Thomas' translated edition of Radulph of Rivo's 'On the Observance of Canons' (with his collaborator Gerhard Eger) has been published by Brepols as part of their Library of Christian Sources series.
When the canons of the Congregation of Windesheim set about codifying their liturgy in the final decades of the 14th century, they had to reckon with the striking variety of customs among the different dioceses, nations, and religious orders of the Roman rite. In their perplexity, they turned to Radulph of Rivo (ca. 1350–1403), dean of Our Lady of Tongres and canon law professor at Cologne. Radulph travelled to Rome to discover the sources of its ancient liturgy. There he was alarmed to discover that even in Rome authentic traditions had been displaced by novelties, and he accused the Franciscans specifically of unlawfully abbreviating or altering the offices. In his reply to the canons of Windesheim, entitled De canonum observantia (ca. 1400), Radulph charts a course of conservative liturgical reform that hews closely to Roman authority. He appeals to canon law, the approved uses of ancient churches and religious rites, the famous commentators, and old liturgical books he found in Rome to establish the authoritative form of Western worship. On the eve of the great changes that swept Europe in the next century, Radulph’s treatise stands out as a careful and competent guide to the Latin liturgical tradition and an invaluable witness to contemporary practice. His conservative intervention looks forward to the work of the Tridentine liturgical commission, whose members had access to Hittorp’s 1568 edition of his treatise. Our edition provides modern readers with the first English translation of Radulph’s work and copious notes to illuminate this fascinating period.
