Throwback Thursday: Martin Chemnitz on the Mass

Note: This post was originally published on Nov 9, 2019. ~ Ed.

“…the pastors and ministers of the church who wish to celebrate Mass should, if communicants are present, approach the altar with all decency, and with deep devotion and invocation of the Son of God, and begin, celebrate and complete the Office of the Mass not merely in their common clothing but also in their churchly vestments, such as alb, chasuble and stole.  The altar should also be adorned and clothed with fair linens and other decorative cloths.  Likewise, candles shall burn on the altar, because such is the observance in neighboring Reformation churches.  And nevertheless the common people may be instructed that such things are unnecessary, as though a special service to God consisted in them or the sanctification of this Sacrament depended upon them.  Rather, this practice may be observed as adiaphora without any superstition.  And so that in all the churches of this principality the ceremonies in the Office of the Mass may henceforth be conducted in all points with decency, order, and uniformity, as much as ever is possible… (Chemnitz continues to detail the Propers and the Ordinaries, including their chanting).”

(Martin Chemnitz and Jacob Andreae, Church Order for Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel: How Doctrine, Ceremonies, and Other Church-Related Matters Shall (by God´s Grace) Be Conducted Henceforth, vol. 9, Chemnitz´s Works, trans. Jacob Corzine, Matthew C. Harrison, and Andrew Smith, ed. Jacob Corzine and Matthew Carver [CPH, 2015], 81).