ABSTRACT
The Anglican liturgical and musical reform is closer to the Swiss Reformation than to the Lutheran in its theological grounds. The Lutheran Reformation was one of the tributaries which contributed to the Anglican reform, yet some differences between them may be argued as follows. The decisive difference is that, unlike the Lutheran Reformation, the Anglican reform centres on the uniformity of the liturgy across the country. One of the most significant elements in the reform of existing Christian worship in the late Middle Ages was the 'vernacularisation' of the traditional liturgy. A main characteristic of the vernacular versions of plainchant is that they usually retained the poetic structures of the original Latin plainchant as well as its notation style and melodic formulae. The Anglican reformers attempted to apply the ancient manner of chanting to their vernacular versions of the traditional liturgy. A representative example of this endeavour is illustrated by Archbishop Cranmer, a humanist reformer.
