Why is it called the Tridentine Mass?
Because it was codified by the Council of Trent in 1570. But some of the material used in it is nearly 1,000 years older. The Council of Trent was a response by the Catholic Church to the dramatic upheaval of the Reformation. Roman Catholic bishops met for 25 sessions of debate between 1545 and 1563; further discussions continued in Rome for years afterwards. Liturgical reform was not the Council’s only result; it led to the founding of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), a revision of the church calendar and much clarification and codification of Catholic doctrine. The liturgical problem was that many local variations on the Mass had been created in the confusion that followed the Reformation, not all of them of high quality or in line with the central doctrine. The Church realized that different liturgies could become a real threat to unity. The liturgical reforms were made by a commission set up for the purpose by Pope Pius V. Their job was to create new, centrally authorized orders of
