We are proud to present this high-quality hardback reprint of the 1930 printing, which though a newer impression from the original 1912 edition, in substance differs from the first only by the preface to the second edition. As one can read in the Editor’s Preface, this title was initially part of The Westminister Library collection, a series of “handbooks” that were compiled to assist priests and students better understand the various elements of their Catholic Faith, primarily in matters theological.

Fr. Adrian Fortescue (1874–1923), was an English Roman Catholic priest and scholar, a noted linguist and lecturer, a painter and calligrapher, an organist and composer of hymns, and an archeologist and liturgical expert in both the Western and Eastern Rites. Recipient of the rarely bestowed ecclesiastical triple doctorate, friends and parishioners alike called him “the Doctor”, in tribute to his genius and multitude of talents.

Dust jacket with biography of Fr. Fortescue; click to enlarge 

First published in 1912, Fr. Fortescue’s liturgical-archaeological classic, The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy, remains one of the most erudite works ever written in English on the subject of the historical development of the ancient Roman Mass up to its present “Tridentine” form. As an authority on the liturgies of the various Eastern Rites as well as the Latin, Fortescue had a unique expertise in comparing the few historical liturgical fragments available from the New Testament, Apostolic and Patristic times to the learned opinions of his contemporaries, thereby skillfully outlining how the Roman Mass perhaps developed over the centuries. He especially focused on how the Mass organically developed from Our Lord's First Mass, and definitively demonstrated that the traditional Roman Mass is the most ancient and venerable rite existing in the entire Church.

Just eleven years later after composing this book in 1912, and nearly without warning, the 49-year old Fr. Fortescue was diagnosed with cancer and passed away less than three months later, still in his prime. One of his final acts before leaving his beloved parish church of St. Hugh that he constructed in Letchworth (Great Britain), was to reverently kiss the altar stone where he had so often celebrated the Holy Sacrifice, a closing testament to his love of the liturgy and its important role in the daily life of a Catholic.