As we commemorated the other day the ‘Forty Martyrs of England and Wales’ – chosen amongst the countless host put to death for their Catholic Faith during the Protestant revolt – here is a symbolic motet by Thomas Tallis, ‘Verily, verily I say unto you’, which we are currently practising in our Schola. Tallis composed the piece in 1570, during the reign of Elizabeth I, who would undo the Faith in the realm. Even so, the queen still believed in the Real Presence – or professed to do so – so Tallis, a faithful but hidden Catholic, much like his near-contemporary Shakespeare, obliged with this text emphasizing in no uncertain terms Christ’s own teaching on transsubstantiation from the sixth chapter of Saint John’s Gospel, the change in substance of the bread and wine into His own Body and Blood:
While we’re at it, here is Tallis’ other near-contemporary, William Byrd, and his incomparable Ave Verum Corpus, composed in 1605, sung here by the also-incomparable Voces8, which we may have posted before, but, well, it deserves posting again: