The purpose of this study is to clarify some historical-dogmatic aspects of an ancient institution: the chaplaincy of Masses. Although endowed with enormous influence in former times, many factors relating to the nature and juridical origins of this figure remain unexplored in modern doctrine. The goal is to explain, in particular, the grounds on which many seventeenth-century jurists categorized it as a burden (onus) for celebrating Masses. The historical approach here traces the link between the classical perspective articulated by Pérez de Lara and a decretal by Pope Alexander III (X. 3.5.11), based on previous doctrinal mediation by canonists such as Tommaso Zerola and Ioannes Staphileus.
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Juan-Esteban Villarroel-Lavín (2025) studied this question.
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