I was amused by Fr David Clemens’ description (Letters, 23 April) of the “Prayer for the Queen” mandated by the Bishops’ Conference for Masses taking place on 11-12 June as “a quasi-Protestant prayer for the Queen that would not be unfamiliar to Edward or Elizabeth Tudor”.

The prayer the bishops are asking parishes to use is a translation of the “Domine salvum fac” (“salvam fac” for a female monarch), which originated in medieval France. It was used in the coronation of King Francis I in 1515, and in time gained a stable place at the end of the “principal Mass on a Sunday” in countries with Catholic monarchs, but it has also been adapted to petition for the good estate of republics (“Domine salvum fac rem publicam”). It has been set to music by many Catholic composers, such as Lully, Charpentier and Gounod.