Church Rituals Research Articles

Ecclesiastical Content of Byzantine Theatre (Antiphon, Trop)

This article precedes a number of publications devoted to the study of cultural and historical interaction of such different, fundamentally not coinciding, not reducible to each other, but not separate from each other phenomena of social life as art and religion, in particular, the church and theatre. This paper uses the material of Byzantine theatre to examine the validity of the hypothesis of the origin of European drama and theatre from liturgical drama through the church antiphon and literary trope. The tendentious categoricity of the erroneous statement, accepted in science as a heuristic hypothesis, about the influence of residual-rudimentary forms of ancient theatre on the formation of the Christian church rite (antiphonal singing) is considered. It is shown that the Christian antiphon cannot be connected with the ancient theatre because of the centuries-old absence of the chorus in the dramatic action. It is argued that church ritual develops from an “inner form” proceeding from the immanent properties and qualities of the divine liturgy. Since this formulation of the question is carried out for the first time, it represents the relevance and scientific novelty of the present study.The version of the origin of Western European theatre from the literary trope, proceeding from the laws of drama as a literary genre, is established by philological tradition without taking into account the specifics of the dramatic event proper. The conclusion is made that the genesis of theatre does not come from the laws of literary processes, but is connected with them through internal interactions. Historically, Byzantine theatre, an integral and autonomous phenomenon of theatrical culture, ceased to exist in the middle of the 15th century, having failed to realize its dynamic potential of dramatic art. Nevertheless, the relevance of the prospective study confirms the facts of the Byzantine theatre’s indirect influence on the substantive aspects, as well as its direct impact on the formation of a new type of dramatic conflict — “internal”, in the development of Western European and, to a greater extent, Russian theatre.

The Influence of the Ontology of Orthodox Christian Art on Music and Icon Painting

The social institution of the Orthodox Christian Church penetrates into all the aspects of artistry (icon painting, church singing, church rituals), supporting individual thinking. However, it is only in the present day than the integrity of this thinking is becoming comprehensible. The methods of iconography, musicology, and singing paleography, the meticulous reading of the theological utterances of St. John of Damascus and the other Church Fathers, analysis of the historiography of the works of such authors as Father Pavel Florensky, Yuri Lotman, Alexei Lidov, Sergei Averintsev, and Nikolai Mikhaltsov allow us to understand the deep ontology of Orthodox Christian art. The author of the article presumes that the concept of St. John of Damascus, expressed in the concept of perichorisis, reflecting the idea of the “mutual exchange of energies,” should be interpreted not only christologically, but as being the most important ontological basis of the entire legacy that accompanies church service. It is perichorisis that provides the synergy of the artistic means: the color scheme of images and the color model of the chant text for the icon, as well as the melodic formulas of the chant merge in unity. As a result of this, a unique set of regulator-techniques of the expressivity of ecclesiastic art is formed, which also exerts an impact on modern art. The article provides examples of such influence in the work of Georgy Sviridov.

Празднование Нового года в Византии

Introduction. Many cultures consider the first day of the new year a holiday which supposes the performance of specific rituals and rites. The traditions of New Year celebrations reflect the nature of this or that civilization, its historical experience, and religious and world-viewing constants. The said is to the full extent actual for the Byzantine civilization. The purpose of the work is to reconstruct the general scenario of official celebrations, to trace its evolution, and to analyse the folk tradition related to it. Methods and materials. The main sources of the given research are liturgical books, treatises on ceremonies, and epistolography. Analysis. In Byzantium, the New Year was celebrated on September 1 at different levels: church, state, and public. Despite its origin from the laity, the Byzantines viewed this holiday primarily as religious as it opened both the new year cycle and the church calendar. By the tenth century, there developed the order of service (akolouthia) for the first day of the new year. The patriarch served special liturgies in St Sophia’s Church and performed a crucession. The emperor was not allowed to participate in the church rituals. In Late Byzantium, the climax of the New Year ritual was the public prayer made in the imperial capital, in the Forum of Constantine, in the presence of the emperor. The ceremonial protocol documented that the ruler must participate in the New Year service. The ordinary people of Byzantium widely celebrated this holiday, spending this day in going to church, paying visits, and exchanging greetings. Conclusions. The enlarging of the programme of palatial ceremonies with the emperor’s appearance in the New Year celebration shows, from the one hand, the strengthening of the secular component of the holiday and, on the other hand, the trend to sacralization of the palatial life. The comparison of the scenario of the New Year celebration that existed in the Age of the Palaiologoi with the official holiday on such a case in the pre-Petrine Russia shows an important Byzantine influence on Russian culture of celebration and church policy.

Payment for Occasional Religious Rites in the Income Structure of the Orthodox Clergy in the Late 19th – Early 20th Century (Based on the Materials of the Mordovian Region)

Abstract Introduction. One of the main functions of the parish clergy in the late 19th – early 20th century was to perform church rites and “sacraments” at the request of parishioners. The payment for the correction was perceived by a certain part of the parishioners as additional levies and served as a reason for the growth of social tension. The article attempts to update the study of this source of funding for the clergy and clergy in the context of socio-economic development of the region. Materials and Methods. The research is based on general scientific and special historical methods (comparative historical, problem-chronological, systemic and structural). Results. The main difficulties in conducting the study are related to the fact that, for ethical reasons, the ROC did not introduce a tariff for demand correction and the diocesan authorities did not control this part of the income of the clergy. In this regard, complete and objective data on the income of clerics from the demand for correction are found in the documents of spiritual consistories quite rarely. Clerics and parishioners privately negotiated prices for occasional religious rites. In the parishes of neighboring counties, approximately similar prices were set for occasional religious rites. According to available information, the established norms were often advisory in nature. Discussion and Conclusion. The analysis of the source base allowed us to identify some features of the church documentation related to the desire of the clergy not to show the real size of their income. These include the careless maintenance and destruction of notebooks in which the money received for the occasional religious rites was recorded, the fixation of the income of the clergy directly by the clergy (or their spouses), who received the bulk of the funds collected from the population. In parishes with vacant places, the priests were afraid of withdrawing part of the money in favor of diocesan guardianship.

For Whom the Platter Tolls

Abstract This paper deals with memory in medieval Rus. Previous scholarship has focused on organised liturgical commemoration (memoria), which relied on complex canonised texts and sophisticated church rituals. This article concerns less formal types of medieval remembrance, like commemorative graffiti, colophons, and simple commemorative rituals. Such memorial devices can be called paraliturgical because they either facilitated liturgical commemoration or derived from liturgical texts and ceremonies, but technically were not part of the liturgy. Paraliturgical remembrance offered a peculiar version of the past. It combined short family memory, which went back to one or two generations, and the mythologised past, which was based on Scripture and inspirational legends, like that about Riurik. Paraliturgical memory was future orientated as it carried information required for salvation, including records of charity and donations. This type of memory also conveyed emotions, genealogical knowledge, and royal mythology. Paraliturgical remembrance crossed institutional and regional boundaries, creating communities of rememberers.

Šventės su bendradarbiais – suvienijančios ir atskiriančios etnines grupes (1950–2017 m.)

This paper explores the issue of an ethnic group involved in the organization. Celebrating various festivals within the team is an important tool for both promoting engagement and maintaining social relations. The aim is to reveal the celebrations celebrated by co-workers as uniting and dividing different ethnic groups. In order to achieve this aim, the paper addresses the following objectives: describe the field of research; discuss the ethnic distinctiveness of the celebration of personal and official holidays; analyze the preconditions for the formation of distinctiveness between holidays celebrated by members of the same confession and citizenship. Analyzing which holidays were celebrated with co-workers in mixed collectives or in collectives dominated by non-Lithuanian ethnic group employees, it was found that among the official, confessional festivities, Poles did not celebrate Shrovetide (Užgavėnės) and Midsummer Day (St John’s Day), unless there was an employee in the team with the name of Jonas or Janina. Poles avoid celebrating Užgavėnės and Midsummer Day (St Jonas’s Day) because they see them as Lithuanian and unrelated to church rituals. The celebration of modern national festivals with political content has also differed between ethnic groups. Soviet state-building holidays, such as 9 May and 23 February, remained more popular among Russians and Poles in the workplace, while state and independence restoration days (16 February and 11 March) were more popular among Lithuanians. The study found that personal and modern public holidays (except those with political content) are best suited to facilitate the integration of ethnic groups in the organization. Mutual tolerance is fostered by ethnic groups sharing distinctive meals at their festivals.

Syncretism of Church Burial and Ritual Music and Folklore Elements in Orthodox Tradition

The purpose of the article is to discuss the mutual influence of funeral and ritual music and folklore ritual traditions of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The specifics of the development of folk beliefs, customs and church ritual, and burial music are investigated. It is indicated that Orthodox sacred music developed in interaction with centuries-old folk melos and became the basis for the development of church musical culture. The study aims to identify the relationship of burial ritual music and folklore elements in church chants of the Orthodox tradition, to outline the phenomenon of church burial and ritual music as a specific way of spiritual communication, catharsis, emotional and figurative assimilation, and reflection of personal worldview. The research methodology comprises the general scientific methods of analysis: historicism, systematisation, comparison, and generalisation of the problem under study. Scientific novelty of the research lies in clarifying the fixation and elaboration of the Orthodox taphological repertoire; in the study of the mutual influence of folk household and burial beliefs, customs and church ritual, and burial music of Orthodox Christians on the cultural identity of Ukrainians, their worldview, and national genotype. Conclusions. In the musical burial ritualism of Ukrainians, the symbiosis of customs, beliefs, and church rites is still clearly traced. All of them are aimed to convert an Orthodox Christian to a righteous, sinless life, to the hope of forgiveness and remission of sins, and to giving peace to the soul after death in anticipation of the Kingdom of Heaven, eternal life. They also intend to cleanse the living space from negative action, to ensure the successful transition of the soul of the deceased to the Kingdom of God, to protect living relatives and to unite the living and the dead from the family in Holy Communion (Eucharist). The Orthodox musical and aesthetic tradition states that the soul’s prayer of the deceased is strong and effective in God. Consequently, Christians have a firm belief that the souls of the dead pray for their living descendants of each kin, and the mission of the living is to pray for the eternal peace of their souls and the universal resurrection in the Kingdom of Heaven. If we are to achieve a fullness of synergistic communion with the Lord, we must not only rely on God's help, but also make our spiritual contribution through spiritual effort and compassionate strain, kenosis, self-sacrifice, and personal predestination to the Good. The phenomenon of church burial and ritual music appears as a specific way of spiritual communion, emotional and figurative mastering and reflection of the worldview of an Orthodox Christian, which gives rise to an ethno-national type of a person’s musical and aesthetic thinking, and cultural self-identification. With the help of church chants, including pure funeral and ritual songs, Ukrainian musical culture became the personification of religious and aesthetic ideals, and mental-ideological attitudes of Orthodoxy. This influenced the processes of national identification and left a characteristic imprint on the ethno-national mentality and spiritual and musical culture of Rus-Ukraine throughout the centuries.
 Key words: Ukrainian Orthodox tradition, burial and ritual music, church chants, ritual folklore.

КОНФЕССИОНАЛЬНАЯ (САМО)ИДЕНТИФИКАЦИЯ В ЦЕРКВИ АНГЛИИ КОНЦА ЕЛИЗАВЕТИНСКОЙ ЭПОХИ: ВЗГЛЯДЫ РИЧАРДА ХУКЕРА НА ЦЕРКОВНЫЙ РИТУАЛ

Раскрывается критическое отношение Ричарда Хукера к распространенной в период Елизаветинского религиозного устроения идее адиафоричности ритуала. На примере теоретического формирования коллективной идентичности ортодоксального крыла Церкви Англии продемонстрирована роль литургии в процессе идентификации. Была применена методология исторического анализа, семиотики теологических знаковых систем и «археологии» литургии. Вывод: идентификационное значение ритуала состоит в его стереотипности, знаковости и социальной принадлежности. Важнейшую роль в «реабилитации» и теоретическом оправдании литургии при Елизавете сыграли богословские и богослужебные принципы, правоту которых отстаивал Ричард Хукер. In their article, the authors explore Richard Hooker's critical attitude to the idea of the adiaphoric nature of church ritual that was prevalent in the Elizabethan Church of England. The role of liturgy in the process of identification is demonstrated through the theoretical formation of the collective identity of the orthodox wing of the reformed English Church. The methodology of historical analysis, semiotics of theological sign systems, and the "archaeology" of liturgy was applied. Conclusion: The identification value of the ritual lies in its stereotypical and signifying nature as well as its social identity. A crucial role in the 'rehabilitation' and theoretical justification of liturgy under Elizabeth I was played by the theological and liturgical principles, the validity of which was advocated by Richard Hooker.

The Semantic and Artistic Evolution of Images of Nicholas the Wonderworker. Russia and the West

In the article, devoted to the research of the image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the author focuses on new trends in the study of ancient Russian art and, above all, in the study of architectural monuments, "minor forms" of liturgical purpose and plastics. The author especially emphasises that at the present stage, the issue of content, the connection of form formation with the structure of symbolic thinking within the cultural space of the era is actively brought to the fore. In this regard, the work of Pavel Florensky, The Church Ritual as a Synthesis of the Arts, is perceived as a program work, proving that church space and each object, regardless of its size and sacred significance, originally formed a single whole. From these positions, it is necessary to study the monuments of ancient Russian plastic art, approaches to the interpretation of which need to be clarified. The material is truly huge and varied: from small plastics in the form of miniature carved icons, folds and panagias to monumental kiot statues, gravestone sculptural images, white stone and wooden crosses. It is in this context that the author explores the evolution of the images of Nicholas the Wonderworker, who is especially revered by the Orthodox Church and particularly in Russia. Analysing the scientific facts in the article, the author argues that the shrine resting in the crypt (the relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker) more than once became a living source of many legends, iconographic versions, customs in the veneration of the saint and, most importantly, structural icon models for Russia during the 14th-18th centuries. Apparently, it is no coincidence that in most churches with revered wooden statues of the saint, the main celebrations of St. Nicholas fell precisely on May 9 - in memory of the Translation of the Relics to Bari. Keywords: Nicholas the Wonderworker, relics of Nicholas the Wonderworker, wooden sculpture, medieval painting, sacred image, Bari.

Cultural View on the Scheme of the Dome and Altar Painting of the Orthodox Church

The purpose of the work is to show the difference and interdependence between the schemes of paintings of the dome and the altar of the Orthodox Church and their purpose as the most sacred spaces. The research methodology consists in the application of a number of approaches. The analytical method is used to comprehend the literature on the topic of the article; the interdisciplinary method helps to comprehensively study the factual material and obtain new knowledge; and the systemic approach with a whole range of methods (semiotic, culturological, iconographic, field (namely, collection of visual material), hermeneutic, descriptive, comparative, and theoretical generalisation). The scientific novelty of the study is that for the first time the dome and the altar of the Orthodox Church are considered as identically sacred parts of it and at the same time as the most sacred temple spaces, which is reflected in the schemes of their paintings. Conclusions. In the inner space of the Orthodox Church, religious ideas about the ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ world, about the sacred and profane space are concretised with the help of architecture and sacred images recorded in the monumental church painting. In the temple, which is sacred in its purpose, however, there are differences in the expression of holiness. These differences from the point of view of the cultural approach can be marked by the binary opposition "sanctus – sacer". Thus, both the domed and the altar space of the Orthodox Church reflect the main church dogmas and doctrinal truths, which emphasises their sacredness in the sense of sanctus. At the same time, the painting of the sacred space of the dome reflects the Orthodox teachings open to every Christian, while the painting of the altar emphasises that this place of service of the "initiates" is available only to priests, performers of church rites, mainly the Eucharist.
 Key words: sacred space, temple painting, dome, altar, temple painting scheme, sacred, iconographic theme.

Liturgisk reformarbejde i Danmark

In 2016 the Danish bishops initiated an “historical experiment”, viz. the so-called liturgical debate in the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church of the years 2017-2021. The aim of the debate was to involve theological scholars, pastors and lay people in the discussion of the liturgical texts that regulate the celebration of the Sunday service and the sacraments. This historical experiment re-opened classical questions regarding the right to initiate liturgical reforms and regulate liturgical rules in the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church. It also re-opened the question of authority in the Church. This article outlines the most important historical discussions and developments from the Church Ritual (Kirkeritualet) of 1537/39 until the present day in order to shed light on how and by whom liturgical reforms were and still are initiated and executed in Denmark. A special focus is put on the interaction between state, church and people.

Joseph Fielding Smith's Evolving Views on Race: The Odyssey of a Mormon Apostle-President

Joseph Fielding Smith's Evolving Views on Race: The Odyssey of a Mormon Apostle-President

The Founding Mothers of Mackinac Island: The Agatha Biddle Band of 1870 by Theresa L. Weller

Reviewed by: The Founding Mothers of Mackinac Island: The Agatha Biddle Band of 1870 by Theresa L. Weller David A. Nichols Theresa L. Weller, The Founding Mothers of Mackinac Island: The Agatha Biddle Band of 1870. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2021. xx, 223 pp. $32.95 (paper). The Biddle Band, named for their ogimaa Agatha Biddle, was a majority female group who applied for annuity payments under the Anishinaabe land cession treaties of 1836 and 1855. Their names appear on the annuity roll of 1870, as updated a generation later by Horace Durant. This document became the starting point for Weller's deep dive into the band's genealogical history. While biologically unrelated to one another, members of the Biddle Band shared several features in common. Most were Catholic, or at least married and baptized their children according to the church's rites. (Sometimes, given the irregular availability of priests, the couple's marriage rites and the baptism of their first children took place at the same time.) Many had Francophone names, inherited from French voyageur ancestors or recommended [End Page 119] by French-speaking godparents. Nearly all were women who had married White or Métis husbands, in harmony with Indigenous exogamous marriage rules. And most went on to make the band a superlatively fertile group of ancestors, whose members bore a total of 470 children (seven apiece, on average) over the course of the nineteenth century. In researching the band's genealogy, Weller has recovered hundreds of names and birth and death dates. Often that is all the available records will provide. The Biddle Band's members and early descendants were not wealthy people, and only a minority left a larger record of their lives. These were fascinating lives all the same. Some husbands and brothers had been fur traders. Others worked as lighthouse keepers, town officials, or boat captains. One, Charles Logan, was a basket maker who plied the tourist trade at Saint Ignace. Several served as soldiers in the Civil War and one was old enough to have been a drummer boy in the War of 1812. The Biddle Band's female members were preoccupied, for a good part of their lives, with childbearing and childrearing. A few worked as herbalists and midwives or as teachers—like Martha Tanner, daughter of famed White captive John Tanner—or, in Agatha Biddle's case, as the band's provisioner and civil chief. For genealogists researching family history in the Great Lakes region, Founding Mothers of Mackinac Island will serve as an indispensable reference. For students of Native American history, Weller's capsule biographies of band members will provide starting points for deeper research into the region's ongoing Indigenous history: how women and men held on to traditional roles as healers, fishermen, traders, parents, and chiefs, while pursuing new opportunities and robustly growing their population. Theresa Weller's deeply researched book, and the scholarship one hopes it will inspire, will remind us that long after the supposed end of the "frontier era," the Midwest remained Indian Country. [End Page 120] David A. Nichols Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana Copyright © 2022 University of Nebraska Press

Rituals of Contagion in Closed Religious Communities: A Case Study of Amish and Mennonite Communities in the USA During the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, government and medical guidelines emphasized social distancing to limit exposure. These guidelines significantly impacted closed religious communities, particularly those opposed to modern technologies, such as Amish and Mennonite communities. How did these religious communities respond to COVID-19 policies in the USA? We draw data from Ohio and Pennsylvania scribe entries published in an Amish/Mennonite correspondence newspaper. While some of these communities altered church rituals to comply with government directives, others maintained communal worship without disruption. Mennonite communities were more likely to conform to guidelines.

Chains of Persuasion: A Framework for Religion in Democracy

Chains of Persuasion: A Framework for Religion in Democracy

Art and Culture in the Diplomatic Ceremonial as the Basis of International Relations

Currently, there is an increased interest in ceremonial culture. A ceremonial is a kind of cultural message from one social group of people to another. The basic idea of behaviour, the inner meaning of secular ceremonial is laid down in church rituals, and external forms of behaviour can be borrowed from the traditions of everyday secular life. Diplomacy as one of the spheres of applied politics is a very complex and responsible type of human activity, which has always had a pronounced ritual character. The conclusion of contracts and alliances took place according to a certain scenario plan, according to which the ceremonial action developed. During the preparation and holding of the ceremony, the exchange of diplomatic letters and embassies continued, solemn meetings were arranged for the honored guests, feasts, theatrical performances, games, and festivities were given in their honor. the purpose of the article is to conduct a comprehensive study of the communicative functions of diplomatic ceremonial in international communication based on the analysis and generalisation of new facts with the involvement of archival materials and other sources introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. In this study, art is considered for the first time from the point of view of the communicative factor of a diplomatic ceremony. A ceremonial is an event in the life of society that has a symbolic meaning. The norms of ceremonial reflect not only ideology but also the social psychology of society, without an adequate interpretation of which it is impossible to correctly understand the behavior of statesmen in specific situations related to their official status.

HOVHANNES KHOSROVYAN’S WORK “THE HISTORY OF THE KUBAN CIRCASSIANS AND CIRCASSIAN ARMENIANS”

The article is dedicated to the source analysis of the work by Hovhannes Khosrovyan titled “The History of the Kuban Circassians and Circassian Armenians”, the autograph of which iscurrently stored in Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts (Matenadaran). Along with a number of other Armenian sources, it has remained out researchers’ attention for a long time due to the lack of its translation into Russian. The authors of the present article participate in a joint Russian-Armenian project, within the framework of which such sources are published. “The History of the Kuban Circassians and Circassian Armenians” by Hovhannes Khosrovyan consists of separate parts, uneven in volume. In its content, the work is the travel journal of the author, who arrived to the West Caucasus for propagation of Christianity among the Circassian Armenians (Cherkesogai). After the introductory part, in which the author tells about his arrival to the Circassian Armenians, the first 12 chapters are devoted to the history, culture and character of the Circassians, and only the last small 5 chapters deal directly with the history of the Circassian Armenians. Describing the life and traditions of the Circassians, he reports on their ancient holidays, on the disagreements that arose between them during the period of adoption of Islam, on some sacred places, on campaigns in the Circassian regions of tsarist generals. As for the information about the Circassian Armenians, after outlining the history of their appearance in the Western Caucasus, he proceeds to describe the features of church rituals and their lifestyle. The work of Hovhannes Khosrovyan is important for studying the history and geography of the Adyghe peoples. Its publication in Russian planned by the authors of the article will undoubtedly enrich the source base on the history of the Circassians and Circassian Armenians.

Diplomatic Ceremonial as the Basis of the Culture of International Relations

Currently, there is an increased interest in the ceremonial culture in general, and in etiquette as a component of the ceremonial, in particular. This phenomenon is largely explained by their special role in the processes of communication in society, as well as a new understanding of the processes of communication and behaviour themselves. A ceremonial is a kind of cultural message from one social group of people to another. The basic idea of behaviour, the inner meaning of secular ceremonial is laid down in church rituals, and external forms of behaviour can be borrowed from the traditions of everyday secular life. The relevance of the study is determined by insufficient knowledge of diplomatic ceremonies of The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the fact that knowledge of the laws of their functioning expands the understanding of domestic politics and international relations of the era, the cultural component of the life of Soviet society. The socio-cultural aspect of the topic is also relevant in scientific terms. This research can contribute to the study of the history of the organisational culture of Soviet society. Taking into account the absence of a special study devoted to the problem in historiography, the purpose of the article is to conduct a comprehensive study of the communicative functions of diplomatic ceremonial in international communication based on the analysis and generalisation of new facts with the involvement of archival materials and other sources introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. In this study, art is considered for the first time from the point of view of the communicative factor of diplomatic ceremonial. For the first time, such a term as "diplomatic counterculture" is introduced into circulation.

Mormonism and White Supremacy: American Religion and the Problem of Racial Innocence

Mormonism and White Supremacy: American Religion and the Problem of Racial Innocence

Магнификаты Томаса Таллиса: особенности жанра

The article explores the specifics of the Magnificat produced by Thomas Tallis, one of the leading English 16th century composers. The development of the genre is a direct reflection of the religious history of 16thcentury England. It was a peculiar and unique period as catholic kings would replace protestant kings which inevitably led to the reformation of church rites. Tallis as a composer witnessed the reign of four monarchs, and the three Magnificats from his legacy appear to have been written for different forms of worship in pre-Reformed English Catholic and post-Reformed Anglican Church. Russian musicology has not given much attention to Tallis's works. Recently, a few studies focused on some of his compositions, however, Tallis’s Magnificats are still outside the research scope. This article summarizes the information of foreign researchers on the chronology of Tallis' works, the conditions of developing liturgical cycles, and their relationship to religious changes in the country. The article also provides a detailed analysis of Magnificats. In particular, it focuses on the specifics of architectonics and texture in the Magnificats with the Latin text and in the cycle written for Anglican Church. Thus, the article discusses structural features of Tallis’s Magnificat for the Anglican Church and raises a question about the emergence of the tradition that combines the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in one cycle during a reformatory worship. In addition, the article examines the techniques Tallis used to approach the melodic basis of the Magnificats that embrace unique features of British culture to further transform them in a polyphonic setting.