I recommend you to read this article written by an English Roman Catholic priest who celebrated the Sarum Use in Merton College Chapel in Oxford in the 1990's. It would seem, in the light of the evidence presented and the existence of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of Benedict XVI, that the Sarum Use is "legal tender" in the Church, just as legal as the Ambrosian Rite, the Roman Rite of 1962 or the Dominican Rite. Is continuous use required? I would think not, since the Ambrosian and Dominican rites ceased to be used for a time, and Paul VI had the intention of replacing the traditional Roman rite with the Novus Ordo without canonically abrogating the old rite.
I am not a canonist, but having read Count Neri Capponi's analysis of the status of the Tridentine rite in the 1970's, I am not difficult to convince about the legitimacy of Sarum as a "current" Catholic rite. Indeed, I think it should gain wider recognition as being a part of Anglican patrimony.
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As the Ambrosian Rite was also reformed post-VII, it would perhaps be more correct to say "just as legal as the Ambrosian Rite of 1954"; true, the traditional Ambrosian Rite is not very common in our diocese, but with time …
Father, I am very interested in learning to use the Sarum Rite; how do I go about getting a Missale?
Here are quite a few resources:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=sarum
An English Sarum Missal in print:
http://www.amazon.com/Sarum-Missal-English-Harford-Pearson/dp/1592449964
You will also find on this page other liturgical books of interest to Anglicans.
Fr. Anthony
Thank you, Father. I have the Pearson edition but find it to be rather small and that there is only the incipit of the Epistles and Gospels. I presume that you yourself use the Pearson; do you photo-copy the lessons? The thought occurs to me that one could scan the day's Mass into the computer, splice in the lessons, re-format the whole thing to be easily readable and print it out on 8.5×11 then use a nice binder at the altar. Is this what you do?
Sorry, I forgot the Lectionary. Here it is:
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/civitas.dei/sarum_lectionary.doc
Click with the right button of your mouse and "save as". Reformat the text as suits you. Feel free to copy as you like. I used the King James version.
Personally, I use the Warren edition of 1911 when using English, and when in private or with people who like Latin, the Dickinson 1868 Latin edition that includes the Epistles and Gospels.
It is best to bind the lectionary into convenient thin booklets, and put them onto the missal stand with the missal or on the lectern. It is a bit of a bind to change books, laying one flat on the altar whilst using the other one, but you get used to it.
Fr. Anthony
Excellent! The lectionary is the key that opens the door.
Do you know of a source for the Sequence hymn tunes?
(Sorry to be so needy. Thank you for the lectionary and help!)
Here is a source for plainsong settings for the entire temporal cycle of the Sarum missal in Latin, but Sandon never did the sanctoral.
Here's the link http://www.anticoedition.co.uk/
I don't know of anything in English. I think some of the sequences have been adapted for English and found their way into the Dearmer / Vaughan Williams "English Hymnal".
Good hunting.
Fr. Anthony
I would agree that the Dominican rite opens a window to the Sarum use–possibly. First, those religious orders with special rites (actually uses) which wished to continue their use were required to have them updated and approved by a certain date (not sure when). The Dominican order did not do so and so their particular rite fell into disuse. The fact that it has been revived suggests that the Vatican is pleased that it be so. This may give the Sarum Use a possible antecedant canonically, but it may not be necessary as the Vatican may be equally as pleased that it revive.
However, it should also be noted that not all former versions of ancient rites are now permissible. In fact, only the 1962 form of the Roman Rite has sanction and that is only with the revisions of 2007.
So, while not every ancient form is permitted I suspect that at least some vesion of the Sarum used may have hope of revival. The jury is still out. It will likely be up to the ordinariate in conjunction with the Holy See to officially settle the question.
I have wondered whether the new Catholics might eventually be called Sarum Use Catholics instead of Anglican Catholics. Time will tell.
The link to the Lectionary seems to be redundant. Is there still some way of accessing it?
Thanks,