Note (return) — CHAP. IV.

Anciently three masses used to be celebrated at Rome57 on this day, as is evident from the sacramentary of pope Gelasius; and at all the three the Pope himself officiated. At the first the public penitents were absolved:58 at the second the oils were blessed; the last (ad vespertinum officium) was intended to commemorate the institution of the blessed Sacrament. Public penance gradually declined in the western church after the seventh century; and the three masses are now reduced to one. That of the Sixtine chapel, at which the Pope assists, differs very little from ordinary Masses celebrated there, and the concourse of persons is generally very great.