BANGOR USE

The first clear mention of a Bangor Use occurs in the introductory note prefixed by Cranmer to the Book of Common Prayer, where he mentions that in the past "some followed Salisbury use, some Hereford use, and some the use of Bangor…." But there seems to be noevidence now remaining to inform us what this use was. It has been supposed that its calendar was rich in Celtic, especially Welsh, saints, and that some Celtic practices were preserved, but this is no more than conjecture. William Maskell thought that he possessed a Bangor Missal, but this has proved to be nothing else than a Sarum Missal used (predominantly, at any rate) at Oswestry, and thus containing certain additional features like local feasts that led to his making the mistake. It certainly shows no characteristics that could lead us to suppose that it contained a number of specific local elements that would entitle it to be classed as a separate use. The Diocese of Bangor in Carnarvonshire, Wales (to be distinguished from Bangor in Ireland, see celtic rite), according to tradition was founded by St. Deiniol (d. c. 584), but little is known of it until after the Norman Conquest. It can be supposed that the liturgy was revised at that time, probably on the general lines of the revision that took place elsewhere. That the calendar reflected local conditions is probable, but further than this it is impossible to conjecture without evidence.

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).

[l. c. sheppard/eds.]