[15] The largest contributions to the mass were made by the Eastern Church during the first four centuries and were translated into Latin by the Church of Rome. [16] From the Latin _missa_ in the sentence, _Ite, missa est_ (‘Depart, the assembly is dismissed’), sung by the deacon immediately before the close of the service. [17] The practice of thus displacing the authorized Gregorian chants with folk-songs was inaugurated by Dufay. In three of his four-part masses, preserved in the archives of the Papal Choir, the subjects are all borrowed from popular songs, with the secular words accompanying them--among them being _L’homme armé_. [18] Weinmann, ‘History of Church Music,’ p. 85. [19] Parry, ‘The Evolution of the Art of Music,’ p. 103. [20] Tournay was one of the chief musical centres of the Gallo-Belgic period and its cathedral possessed a body of choristers trained to the highest point of efficiency then known to the vocal art. [21] Naumann, ‘The History of Music’ (Eng. trans.), Vol. I, p. 325. [22] Kiesewetter, ‘The History of Music,’ p. 131. [23] Mendelssohn wrote a similar part for Hensel in his ‘Son and Stranger.’ [24] The origin of the word is veiled in much obscurity, which has been increased in large measure by the varied spellings adopted by early writers (_motetum_, _motectum_, _motellus_, _motulus_, _mutetus_). [25] These three classes comprised (1) those forms in which all voice-parts had the same words, as the _Cantilena_, the _Rondel_ or _Rota_, the _Organum communiter sumptum_; (2) those in which each part had its own special words, as the _Motet_; and (3) those in which some parts had words and others merely vocalized, as _Hoquet_ or _Ochetus_, the _Conductus_, and _Organum purum vel proprie sumptum_. _Organum purum_ was the oldest form and was held in great reverence by the earliest writers. [26] Thus in _Salvatoris mater_, an old three-part Latin motet, probably of the first half of the fifteenth century, by the Englishman, Thomas Damett, quoted in the ‘Oxford History of Music,’ Vol. II, p. 149, the texts of the two upper parts are prayers to the Virgin and to St. George in behalf of King Henry VI, while the lowest part sings the _Benedictus_. [27] His _Ars compositionis de Motetis_, preserved in the Paris library, is supposed to have been written between 1290 and 1310. [28] _Geschichte der Musik_, Vol. III, p. 353. [29] All of these were part-songs of the _chanson_ and madrigal type. [30] So called from the name of his birthplace, a small town southeast of Rome, the ancient Præneste. [31] Waldo S. Pratt, ‘History of Music,’ p. 124. [32] Arthur Mees, ‘Choirs and Choral Music,’ p. 62. [33] Edward Dickinson, ‘Music in the History of the Western Church,’ p. 167. [34] He was then _Maestro di Cappella_ of Santa Maria Maggiore.