The Sarum Rite, also known as the Use of Salisbury, was a variant ("use") of the Roman Rite widely used for the ordering of Christian public worship, including the Mass and the Divine Office. It was established by Saint Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, and Richard Poore in the 11th century and was originally the local form used in the Cathedral and Diocese of Salisbury, England.
It later became prevalent throughout southern England and came to be used throughout most of England, Wales, Ireland, and (later) Scotland, until the reign of Queen Mary I and King Philip. Although abandoned after the 16th century and the Protestant Reformation, it was a notable influence on the pattern of Anglican liturgy represented in the Book of Common Prayer. Occasional interest in and attempts at restoration of the liturgy by Anglicans and Catholics have not, however, produced a general revival.
In 1078, William of Normandy appointed Osmund, a Norman nobleman, as bishop of Salisbury (the period name of the site whose ruins are now known as Old Sarum). As bishop, Osmund initiated some revisions to the extant Celtic-Anglo-Saxon rite and the local adaptations of the Roman rite, drawing on both Norman and Anglo-Saxon traditions.
19th-century liturgists theorized that the liturgical practices of Rouen in northern France inspired the Sarum liturgical books. The Normans had deposed most of the Anglo-Saxon episcopate, replacing them with Norman bishops, of which Osmund was one. Given the similarities between the liturgy in Rouen and that of Sarum, it appears the Normans imported their French liturgical books as well.