Sarum Missal

[Missal. Sarum Use, in Latin].
Illuminated manuscript on vellum.
[England, c. 1418]. (Prothro B-212)

Presented by Henry Chichele (c. 1364–1443), Archbishop of Canterbury, as a wedding gift to his niece for the celebration of the Mass in her family chapel, this magnificently illuminated Missal was censored in the sixteenth century by order of Henry VIII (1491–1547). Unable to resolve his religious, political, and personal conflicts with Pope Clement VII and Pope Paul III, the king broke with the Roman Church and decreed in 1538 that all mention of the papacy should be removed from England’s service books. In this manuscript the phrase “patre nostro papa” (“our father the pope”) has been expurgated from one of the hymns. The first two words, “patre nostro,” have been deleted in ink and the third word, “papa,” has been scratched from the vellum.