Many have been the disputes between Roman Catholic writers themselves touching the epoch at which that part of the ceremonial called the mass, used in the present day, was first introduced. There is no doubt that many ages of the church passed away before it was considered as a sacrifice; and even the Council of Trent were much divided in their opinions on this point, and the fathers vacillated much before they decided respecting it. The Spaniard Lainez, general of the order of Jesuits, was one of the most strenuous opposers of the novelty, and gave the same reasons for his opposition that all Protestant writers have alleged against it, viz., that the New Testament abolished the sacrifice, or rather, that ancient rites and ceremonies were superseded by the great sacrifice of the Saviour of the world himself on the cross, and that the idea itself involves the profanation that mortal and sinful man can sacrifice on his altars at his will the immaculate Lamb of God. These powerful objections were only met with excuses of convenience and utility. The Council wrestled with the reformed doctrines, and contended that its own system must necessarily be entirely different from that taught by the Reformers, not only in substance but even in its accidents. Reform denied Transubstantiation, and therefore the Roman church thought it convenient to fortify that dogma by bringing it daily before the eyes of the people, and constituting it an essential part of their worship. If, in a Protestant point of view, the mass is considered as an attack on the true spirit of Christianity, as upholding not only transubstantiation, but also the doctrine of intercession of saints, yet still, in the eyes of a good Roman Catholic, it is a rite full of elevated thoughts, devout prayers, and highly proper and religious ideas. The first part of the mass, from the _Introite_ to the _Offertory_, is composed almost entirely of fragments of Scripture: such are, first, the _Introite_, generally taken from the Psalms; secondly, the _Collect_, which is the same as that in the Protestant Book of Common Prayer for Sundays; thirdly, the _Epistle_, which is part of a chapter out of the prophecies, or out of one of the epistles in the New Testament; fourthly, the _Gradual_, also taken from the Psalms; and fifthly, the _Gospel_, which, as its name indicates, is a portion of a chapter taken from some one of the four evangelists. The parts added by the popes are, first, the _Kyrie Eleyson_, taken from the rites of the Greek church; secondly, the _Gloria_, which is a magnificent outburst of the most elevated religious sentiments; and lastly, the _Symbol_ of the faith.