Use of Sarum

The Use of Sarum, also known as the Sarum Rite or Use of Salisbury, is a variant ("use") of the Roman
Rite widely used for the ordering of Christian public worship, including the Mass and the Divine Office. It
was established by Saint Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury,[1] and Richard Poore in the 11th century and was
originally the local form used in the Cathedral and Diocese of Salisbury, England.

It later became prevalent throughout southern England and came to be used throughout most of England,
Wales, Ireland, and (later) Scotland, until it was suppressed in 1559 under Queen Elizabeth I.[2] Although
abandoned after the 16th century and the Protestant Reformation, it was a notable influence on the pattern of
Anglican liturgy represented in the Book of Common Prayer. Occasional interest in and attempts at
restoration of the liturgy by Anglicans and Catholics have not, however, produced a general revival.

Contents
History
Revival
Sarum ritual
References
External links
Sarum Mass
Sarum Breviary and Antiphonale
Media

History
In 1078, William of Normandy appointed Osmund, a Norman nobleman, as bishop of Salisbury (the period
name of the site whose ruins are now known as Old Sarum).[3] As bishop, Osmund initiated some revisions
to the extant Celtic-Anglo-Saxon rite and the local adaptations of the Roman rite, drawing on both Norman
and Anglo-Saxon traditions.

Nineteenth-century liturgists theorized that the liturgical practices of Rouen in northern France inspired the
Sarum liturgical books. The Normans had deposed most of the Anglo-Saxon episcopate, replacing them
with Norman bishops, of which Osmund was one. Given the similarities between the liturgy in Rouen and
that of Sarum, it appears the Normans imported their French liturgical books as well.[4]

This conjecture approaches certainty when it is found

that the Use of Rouen and that of Sarum were almost
identical in the 11th century. A curious and interesting
illustration of this will be found in an extract of a Rouen
manuscript missal, assumed to be 650 years old ... . The
Rouen Pontifical, of about AD 1007, quoted in the same
work, shows a like affinity of that of Sarum and Exeter
in later days.[4]
The revisions during Osmund's episcopate resulted in the
compilation of a new missal, breviary, and other liturgical manuals,
which came to be used throughout southern England, Wales, and
parts of Ireland.[5]

Some dioceses issued their own missals, inspired by the Sarum rite,
but with their own particular prayers and ceremonies. Some of these
are so different that they have been identified as effectively distinct
liturgies, such as those of Hereford, York, Bangor, and Aberdeen.
Other missals (such as those of Lincoln Cathedral or Westminster
Abbey) were more evidently based on the Sarum rite and varied only
in details.

Liturgical historians believe the Sarum rite had a distinct influence

upon other usages of the Roman rite outside England, such as the
Nidaros rite in Norway and the Braga Rite in Portugal.[6]
A page from a Sarum missal. The
When the Church of England separated from the Catholic Church in woodcut shows an altar shortly
the 1530s, it initially retained the Sarum rite, with gradual before the English Reformation.
modifications. Under Edward VI, Protestant pressure for public
worship in English resulted in its replacement by successive versions
of the Book of Common Prayer in 1549 and 1552. Mary I restored the Sarum rite in 1553 and promulgated
it throughout England, but it was finally abolished by Elizabeth I in 1559. Catholic recusants continued to
use the Sarum rite until it was gradually replaced by the Roman Rite.

Revival
Many of the ornaments and ceremonial practices associated with the Sarum rite—though not the full liturgy
itself—were revived in the Anglican Communion in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as part of the
Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement in the Church of England. Some Anglo-Catholics wanted to find a
traditional formal liturgy that was characteristically "English" rather than "Roman." They took advantage of
the 'Ornaments Rubric' of 1559, which directed that English churches were to use "...such Ornaments of the
Church, and of the Ministers thereof, at all Times of their Ministration, shall be retained, and be in use, as
were in this Church of England, by the Authority of Parliament, in the Second Year of the Reign of Edward
VI of England, i.e. January 1548 - January 1549, before the First Prayer Book came into effect in June of the
latter year (which authorized the use of traditional vestments and was quite explicit that the priest shall wear
an alb, vestment (=chasuble) or cope and that the deacons shall be vested in albs and tunicles (dalmatics).
However, there was a tendency to read back Victorian centralizing tendencies into mediaeval texts, and so a
rather rubrical spirit was applied to liturgical discoveries.

It was asserted, for instance, that Sarum had a well-developed series of colours of vestments for different
feasts. There may have been tendencies to use a particular colour for a particular feast (red, for instance, was
used on Sundays, as in the Ambrosian rite), but most churches were simply too poor to have several sets of
vestments, and so used what they had. There was considerable variation from diocese to diocese, or even
church to church, in the details of the rubrics: the place where the Epistle was sung, for instance, varied
enormously; from a lectern at the altar, from a lectern in the quire, to the feature described as the 'pulpitum',
a word used ambiguously for the place of reading (a pulpit) or for the rood screen. Some scholars thought
that the readings were proclaimed from the top of the rood screen, which was most unlikely given the tiny
access doors to the rood loft in most churches. This would not have permitted dignified access for a vested
Gospel procession.
Chief among the proponents of Sarum customs was the Anglican priest Percy Dearmer, who put these into
practice (according to his own interpretation) at his parish of St Mary the Virgin, Primrose Hill, in London.
He explained them at length in The Parson's Handbook, which ran through several editions.[7] This style of
worship has been retained in some present-day Anglican churches and monastic institutions, where it is
known as "English Use" (Dearmer's term) or "Prayer Book Catholicism".

The Sarum Mass has occasionally been celebrated within the Catholic Church. A brief resurgence of interest
in the 19th century did not lead to a revival. Sarum Masses were organised by the Oxford University
Newman Society for the celebration of the Feast of the Translation of St Frideswide on 10 February 1996,
and for Candlemas at the Anglican chapel of Merton College in 1997.[8] Although Aberdeen had its own use
and did not celebrate according to Sarum, in April 2000, Mario Joseph Conti, then Bishop of Aberdeen,
celebrated a Sarum Mass in King's College Chapel at the University of Aberdeen to commemorate the
quincentenary of the pre-Reformation founding of the chapel by William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen.

The Sarum Use has been revived in the Eastern Orthodox Church among a number of communities,
including numerous Western Rite parishes and missions of the Old Calendarist Holy Synod of Milan. It is
also used, in significantly adapted form, by Western Rite members of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside
Russia, including Saint Petroc Monastery and its missions.[9]

Sarum ritual
The ceremonies of the Sarum Rite are elaborate when compared not
only to the post-1969 Roman Rite Mass, but even to the Tridentine
Mass. The Mass of Sundays and great feasts involved up to four
sacred ministers: priest, deacon, subdeacon, and acolyte. It was
customary for them to visit in procession all the altars of the church
and cense them, ending at the great rood screen, where antiphons
and collects would be sung. At the screen would be read the Bidding
Prayers, prayers in the vernacular directing the people to pray for
various intentions. The procession then vested for Mass. (This
vesting would usually have taken place at the altar where Mass was
to be celebrated, since vestries and sacristies are, except in the
largest churches, largely a modern introduction.)

Some of the prayers of the Mass are unique, such as the priest's
preparation prayers for Holy Communion. Some ceremonies differ
from the Tridentine Mass, though they are not unknown in other
forms of the Western Rite: the offering of the bread and wine was (as
in the Dominican and other rites) made by one act. The chalice was
Illustration from a manuscript on the
prepared between the readings of the Epistle and the Gospel. In
Sarum Rite, c. 1400
addition, in common with many monastic rites, after the Elevation
the celebrant stood with his arms outstretched in the form of a cross;
the Particle was put into the chalice after the Agnus Dei. It is
probable that communion under one kind was followed by a 'rinse' of unconsecrated wine. The first chapter
of St John's Gospel was read while the priest made his way back to the sacristy.[1] Two candles on the altar
were customary, though others were placed around it and on the rood screen. The Sarum missal calls for a
low bow as an act of reverence, rather than the genuflection.[10]

The Sarum rite was the original basis of the liturgy in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Bishop Tikon
of Moscow and the Synod of 1904-1907 recognized this Orthodox English Rite Liturgy as canonical. The
Russian Eastern Orthodox recognize it as rooted in the Sarum Liturgy. This is most evident in its sequence
of Major Propers for the Sundays in Advent, which vary considerably from those used in the Roman Rite. It
also inspired the counting of Sundays after Trinity rather than Pentecost.

References
1. "Catholic Encyclopedia: Sarum Rite" (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13479a.htm).
Newadvent.org. 1 February 1912. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
2. "Photostats of Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria 2565, Sarum Missal" (http://www.bodley.ox.ac.
uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/medieval/sarum-missal/sarum-missal.html). Bodley.ox.ac.uk. 1
September 2009. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
3. "Saint Osmund of Salisbury" (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Osmund-of-Salisbur
y). Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
4. A.H. Pearson (1884). Sarum Missal in English (https://books.google.com/?id=cyUBAAAAQAAJ
&pg=RA20-PA615&lpg=RA20-PA615&dq=Rouen+Missal#PRA1-PR23,M1). Retrieved 2 April
2010.
5. Kingsford, Charles Lethbridge (1895). "Osmund (d.1099) (DNB00)" (https://en.wikisource.org/
wiki/Osmund_(d.1099)_(DNB00)_(DNB00)). In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National
Biography. 42. London: Smith, Elder & Co. "The fifteenth-century writer who passes by the
name of John Brompton [q. v.] speaks of the ‘Sarum Use’ as being adopted in nearly all
England, Wales, and Ireland (Twysden, Scriptores Decem, col. 977)."
6. "The influence of the Sarum Rite can also be traced to locations outside of Britain, namely
Norway (the Nidaros Rite) and Portugal (the Braga Rite)." - Bing Overseas Studies Program
Stanford University, Magna Carta 1215-2015: Sarum rite (blogpost).
7. Kenworthy Brown, BE (11 September 1959). "Sarum Rite" (http://archive-uat.catholicherald.co.
uk/article/11th-september-1959/2/sarum-rite). Catholic Herald (Letter to the editor). Retrieved
18 August 2018. "As to Anglicans themselves, an attempt to restore the Sarum use in the C. of
E. was made 50 or 60 years ago by the late Rev. Percy Dearmcr. then vicar of St. Mary the
Virgin's, Primrose Hill, in his quite bulky "Parson's Handbook", but he cannot be described as
having been a liturgical scholar, and all high churches now follow the Roman use."
8. Schofield, Nicholas (28 September 2006). "The Sarum Usage" (http://romanmiscellany.blogspo
t.com/2006/09/sarum-usage.html?m=1). Roman Miscellany (Blog post). Retrieved 18 August
2018. "Valle Adurni has some wonderful photos of the Sarum Mass he celebrated at
Candlemas 1997 in the chapel of Merton College, Oxford - complete with beadle, three
crucifers, two thurifers and coped cantors. This followed the High Mass for the Translation of
St Frideswide in 1996, organised under the auspices of the Oxford University Newman Society
(during my term as President)."
9. "Sarum rite" (http://www.orthodoxresurgence.co.uk/Petroc/sarum.htm), Orthodox resurgence
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20060716045416/http://www.orthodoxresurgence.co.uk/
Petroc/sarum.htm) 16 July 2006 at the Wayback Machine
10. Dearmer, The Parson's Handbook, 7th ed. (1907), pp. 226-241

External links
OrthodoxWiki page on the Sarum Rite (https://orthodoxwiki.org/Sarum_Use)
"Sarum Rite (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13479a.htm)" on Catholic Encyclopedia. 1912.
Media report on 2000 Sarum Mass (http://www.abdn.ac.uk/mediareleases/archive/2000/pr570.
hti)
Monumenta ritualia ecclesiæ Anglicanæ: the occasional offices of the church of England (http
s://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC04615833&id=3QcNAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PR55&lpg=R
A1-PR55&dq=psalterium+sarum&as_brr=1#PRA1-PR15,M1) A discussion of the service
books of the Use of Sarum, including texts.
 Fr. Anthony Chadwick, a traditional Anglican priest, discusses the possibility of reviving the
Sarum Use (http://civitas-dei.eu/sarum_index.htm)

Sarum Mass
Ordinary of the Sarum Missal from Charles Wohlers (http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/S
arum/English.htm)
Ordinarium et Canon Missae Secundum Usum Insignis Et Praeclaerae Ecclesiae Sarum (htt
p://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Sarum/Ordinary.htm)
Ordo Kalendar of the feasts of the Sarum Rite c.1503 (http://www.chd.dk/cals/perg19kal.html)
Missale ad usum insignis et praeclarae ecclesiae Sarum (https://books.google.com/books?id=-
r9FAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=subject:%22Missals%22&lr=&as_brr=1&ei=cGpmSpW
lCImGzATD_uylBA)
Missale ad usum insignis et praeclarae ecclesiae Sarum labore ac studio Francisci Henrici
Dickinson (https://books.google.com/books?id=HvgUAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=mis
sale&lr=&as_brr=1#PPA313,M1)
The Liturgy of the Church of Sarum (https://archive.org/details/churchofsarum00unknuoft)
The Sarum Missal, in English (by A.H. Pearson) (https://books.google.com/books?vid=08I4Rh
aJDeU0z2Dt&id=cyUBAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PR7&lpg=RA1-PR7&dq=%22Sarum+Missal#PR
A15-PA143,M1)
The ancient liturgy of the Church of England, according to the uses of Sarum, Bangor, York &
Hereford and the modern Roman liturgy arranged in parallel columns (1846) (https://archive.or
g/details/ancientliturgyc00churgoog/page/n20)
Ordinary and canon of the mass, according to the use of the Church of Sarum (https://archive.
org/details/ordinaryandcano00churgoog)
Processionale ad usum insignis ac praeclarae ecclesiae Sarum (https://archive.org/details/pro
cessionalead00churgoog)

Sarum Breviary and Antiphonale

Chants of the Sarum Rite (http://hmcwordpress.mcmaster.ca/renwick/)
Sarum Psalter translated into English (http://www.allmercifulsavior.com/Liturgy/SarumPsalter.ht
ml)
Holy Psalter According to the Use of the Illustrious and Most Venerable Church of Sarum (htt
p://www.allmercifulsavior.com/Liturgy/Sarum%20Breviary%20Part%201.pdf)
The Sarum Hymner (in English) (https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Hymner.html?id=
qxAQAAAAYAAJ)
Breviarium ad usum insignis ecclesiae Sarum (The Sarum Breviary in Latin) (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?vid=OCLC02468473&id=VMHtp2su3c8C&printsec=titlepage&dq=usum+sarum
#PPA7,M1)
The Lesser Hours of the Sarum Breviary (https://archive.org/details/lesserhoursofsar00cathuof
t)
The Order of Compline according to the Use of Sarum (in English) (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?vid=0vxNxCTr3Nzpf-gw&id=8u8CAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA1&lpg=RA2-PA1&dq=use+of
+sarum#PRA2-PA8,M1)
The Use of Sarum: The Sarum Ordinal
(https://archive.org/details/theuseofsarum02unknuoft)Another link (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?vid=OCLC04530007&id=DAYNAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA3-PA658&lpg=RA3-PA658&dq=psalte
rium+sarum&as_brr=1#PPP15,M1)
The Use of Sarum: The Customs (https://archive.org/details/theuseofsarum00unknuoft)
Media
Various mp3s of Sarum Chant (http://www.allmercifulsavior.com/Liturgy/Culture.html)
Video of a Sarum-rite Mass celebrated by a Roman Catholic priest at Oxford in 1997 (https://w
ww.youtube.com/watch?v=21pnAoiGnjs)

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