Quo Primum (1570)

As soon as we were brought to the Apostolic throne, we directed our mind and strength without stint, and all our thoughts, to those measures appropriate to the preservation of true church worship; and those measures we strove to prepare, and, with God's help, to carry into effect with complete enthusiasm. Among the other decrees of the holy Council of Trent, we were appointed to publish and emend the sacred books, the catechism, the missal and the breviary. By the will of God the catechism for the instruction of the people has already been published; and the breviary, for the performance of the praises which are owed to God, has been revised. It then seemed altogether necessary that, so that breviary might be balanced by missal, as is right and proper (it being most fitting that as the church has one way of praising God, it should have one rite for the celebration of mass), we should consider as soon as possible what remains in this respect, namely the publication of the missal itself. We therefore held that the task should be entrusted to selected scholars, who have carefully collated the ancient codices, emended and incorrupt, both of our own Vatican Library, and others sought out from all parts. They have also consulted the writings of ancient and approved authors who have left to us records of the sacred arrangement of those same rites. Thus they have restored the missal itself to the original norm and rite of the Holy Fathers. On mature reflection we have commanded that this missal, now revised and corrected, should be printed at Rome as soon as possible, and, once printed, published; so that, the work begun, all may receive the fruits of this arrangement, namely, that priests may understand which prayers they should from now on use, what rites and what ceremonies they should keep to when celebrating mass.

We require then that all men, everywhere, shall embrace and observe the teachings of the sacred and holy Roman Church, mother and mistress of other churches; and that at no time in the future should mass be sung or recited otherwise than according to the manner of the missal which we have published, in any of the churches of the provinces of Christendom, of Patriarchal, Cathedral, Collegiate or parochial status, secular and regular belonging to any kind of order, monasteries, both of men and women, also the military orders, and churches without cure of souls or chapels, in which conventual Mass is customarily celebrated or ought to be celebrated according to the rite of the Roman Church, either aloud with a choir, or in a low voice. This we require even if these churches should have been in any way exempted by indult from the Apostolic See, by custom, privilege, and also by oath, by Apostolic confirmation, or if they should have been protected by any other permissions of any kind – unless from its first institution it was approved by the Apostolic See or by custom (or the said institution) of celebrating Masses in the same churches assiduously for more than two hundred years.

As we do not by any means remove from these the aforesaid constitution or custom of the celebration of Mass yet if this missal with the publication of which we have concerned ourselves, should seem preferable to them, we give permission that they may celebrate Masses according to it, if they have the consent of bishop or prelate and the whole chapter, all objections to the contrary notwithstanding; from all the other aforesaid churches taking away the use of the same missals and wholly and entirely rejecting them and decreeing that nothing shall ever be added to, taken from or changed in this our missal lately published, under pain of our indignation, we enact and ordain, by this our constitution, which shall be valid in perpetuity, commanding and strictly ordering each and every Patriarch and Administrator of the aforesaid churches, and other persons distinguished by any ecclesiastical rank, be they Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church or of any other grade and pre-eminence, that, in virtue of sacred obedience, they should from now on entirely abandon and completely reject all manners and rites from other missals which have hitherto customarily been observed, however ancient the missals; and that they should Sing and read the Mass according to the rite, mode, and norm which is now proclaimed by us through this missal; neither should they presume in the celebration of the Mass to add or recite any other ceremonies or prayers than those which are contained in this missal.

And we grant and allow, by Apostolic authority and for ever, according to the tenor of these presents, that they may from now on follow this same missal entirely when singing or reciting Mass, in any church whatever without any scruple of conscience, and without incurring any penalties, sentences, or censures, and that they may be able and have the power to use it freely and lawfully. We likewise order and declare that Prelates, Administrators, Canons, chaplains and other secular priests, by whatsoever name they are called, or regular priests of any order, may not be obliged to celebrate Mass in any other way than that which we have ordered; and that they cannot be forced or compelled by anybody to change this missal, and that this present letter cannot at any time be revoked or modified, but that it shall always remain firm and valid in its force.

All this is notwithstanding the premises and apostolic constitutions and ordinances, and general or special constitutions and ordinances published in provincial and synodal councils and also the use (i.e. usage or rite) of the aforesaid churches confirmed by the most ancient and venerable prescription of not more than two hundred years however – and any contrary laws and customs whatsoever. We will, and by the same authority decree, that, after the publication of this our edict and of the missal, priests who are present at the Roman Curia shall be obliged after a month to sing or read the Mass according to that missal; those who live this side of the Alps after three months; those who live beyond the Alps after six months, or as soon as this missal shall have been offered to them for sale. In order that the missal shall be kept incorrupt in all lands and free from faults and errors, We, by the same apostolic authority and tenor of these presents, prohibit all printers who dwell under the direct or indirect rule of Ourselves and the Holy Roman Church, under pain of the confiscation of their books and a hundred ducats of gold, to be applied ipso facto to the Apostolic Camera; and ether printers in whatever part of the world they live, under pain of excommunication, latae sententiae, and other penalties according to our discretion – we prohibit all these printers from in any way daring or presuming to print, set forth or receive this missal without our permission, or that of the special Apostolic Commissary to be appointed for this purpose by us; and unless full certification has previously been made by the name commissary to the same printer that the copy of the missal which is to be taken as the norm for printing others by the said printer has been collated with the missal printed in Rome in large format and that it agrees with it and does not differ from it in any particular.

But because it might be difficult for this letter to be taken to all parts of the Christian world, and brought at the earliest opportunity to everyone’s notice, we command that, according to custom, it be displayed and posted up at the Basilica of the Prince of the Apostles and the Apostolic Chancery and at one end of the Campus Florae; and we command that the same undoubted faith shall everywhere be placed in the printed copies of the same letter when copies of this letter have been printed, and signed by the hand of a public notary, and also authenticated by the seal of a person holding ecclesiastical office as is given, shown or exhibited to these presents. No man whatsoever may have permission to infringe these provisions containing our permission, statute, ordinance, mandate, precept, concession, indult, declaration, will, decree and prohibition, or be so rash as to oppose them. But if anyone should presume to attempt this, he must know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of his Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.

Given at Rome at St. Peters, in the year of the Incarnation of Our Lord 1570, on the day before the Ides of July, in the fifth year of our pontificate.