Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/540

 SARUM

480

SARUM

church exactly as was done in Rome. In appreciat- ing the wide-spread Sarum Use, concerning which the extant hterature is very copious, it is well to boar in mind that just as the Roman Rite itself has always been patient of laudable local customs, so, in medieval times the adopting of the Sarum Service Books did not necessarilj' mean the rejecting of existing cere- monial usages in favour of those in vogue at Salis- buTN", but onlj' the fitting thereof into the framework outlined in the Sarum Missal, Breviary, and other liturgical manuals. Again, it must not be forgotten that the Sarum Use represents in the main the Roman Rite as carried out in the eleventh century, and that the reforms introduced by Gregory VII and his im- mediate successors which culminated in the thirteenth- century Franciscan revision of the Breviary, only very slowly and verj^ partially found their way into the service books of the Gallic and British Churches. Hence, the marked resemblance of the Sarum Use to those of the Dominicans, Calced Carmelites, and other medieval religious orders.

The following are the more noticeable variants of the Use of Sarum from the developed Roman Rite of our own times.

(1) At Mass, as in the Dominican Use, the Sarum priest began by saying a verse of the psalm "Con- fitemini", with a shortened Confiteor followed by the verse "Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini". Nevertheless, at Salisbury every celebrant was bound to have recited the whole psalm "Judica me Deus" in the sacristy before coming to the foot of the altar. The prayer "Aufer a nobis" was said, but not that which now follows it, in lieu of which the priest simply made the sign of the cross and proceeded to read the Officium, or aswe call it, the Introit, repeating it not only after its Gloria Patri but also after the psalm-verse which precedes the latter. From the Kj'rie to the Offertory the deviations from our actual usage are slight, though on festival days this section of the sacred rite was often enormously lengthened by varied and prolix sequences. Like the Dominican and other contemporaneous Uses, that of Sarum sup- pKDses the previous preparation of the chalice (put by the Sarum Missal between the Epistle and Gospel), and thereby materially abbreviates the Offertory ceremonial. According to an archaic usage, still familiar to ourselves from the Roman Good-Friday Rite, the prayer "In spiritu humilitatis" followed in place of preceding the washing of the priest's hands, and the psalm "Lavabo" was omitted, so also to the "Orate Fratres" (at Sarum, "Orate Fratres et Sorores") no audible response was made. From the Preface onward through the Canon, the Sarum Mass was word for word and gesture by gesture that of our own MLssals, except that a profound inclination of head and shoulders took the place of the modern genuflection and that during the first prayer after the Elevation the celebrant stood with arms stretched out in the form of a cross. As in France and generally in Northern and Western Europe the Benediction given at the breaking of the Sacred Host was not curtailr;d to the mere pronouncing of the words "Pax Domini sit semper vobi.scum" but, more par- ticularly when a bishop officiated, was very solemnly given with a formula varying aecording to the festival. The Agnus Dei in the Sarum Use was said as by th(! Dominicans after and not before; the Commingling, but the yjraycrs before thf; j)riest's Communion were other than thosf; with which we are familiar. The kiss of peace was given as with us but there was no "Domine non sum dignus". 'llie words pronounced by the celebrant at the moment of his own Communion are striking and seem peculiar to the Sarum Missal. They may therefore be fittingly quoted: "Hail for evermore, Thou most holy Flesh of Christ; sweet to rne before and beyond all things beside. To me a sinner may the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ be

the Way and the Life." The "Quod ore sumpsimus" and some other prayers accompanied the taking of the ablutions, and the Communion and Postcommun- ion followed as now. But no Blessing was given and the beginning of the Gospel of St. John was recited by the priest on his way from the sanctuary to the sacristy.

(2) The Sarum Breviary, like the Sarum IMissal, is essentially Roman. The Psalter is distributed through the seven Canonical Hours for weekly recita- tion exactly as with us, though naturally the psalms (XXI-XXV) left over from the Sunday Matins and assigned by Pius V for the Prime of different ferias are, as in the Dominican and Carmelite Breviaries, marked to be recited together on Sundays in their old place at the beginning of that Canonical Hour. Nor in the Sarum Alatins do there occur the short prayers termed Absolutions. On the other hand, a ninth Responsory always preceded the Te Deum which was followed by the so-called "Versus Sacerdotalis", that is to say, a versicle intoned by the officiating priest and not by a cantor. At least on festival days, a Responsory was sung between the Little Chapter and Hymn of Vespers. When there were Commem- orations or Memories as they are called in the Sarum, Dominican and alhed Uses, the "Benedicamus Domino" of Vespers and Lauds was twice sung; once after the first Collect, and once after the last of the Commemorations. Compline began with the verse "Converte nos Deus", the hymn followed instead of preceding the Little Chapter, and the Confiteor, as at Prime, was said among the Preces. The Compline Antiphons, hymn, etc., varied wnth the ecclesiastical seasons; but the introduction of a final Antiphon and Prayer of Our Blessed Lady closing the Divine Office (Divine Service, it was called at Sarum) is posterior to Sarum times. The Antiphons of the Sarum Offices differ considerably from those in the actual Roman Breviary; but both from the literary and from the devotional point of view the latter are in most in- stances preferable to those they have superseded. The proper psalms for the various Commons of Saints and for feast days are nearly always the same as now; but for the First Vespers of the greater solemnities the five psalms beginning with the word "Laudate" were appointed as in the Dominican Breviary. The order of the reading of Holy Scripture at Matins is practically identical with that of the Breviary of Pius V, though in the Middle Ages the First Nocturn was not as now reserved for these Lections only. An interesting feature of the Sarum Breviary is its inclu- sion of Scripture Lections for the ferias of Lent. The Lections taken from the writings of the Fathers and from the Legends of the Saints were often dispropor- tionately long and obviously needed the drastic re- vision they received after the Council of Trent. The Sarum hymns are in the main those of the Roman Breviary as sung before their revision under Urban VIII and comprise by consequence the famous "Veni Redemptor" of Christmas Vespers and the "O quam glorifica" of the Assumption with one or two others in like manner now obsolete.

(3) Very striking in the Sarum Use is the elaborate spk^ndour of the accompanying ceremonial, which contrasts vividly with the comparative simplicity of Roman practice. Three, five, seven deacons and as many subdeacons, two or more thurifers, three cross- bearers and so on are often prescribed or at least con- templated. Two or four priests vested in copes, termed Rectores Chori or Rulers of the Choir, presided over the sacred chants. There was censing of many altars, and even during the reading of the Lections at Matins priests in their vestments offered incense at the high altar. Processions were frequent, and that preceding the High Mass on Sundays was specially magnificent. On the altar itself rarely more than two or at the most four candlesticks were placed, but