Prayer Book Through the Ages. William Sydnor

the country in the summer of 1551.

      

Percy Dearmer says, in the Holy Communion, “Cranmer set forth his matured conclusions.”¹¹ The Decalogue has been added. (There is no Summary of the Law in either of these first Books.) The Prayer for the Whole State of Christ’s Church has been separated from the canon and follows the offertory. Significantly, the introduction to that prayer now reads “Let us pray for the whole state of Christe’s Church militant here in earth.” All references to the saints and the departed are removed. The order of the major part of the service is that which is more familiar to present-day users of the Prayer Book than to users of the first Book:

      Invitation

      General Confession

      Absolution

      Comfortable Words

       Sursum corda

       Sanctus

      “We do not presume . . .”

      Prayer of Consecration

      Reception

      Lord’s Prayer

      Oblation or Thanksgiving

       Gloria in excelsis

      “The Peace of God . . .”

      The Invitation (“Ye who do truly and earnestly repent . . .”), Confession, Absolution, and “Comfortable Words” now come before the Sursum corda. The Prayer of Consecration does not follow the same order as that in the first Book. Cranmer considered the different form to be more in accord with the New Testament. There is a whole series of changes aimed at removing any suspicion of transubstantiation. For instance, instead of praying that the bread and wine “may be unto us the body and blood,” the prayer now asks that we “may be partakers of the body and blood.” There is also strong emphasis on the memorial nature of the sacrament. This is most notably present in the words of administration. The traditional words which became part of the 1549 Book are “The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life.” In 1552, those words were dropped and in their place: “Take and eat this, in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith, with thanksgiving.” The rubric states that the people receive in both kinds “in their handes kneling.” Also because of suspicion of transubstantiation the Benedictus (“Blessed is he that cometh . . .”) and the Agnus Dei are omitted. And of course there is the “black rubric” referred to earlier (page 19) which states emphatically that by kneeling to receive “it is not meant thereby that any adoration is done or ought to be done either unto the Sacramental bread or wine . . .” The doctrinal impact of the sacrament centers in what it says about the presence of Christ in the Eucharist elements. The 1549 Book was consistent with the Catholic belief in the real presence. But, as Procter and Frere observe, the 1552 Book makes it clear that the Prayer of Consecration refers rather to the worshippers than to the elements, and that the presence of Christ is not in the sacrament but only in the heart of the believer. So the Book is more acceptable to those “determined to retain the primitive doctrine apart from mediaeval accretions.” The final change in the service was to remove the Gloria in excelsis from its ancient position following the Kyrie and place it just before the Benediction. It thus becomes a new climax at the end of the service.

      

The Baptismal service is vigorously remodeled. The entire service is to take place at the font. Bucer suggested that it take place in the context of the Communion service. On this point he was 400 years ahead of his time! The sign of the cross is kept in spite of the objections of the reformers. The latter part of the service established the pattern followed in all succeeding Books up through 1928. The exorcism, the anointing, the putting on of the Chrism, and the triple repetition of immersion are all omitted. And the rubric which gives sanitary minded moderns a sigh of relief directs that the font be filled and the water consecrated whenever the service is used rather than only once a month.

      

The Burial Office is curtailed. There are no prayers for the dead and a special office for Eucharist at funerals is omitted. The minister is not directed to throw dust into the grave.

      The Book is very careful to omit any mention of “the Altar.” It simply refers to “the Table” or in one place to “Goddes borde.” The manual acts which might suggest transubstantiation are eliminated—the fraction and elevation of the hosts. Ordinary bread is used and is put in the communicants’ hands.

      The only vestments permitted are a rochet for bishops and a surplice for priests and deacons. Even a hood or a scarf is forbidden.

      Music is virtually abolished in Holy Communion except the Gloria in excelsis which is permitted to be sung as an alternative to saying it. Introit Psalms, Kyrie, Creed and Sanctus are all said. Two months before the Book came out, the organ at St. Paul’s, London, ceased to be used.

      A rubric directs that the table stand in the body of the church or in the chancel (the place for best audibility), and that it be covered with a fair linen cloth. The priest is to stand at the north side.

      The wardens collect the alms rather than the people coming up with them.

      The Zwinglian reformers pressed hard for the utmost simplicity of dress, furnishing, and movement. Certainly their influence can be seen throughout the Book, but evidence of other doctrines is also there. Percy Dearmer gives this often unappreciated 1552 Book significant credentials: “Proud as we are of the First Model [1549 Book], there is no less cause for pride in the Second, when we remember that its purpose is to provide a liturgy that is Apostolic rather than Patristic.”¹² This second Book of Edward VI, which became official on November 1, 1552, was unpopular everywhere. It was halfheartedly launched on its brief career—no authorization was even given for its use in Ireland. Conservative priests made the best of it for the moment by retaining old ceremonial. There was little or no violence. Opposition to the use of upsetting practices had spent itself during the two years or more prior to the appearance of the Book.

      Young King Edward died July 5, 1553, and Mary, the ardently Roman Catholic daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, came to the throne. With the news of Edward’s death, the Latin Mass was immediately and widely restored. The 1552 Book was only officially in use for eight months.

       CHAPTER III

       THE BOOK OF 1559

      Elizabeth became queen November 17, 1558, and a new day dawned in the religious life of England. The Protestant exiles returned from the continent full of extreme reaction to the unbending Romanism of Mary’s reign. What form of worship would now become the official one?

      Elizabeth assured the Spanish ambassador that her purpose was to restore religion to the form it had had under her father, Henry VIII. But this was nearly impossible. There was no longer an appreciable base of support for such a stance. Some of the former proponents were dead, some had been converted. Moreover, the returned exiles made further steps toward Protestantism inevitable.

      The religious direction in which England would move depended on the queen and the religious leaders whom she appointed and whom she supported. What was she like? What were her private religious and philosophical views? John Booty gives us this description:

      She was a Protestant-humanist who read Socrates and Cicero, Saint Cyprian and Philip Melanchthon, and who was well acquainted with the works of Desiderius Erasmus. Ascham said in 1570 that the Queen “readeth here now at Windsor more Greek every day than some prebendary of this church cloth read Latin in a whole week.” Indeed, she was accustomed to reading some part of Erasmus’ Greek New Testament daily. Her religion was not that of the zealous—she could not approve of John Knox and his ways. It was that