Thomas Tallis's genius is celebrated in this collection of English-texted sacred music, selected and Editor Jeremy Summerly to provide an invaluable source of introits and anthems for choirs. The sixteenth century was a time of religious upheaval in England. From Henry VIII's protestant reformation through Queen Mary's staunch but short-lived Catholic revival to the return to Anglicanism in Elizabethan times, it would have required careful diplomacy for a Roman Catholic like Thomas Tallis simply to stay alive. In fact he became the most respected English composer of his generation and is now recognised as one of the country's greatest composers.