The Use of Sarum is the pre-Reformation
liturgical form in the English Church.
It is a use of the Roman Rite and
has many similarities with the Dominican
Rite. The origin of this liturgical
usage is largely the Use of Rouen
and a few imports from the Celtic
and Mozarabic traditions.
Modern-day interest in Sarum is quite
surprising, considering its abolition
by the Anglican authorities in 1549
and its desuitude in the Latin Church
from about the early seventeenth century.
It is often denigrated by conservative
Catholics, and people with ideas of
reviving the old English liturgical
tradition are passed off as eccentrics.
As the photograph above, taken from
a video recording, shows, Sarum is
occasionally celebrated to this day
and is assimilated to the extraordinary
form of the Roman Rite and the Ambrosian
Rite of northern Italy. It would certainly
be encouraging to see Sarum as a kind
of "extraordinary" form
of Anglican liturgical patrimony.
It is tempting to construct an apologia
for restoring this Use as a part of
Anglican patrimony, but such a method
would be counter-productive as I have
discovered by writing articles on
The
Anglo Catholic and reading people's
reactions in the comments. Some are
for and others are against, and both
camps often through preconceived and
mistaken ideas. Such "received
ideas" include thinking that
Sarum is "way over the top",
too complex for anything other than
occasional use in a cathedral, and,
in particular, simply being an aesthetic
backwash for English rites more or
less based on the Prayer Book. It
is also tempting to see Sarum as a
pragmatic solution to solving the
differences of liturgical usage in
the Anglican world. Like the Dominican,
Bragan or Ambrosian rites, not to
mention Paris and Lyons in France,
Sarum is a variant of the Roman Rite
with an integrity of its own.
We can also remind ourselves that
the intention in the late 1960's and
1970's was to crush all liturgical
rites in the Church and replace them
with the modern Roman rite, and introduce
similar reforms even in the Oriental
Churches. It was to be a repeat performance
of 1549 and 1552, but this movement
of deconstruction was halted by the
appointment of Archbishop Bugnini
to other duties in the Church, a number
of steps by John Paul II to emancipate
clergy and faithful attached to the
older form of the Roman Rite and the
present situation under Benedict XVI.
I doubt that Sarum could be revived
on a large scale or be made an official
liturgy of the future Catholic Anglican
personal Ordinariates, but I am convinced
it should be a reference in much the
same way as the extraordinary form
of the Roman rite will be the standard
for a gradual process of reform and
restoration of the liturgy by slowly
transforming the ordinary form promulgated
by Paul VI. A few of us would opt
to celebrate Mass according to the
Sarum Use in private and on special
occasions with the lay faithful.
As suggested in the final sentence
of the preceding paragraph, there
is a pastoral dimension to
the introduction or reintroduction
of any "foreign" liturgical
form. It has to be done gradually
and without force. In many situations,
the idea is best forgotten and it
would be wiser in these circumstances
to stick with a liturgical form that
is familiar to the faithful, and transform
it slowly, progressively, and only
as truly necessary.
Sarum liturgical books are hard to
find, and when they do turn up as
rare books in second-hand bookshops,
the asking price is often high. The
Latin edition by Dickinson and the
English editions by Warren and Pearson
are available from the Internet in
pdf format. It suffices to collate
the pages into a DTP programme and
bind the books. Work is being done
to publish Sarum texts and the plainchant
books for both the Mass and the Office.
