The Gonzalan Rite

One of the problems that Saint Dominic faced was the fact that there wasn't really a standardized liturgy his friars could preach. There may have been, but there were enough regional variations from convent to convent, diocese to diocese, parish to parish that they couldn't celebrate it together. So his successors set about making their own, which was enshrined as the Dominican Rite and was practiced up until the 1960s.

Saint Gonzalo, his replacement in Andalusada, has the same issue, and handles it approximately the same way. By the time it's compiled, though, the differences on the ground are enough that they're reflected in the superstructure. And because theology is one of the things I geek about, I'm going to write about it.

Details of the Gonzalan Rite

The single biggest source of differences between the Dominican and Gonzalan Rites ultimately goes back to the fact that all of Spain wasn't under Cluniac control by 1090. The Dominican Rite drew from two distinct rites, the Roman and Gallican, because for all intents and purposes there weren't any other significant ones in its region of origin to draw upon.

St. Gonzalo, meanwhile, has a third to draw on: the Isidoran Rite. A fair number of the early friars are from points south of the Tagus; the master general of the Order that finally consolidates the Gonzalan Rite [who?] is as well, and makes the most of it. He leaves giant fingerprints on it; the Gonzalan Rite is much more Gallican-Isidoran, producing a liturgy like none other.

• The Gonzalan Rite errs on the side of Rome on certain details. Unlike the Mozarabs, the Gonzalans do have to enforce Papal orthodoxy across Europe (including, it should be noted, south into al-Andalus), and even if it didn't, Saint Gonzalo, Aragonese by birth and upbringing, grew up under the Roman Rite. (So did St. Matilde, for that matter; I'm unsure how much say the Second Order has in shaping the Gonzalan Rite, because I think it's fairly powerful.)
• The Gallican-Hispanic influences are most obvious in how wordy the Gonzalan Rite is. The Gonzalan charism is to preach, and the liturgy gives the celebrant no shortage of means and chances to do exactly that.
• In particular, there's a very flexible anaphora: although the Words of Institution do need to be said, the celebrant's free to say much more additionally. (This is traditionally used as a chance to either spell out Eucharistic theology or insult the audience for their deficient grasp of same; Günther used it as an opportunity to start the arguments about transubstantiation.)

Because it incorporates some Mozarabic influences, and transmits those influences across Europe, the Gonzalan Rite implicitly legitimates the Isidoran. If and when Church authority tries to crack down on the Mozarabs (via the Isidoran Rite), the Mozarabs will be able to point to the fact that nobody's trying to crack down on the black friars, who do exactly the same things and in fact copied it from them.

The Gonzalan Rite and Güntheritism

The Gonzalan Rite also expresses itself in another, rather remarkable way: it's taken up as the hallmark of a certain John George Günther, O.F.E.

The Livonian Revolt was aggressively anti-clerical and anti-monastic, in no small part because it was a peasant revolt against formidably well-armed monastic overlords. With all involved on the rebel side interdicted, there was understandably a shortage of people competent to administer the sacraments, and Herr Günther was one of them. He brought the Gonzalan Rite with him, and the sansingers seized on it as their own, making a few exceptions:

• The Confiteor was edited, addressing it to "the communion of saints" rather than to any given set of them. (This was a general practice; on at least one occasion, celebrating it with other friars, he left it unchanged.)
• Private Mass was abolished, as is usually the case in *Protestant reformations.

Ever since then, the Gonzalan Rite has been closely associated with Günther. More importantly than that, it's been associated with an uncompromising sectarianism in the Güntherite tradition:

• Despite the fact that Günther himself sanctioned an (edited) Roman Rite, the Gonzalan Rite has dominated the Baltic to this day, so much so that more than a few Baltic laity don't realize it was originally Catholic at all.
• Most of the High German Güntherite churches (in particular Saxony, during its on-again off-again splits with Catholicism), have not followed the Gonzalan Rite. During the Pomeranian reductions, the Holy Church in Poland-Ruthenia generally didn't either, the better to not antagonize their Polish overlords; the Gonzalan Rite was, in fact, actively suppressed, because it usually coincided with rebellions - in particular the final successful ones of the Burning Thirties.
• The Scandinavian Holy churches were fairly high-church from the beginning, but Norway is a significant exception: as France forced the Ryal Kirk to accomodate Catholicism, the Norwegians increasingly adopted the Gonzalan Rite and a hardline attitude to go with it.

The net result is that in most of the world, the Gonzalan Rite is the Güntherite liturgy unless otherwise specified. And unlike the Farrellites, whose attitudes have been shaped by their historic position of weakness, the Güntherites are much less prone to compromising.