Latin Votive Masses in England after 1549

The Act of Uniformity, 1549, required that the new English-language Book of Common Prayer be used exclusively from June 9, 1549. Even after this date certain priests continued to say votive masses. These were said privately in Latin in side-chapels as opposed to the public celebration of the new Communion service in English at the main altar of the church. Instead of using their former names, e.g. a Mass of Our Lady, the priests tried to disguise what they were doing by using a name such as “Our Lady’s Communion”.

This practice was maintained at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, where the bishop Edmund Bonner was not in sympathy with the liturgical reforms.