In Dom Gueranger’s wonderful set of commentaries on the Holy Mass, Explanation of the Holy Mass, the Benedictine master speaks of the grandeur of the silent canon in the Roman Rite Mass. One paragraph is a polemic against the “dangerous innovation,” promoted by the Jansenists, of the audible recitation of the Canon of the Mass by the Celebrant. This, of course, is standard practice in the Novus Ordo Missae.
The Cardinal de Bissy who gets mention here is Henri-Pons de Thiard de Bissy (1657-1737), the immediate successor of Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet as Bishop of Meaux.
In the Seventeenth Century the Jansenist heretics tried to introduce the abuse of reciting the Canon of the Mass aloud. Deceived by their tricks, Cardinal de Bissy, one of the successors of Bossuet, countenanced the admission of R. in red type, into the Missal which he had composed for his Church, as the French Bishops of that day imagined they had a right to do. These R. in red would naturally convey the idea that the people were supposed to respond the Amen thus marked. Now they can only respond to Prayers that can be heard. Hence would necessarily follow, at last, the recitation of the Canon aloud, by the Priest, which was the very thing aimed at by these Jansenists. But happily public attention was quickly drawn to this dangerous innovation, loud complaints were raised against it, and Cardinal de Bissy himself withdrew the unfortunate step he had taken.
