The Roman Mass: Early Christian Origins to Tridentine Reform

The Roman Mass: Early Christian Origins to Tridentine Reform

Uwe Michael Lang

Cambridge University Press, £89.99, 456 pages

The Liturgical Movement and reforms of the Second Vatican Council sought a repristination of the textual sources and ritual practices of the Roman Rite. In Missale Romanum, his apostolic constitution promulgating the 1970 Roman Missal, Paul VI explained how progress in liturgical studies from the Council of Trent to the eve of Vatican II led to a rediscovery of, and renewed appreciation for, “more ancient sources” of the Church’s liturgy. These advances, together with a more profound appreciation for the liturgy of the Eastern Churches, opened the way to a reform of the Roman Rite in the latter part of the 20th century.