Welsh Journals

A LLANBADARN FAWR CALENDAR THERE is on deposit at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, a copy of the Sarum Missal, printed by Francis Regnault at Paris in 1531. The book was lent in 1920 by the Representative Body of the Church in Wales, to which it had been presented by the Reverend G. A. Littledale, at one time Vicar of Chipping Norton in the diocese of Oxford. No less than sixty-six editions of the missal of Salisbury were printed between the years 1487 and 1557. This particular copy represents one of a series of editions issued from the press of Regnault from 1526 onwards. No great interest attaches to the book in itself, for several other copies of the same edition still survive. It possesses, however, one significant feature to which attention has not hitherto been drawn, and which is the object of this study. I The service book belonged originally to the parish of Llanbadarn Fawr, Cardiganshire, and was in use at the church there from the time it was first acquired, probably soon after the date of publication (1531), until 1549, when the use of the ancient liturgical books was abolished by the English State law which introduced the first Book of Common Prayer of Edward VI. It was in the possession of the clergy of Llanbadarn before 1538, for the festivals of St. Thomas of Canterbury, with the corresponding masses, have been cancelled, in accordance with the ordinance of Henry VIII in that year which ordered their deletion. Most of the manuscript and printed missals which survive have been defaced in the same way. The presence of the Salisbury book at Llanbadarn causes no surprise, for the Sarum Use had long been generally followed in the greater part of Wales, and this printed missal doubtless replaced a series of former manuscript copies of the same Use. Already in 1224 Gervase or Iorwerth, Bishop of St. Davids, had directed in his statutes for the cathedral church that the subsidiary services (of Our Lady and for the departed) should be rendered there after the use of the Church of Salisbury this standard would probably soon be applied to the main services also, and would spread to the rest of the diocese. Then in 1254 Bishop Thomas Wallensis issued statutes which order be- haviour in choir at the cathedral to be regulated by the manner and rule of the Church of Salisbury, until a more useful can be provided by him or another, if the Lord wishes.'2