desire for a simple and more dignified style was created. Palestrina inaugurated the new epoch, in writing distinguished by grandeur and majesty; his compositions were usually for four to eight voices. The great masters of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries wrote masses for eight, twelve, sixteen, twenty-four, and sometimes even more voices. All these works were written a cappella, without instrumental accompaniment. The development of instrumental music suggested new combinations, and the missa solemnis of Bach and Beethoven thus grew up. Gounod, Silas, and Widor have given notable examples of this style in more recent times. See Sacred Music.
Consult: Gihr, Das heilige Messopfer dogmatisch, liturgisch und ascetisch erklärt (5th ed., Freiburg, 1892: Eng. trans., Saint Louis, 1902); and many of the books referred to under Lord's Supper.
MASS. See Matter.
MASSA, mäs′sȧ. A city, capital of the Province of Massa e Carrara, Italy, on a hill rising from the banks of the Frigido, 3 miles from its outlet in the Gulf of Genoa, and 26 miles north of Pisa (Map: Italy, E 3). Its chief buildings are the ducal palace, now the prefecture building, a former summer residence of Elisa Bacciocchi, Napoleon's sister. Massa has fine marble quarries, which are extensively worked, and important manufactures of silk, paper, and olive oil. It was formerly the capital of a principality and later of the Duchy of Massa-Carrara, which was united with Modena in 1829. Population, in 1901 (commune), 26,413.
MAS′SACHU′SET (At the great hills, i.e. the Blue hills of Milton). An important Algonquian confederacy formerly occupying the territory about Massachusetts Bay, and extending along the coast from Plymouth northward to about Salem, including the basins of the Neponset and Charles Rivers. Their principal village, from which they took their name, was on the site of Quincy, in Norfolk County. Before the coming of the whites they seem to have held the leading place among the tribes of southern New England, and are said on good authority to have had over twenty villages in 1614. They suffered more than any other tribe from the great pestilence of 1617, and when the English arrived a few years later they found the Massachusets reduced to a mere handful and most of the villages depopulated. In 1631 they numbered only about 500, and two years later were still further reduced by smallpox, which carried off their chief, Chickatabot. In 1646 they were gathered, with other converts, into the mission villages of Natick, Nonantum, and Ponkapog, and ceased to have a separate tribal existence.
MAS′SACHU′SETTS. A North Atlantic State of the American Union, belonging to the New England group. Except the eastern part, which expands along the ocean front. Massachusetts resembles generally a parallelogram and lies approximately between latitudes 42° and 42° 43′ N. It is bounded on the north by the States of Vermont and New Hampshire, on the west by New York, on the south by Connecticut and Rhode Island and the Atlantic Ocean, and on the east by the Atlantic. Its greatest length is 184 miles; the distance from Cape Ann due west to the New York State line, 138 miles; the extreme width is 113¾ miles, and the average width in the west 47¾ miles. The total area is 8315 square miles, of which the water surface amounts to 275 square miles. The irregular coast line gives an ocean frontage of nearly 300 miles, excluding the shore lines of the islands and lesser inlets. There are three great bays: Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts Bay, and Buzzard's Bay.
Topography. The western half of the State has as its distinguishing features the mountain ranges which traverse its western section, the minor valleys between, the general slope eastward to the Connecticut River, and the corresponding westward slope from the opposite side. The eastern section is a rolling and hilly country with a gentle slope to the ocean. From Vermont, the Green Mountains, as a part of the Appalachians, continue southward into Massachusetts, where they lie in two distinct ranges. These stretch southward across the whole width of the State, covering Berkshire County (whence the name Berkshire Hills). The Taconic range follows the western border on the boundary line, and east of this range and parallel with it extend the Hoosac Mountains. The Taconic range attains an extreme elevation of 3535 feet in Greylock or Saddle Mountain, near the northern boundary—the highest elevation in Massachusetts. The altitude falls away slightly to the south, where Mount Washington or Everett, in the southwest corner of the State, rises to a height of 2624 feet. The Hoosac range has a somewhat regular altitude of 1200 to 1600 feet, reaching its maximum in Spruce Hill—2588 feet. The Housatonic Valley has an elevation of 1100 feet at its northern end and falls to 800 in the south. East of these ranges to the Connecticut the slope is southeast, and is deeply cut by rivers. In the Connecticut Valley the trap ridges, so conspicuous in the State of Connecticut from Long Island Sound up, are represented in the centre of the State by Mount Tom, with an altitude of 1214 feet, and Mount Holyoke, 955 feet, which rise as isolated peaks above the surrounding low country. The country on the eastern side of the Connecticut River is a dissected plateau, with an elevation of about 1100 feet at the middle of the State, the surface sloping gradually eastward. Upon the old Cretaceous base level, which forms the top of most of the hills, some older hills stand out as monadnocks, the most conspicuous of which is Wachusett Mountain, 2108 feet in height. In the eastern section the country is generally level or undulating. This low, sandy land continues southeastward into the Cape Cod peninsula, extending in the form of an arm bent at the elbow for a distance of 65 miles, 35 miles eastward and a nearly equal distance northward, curving slightly westward at the extremity. Near this southern projection of the State lie many islands similar in character to the Cape Cod peninsula: Martha's Vineyard, the sixteen Elizabeth Islands, and Nantucket Island.
Hydrography. The rivers of Massachusetts are numerous, but unimportant for purposes of navigation. The Connecticut traverses the State from north to south. It varies in width from 450 feet to 1000 feet, but its flow is broken by falls at various points. On its western side it receives the Deerfield and Westfield, and from the east, Miller's River and the Chicopee. Though navigable for small craft, it is chiefly important for
