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. 31It is evident that this diversity of liturgical rites was considered more adisadvantage than a wealth, but the above is a contemporary witness to thesituation.However, before the first Anglican reform of the Mass in 1548, therewas a tendency towards uniformity, which became much more severe thanthat imposed by Pius V in 1570107.The Convocation in Canterbury in 1542decided to make the Sarum Use the unique liturgy of the Church of England,already separated from Rome in 1534, but this decision was never put intoexecution, that is until the First Prayer Book of 1549 entirely replaced the oldservice books108.It is notable that these medieval liturgies were not called rites, but uses,because they all belonged to the same family; they were all variants of theRoman rite with greater or lesser proportions of relics from the long-forgottenGallican and Celtic rites.This distinction of rite and use is simply thedistinction between genus and specific difference109.This is true not only ofEngland but also in most of the Latin Catholic world.By the eve of the Reformation, the rubrics of many of these rites had becomehighly complicated and difficult to observe.For example, in the English Useof Sarum, the rubrics of the Pie110 became a jungle of highly complex rubrics,which in its turn would be attacked by the reformers.The Sarum rubricistswere reputed as the finest of the land and the Use of this diocese became amodel for many other Churches, even outside England111.The cathedralChapter became a kind of congregation of rites to which were referred anyproblems of liturgy or ceremonial.On the other hand, the Use of Sarum hadsuch prestige that Bishop Giles of Bridgeport was able to boast already in 1256that:107Dom Gregory Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy, London 1945, pp 658-659.Dix illustrates therigour of liturgical uniformity in sixteenth century England, saying: The clergy, unconvinced ofthe merits of the Book by the hanging of priests for non-compliance, were deliberately misinterpreting itand making it as much of a mass as they dared.108G.J.Cuming, A History of Anglican Liturgy, London 1969, pp 53-54.109Fortescue, op.cit., pp 199-205.110The Pie was the name given to the Sarum Ordinal or book of rubrics, a French term for theLatin Pica (Quod usitato vocabulo Pica, sive directorium sacerdotum), a magpie, owing to theconfused appearance of the rules which were printed in old Black-Letter type on white paper,resembling the colours of this commonly found European bird.111Archdale A.King, Liturgies of the Past, London 1959, p 284. 32 Among the churches of the whole world, the church of Sarum hath shoneresplendent, like the sun in his full orb, in respect of its divine service, and itsministers 112.Such a claim may seem to us somewhat exaggerated, but people were proudof their liturgies.At the occasion of the promulgation of the first AnglicanPrayer Book of 1549, there was a fierce reaction from many of the faithful ofthe south west of England.Their slogan was We will have the Mass 113, forthey were attached to the liturgy they had always known.In the other English medieval variants of the Roman rite, there was muchvariation from the Use of Sarum.All these uses were largely based on theRoman Sacramentaries, though they contained Gallican elements.Generallyin Europe, the local diocesan usages had grown out of divers historicalsituations: privileges, jealousies between bishops and cathedral chapters,invasions and wars, above all the instinct of fidelity to tradition.The varietywas rich and steeped in the various cultures of peoples and those whoinvaded their countries114.Despite the general trend of uniformity in liturgical matters, particularly as aresult of the reform of Gregory VII (1073-1085), nearly every diocese andreligious Order had its own Missal and Breviary115.Many of these rites cameinto being during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and Pius V (1566-1572)allowed some of them to continue.The most famous of these liturgies werethose of the Dominicans, Cistercians, Canons Regular of Prémontré,Carmelites and the dioceses of Lyons, Milan and Toledo116.There were three parts of the Mass where were developed numerous privatedevotions for the celebrant and his assisting ministers: at the preparation orso-called prayers at the foot of the altar , at the offertory, and between the112Stat.Eccles.Cath.Sarum (edited 1883), p 54.The title page of some editions of the SarumMissal bears the legend Missale ad usum insignis et præclaræ Ecclesiæ Sarum.113A.Fletcher, Tudor Rebellions, London 1973, p 35.The protesting lay people had said: We willhave the masse in Latten, as before (.) We will not receyve the newe servye because it is like aChristmas game; cf.Dix, op.cit., p 658: The English laity (.) rose in rebellions over half thecountryside, which were suppressed with considerable slaughter by the use of foreign mercenaries
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