ABSTRACT
Virtually the only liturgical manuscript to survive from the Augustinian priory at Kenilworth in Warwickshire is also the only English liturgical manuscript in the small collection at Chichester cathedral. Kenilworth priory was founded about 1125 with a dedication to St. Mary and provision for as many as twenty-six canons. The present ruins reflect an extension of probably the fourteenth century, but even before that the church had been adequate for capacious liturgy. The examination of the Kenilworth missal is admittedly preliminary, above all in omitting consideration of the elements not directly related to the liturgy of the mass. The mass for relics‒an unusual subject for a votive mass, as distinct from the Feast of Relics commonly observed in the summer or early autumn‒consists of three prayers found only in a few, mainly monastic, traditions; the incipits are 'Propiciare nobis', 'Suscipiat quesumus domine clemencia tua', and 'Diuina libantes'.
