To mock your reign, O dearest Lord

Four part choral piece for S.A.T.B with Organ accompaniment.
Composed by Thomas Tallis (c. 1515 - 1585)
(Arr by Fred Pratt Green 1903 - 2000)
I love Tallis and have wanted to perform this for some time but have failed to persuade anyone to do it. So Good Friday I decided to do it myself, and what better a day.
Having waited all day for the computer I started at 9pm still intending to finish before midnight (hence only 1 verse). On hearing myself recorded I nearly scrapped the whole thing before finding a suitably flattering reverb. I wanted this piece to have no footage of me at all which I'm please to have managed even after hour upon hour of Google searches for suitable material.
To mock your reign, O dearest Lord,
they made a crown of thorns;
set you with taunts along that road
from which no-one returns.
They could not know, as we do now,
how glorious is that crown:
that thorns would flow'r up-on your brow,
your sorrows heal our own.

[@AHGvs1]

Thank you for this, it's a really nice arrangement - what part of this did Tallis write, and did he use this text? Would be great to learn more about it and perform it if possible!

[@paul2211]

Search for "Third mode melody" for the music. The words are by Fred Pratt Green according to hymnary.org.