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Fr. Edward McNamara, of Regina Apostolorum University (he’s a professor of liturgy there), addressed questions about the papal bull “Quo Primum” on Zenit in Rome on October 31, 2006.
There are many that will use this as binding on future popes, but, as you will see, even Pius V didn’t see it as that.
You can read the entire answer here & New Liturgical Movement piece here.
Here is a sample of the Q&A.
Q: “Quo Primum” is a papal bull decreed by Pope St. Pius V on July 14, 1570, which set in stone for all time the exactness of the holy sacrifice of the Mass to be said in the mother tongue of the Church. To quote his instruction: “[I]t shall be unlawful henceforth and forever throughout the Christian world to sing or to read Masses according to any formula other than that of this Missal published by Us; …” Another: “… which shall have the force of law in perpetuity, We order and enjoin under pain of Our displeasure that nothing be added to Our newly published Missal, nothing omitted therefrom, and nothing whatsoever altered therein.” Another: “In the case of those resident in other parts of the world it shall be excommunication ‘latae sententiae’ and all other penalties at Our discretion …” Finally: “Should any person venture to do so, let him understand that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.” In the light of the foregoing: 1) Can an ancient papal bull be amended, changed, modified, abrogated, etc., by future popes? If yes, then what are the conditions? 2) Is the Mass of Pope Paul VI licit and valid? — A.D., Carindale, Australia
A: A papal bull (from “bolla,” the leaden seal attached to the document) is a solemn instrument that popes use for various questions such as doctrinal decisions, canonizations, disciplinary questions, jubilees and the like. Only occasionally have they been used for the liturgy.
A bull’s influence on later popes depends on the nature of its content and not the legal force of the document as such.
Thus a bull such as “Ineffabilis Deus” through which Blessed Pius IX defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 is a definitive and irreformable act.
Other bulls may contain a mixture of doctrinal and disciplinary matters. An example would be Pius IV’s 1564 document “Dominici Gregis Custodiae” containing the rules for forbidding books, among which was the norm that reading a translation of the Old Testament was restricted to learned and pious men with permission from the bishop.
Such norms are evidently tied to the circumstances of time and place and may be adjusted, attenuated or abrogated by future popes as situations change.
St. Pius V’s bull “Quo Primum” is above all a legal document although it also contains some doctrinal elements. As such it is not intended to be definitive in the same way as a doctrinal definition would be and would not bind St. Pius V himself or future popes if they decided to further fine-tune the missal.
The saintly Pope’s concern was to ensure as much unity as possible for the liturgy in a time when such unity was sorely needed. Even so, the same bull contains a clause exempting any Church which had its own ordo more than 200 years old. Many local Churches could have availed of this concession but most preferred to adopt the new missal for practical reasons.
Some religious orders and some dioceses such as Lyon in France and Milan in Italy did opt to legitimately maintain their own rite. Thus expressions such as “it shall be unlawful henceforth and forever throughout the Christian world to sing or to read Masses according to any formula other than that of this Missal published by Us” cannot be interpreted in an absolutely literal sense.
Likewise, legal expressions such as “which shall have the force of law in perpetuity, We order and enjoin under pain of Our displeasure that nothing be added to Our newly published Missal, nothing omitted therefrom, and nothing whatsoever altered therein” cannot be literally interpreted as binding on possible later actions of Pope St. Pius V or upon his successors. The strictures fall only upon those who act without due authority.
If it were otherwise, then Pope St. Pius V would have excommunicated himself a couple of years after publishing “Quo Primum” when he added the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary to the missal following the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, not to mention Pope Clement XI who canonized Pius V in 1712, thus altering the missal.
Among the many other Popes who would have thus incurred “the wrath of Almighty God and of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul” would have been St. Pius X for reforming the calendar, Pius XI who added the first new preface in centuries for the feast of Christ the King, Pius XII for completely revamping the rites of Holy Week as well as simplifying the rubrics, and Blessed John XXIII for adding St. Joseph’s name to the Roman Canon.
Dr. Joseph Shaw has a good piece here explaining some of the myths:
Myth 3. The 1570 Missal replaced the other Missals in use in the Church up to that time.
The Gallican Missals of France were among a great many Missals in use in the 16th century: several in England, more in Germany; Milan in Italy had the Ambrosian Missal, and the Mozarabic Missal was used in parts of Spain. Similarly, the Dominicans, the Carthusians, the Carmelites, and the Norbertines, all had their own missals, and the Franciscans, wherever they were, used the Roman Missal. All these had for centuries influenced and been influenced by the Roman Missal, whose authority and prestige was particularly great, so they had a good deal in common, but there were still noticeable differences.
St Pius V allowed all Missals which had existed for more than 200 years to continue in use. The point of this requirement was to exclude any which had been tainted by the influence of Protestantism and other heresies. All the above mentioned Missals continued in use after 1570, except the English ones which were the victims of the Reformation (the Sarum alone survived a little longer). Eventually the French and German Missals fell out of use, a process which was not complete until well into the 19th century. The Ambrosian and Mozarabic Missals, and those of the religious orders, continued in use up to Vatican II, and most of them continue in use today.
It’s easy to just say “Quo Primum settles it!” but that does a disservice to truth. We have to be better than the others.
