A priest friend sent a link to a piece in The European Conservative which argues for the Sarum Rite. In itself, that’s interesting. Adherents of the Roman Rite will, however, appreciate the introductory section. My emphases and comments:
The Tragedy of the Sarum Rite
A characteristic of the modern Catholic Church is its liturgical uniformity. Centuries ago, if you were travelling through Christendom, you would have experienced an array of liturgical rites and ‘uses,’ all of which would nonetheless have seemed to belong to the same religion. Presently, in the strange ecclesiastical institution that was allegedly born of a ‘New Pentecost’ half a century ago, only one liturgical order is deemed acceptable, the Novus Ordo of the Roman Rite—a ritual concocted by Archbishop Bugnini, a shady character with curious Masonic connections.
There’s an obvious rigidity among the Church’s hierarchs—those senior clergy who routinely conflate uniformity with unity—in regard to what liturgy may be celebrated. But going from one church to another often requires a wholesale change of one’s religion. This is the case, because the Novus Ordo allows for such an injection of the priest’s personality into the liturgy, that the liturgy itself is frequently a mere platform by which the priest can celebrate his parochial celebrity and his personal opinions on the religion he claims to profess. [I saw up close over the last decade how even otherwise solid priest can slide into exactly that.]
For this reason, among others, a growing number of the faithful have sought out the ancient ritual forms of the Church—still offered by certain clergy as part of a sort of underground network [Not because they want to be!] —to encounter the liturgical expression of their religion and escape the self-referential theatrics of the local parish priest. As ever more laity, especially young people, seek out the ancient liturgy of the Church, the Eye of Sauron in Rome has turned towards these congregations—and is now constructing various means to eliminate them.
Unfortunately, such ‘traditionalist’ Catholics may presume that the ancient form of the Roman Rite is the only Latin Rite liturgy that ever existed before the 1960s’ ‘New Pentecost,’ which successfully emptied the pews in the greatest single apostasy the Church has ever seen. [I’m afraid worse is coming.] In reality, as I noted above, in old Christendom there were local rites and ‘uses’ everywhere. In fact, the diversity rather crossed over into liturgical chaos, and in the 16th century, Pope Pius V declared that any rite that couldn’t be proven to have at least a 200-year pedigree must go. This requirement was extremely conservative, however, and thus widespread liturgical diversity continued.
In Britain alone, we had the rites of York, Hereford, Bangor, Aberdeen, and Sarum, the last of which was by far the most widely offered in these isles. There were also the rites of the religious orders, like those of the Carmelites, Dominicans, Cistercians, and others. Then there were many types of chant, and different styles of vestment, and that’s all before we come to low cultural, popular devotional diversity, as almost every village had its own rituals and patron saints. The liturgical life of Britain in particular and Christendom in general was like a great medieval tapestry, full of variety and colour, though forming a single picture of beauty and grace.
[…]
The rest is a really good read.
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Without looking back the available material, I recall reading that during the Sarum Mass, the priest prayed the pater noster with arms outstretched in cruciform position. I have seen a very good priest do the same in a Novus Ordo Mass and, to me and those others who noticed, it was very moving.
I think Mr Morello is right to intimate that unless the Ordinariates take up the Sarum Use, eh, it is going to remain in the realm ‘for special occasions once every decade or so’.
Fortunately that multiplicity of rites still flourishes among the Eastern churches and the Eye of Sauron has so far not been cast over them. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Okay, First I will admit that I can’t remember his name.
There was a Priest who fully embraced the Novus Ordo. He grew his hair long and every sermon was new entertainment. At one point he realized what he was doing, the difficulty of trying to top the last sermon, not based on Church Teaching but the twisted peace and love of the day.
He made a complete turn around and went back to praying the Latin Mass. Became a great Advocate of the dangers of the Novu Ordo. God Rest his Soul.
I was under the impression that the Sarum Rite slowly fell into disuse after Quo Primum and just died out. I am also confused about which rites are currently suppressed by Rome. I thought it was only the Latin Rite they hated. ‘Cause as they say “the devil hates Latin.”
@Notsoserious09
To my knowledge, all of the western Rites, including the Sarum, are, by language, Latin.
Thank you for this!
There were Sarum Vespers on the Eve of Candlemas at St. Patrick’s Church in Philadelphia in 2020. I saw a video recording somewhere online back then…
Under correction, I think I remember reading (in Evelyn Waugh’s Edmund Campion biography?) that Sarum Low Masses were also celebrated among recusants, and that Sarum Missals and other books were being reprinted on the Continent as late as the 1620s or so, I suppose for use smuggled into Britain as well as in exile.
Is there any substantive documentation on just how much the Dominican, Carmelite, Cistercian, Sarum, etc rites have been used both before 1968 and after? And where / how many separate locations or individual priests doing it with some regularity?
The principle by which Pius V constrained retention of other masses was that they had to have been in use for 200 years, which (I think) is the period that, (at least roughly) the Church intends by “immemorial custom”. There are rules about getting rid of immemorial custom that seems to make these much less likely to be obliterated with little forethought. If all it takes is 1 priest who says a single Sarum mass once every 5 years to keep the Sarum use in existence as an immemorial custom, (or whatever frequency and extent counts), can it be documented that such practices did actually continue right past the introduction of the Novus Ordo? La Wiki is decidedly unclear on such details.