The cantus firmus of this anonymous Mass resembles the Magnificat antiphon Confessor domini sung on feasts of confessor-bishops. The editor suggests that it may have been written in honour of St Augustine of Canterbury, who brought Roman Christianity to the English in 597 and became the first archbishop of the city. The Mass seems likely to date from the 1530s; it shares some musical features with Taverner’s Mass Small devotion and Tye’s Missa Sine nomine, and there is also a very close connection between the end of its Sanctus and the end of the Gloria of Taverner’s Mass Gloria tibi trinitas, but it does not as yet seem possible to suggest a candidate for its authorship. For five voices: SATTB. viii + 40 pages.

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