Mass n.
 1. R. C. Ch. The sacrifice in the sacrament of the Eucharist, or the consecration and oblation of the host.
 2. Mus. The portions of the Mass usually set to music, considered as a musical composition; -- namely, the Kyrie, the Gloria, the Credo, the Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei, besides sometimes an Offertory and the Benedictus.
 Canon of the Mass. See Canon.
 High Mass, Mass with incense, music, the assistance of a deacon, subdeacon, etc.
 Low Mass, Mass which is said by the priest throughout, without music.
 Mass bell, the sanctus bell. See Sanctus.
 Mass book, the missal or Roman Catholic service book.


 Or·di·na·ry, n.; pl. Ordinaries
 1. Law (a) Roman Law An officer who has original jurisdiction in his own right, and not by deputation. (b) Eng. Law One who has immediate jurisdiction in matters ecclesiastical; an ecclesiastical judge; also, a deputy of the bishop, or a clergyman appointed to perform divine service for condemned criminals and assist in preparing them for death. (c) Am. Law A judicial officer, having generally the powers of a judge of probate or a surrogate.
 2. The mass; the common run. [Obs.]
 I see no more in you than in the ordinary
 Of nature's salework.   --Shak.
 3. That which is so common, or continued, as to be considered a settled establishment or institution. [R.]
    Spain had no other wars save those which were grown into an ordinary.   --Bacon.
 4. Anything which is in ordinary or common use.
    Water buckets, wagons, cart wheels, plow socks, and other ordinaries.   --Sir W. Scott.
 5. A dining room or eating house where a meal is prepared for all comers, at a fixed price for the meal, in distinction from one where each dish is separately charged; a table d'hôte; hence, also, the meal furnished at such a dining room.
    All the odd words they have picked up in a coffeehouse, or a gaming ordinary, are produced as flowers of style.   --Swift.
    He exacted a tribute for licenses to hawkers and peddlers and to ordinaries.   --Bancroft.
 6. Her. A charge or bearing of simple form, one of nine or ten which are in constant use.  The bend, chevron, chief, cross, fesse, pale, and saltire are uniformly admitted as ordinaries.  Some authorities include bar, bend sinister, pile, and others. See Subordinary.
 In ordinary. (a) In actual and constant service; statedly attending and serving; as, a physician or chaplain in ordinary.  An ambassador in ordinary is one constantly resident at a foreign court. (b) Naut. Out of commission and laid up; -- said of a naval vessel.
 Ordinary of the Mass R. C. Ch., the part of the Mass which is the same every day; -- called also the canon of the Mass.

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 can·on n.
 1. A law or rule.
 Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
 His canon 'gainst self-slaughter.   --Shak.
 2. Eccl. A law, or rule of doctrine or discipline, enacted by a council and confirmed by the pope or the sovereign; a decision, regulation, code, or constitution made by ecclesiastical authority.
    Various canons which were made in councils held in the second centry.   --Hook.
 3. The collection of books received as genuine Holy Scriptures, called the sacred canon, or general rule of moral and religious duty, given by inspiration; the Bible; also, any one of the canonical Scriptures. See Canonical books, under Canonical, a.
 4. In monasteries, a book containing the rules of a religious order.
 5. A catalogue of saints acknowledged and canonized in the Roman Catholic Church.
 6. A member of a cathedral chapter; a person who possesses a prebend in a cathedral or collegiate church.
 7. Mus. A musical composition in which the voices begin one after another, at regular intervals, successively taking up the same subject.  It either winds up with a coda (tailpiece), or, as each voice finishes, commences anew, thus forming a perpetual fugue or round.  It is the strictest form of imitation. See Imitation.
 8. Print. The largest size of type having a specific name; -- so called from having been used for printing the canons of the church.
 9. The part of a bell by which it is suspended; -- called also ear and shank.
 Note: [See Illust. of Bell.]
 10. Billiards See Carom.
 Apostolical canons. See under Apostolical.
 Augustinian canons, Black canons. See under Augustinian.
 Canon capitular, Canon residentiary, a resident member of a cathedral chapter (during a part or the whole of the year).
 Canon law. See under Law.
 Canon of the Mass R. C. Ch., that part of the mass, following the Sanctus, which never changes.
 Honorary canon, a canon6 who neither lived in a monastery, nor kept the canonical hours.
 Minor canon Ch. of Eng., one who has been admitted to a chapter, but has not yet received a prebend.
 Regular canon R. C. Ch., one who lived in a conventual community and followed the rule of St. Austin; a Black canon.
 Secular canon R. C. Ch., one who did not live in a monastery, but kept the hours.

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