HEREFORD USE

Hereford, on the borders of Wales, was founded as a diocese by Putta in 676. St. ethelbert (d. c. 793), King of East Anglia, was buried in the cathedral and in the 9th century was declared joint patron. The present cathedral was built between 1079 and 1110, a product, like so many others, of the Norman conquest, to which also is owed the organization of the chapter and the liturgical practices there established. With Hereford again it can be said with some certainty that the local use was derived from Rouen and that the borrowing took place during the episcopate of Robert de Bethune (bishop 1131–48), who restored the cathedral (damaged during the civil war that followed the death of Henry I) and reformed the liturgy there. Curiously enough the Use of Hereford penetrated to Savoy where it was adopted in 1267 (persisting until 1580) at the collegiate church of St. Catherine at Aiguebelle; the founder of this church was a former bishop of Hereford.

In the Mass rite the prayers at the foot of the altar were similar to those of the other English uses (that is, in the short form, with Psalm 42, versicles, etc., said while vesting or on the way to the altar). The Officium (Introit) was repeated three times as at Sarum. The bread and wine were set on the altar before the Offertory verse, but both were offered together with a single prayer. At the Orate fratres (et sorores does not occur at Hereford) there was no answer. At the giving of the kiss of peace the formula was similar to that of York. There were four prayers (as at Rouen) before the celebrant's Communion. A third ablution was taken in water only, and then the chalice was laid horizontally on the paten. Mass ended in the ordinary way, but there was no blessing or Last Gospel.

It is particularly in the holy week services that the greatest affinity with Rouen is to be seen. Thus on Palm Sunday the combination of the procession of palms with one of the Blessed Sacrament, the similarities between the Mandatum at Hereford and Rouen, the Exsultet with its addition pro rege N. et principe nostro N. (the original reference being to the king of France and the duke of Normandy) show that Hereford adopted the liturgical practices of Rouen almost en bloc.

Bibliography: w. maskell, The Ancient Liturgy of the Church of England, According to the Uses of Sarum, Bangor, York and Herford, and the Modern Roman Liturgy (3d ed. Oxford 1882). a. a. king, Liturgies of the Past (Milwaukee 1959). w. h. st. j. hope and e. g. atchley, English Liturgical Colours (London 1918). e. bishop, Liturgica Historica, ed. r. h. connolly and k. sisam (Oxford 1918). w. h. frere and l. e. g. brown, eds., The Hereford Breviary (Henry Bradshaw Society 26, 40, 46; London 1904, 1911,1915). h. j. feasey, Ancient English Holy Week Ceremonial (London 1897).

[l. c. sheppard/eds.]