When the church had been cleared of all except the faithful, the second part of our mass, or the mass of the faithful, began with the Nicene symbol or creed. Then followed the offertory, or part of a psalm sung anciently while the people made their offerings to the church, particularly of bread and wine[13]. The priest offers to God the bread, and wine mixed according to apostolic tradition[14] with a little water, which our Saviour is believed to have mixed with the wine at the last supper; he implores God's blessing on these offerings, and washes his hands in token of the purity of soul[15] with which the sacred mysteries should be approached, and at high mass for the sake of outward cleanliness also, on account of the incense which he has used. Having commemorated the passion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, as he does also after the consecration, he calls on those present to join him in prayer, he says another prayer or prayers called the _secret_, because said in secret, and then recites the _preface_ to the canon, a prayer in which he unites with the celestial spirits in praise and thanksgiving as Christ himself gave thanks at the last supper: it concludes with the Tersanctus or Trisagion "Holy, Holy, Holy etc." which, as Palmer observes, has been probably used in the Christian liturgy of the east and west since the ages of the apostles. V. 2. p. 219. [Sidenote: Prayers for the dead.] The canon of the mass next follows, which as well as many of the preceding and following prayers is said in a low voice, according to the ancient custom alluded to by Innocent I, S. Augustine, Origen, and other Fathers[16]. In it the priest prays for the church, the Pope, the bishop of the place, the living and the dead[17] he reveres the memory of the B. Virgin, the Martyrs and other Saints[18], and having once more implored the blessing of God, and spread his hands over the victim, according to the custom of the Jews, he pronounces over the bread and wine the words of consecration according to the command of Christ, and adores and raises for the adoration of the people the body and blood of our Divine Lord. It is in this consecration that the sacrifice of the mass principally consists; as by it the victim is placed on the altar, and offered to God, viz. Christ himself, represented as dead by the separate consecration of the bread and wine, as if His blood were separated from His body. After some other prayers, in which the priest offers to God the holy sacrifice, and prays for mercy and salvation for all present, he elevates the host and chalice together; this was the ancient elevation, as the more solemn one, which follows immediately after the consecration, was introduced generally in the 12th century, in opposition to the heresy of Berengarius. Then concluding the canon the priest recites the _Our Father_, and breaks the host, as Christ broke the bread, and as His body was "broken" for us[19]; he puts a particle of the host into