ABSTRACT
The development of interest in liturgical studies in England from the mid nineteenth century may be seen against the background of the Catholic Revival in the Church of England, which drew so much of its inspiration from the past. The authenticity of contemporary innovations in worship and ceremonial could be validated, if reliable historical precedents and criteria were established. This stimulated enquiry into the form and origin of English medieval liturgical practices. As a result there arose a more critical understanding of the Prayer Book, its evolution and sources, issues that were discussed in detail by Francis Procter in his History of the Book of Common Prayer first published in 1855.2 Later revised and supplemented by Frere, this has remained a standard, if now dated, work on the subject since its first appearance in 1901.3 It contains a section devoted to the medieval English uses, particularly Sarum, which ‘has the most direct bearing on the history of the Prayer Book’.4 Cranmer, after all, followed Sarum as one of his principal sources in the formulation of the first Book of Common Prayer published in 1549 (revised and re-issued in 1552, 1559 and 1662),5 so that the study of medieval liturgy was henceforth to become of practical and not merely antiquarian interest.
