Beginnings

2020 ◽  
pp. 89-128
Author(s):  
Charles Hefling
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Examination ◽  
English Reformation ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Holy Communion ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Justification By Faith ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Made In

The 1662 Book of Common Prayer is a revised recension of a liturgical text, first issued in 1549, which was at once an engine and a product of the English Reformation. This chapter situates the original Prayer Book in that context, and offers a detailed examination of its most contested text: the Supper of the Lord and the Holy Communion. This service was heavily revised in 1552, and the revisions shed light on the intentions of the revisers and the meaning of the revised text, which remains largely the same in the final revision of 1662. Among the theological issues involved were justification by faith, the presence of Christ, the nature of a sacrament, and the purpose of the eucharistic liturgy in a reformed church. This chapter also considers, more briefly, the revisions of other services that were made in 1552.

An unpublished source of the Book of Common Prayer: Peter Martyr Vermigli's Adhortatio ad Coenam Domini Mysticam

1968 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Beesley
Keyword(s):  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Holy Communion ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
The People ◽  
To Come ◽  
Common Prayer

Liturgy, it has often been said, implies doctrine. Nowhere is this more patently clear than in the rubric before the second Exhortation ‘in case he [the Minister] shall see the people negligent to come to the Holy Communion’ in the Prayer Book of 1662. In view of the fact that ‘An Order for Holy Communion’ contained in the Report of the Liturgical Commission, April 1966, has departed from the valuable precedent of 1662, it may not be without contemporary value that we enquire into the origin, purpose and structure of this second Exhortation.

A William IV Chalice

1999 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 406-408
Author(s):  
Brian Taylor
Keyword(s):  
English Reformation ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Holy Communion ◽  
Regular Method ◽  
Fourth Lateran Council ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
The Way

One of the pastoral consequences of the English Reformation was a change in the way that the viaticum was administered. For many centuries the sacrament had been reserved in churches, and this had been compulsory since the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. Holy communion was taken to the sick and dying, often accompanied with much ceremonial, but now this was brought to an end. Every edition of the Book of Common Prayer had contained a form for ‘the communion of the sick’, a celebration of the eucharist in ‘a convenient place in the sick man's house’. The 1549 book also had provision for what we should now call ‘communion by extension’, taking the consecrated elements to the sick after a celebration in church, but that disappeared in 1552, and is disallowed by a strict following of the rubric in 1662. William Kennedy long ago argued that communion by extension had probably been legal after 1552, but that he had found no mention of it in the visitation papers of the period. ‘With infrequent communions provided in the year – three or four, or twelve at the most – the opportunities for ‘carrying the communion’ to the sick were very few, and communion by means of a private celebration became the regular method.’

scholarly journals Continental influences on the English prayer book, 1549-1552

1926 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Edna Emilie Bothe
Keyword(s):  
English Reformation ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Religious Reform ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Freedom Of Thought ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
The Way

"Continental influence on the English Reformation and on the Book of Common Prayer is often under-estimated. The facts which have been given indicate that it is a factor which ought not to be over-looked or passed over hurriedly in the study of the English Reformation. In its early stages the English Reformation was directed into certain channels of thought by the teachings of the English Humanists who had received their ideas and inspiration from the Humanistic teachers of the Continent. Erasmus, More, and Colet, by teaching an appreciation of freedom of thought in religion and of a search for the truth, prepared the way for religious reform. When the Reformation on the Continent began England was prepared to follow in the path of the religious reformers of the Continent..."--Conclusion.

The Book of Common Prayer: A Guide

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Hefling
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of The Book ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
Corporate Worship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
The Church

This book surveys the contents and the history of the Book of Common Prayer, a sacred text which has been a foundational document of the Church of England and the other churches in the worldwide community of Anglican Christianity. The Prayer Book is primarily a liturgical text—a set of scripts for enacting events of corporate worship. As such it is at once a standard of theological doctrine and an expression of spirituality. The first part of this survey begins with an examination of one Prayer Book liturgy, known as Divine Service, in some detail. Also discussed are the rites for weddings, ordinations, and funerals and for the sacraments of Baptism and Communion. The second part considers the original version of the Book of Common Prayer in the context of the sixteenth-century Reformation, then as revised and built into the Elizabethan settlement of religion in England. Later chapters discuss the reception, revision, rejection, and restoration of the Prayer Book during its first hundred years. The establishment of the text in its classical form in 1662 was followed by a “golden age” in the eighteenth century, which included the emergence of a modified version in the United States. The narrative concludes with a chapter on the displacement of the Book of Common Prayer as a norm of Anglican identity. Two specialized chapters concentrate on the Prayer Book as a visible artifact and as a text set to music.

The Historical Background of the English Lectionary of 1955

1958 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-86
Author(s):  
Geoffrey G. Willis
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
The People ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
The Church

The preface to the Book of Common Prayer, entitled Concerning the Service of the Church since 1662, but before that simply The Preface, was derived substantially from the preface to the revised Breviary of Quiñones, which was one of the sources for the revised daily offices of the Church of England. It appeals from what it considers the corruptions of the medieval office to the ‘godly and decent order of the ancient Fathers’. This order, it says, was devised for the systematic reading of holy scripture in the offices of the Church, and it was the intention of the compilers of the English Prayer Book to restore such a regular order of reading for the instruction of the people. It represented a revolt against three features of the lessons in the medieval breviary: first, against the frequent interruptions of the reading of scripture in course by the occurrence of feasts with proper lessons; secondly, the lack of completeness and continuity in the lessons themselves; and thirdly, the use of non-biblical material in the lessons. Even if the daily office of the breviary, which is based on the ecclesiastical year, were not interrupted by any immoveable feasts having proper lessons, it would still not provide for the reading of the whole of scripture, as its lessons are too short, and also the variable lessons are confined to the night office.

The Prayer Book Printed

2020 ◽  
pp. 253-284
Author(s):  
Charles Hefling
Keyword(s):  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
Printed Text ◽  
Prayer Books ◽  
Common Prayer

This chapter considers several aspects of the material embodiment of the Prayer Book in paper and ink. The topics range from general questions, such as identifying the sequence of words that constitute the Book of Common Prayer and how their integrity is maintained, to details such as orthography, punctuation, editorial updates, the use of red ink and blackletter type, printers’ interventions, and the curiously named Black Rubric. The chapter also touches on nonverbal features of Prayer Books as books, such as typography, and design. Included are a number of examples of illustrations, unofficially added to various editions, which both interpret the printed text and indicate how it was understood.

The Golden Age

2020 ◽  
pp. 202-233
Author(s):  
Charles Hefling
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
Long Eighteenth Century ◽  
Common Prayer

The long eighteenth century has been called the Prayer Book’s golden age. Nothing in the text itself changed. But the text was disseminated in works meant to aid and encourage the personal and domestic devotions of families and individuals. There were thoughtful but not hostile proposals for revising the Prayer Book, two of which are discussed in this chapter as indications of what the text was expected to be and do in an enlightened age. And beyond the limits of the ecclesiastical establishment, the eighteenth century saw the beginning of a development that won its way to acceptance in Scotland and influenced a new version of the Book of Common Prayer in the newly independent United States.

Preambles: “But One Use”

2020 ◽  
pp. 76-86
Author(s):  
Charles Hefling
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
The Political ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
The Church

This chapter examines the Prayer Book’s self-presentation in its preliminary, nonliturgical prose: the two Acts of Uniformity (1559 and 1662) that define the constitution of the text and regulate its use in the Church of England; and the three prefatory essays, two of which were written by Thomas Cranmer for the original, 1549 Book of Common Prayer, and have been retained ever since. These texts are themselves primary sources that provide a preliminary context in which to understand the origins and purpose of the liturgies they precede. They outline the successive revisions of the Prayer Book, and indicate both the political and the theological dimensions of its contents.

Divine Service

2020 ◽  
pp. 11-35
Author(s):  
Charles Hefling
Keyword(s):  
Lord's Supper ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Holy Communion ◽  
Separate Part ◽  
Morning Prayer ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
Public Worship

“Divine Service” is a name for the most frequently performed act of public worship that is prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer. Most of this chapter examines the texts of the three liturgical offices in which Divine Service has consisted on Sundays: Morning Prayer (or Mattins), the Litany (or General Supplication), and the beginning of Holy Communion (or the Lord’s Supper), as these would take place on one specific day. Evening Prayer (or Evensong), which is a separate part of Divine Service, is also described. In the course of the discussion the chapter introduces a number of basic terms used throughout the book.

4. Politics and religion

2018 ◽  
pp. 64-84
Author(s):  
Brian Cummings
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Religious Ritual ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
Politics And Religion ◽  
Radical Reformation ◽  
Political Act ◽  
Common Prayer

Until recently it was commonplace to assume that a prayer book in the English vernacular was an act of popularization and even democratization. Cranmer, in his preface, explicitly appeals to broadening the reach of liturgy, opening it out to a wider audience and a popular register. However, the Book of Common Prayer, as well as a radical reformation of devotion, was a political act of religion. ‘Politics and religion’ outlines the political changes that had an impact on the use and amendments to the Book of Common Prayer, with new editions appearing in 1552, 1559, and 1662 after Parliamentary Acts, making it the only permitted form of religious ritual and public prayer.

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