The Tridentine Mass has recently attracted a lot of attention in the Catholic World, with Pope Francis placing some restrictions on the traditional liturgy.
Since the Tridentine Mass was adopted after the Council of Trento, how was the Catholic liturgy celebrated before that? Did it have any similarity with the Orthodox liturgy of St. John Chrysostom? Was there even an unified liturgical tradition? Also, did any sort of movement to preserve old liturgical tradition exist after the establishment of the Tridentine Mass, similar to the reactions to Vatican II Council?
The 'Tridentine Mass ' is essentially the Mass as celebrated in the Roman Curia and present in the first Messals printed for this Rite (Milan 1474, Venice 1494, Burckardi 1502 and others).
The Pope (or better the commission that produced the missal) made some modifications .
- changed some orations, for example the prayer at the immixtio 'Fiat commixtio, et consecratio corporis et sanguinis Domini nostri Iesu Christi, accipientibus nobis. In vitam aeternam amen' was changed with 'Haec commixtio et consecratio ... fiat accipientibus nobis, etc.'; or the prayer at the peace from 'Domini Iesu Christe, qui dixisti apostolis tuis: pacem meam do vobis pacem relinquo vobis' to 'pacem relinquo vobis, pacem meam do vobis'
- reduced the number of variation permitted for some parts, as the final benediction
- changed the rubrics at the Last Supper Narrative, changing the place for the elevation of the Chalice and adding the profund bows (before there was only inclinations, and less)
-changed some rubrics for many other parts
- removed some saints from the calendar
Except for this, the 1570 Missal is identical to the precedent Missals of the Roman Curia in the Ordinary, the proper and the Santoral.
Outside the Roman Curia what was used? many placed used 'Roman Missals' but with local variations, even in Rome! For example the Lateran Basilica had a differents musical tradition from Saint Peter and had some variation in the Ordinary (for example do not end the 'Agnus Dei' with the 'dona nobis pacem').
Many other diocese and religious orders used the Roman Missals but with variations as the additions of prefaces and saints, some modifications at prayers, some variations at some prayer, a great number of sequences
Other diocese used some 'sister rites' of the Roman Missal: bot this missals and the roman borned from the encounter of the roman liturgical tradition with the 'gallican' liturgies used in France (part of a liturgical family used in first millennium in France, Spain and British Isles), and they had some mayor variations in the liturgical chant, in the Ordinary, differences in the proper and in some rituals . we could call it 'romano-germanic rites'
Mayor esponents of this group were the so called 'neo gallican liturgies' as the Parisian Rite or the Lyonese Rite; the Aquileian-Patriarchin Liturgy used in North-East Italy, the Sarum Rite.
Other two groups are a bit different:
- the Church of Toledo had a very different liturgical rite, the hispanic-mozarabic rite, last survivor of the some family of the gallical rites. The differences with the Roman Rite are big: for example the romano germanic rites had only an Eucharistic prayer (the Canon, with seasonal variations), the mozarabic rites have a different eucharistic prayer for every sunday and festivities. it also has a very different Rite of Fraction that you could see here
- the Church of Milan with great differences from the Roman Rite: many elements from the Early Roman liturgy (as the fraction immediately after the Canon, a different preface for every Mass), elements from the Gallican liturgy (you can see the specific Canons for Holy Tuesday and Holy Saturday) and other variations as the Creed not before but after the Offertory.
NOTE. this groups were not so separated from the others, and exchanges many elements, with the Roman Rite that made the part of the lion and spread by religious orders as the Franciscans. Also there was no central authority to govern the liturgy, but it was made 'from the bottom' and manifested mostly with the addition of new elements (es. the Elevations at the Consecration)
If you want to see the differences in the Ordinary of some rites you can use this pdf https://schola-sainte-cecile.com/ressources/pdf/synopsisrituum2004.pdf in my opinion not very easy to read and with not all the rubrics
You can see three great groups:
- every rite except Ambrosian (Milan) and mozarabic; they had the same succession of the elements, but many parts and orations have variations, for example in the offertorial prayers (elements relativaly recent IX-XIII century) . Some elements, for example the Roman Canon, are nearly identical and are the most ancient elements.
- the Ambrosian Rite; variations on the sequence of parts, some variations in the Canon
- the mozarabic liturgy; great differences in the succession in the elements (for example the 'offertory' at the start of the Mass) and many elements that do not exists in the other rites.
I will reserve myself to write another comment about the effect of Quo primum on the liturgical diversity of the West
In the previous comment I forgot that there was several communities of 'byzantine rite' in italy: the Abbey of Grottaferrata near Rome (founded in XI century) that has a rite with several commixtion with the Roman Rite, as a major emphasis to the Crucifixion; and various diocesis in South Italy (about their liturgies I recommend the publications of Stefano Parenti). From XV century also various communities of albanians of eastern rite arrived in South italy and mantained their liturgical tradition.
In 1570 Pius V issued the bull Quo primum tempore (latin, english) regarding your question give tre indications:
- every community (diocesis, religious orders etc) that yet were using the Roman Rite should use only use the Missal as printed by the pope
- every priest could use this rite without limitations
- that Diocesis that were using a rite older than two centuries could continue to use it, and they could abolish it only with the consensus of all the chapter of canons.
Now we can see the results in every case.
Firstly the other local uses near or in Rome died, with the exception of Grottaferrata (abandoned in XVIII century but then revived) and the the Papal Mass at saint Peter (here an article in italian that describe it): this use was very particular because the Pope dis not take the Communion by itself, but it was given by other chierics, an use that was documented from the ordines Romeni of VIII centuru was the norm in great part of christian liturgies in first millennium (Robert Taft, Oltre l'oriente e l'occidente, pag 141-151)
In italy the diffusion of the Roman Rite thank to the printing cosed many rites to die, for example the greek rite disappeared iin every diocesis (Bova abandoned it in 1573) but survived between the albanians because they had privileges.
The aquileians-Patriarchin rite was greatly eroded by the competitions of the most common Roman Missal, and the Patriarchy abandoned it officially in 1596; it survived in St Mark's basilica until 1806 when the church ceased to be nullius diocesis. The patriarchin liturgical tradition survived well until the reforms of Pius X that give a great damage to it (an article about this)
The ambrosian rite continued well in diocesi of Milan and nearby territory, but suffered a romanization and losses of certain elements: nevertheless remained a rite totally distinct from the roman.
Many french diocesis continued to use their rite and also reformed their missals and made new editions of their liturgical books. Before the XIX century in many parts of France the roman rite was unknown: for example in Paris the only place where it was used was the King's Chapel, and the Curee d'Ars used a local liturgy.
The problem started when in the liturgical books entered jansenistic concepts, and after the french revolution the gallicanism was set to be eradicated in favour of a romanization. one the objectives of the XIX century Liturgical Movement was to abolish their use, and they succeed everywhere except in Lyon, where the local rite was mantained but romanized in many aspects.
The mozarabic rite started his decline in XI century, when Gregory VII asked to abolish it; with the time was restricted only to some communities in the city of Toledo. Around the start of the XVI it was de facto a dying rite, with probably less than ten priest able to celebrate it, and many used it rarely. Fortunately the rite took the attention of Cardinal Ximenes Cisneros, the regent of the newborn Spain, that gave order to produce a new edition of the liturgical books. What was created is somewhat discutible (because we do not know which manuscripts thay used to compiled them) and heavily romanized, but the general strubcture survived. Cisneros also created a chapel in the Cathedral of Toledo with a groups of canons committed to celebrate with that Missal and use that Office. The rite than survived because became somewhat a nationalistic symbol in the hispanic world, with an edition of the Missal printed even in Mexico, and his conservation continued by defaunlt, even when there was some declines in the numbers of the canons.
The domenican mantained their distinctive liturgy, and so the carthusians.
The rites in protestant europe died substituted by new liturgies, but many local elements survived in places where there was a strong high church tendency, for example in Scandinavia or England.
And even in places where there was only the Roman Rite there was difference with the 'pure' Roman Use: for example in Germany there is/was additional ringing of the bells by the server; in Spain the rite for putting the wine and the water in the chalice there was different gestures; in Italy the chalice was put on the altar at the beginning of the offertory, in France at the start of the Mass. Also many diocesis and religious orders had permits to put additional elements, for example some prefaces taken by neo-gallican liturgies continued (and continue) to be used in French.
Also some parts of Croatia continued to use a form of the roman liturgy, but with the latin replaced by church slavonic.
Resuming, at the beginning of the Second Vatican Council this survived in the West:
. the Ambrosian Rite in Milan and nearby zone
- the Lyonese Rite in Lyon
- the Mozarabic Rite in Toledo
- the Braghese Rite in Portugal (I don't know anything about this)
- the Dominican Rite
- the Greek rite of Grottaferrata
- the Greek Rite between the italo-albanians
- the glagolitic use of Croatia
- the patriarchin chant in remote zones of North-East Italy
- the Papal Mass at st Peter
What survive now?
- after the Council many ambrosians struggled to abolish their rite to adopt the New Rite. Fortunately they were stopped by cardinal Colombo, bishop of Milan, and they 'reformed' it but with many changes and romanizations, and for many years they have struggled with many subseguent reforms to find and restore the identity of their Rite, for example restoring the old local calendar. The pre-conciliar rite also resist i 3-6 places, the first of them created by the progressist cardinal Martini.
- the Lyonese Rite was abandoned for the New Rite, but somewhat survived and now there is a traditionalist community thar regularly use it (here a solemn in this rite)
- the mozarabic rite was reformed and many romanizations abolished, but they changed the placement of the offertory that now is in the some place of the Roman Rite. Nevertheless they did a decent work and now this Missal is used in various places around Spain, and it was celebrated some times at St Peter, one even by John Paul II
- about the Braghese Rite I don't know anything
- the Dominican Rite survived and now it experience a revival in certain groups
- no informations about the chartusians
- the community of Grottaferrata is shrinking
- the italo-albanians communities are alive, but with problems
- the glagolitic use in Croatia was abandoned for the Mss, but other elements as the Office and the chants survived and now there are communities that started to use it again
- the patriarchin chant suffered greatly from the '60, but some communities continued to use it and many groups (as the powerful Glesie Furlan) are active promoters, but suffers from the loss in some historic centers, for example Grado. you can find many videos on youtube, for example this playlist
- the last Papal Mass with the Old rite was celebrated in 1964, and much of the knowledge about the use were transmitted orally by the clergy of the Basilica. but we have many description about it
This is what i know in a resume, I'm open for questions or corrections, because I'm not an expert but only an enthusiast