These could be canceled by the rites of the church, the most important of which was the mass, or the consecration and oblation of the elements of the Lord's Supper.

That ordinance is to be observed in remembrance of Christ, but the people of the Oriental Churches are taught to look upon it as a renewal of his death.

On the priest's pronouncing the words, "This is my body," the elements are believed to be changed from bread and wine, and thenceforth to contain the body and blood, the soul and divinity, of Christ; so that He is crucified afresh, and made an expiatory sacrifice for sin, every time the consecration is performed; which, in most churches, is almost every morning in the year.

Its merit attaches not only to the offerer and the partaker, but to all the faithful, living and dead; especially to those who, by paying the priest, or by some other service, have their names mentioned in the prayers that form a part of the ceremony.
Thus a ministry to offer sacrifices is substituted for a ministry to feed the flock of God with sound doctrine, and the spiritual worship of God is converted into the formal adoration of a wafer.

Preaching is nowhere regarded as the leading duty of the clergy, but to say mass.