St. Osmond Or Osmund
St. Osmond Or Osmund [1]
an English prelate of the 11th century, was son of the count of Seez, in Normandy. He succeeded his father, and gave most of his goods to the clergy. In 1066 he followed William the Conqueror to England, and received from him the county of Dorset and the charge of lord chancellor. The king, judging him better fitted for the Church than for the management of temporal affairs, made him bishop of Salisbury about 1078. He died Dec. 3, 1099, and was canonized by pope Calixtus III in 1458. In order to render the manner in which divine service was conducted more uniform, he wrote a treatise of ecclesiastical forms, named sometimes Liber ordinalis, sometimes Consuetudinariun ecclesice, or again Horariae preces. This work, with some slight alterations, remained in use until the time of Henry VIII; was one of the most popular manuals for public devotion with the English clergy, and has principally contributed to hand down Osmond's name to posterity. See Hist. litter. de la France; Butler, Lives of the Saints; Inett, Hist. Engl. Ch. I, 15:4, n. 4; Churton, Early Engl. Ch. p. 291; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 38:907; Hook, Eccles. Biogr. s.v.; Wright, Biog. Brit. Lit. (AngloNorman period); Collier, Eccles. Hist. (see Index in vol. viii); Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors.v.
