Monday, July 13, 2015

Liturgical Boutique: Is Sarum Possible?


For a rite that has not been used continuously since the reign of Good Queen Mary Tudor, the Sarum usage has occupied copious amounts of time in the minds and speeches of liturgists, historians, and more common laymen looking for something different from the average parish offering. Most recently one Bernard Brandt has argued for the restoration of the Sarum liturgy on a legal basis, reiterating in depth what Fr. Séan Finnegan wrote years before. Fr. Chadwick is unusually a celebrant of the unadultered Sarum rite in Norman France and occasionally mentions his hopes for the tradition. Other than two Masses by Fr. Finnegan in the 1990s—promptly shut down over legal concerns, Sarum has not been subjected to any visible celebrations.

Why has it remained a more popular point of discussion than the neo-Gallican rites, the use of York, Braga in Portugal, or the idiosyncratic liturgies of Toledo and Milan? Various overlapping Anglican movements (the Tractarian, Oxford, and Ritualist movements) wrought liturgical scholarship into England's Catholic past and new printings of old Sarum books. Scholars in the liturgical movement revived history in the medieval developments that took place in northern Europe. Many of these studies were either conducted in England or were quickly translated into that tongue; the works of Dix and Batiffol come to mind. Lastly, there was the traditionalist movement. Many English Catholics adduced the example of Sarum and York to prove that the liturgical tradition of Latin Christianity existed beyond the Roman rite and was never subjected to proactive papal fiat, hence the pope could not uniformly and unilaterally impose one liturgical rite over a traditionally established praxis. Sarum is discussed, but rarely practiced. What future could it have?

Sarum resources abound the market if one looks hard enough and is willing to pay a handsome sum for hardcover books. Digital books and scholarly materials are available online in both Latin and English. Various ensembles have recorded settings of the Christmas Masses. One enterprising scholar even made a project of uploading the Missal and Divine Office with musical instructions online here, making a restoration feasible outside the Music department at Oxford.

So, we have a Missal, musical notation, a choir and a dozen men ready to serve, but who would be our congregation? In 2011, when the British Ordinariate came to be, there was quite a bit of chatter on St. Giles Street in Oxford that Msgr. Andrew Burnham was fond of Sarum and intended to ask permission to use it as an "extraordinary form" for the community. I met Burnham half a dozen times, but never had the interest to ask him if he even had an affinity for Sarum. The English Ordinariate, unlike its formerly Anglo-Catholic American counterpart, is comprised of former Anglo-Papists, who had been celebrating and interpreting the Pauline liturgy in a conservative Oratorian fashion for decades prior to Anglicanorum coetibus. Their primary concern was not the Catholic heritage of England, it was bridging high Roman Catholicism with Anglicanism. Other than Fr. Hunwicke, not many Ordinariate priests seem interested in older forms of the Roman rite, much less in its English children. 

The best chance for Sarum in the Catholic Church is likely as an exceptional form of liturgy for the Church in England to use on special occasions. It is a rite that belongs to English Catholics as a whole, not uniquely to those of "Anglican patrimony." Sarum descends from the Roman rite and the Prayer Book, although part of a new faith, descended in many strong parts from the Sarum praxis and texts. Traditionalists would be best equipped for a minor restoration: they more readily have scholae, priests versed in Latin, laity unafraid of Latin, and, in England, have a sympathy for the heritage of their predecessors who kept the faith. 

Would they be interested? A large enough portion for the rare Mass or Vespers, surely. Would they be willing? Herein one finds the sticky situation of relying on other clergy and the benevolence of Churchmen. After the backtrack in 1996/7, one would need a very confident dragoman to examine the laws of the Latin Church and then proceed to do exactly what they allow. An old saying "In England, everything is allowed except what is prohibited; in Russia, everything is prohibited except what is allowed" recapitulates the transformation of liturgical perspective in the last few generations. Interest will get us to the door, but eventually some clerics will have to turn the handle and smile at Rome as they stride over the threshold. 

(As a note, the archbishop of Birmingham approved Fr. Finnegan's celebrations in the 1990s. The fallout with Basil Hume and the Vatican can be followed on Mr. Brandt's blog.)

One would hope that if Sarum ever does rise from the dead, its celebrants will utilize its distinctive non-Roman features. Who would not want to read Origen at Mattins on Christmas Eve?

Given the popularity of this quasi-Sarum related post, I think it is at least stocking coped cantors in the boutique for my fellow fetishists.

18 comments:

  1. Given that The Boutique has the new Sarum Summer Collection already delivered, please accept my order for seven Coped Cantors.

    Plus sundry accoutrements, as may be available.

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  2. Reading of Origen at Christmas Eve Mattins.... I approve. There's so much focus on Origen's flirtation with universal salvation and pre-existence of the soul that no one bothers to read anything else he wrote (his stance against biblical literalism, his contributions towards trying to discover the date of the nativity, his commentary on Matthew, his refutations against myriad heretics, his well supported arguments both for purgation and that said purgation is universal...)

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  3. Dear Rad Trad,

    It is my opinion that any restoration of the Sarum rite would have to begin as a move on the part of the laity in making use of the Hours as a part of their personal prayer life. It would then proceed from there as an action of such priests as wished and were able to serve the Holy Mass and Sacraments in the Sarum rite. One would know that it had gained some measure of success when a monastery was formed which would pray with and in the Sarum rite.

    In the meantime, it would first be necessary to lift the doubt which currently has been placed on the service of Sarum Mass by the Congregation of Sacred Rites (now the Congregation of Divine Worship). While I am not at liberty to write publicly of what steps are presently being taken, please be assured that I am not 'eating my bread in idleness'.

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  5. I think the chances for a renewal are bleak. I do not mean to be negative but at this current moment it seems like the victories have to do with freeing up the 1962 Roman Missal and that is it. It seems like for many tradition starts and ends with 1962.

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  6. Do please remember: despair is a sin.

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    1. Bernard,

      I don't know if anyone is despairing. I think most of us are just trying to be real knowing the liturgical climate at the present moment. The best we can do is pray our Pre-1911 Breviaries/Monastic Breviaries/Byzantine Office(s)/etc.. at home trying to keep the spirit of tradition alive within our family square.

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    2. I've just Downloaded Volume One of my Pre-1911 Breviary (for FREE) from http://www.archive.org/details/theromanbreviary01unknuoft
      Repeat the exercise (substituting 02 for 01) for Volume Two, and 03 for Volume Three, and 04 for Volume Four. And your Daily Breviary Readings are complete.

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    3. Zephyrinus,

      Awesome! Thanks for this very useful resource!!

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  7. Victimae "The best we can do is pray our Pre-1911 Breviaries/Monastic Breviaries/Byzantine Office(s)/etc.. at home" - Yes, we must keep this restoration going and I stand with you in doing so, but it's not the best we can do. Gaining the confidence of a particular priest or priests and/or other clergy and making inroads into the non-Ecclesia Dei "1962villes", wherever possible, is an even better course because it can (and in my own case, has) resulted in real, concrete restorations (e.g. pre-1956 Holy Week rites, the Pentecost Vigil) happening or soon to be happening. In my own case, restoring the Sarum Rite is not on the radar, but we've turned a definitive corner away from liturgical ultramontanism/positivism.

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    1. John R,

      Looking back at my post it does seem like I was a bit too general. I am very glad to hear the restorations that you have been involved in! I went to 1962 Holy Week liturgies this year and even though I did like them, I was imaging how beautiful the pre Pius XII liturgies must have been. The Vexilla Regis sung during the Procession on Good Friday!

      Keep up the good work, my friend.

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  8. How is the situation for the french Rites? Given that they were continuously celebrated well into the 19th century (and given tacit papal approval in the restoration) there should be no (or at least considerably less) obstacles to celebrating them, at least in France (and the image of the Versailles rite on Wikipedia must originate somewhere [possibly the ICK, if the blue altar boy clothing is not misleading]).

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    1. Many (if not all?) of the ICRSS's apostolates clothe their altar servers in blue-trimmed cassocks. I have personally seen this in the US of A.

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  9. I do agree with JohnR - and his splendid efforts - and believe that this should not be an either/or situation. As Fr. Chadwick has commented elsewhere what really must be borne in mind is that Sarum is not a variant of the 1570 Roman missal but really a sort of great uncle to it and represents the old Roman rite, i.e. the rite of the parish churches of Rome rather than the abridged rite of a busy curia. Having said that clearly 1570 scores some points such as Holy Saturday where the more ancient stratum of twelve prophecies (c.f. Baumstark) has been restored.

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  10. In a footnote (n. 213, p. 130) of his book The Organic Development of the Liturgy, Alcuin Reid discusses the permission of Archbishop Couve de Murville to permit celebrations of the Sarum Use in his diocese in 1996 and 1997, and Bishop Conti to celebrate Sarum Use himself in 2000. Reid concludes: "In the author’s opinion, in the light of the principles operative in the reinvigoration of the traditional rite of Braga, both the Archbishop of Birmingham [in our case] and the Bishop of Aberdeen acted within their competence, in harmony with liturgical Tradition, and in accordance with the precedent of the Holy See by allowing, and in the case of the latter, by personally celebrating Mass according to the Sarum rite. Indeed, a precedent may be found in the fact that in 1964 the ancient Parisian Use was celebrated in Notre Dame in Paris to mark the occasion of the eighth centenary of the cathedral..."

    I agree with Reid, though this leaves some questions unanswered. The best I can say is that I think it is plausible, in the context of a tolerably Ratzingerian pontiff succeeding this one, appointing in turn tolerably Ratzingerian staff at CDW, that one could see a renunciation of the 1997 letter by Msgr Nicolosi. But where would that leave the status of the Sarum Use? In the absence of further legislation, it would likely be, de facto, what the Rad Trad says - "an exceptional form of liturgy for the Church in England to use on special occasions." It might also become an occasional celebration by Ordinariates around the world where the interest exists (and the interest is there, in a few quarters) and the ordinary is amenable. In the mean time, those who support Sarum can only prepare the ground as best they can for that day,

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    1. 'Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have a clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.'
      -JRR Tolkein, 'The Return of the King'

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  11. Is it overly simplistic to say that Sarum awaits an English Bishop (or a Bishop of a commonwealth country) with his head screwed on straight?

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