ABSTRACT
Both the prefatory material and the content of William Byrd’s Gradualia show him to be a committed reader of “sacred sentences.” He was far from alone in this interest. The devotional life of any educated Counter-Reformation layman was focused strongly on the printed word. The situation of Catholics in England, where the sacraments and other physical observances of religion were hard to come by, nourished (or forced) an even more text-centered piety. It is no coincidence that Byrd used the language of religious contemplation when he discussed musical text setting.
