On the 21st November, we will be holding the fourth and final service in our series of reconstructions of Reformation era services at Saint Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield, in Central London. We started this series a couple of years ago with the Use of Sarum, then the first English Prayer Book of 1549, and then the 1559 Prayer Book, as it would have been performed under Elizabeth I. This last service will again be from the 1559 Prayer Book but as it was performed under Charles I on the eve of the Civil War and subsequent Interregnum.

With the High Church party at their height, this reconstruction of Mattins and Litany and Sermon, will look to resurrect the ceremony of Laud and his acolytes (most notably Dr Cosin) as it may been in places like Durham Cathedral, Peterhouse Chapel and the Chapel Royal in particular. We have also consulted the works of their forerunners, such as Lancelot Andrewes.

The music has all been taken from contemporary sources including the Peterhouse partbooks. Polyphony will be by Tomkins, Weelkes, Loosemore and Archbishop Laud himself. The service will also involve a number of organ verses and a metrical psalm: Dowland’s setting of All people that on earth, as published in Thomas Ravenscrofts 1621 version of Sternhold & Hopkins.

All are very welcome to attend this historically curious liturgy. This event is free to attend, because it is a service.