When looking up our own Fr. Symondson's book on Sir Ninian Comper, I noticed this rather interesting new title that is due out in the coming weeks:
Sarum Use: The Ancient Customs of Salisbury
Philip Baxter
118 pages
Spire Books
The Sarum Use was founded on customs for the organisation of music and liturgy, as well as management and finance, employed by the bishop, dean and chapter of Salisbury Catherdral until the Reformation, when its litutgical content was rationalised by Cranner to form the first English Use in the Common Book of Prayer.
The origins and development of these customs reach back to the early Middle Ages, to Celtic practices, as well as to the Anglo-Saxon customs of royal Sherborne, Sarum, Old and New, refined the traditions with Norman influence and the result was a use which became predominant throughout the English Church.
Philip Baxter is a leading expert on early liturgical developments at Salisbury and had a distinguished career in church music at Oxford University and Salisbury Cathedral where he was a vicar choral, deputising for the precentor.
European readers can order here from Spire Books.
North American readers can order here from David Brown Books.
As you likely picked up from the publishers description of the book, the author, Philip Baxter, is an Anglican.
His personal website notes that he pursued"Sarum Rite studies in the sympathetic environment of Oxford University, when he was appointed to a bursarship, and subsequently elected to a Fellowship of Brasenose College (which had adopted the Sarum Rite on its foundation in 1509). Over some five years he lectured in liturgy and music on courses at Rewley House, Oxford, and for some sixteen years was an occasional lecturer in church history and music, on arts courses of the Open University."
