What if the Holy Sacrifice of Mass was outlawed in the United States? We received a taste of that during the Covid mandates, when churches were closed, while abortion mills, casinos, and liquor stores remained open. June 9th, 1549, was Pentecost Sunday, the ancient feast that ended the fifty days of Easter. And on that feast day, in England in 1549, the English government outlawed the Holy Sacrifice of Mass.
English faithful, in a land that had been Catholic for 900 years, arrived for Mass that day and were introduced to a new communion service. It was a “masterpiece of ambiguity and compromise” that erased any semblance of sacrifice or transubstantiation—that bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ.
The new government-mandated service was called “The Supper of the Lord and Holy Communion commonly called the Mass.” The “commonly called the Mass” part was dropped three years later in 1552.
The word altar was erased in the newly issued prayer book and replaced with the word table. In the “reformed” service, no longer would the priest and faithful look together as one to the liturgical east, the direction of sacrifice. The table was brought forward, and a presider would stand on the other side of it and face the people. The government mandated that the service be in the vernacular. So, strangely, there was nothing to sing on the great and solemn feast of Pentecost, as the treasury of Latin chants and hymns were all thrown out.
Communion at the new service would be administered under both bread and wine to emphasize the meal, and everyone present was to partake of the meal. The altar bread was to be placed in people’s hand. That was done to remove the “superstition” of those who believed that it was really Christ’s Body and Blood.
And so, on June 9th, 1549, the Holy Sacrifice of Mass was turned into the Supper of the Lord. The stunned faithful complained, but it did no good. Their pastors told them that they were just following the law. If a priest refused to use the new prayer book, he was fined a year’s salary. For a second offense, he would lose his salary for life, and a third offense brought life imprisonment.
There would be no more lighting candles, no praying for the poor souls, no devotions to the Virgin Mary, no crucifixes. This was all designed to have the people lose their religion without having to preach about it. You see, the revolutionary social planners knew that if they could change the way people prayed, they could change the way they believed. And within a couple generations that happened. Catholic England was lost.
However, in June of 1549, the rural dwellers in the west of England refused to go along with the government mandate. They had enough common sense to understand that something was terribly wrong. And when government agents from London arrived telling them that the Mass of their fathers, and their fathers’ fathers, was going to be replaced with a new made-up service, the people in the Westcountry rebelled.
The Western Rising of 1549, also known as “The Prayer Book Rebellion,” was an armed rebellion that started in the west of England over the outlawing of Mass. The English government sent foreign mercenaries to crush it—the first time England had ever used foreign soldiers on her own people. The rising was over by August of 1549, but not before 5,000 Westcountrymen, a huge number at the time, had died. Died for what? They weren’t out to overthrow their government. No, they just wanted their Mass back. Their mission then was doomed from the start.
Many priests involved with the Western Rising were executed. The priest chaplain to the rebels was charged with “Preaching against the reformed religion and refusal to give up popish rites and ornaments.” A gallows was built on top of his church. Clothed in his Mass vestments, with a holy water bucket and rosary attached, he was hoisted by a rope around the waist and hanged in chains, left to die as a warning to others.
Christ died hanged on Calvary. And what did He die for? Was Christ out to overthrow the government? No. He just wanted to give us Holy Mass. His mission then was doomed from the start. But the night before He died, He promised to send us the Advocate, the Holy Spirit.
The Church was born on Pentecost, fifty days after Christ’s death and resurrection. It was then, the Church’s birthday, that God publicly manifested to the world His Mystical Body which is the Apostolic Church. And even today, as Pope John Paul II wrote, we have continuity with the Apostles. The huge St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and every little chapel and oratory where Mass is said are an extension of the first church building, the Upper Room, where the first Mass took place.
This makes the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church different than any other organization, business, or religion on earth. And how could it not be different? God started it. What other organization out there can claim to have a Mystical Body which has the Holy Spirit for its soul? None of them.
Pope John Paul II wrote that the power of the Holy Spirit which came at Pentecost was a result of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Note that he did not say the power comes from a supper or fellowship meal. No, it was the cross that strengthened the Apostles to act, and to perform their vocation. It was the cross that enabled them to bust out of the Upper Room and hit the streets, fearlessly preaching the Good News.
At the first Mass, the night before He died, Christ promised to send the Advocate. But that could and would only happen after Christ departed. The Ascension, however, was contingent on a Resurrection. And a Resurrection could only happen after a Crucifixion. You see, Christ did not come simply to teach or to share a meal with you. He came to die.
And He wants you to die with Him. This is why He gave you the Holy Sacrifice of Mass. He didn’t die on Calvary to give you a cracker. Why get out of bed for that? That is what the Church of England has been asking. That is what lapsed Catholics are asking; those who were snookered into praying differently in modern times, and as a result now believe differently.
Christ died to give you His Body and Blood to strengthen the Spirit within you. And that mystery is made present at Mass. Going forward you will live and die for what the world calls “superstition.” With God’s grace, you will keep the Spirit alive within you, and you will live and die for Christ.
Photo by David Bumgardner on Unsplash
