MASPERO

maspero, gaston camille charles (1846- ), french egyptologist, was born in paris on the 23rd of june 1846, his parents being of lombard origin. while at school he showed a special taste for history, and when fourteen years old was already interested in hieroglyphic writing. it was not until his second year at the ecole normale in 1867 that maspero met with an egyptologist in the person of mariette, who was then in paris as commissioner for the egyptian section of the exhibition. mariette gave him two newly discovered hieroglyphic texts of considerable difficulty to study, and, self-taught, the young scholar produced translations of them in less than a fortnight, a great feat in those days when egyptology was still almost in its infancy. the publication of these in the same year established his reputation. a short time was spent in assisting a gentleman in peru, who was seeking to prove an aryan affinity for the dialects spoken by the indians of that country, to publish his researches; but in 1868 maspero was back in france at more profitable work. in 1869 he became a teacher (_repetiteur_) of egyptian language and archaeology at the ecole des hautes etudes; in 1874 he was appointed to the chair of champollion at the college de france. in november 1880 professor maspero went to egypt as head of an archaeological mission despatched thither by the french government, which ultimately developed into the well-equipped institut francais de l'archeologie oriental. this was but a few months before the death of mariette, whom maspero then succeeded as director-general of excavations and of the antiquities of egypt. he held this post till june 1886; in these five years he had organized the mission, and his labours for the bulak museum and for archaeology had been early rewarded by the discovery of the great cache of royal mummies at deir el-bahri in july 1881. maspero now resumed his professorial duties in paris until 1899, when he returned to egypt in his old capacity as director-general of the department of antiquities. he found the collections in the cairo museum enormously increased, and he superintended their removal from gizeh to the new quarters at kasr en-nil in 1902. the vast catalogue of the collections made rapid progress under maspero's direction. twenty-four volumes or sections were already published in 1909. the repairs and clearances at the temple of karnak, begun in his previous tenure of office, led to the most remarkable discoveries in later years (see karnak), during which a vast amount of excavation and exploration has been carried on also by unofficial but authorized explorers of many nationalities. among his best-known publications are the large _histoire ancienne des peuples de l'orient classique_ (3 vols., paris, 1895-1897, translated into english by mrs mcclure for the s.p.c.k.), displaying the history of the whole of the nearer east from the beginnings to the conquest by alexander; a smaller _histoire des peuples de l'orient_, 1 vol., of the same scope, which has passed through six editions from 1875 to 1904; _etudes de mythologie et d'archeologie egyptiennes_ (paris, 1893, &c.), a collection of reviews and essays originally published in various journals, and especially important as contributions to the study of egyptian religion; _l'archeologie egyptienne_ (latest ed., 1907), of which several editions have been published in english. he also established the journal _recueil de travaux relatifs a la philologie et a l'archeologie egyptiennes et assyriennes_; the _bibliotheque egyptologique_, in which the scattered essays of the french egyptologists are collected, with biographies, &c.; and the _annales du service des antiquites de l'egypte_, a repository for reports on official excavations, &c. maspero also wrote: _les inscriptions des pyramides de saqqaroh_ (paris, 1894); _les momies royales de deir el-bahari_ (paris, 1889); _les contes populaires de l'egypte ancienne_ (3rd ed., paris, 1906); _causeries d'egypte_ (1907), translated by elizabeth lee as _new light on ancient egypt_ (1908). mass (o.e. _maesse_; fr. _messe_; ger. _messe_; ital. _messa_; from eccl. lat. _missa_), a name for the christian eucharistic service, practically confined since the reformation to that of the roman catholic church. the various orders for the celebration of mass are dealt with under liturgy; a detailed account of the roman order is given under missal; and the general development of the eucharistic service, including the mass, is described in the article eucharist. the present article is confined (1) to the consideration of certain special meanings which have become attached to the word mass and are the subject of somewhat acute controversy, (2) to the mass in music. the origin of the word _missa_, as applied to the eucharist, is obscure. the first to discuss the matter is isidore of seville (_etym._ vi. 19), who mentions an "evening office" (_officium vespertinum_), a "morning office" (_officium matutinum_), and an office called _missa_. of the latter he says: "missa tempore sacrificii est, quando catechumeni foras mittuntur, clamante levita 'si quis catechumenus remansit, exeat foras.' et inde 'missa,' quia sacramentis altaris interesse non possunt, qui nondum regenerati sunt" ("the _missa_ is at the time of the sacrifice, when the catechumens are sent out, the deacon crying, 'if any catechumen remain, let him go forth.'" hence _missa_, because those who are as yet unregenerate--i.e. unbaptized--may not be present at the sacraments of the altar). this derivation of the word mass, which would connect it with the special formula of dismissal still preserved in the roman liturgy--_ite, missa est_--once generally accepted, is now disputed. it is pointed out that the word _missa_ long continued to be applied to any church service, and more particularly to the lections (see du cange for numerous examples), and it is held that such services received their name of _missal_ from the solemn form of dismissal with which it was customary to conclude them; thus, in the 4th century _pilgrimage of etheria_ (_silvia_) the word _missa_ is used indiscriminately of the eucharist, other services, and the ceremony of dismissal. f. kattenbusch (herzog-hauck, _realencyklop. s._ "messe") ingeniously, but with little evidence, suggests that the word may have had a double origin and meaning: (1) in the sense of _dimissio_, "dismissal"; (2) in that of _commissio_, "commission," "official duty," i.e. the exact latin equivalent of the greek [greek: leitourgia] (see liturgy), and hence the conflicting use of the term. it is, however, far more probable that it was a general term that gradually became crystallized as applying to that service in which the dismissal represented a more solemn function. in the narrower sense of "mass" it is first found in st ambrose (_ep._ 20, 4, ed. ballerini): "missam facere coepi. dum offero ..." which evidently identifies the _missa_ with the sacrifice. it continued, however, to be used loosely, though its tendency to become proper only to the principal christian service is clear from a passage in the 12th homily of caesarius, bishop of arles (d. 542): "if you will diligently attend, you will recognize that _missae_ are not celebrated when the divine readings are recited in the church, but when gifts are offered and the body and blood of the lord are consecrated." the complete service (_missa ad integrum_), the bishop goes on to say, cannot be had at home by reading and prayer, but only in the house of god, where, besides the eucharist, "the divine word is preached and the blessing is given to the people." whatever its origin, the word mass had by the time of the reformation been long applied only to the eucharist; and, though in itself a perfectly colourless term, and used as such during the earlier stages of the 16th century controversies concerning the eucharist, it soon became identified with that sacrificial aspect of the sacrament of the altar which it was the chief object of the reformers to overthrow. in england, so late as the first prayer-book of edward vi., it remained one of the official designations of the eucharist, which is there described as "the supper of the lorde and holy communion, commonly called the masse." this, however, like the service itself, represented a compromise which the more extreme reformers would not tolerate, and in the second prayer-book, together with such language in the canon as might imply the doctrine of transubstantiation and of the sacrifice, the word mass also disappears. that this abolition of the word mass, as implying the offering of christ's body and blood by the priest for the living and the dead was deliberate is clear from the language of those who were chiefly responsible for the change. bishops ridley and latimer, the two most conspicuous champions of "the new religion," denounced "the mass" with unmeasured violence; latimer said of "mistress missa" that "the devil hath brought her in again"; ridley said: "i do not take the mass as it is at this day for the communion of the church, but for a popish device," &c. (_works_, ed. parker soc., pp. 121, 120), and again: "in the stead of the lord's holy table they give the people, with much solemn disguising, a thing which they call their mass; but in deed and in truth it is a very masking and mockery of the true supper of the lord, or rather i may call it a crafty juggling, whereby these false thieves and jugglers have bewitched the minds of the simple people ... unto pernicious idolatory" (ib. p. 409). this language is reflected in the 31st of the articles of religion of the church of england: "wherefore the sacrifices of masses, in which it was commonly said that the priest did offer christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain and guilt, were blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits." clearly the word mass had ceased to be a colourless term generally applicable to the eucharistic service; it was, in fact, not only proscribed officially, but in the common language of english people it passed entirely out of use except in the sense in which it is defined in johnson's dictionary, i.e. that of the "service of the romish church at the celebration of the eucharist." in connexion with the catholic reaction in the church of england, which had its origin in the "oxford movement" of the 19th century, efforts have been made by some of the clergy to reintroduce the term "mass" for the holy communion in the english church. see du cange, _glossarium_, s.v. "missa"; f. kattenbusch in herzog-hauck, _realencyklopadie_ (ed. 1903), s.v. "messe, dogmengeschichtlich"; for the facts as to the use of the word "mass" at the time of the reformation see the article by j. h. round in the _nineteenth century_ for may 1897. (w. a. p.)