Abstract
This paper argues that the historical variants of the Roman Rite can — and should — be restored to liturgical use. Uniformity has never been an absolute requirement in Catholic liturgical practice, and even within the substantial unity of the Roman Rite in the Carolingian period and later, there was considerable scope for local variation in text, music, and ceremonial custom. It can be said that the medieval variants of the Roman Rite differed less among themselves than the historical ‘Tridentine’ rite differs from its own later forms (e.g. the Ordo Missae of 1965). Before restoring any historical variant uses, it is important to distinguish the ‘hard’ (unchangeable) and ‘soft’ (variable) elements that characterize the rite; this study helps us to appreciate the value of the local variants: their witness (in many cases) to more ancient forms of the liturgy of Rome itself; their value as a guide for future developments in liturgical practice; and their character as expressions of a local or national spiritual tradition. Any restoration of a variant of the Roman Rite must begin with what is currently permitted — e.g. melodic variants of the Mass chants, or the public recitation of older forms of the Divine Office.
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Miklós István Földváry
Miklós István Földváry (born Budapest 1978) is a liturgical scholar, a Latin philologist in the Latin Language and Literature Department at the Eötvös Loránd University of the Sciences in Budapest, and an assistant professor at the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy. He is a leading figure in the Capitulum Laicorum Sancti Michaelis Archangeli. He co-edited the Hungarian volume of proceedings from the Budapest conference, and is one of the guest editors of this issue of Usus Antiquior. Dr Földváry is married and has three children.
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