At some time during the second half of the fourteenth century there appeared a fuller codification of the rubrics according to which services were to be conducted at Salisbury cathedral. A bland word like “appeared” is necessary because we know neither who is responsible for drawing this up nor by what authority (or means) it was promulgated. All that is even remotely clear is that these rubrics are mostly drawn from something called the New Ordinal – the conventional capitals, though possibly misleading, will be retained here – which seems to have been recognized as existing, with wider reference than merely to the cathedral, by the end of the century. The new rubrics are characterized by a great attention to, indeed an apparent fascination with, details of the tiniest sort. It is inevitable that we should attempt to use this New Ordinal as a prime means of understanding both the development of the Sarum rite in its final form and the extension of that rite into most of southern England; but we shall have to do so with caution, above all against being bogged down in too much of that detail.

Frere's Use of Sarum again

To begin, we have once again to take a preliminary look at the way the matter has been studied previously: a look that will of necessity recapitulate some of what has been explained in earlier chapters, particularly chapter 11. In the two-volume work entitled The Use of Sarum (1898–1901), Walter Howard Frere (on whom, see p. 10) presented documents he termed “consuetudinary,” “customary,” “ordinal,” and “tonal.”