Dominican Rite - Conservation Until The Twentieth Century

Conservation Until The Twentieth Century

Pope Clement IV, through the Dominican general, John of Vercelli, issued a Papal Bull in 1267 in which he lauded the ability and zeal of Humbert and forbade the making of any changes without the proper authorization. Subsequent papal regulation went much further towards preserving the integrity of the rite. Pope Innocent XI and Pope Clement XII prohibited the printing of the books without the permission of the master general and ordained that no member of the order should presume to use in his fulfilment of the choral obligation any book not bearing the seal of the general and a reprint of the pontifical Decrees. Another force preservative of the special Dominican Rite was the Decree of Pope Pius V (1570), imposing a common rite on the Western Church but excepting those rites which had been approved for two hundred years. This exception gave to the Order of Friars Preachers the privilege of maintaining its old rite, a privilege which the chapters of the order sanctioned and the members of the order gratefully accepted.

There were changes. Some slight corruptions crept in spite of the rigid legislation to the contrary. New feasts were added with the permission of the Roman Pontiffs and many new editions of the liturgical books were printed. Changes in the text, when made, were always effected with the idea of eliminating arbitrary mutilations and restoring the books to a perfect conformity with the old exemplars at Paris and Bologna. Such were the reforms of the Chapters of Salamanca (1551), Rome (1777) and Ghent (1871).

Several times movements were started with the idea of conforming with the Roman Rite; but were always been defeated, until after the Second Vatican Council, when the Order finally decided to adopt the Roman Rite, supplementing it with certain texts of the Dominican tradition (that for the blessing of palms on Palm Sunday, or for the adoration of the Cross on Good Friday, for example) and, of course, rituals for various moments in religious life, such as professions and anniversaries, such as every religious order uses without thereby setting up a distinct liturgical rite. The General Chapter of River Forest (1968) made this decision, which was applied first to the Mass and later to the Liturgy of the Hours, in conformity to the spirit and letter of the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium. The permission to adopt the Roman liturgy, however, came with the stipulation that the master of the order, for all friars, and the provincials, for those subject to them, could grant permission to celebrate the traditional Dominican Rite Mass and Office. This faculty continues in force today.