From these passages it appears that _missa_ in its strict sense means “dismissal,” and is a general term capable of receiving a particular significance by the addition of _vigiliarum_, etc. The same thing appears in Pope Innocent I. (_Epist._ 17, c. 12; MIGNE, xx. 535), where he speaks of the priests belonging to the party of Bonosus, and asks if they have celebrated Mass, which he calls _sacramenta conficere_, if they have given Holy Communion (_si populis tribuit_), and if they have performed the customary dismissals (_si missas complevit_). Apart from the fact that in the same passage two different terms cannot well stand for the same thing, the use of the plural shows that it is not the Mass which is meant but the other _missæ_, the hours, the performance of which concerned both the bishop and the priests. There is no doubt as to which term Leo I. used for the Mass, for _oblatio_ and _sacrificium_ occur several times in his writings. When in one passage we find the word _missa_ as well, this can only mean the dismissal, the conclusion of divine service.[852] Thus even in the fifth century _missa_ by itself always meant merely dismissal, never Mass; for Mass, the terms _sacrificium_ and _oblatio_ were employed. This was the correct use of the terms in question during that period. But since, as we have said, the ceremonial dismissals (_missæ_) at the end of divine service gave rise to the name, and since dismissals of this kind occurred in the Mass,[853] once at the end and once after the sermon at the dismissal of the Catechumens, it is not remarkable that _missa_ came into use as a name for the Mass, and came to be regarded as its special name in proportion as the canonical hours became less services for the laity than of obligation for clergy and religious. There was however an intermediate period before _missa_ became solely and exclusively the popular name for the Mass. This transitional state of affairs extended over the whole of the sixth century, and appears in the writings of St Benedict and St Gregory the Great, who both employ _missa_ without distinction as a name for the Mass and for the canonical hours.[854] The same thing appears in Gregory of Tours and in other writers. The last appearance of _missa_ as a name for both kinds of divine service without distinction appears to be a passage in the life of St Ludgerus by Altfrid.[855]