The Sarum Missal, in English [by A.H. Pearson].

POSTSCRIPT.*

VARIATIONS between the text of the Sarum Pontifical at Cambridge and the Exeter one, are found at the end of the Blessing of the Oil for the Sick, the first and second of the Blessings of the Oil for Catechumens, and in the latter part of the third Blessing of the Chrism. As has been before said, these were discovered at too late a period for insertion in Appendix A. Reference has already been made, in the Introduction, to the state of the English MS. Missals, etc., previous to the discovery of printing. Perhaps nothing illustrates the remarks there made better than the case of the English Pontificals. None were ever printed; hence it cannot be determined for certain what the Sarum or any other Use was. In the library at Cambridge are four MS. Pontificals, all assuming to be Secundum Usum Sarum. Of these, one is in text Roman (!); but it follows the English Use in consecrating the Oil of Catechumens before and not after the Chrism. The other three are, a MS. of the xiith. century, which belonged to Winchester Cathedral; one of the xiiith. century, which belonged to Ely; and a third of the xvth. century, which probably belonged to Lincoln, (this is the Sarum Pontifical so often mentioned in Appendix A. as well as by Maskell and others; it is preferable, however, to call MSS. by the name of the Church or district to which they belong, if ascertainable). Now, the Exeter Pontifical-the text of which is followed in Appendix A.-contains, in addition to the Exeter Consecration of Holy Oils, a section at the end, Qualiter consecretur Crisma in Ecclesiá Sarum; and it was this circumstance, coupled with the fact that the above deviations (being mostly at the end of the prayers) did not at once catch the eye, which induced the belief that the text was the same in both MSS. Dismissing from the mind, as one must, in the case of all English MS. Missals, etc., any such supposition as that because they profess to be Secundum Usum Sarum, they therefore are,† there appear to be three different texts, and two kinds of ceremonial in the Service in question, in English Pontificals. Winchester, Ely, and Lincoln agree in the above-mentioned deviations in text, in opposition to Exeter, and the fourth MS. Pontifical at Cambridge, which is totally distinct. In ceremonial, Exeter, Winchester, Ely, and the fourth MS. at Cambridge, agree in respect to the procession tal ing place at Te igitur, and not at Per quem as at Sarum; whilst the Lincoln MS. stands alone, coinciding with the description of Sarum ceremonial in the Exeter Pontifical, and in the Registrum S. Osmundi. These last two descriptions are, of course, the only real guide to Sarum Use; and as the majority of MSS. agree in the deviations in text in opposition to that of Exeter, it may be assumed that the Lincoln MS. best represents in text and ceremonial the Sarum Use.

* See p. 598.

The fact is, this term was used, just as the term Secundum Usum Romanum was abroad, simply to signify that that was the standard Missal of the country; the conclusion that if it was, it must therefore be exactly followed, seems never to have occurred to the compilers of these MSS.