin ad orietem mass today, will much change?