Bible Encyclopedias
Mass Priests

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

mercenaries hired at a certain sum, who undertook an immoderate number of annals or trentals, and were unable to say them, and sold them to be offered by others. This abuse was forbidden in 1236 by archbishop Edmund's Constitutions (2). In 960 the mass priest was the secular, and the minister priest the conventual, and this is the earliest meaning of the term.