Customary (liturgy)

A customary is a Christian liturgical book containing the adaptation of a ritual family and rite for a particular context, typically to local ecclesiastical customs and specific church buildings.

A customary is generally synonymous to and sometimes constituent of a consuetudinary (Latin: consuetudinarius or consuetudinarium) that contains the totality of the consuetudines—ceremonial forms and regulations—used in the services and community practices of a particular monastery, religious order, or cathedrals.

[4] While some liturgical historians, such as Walter Frere, would distinguish the consuetudinary from the customary, later scholarship has described these texts as concurrent in content but successive in time;[5]: 373  others have identified both as proximate[6]: 61  and even synonymous with the medieval ordinal.

[10] They were part of a variety of interrelated other books that directed all aspects of a liturgical celebration[5]: 205 [6]: 60–61  and, in the context of religious orders, were supplemental to monastic rules.

[7][11]: 8–9  In some cases, architectural historians have leveraged the detail within historic customaries to reconstruct the appearance of abbey churches at different points in the past.

[14] In the case of Salisbury, the consuetudinary is dated to roughly 1210–though with a range of 1173 to 1220[5]: 368 –when Richard Poore was the cathedral's dean and formed the most comprehensive code of customs of the Sarum Use.

The Sarum ordinal was a similar book for use by the choir and contained greater detail on certain liturgical actions only addressed more generally by the consuetudinary.