ABSTRACT
The principal purpose for the accomplishment of which Salisbury Cathedral was brought into existence was the perpetual performance of the sacred Latin liturgy. The fundamental content of that liturgy was substantially fixed and unchanging. The cathedral organisation was dynamic, and capable of rapid and if necessary radical response to ever-changing circumstances. It would be difficult to over-estimate the shock of the sixteenth-century Reformation, bringing the change of liturgical language from Latin to English, and the reduction in the number of daily choir services from nine to only three. The liturgy of Salisbury Use consisted of a rich amalgam of three constituent components: the Latin texts, the monodic plainsong chant to which they were sung and the elaborate ceremonial by which they were accompanied. For the performance of this liturgy the rubrics of the service books predicated the availability of three distinct ranks of executants.
