Monday, May 08, 2006

Two books of traditional English liturgy

We've recently been talking about "English" liturgy, whether that means medieval Catholic liturgy in England, or whether that means the later Anglo-Catholic developments within the Anglican communion.

With regards the latter, some of us have proposed there can be something to look at in the likes of the Knott Missal, insofar as it possibly provides a template for a form of liturgical English that may be worth exploring in our own day. Something poetic, sacral and yet, arguably, still quite intelligible to modern English speaking peoples.

In that vein, I've recently discovered two books of interest to NLM readers:

The first is called The Sarum Missal in English and is priced at $65.00 USD.

I can't personally comment on it as of yet, having not seen it, but I do hope to do a review of it for those who might prefer to wait for a review. The book is 688 pages in length and looks to be an English translation of the Sarum Missal and its various propers -- at least from the size of the book, that would be my presumption.

The other book is the so-called English Missal priced also around $65.00 USD.

I believe this may also be known as the "Knott Missal" and is the Missal of choice used by Anglo-Catholics -- but perhaps someone can correct me. My understanding is this would be the Pian liturgical books translated into Elizabethan style English.

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