holy chyrch wol it ordeyne and ther to I plycht the my trouth. "I N. take the N. to my weddyd husbonde to haue and to holde fro thys day for bether, for wurs, for richer, for porer, in sykenesse and hin elthe to be bonour and buxum in bed and at bort: tyll deth us departe yf holy chyrche wol it ordeyne: and ther to I plyche te my throute. "With this rynge I wedde the, and with this gold and silver I honoure the, and with this gyft I honoure the. In nomine Patris: et Filii: et Spiritus Sancti. The Visitation of the Sick. Amen." "Brother, be ye gladde yt ye shall dye in Chrysten beleve? Re. Ye, syr. 66 "Knowe ye Ye, syr. well yt ye have not so well lyved as ye shulde ? "Haue ye wille to amende yow if ye had space to lyve? Ye, syr. "Beleve ye that or Lorde Christ Jhu goddys soon of heaven was born of the blessyd vyrgyne our ladie saynt Mary? Ye, syr. "Beleve ye that our Lorde Christ Jhu dyed vpon the crosse to bye mans sowle upō the good ffrydaie? Ye, syr. 66 Thancke ye him entierly therof? Ye, syr. "Beleve ye yt ye may not be saved but by his precious death? Ye, syr. "Tunc dicat sacerdos. "Therfor, Brother, while yor sowle is in yor bodye, thancke ye god of his death, and haue ye hole truste, to be saved, through his precyouse death, and thyncke ye on non other worldely goode, but onely in Christe Jhus deathe, and on his pytefull passyon, and saye after me, My swete Lorde Christ Jhu, I put thy precyous passion betwene the and my evill werke and betwene me and thy wrathe. "Et dicat infirmus ter. "In manus tuas Domine, etc. Vel sic : "Lorde Christ Jhu, in to thy handes I betake my sowle and as thow boughtest me, bodye and soule I betake to the." § 3-The first complete English Prayer Book AFTER various reforms in the ancient Latin Service Books (between 1516 and 1541) it was at last determined that no more of them should be printed, but that English Services should be formed from them which should represent all their essential features, but yet be cast in a form more intelligible to and more useable by the people at large. First A Committee of Convocation was ap- A.D. 1542. pointed in 1542 to undertake this work, steps. but their labours were not allowed fully to see the light until the death of Henry VIII. The old English Litany was, however, A.D. 1544. revised, and set forth for public use in its The old English Litany revised. present form in 1544. Other Litanies or "Processions" were translated by Archbishop Cranmer, or under his direction; but the King would not permit them to be used, nor any thing further to be done in altering the Services, beyond the reading of the Lessons in English, a practice that had been adopted for some time past. munion Service. Immediately after the death of Henry VIII. the Clergy, however, began to urge forward A.D. 1548. the completion of the Prayer Book. On English ComMarch 8th, 1547-8, an English Communion Service was issued as a supplement to the Latin one, for the use of the Laity, for the purpose of drawing them to more frequent Communion, and of administering both elements to them. The Prayer Book itself was completed A.D. 1549. by the Committee of Bishops and other Complete Prayer Book. clergy about seven months afterwards, and was presented to Convocation by them at the end of November, 1548. The Convocation sent it to the King in Council, by whom it was laid before Parliament to be incorporated into an Act of Parliament, the first Act of Uniformity [2nd & 3rd Edward VI. ch. i.]. This Act (including the Prayer Book, exactly as it was sent up by Convocation), was passed at the end of January, and enacted that the Prayer Book should be taken into general use on the following Whitsun Day, which was June 9th, 1549. It was printed immediately, and published on March 7th, 1548-9, to give the clergy time to become familiar with its contents. Many began to use it before Whitsun Day arrived, and when that solemn day came, the English Order of Divine Service (which was declared in the Act to have been composed under the influence of the Holy Ghost) entirely superseded the ancient Latin Services from which it had been formed. What changes The principal changes which had been had been made. made (besides that of translation into English) were I. The condensation of seven daily services into 2. The singing through of the Psalter every 4. The omission of many Festival Services. Substance of the The other changes which were made ancient services were mostly with the object of condensing retained. lengthy offices, or of abolishing extravagant modes of expression respecting the Blessed Virgin Mary, and other saints. But most of what was thus put away had been introduced into the Service Books in comparatively recent times: and the claim of the Reformers that they had retained, in their substance, the ancient services of the Church of England, was in reality a just one. § 4. The alteration of the first Prayer Book in THE Book of Common Prayer thus completed was at first received by all except a few foreigners who had been too hospitably entertained by the English Bishops, and by the self-willed Puritans, who always did and always will object to Services which correspond to the principles of the Church. Archbishop Cranmer described these as "glorious and Cranmer's opinunquiet spirits which can like nothing but ion of the that is after their own fancy; and cease not to make trouble when things be most quiet and in good order. If such men," he added, "should be heard, although the Book were made every year anew, yet it should not lack faults in their opinion." Puritans. These unquiet spirits had the ear, how- A.D. 1552. Their pressure ever, of Edward VI. and his uncle, the makes a revision Duke of Somerset, the Protector (or Re- necessary. gent), neither of whom loved the Church or its principles and the power of the Crown was so enormous during the rule of the Tudors, that the only way of saving the Prayer Book from tyrannical destruction was by the concession of some of the demands made by the Puritans, with a boy-King and a profligate Regent for their leaders. The Prayer Book of 1549 was therefore "revised' in 1552; but it had scarcely been printed for general use before the death of Edward VI. and the accession Prayer Book of Queen Mary led to the restoration of suppressed by the old Church system and the Latin law under Q. Mary, 1553-8, Services. The proper legal forms were used, in Parliament and elsewhere, for undoing the whole of the ten years' proceedings connected with the Prayer Book, and thus it ceased to have any legal existence, (after having been used for four years and a half,) in October, 1553. and revised by law under Q. Elizabeth, Shortly after Queen Elizabeth came to the throne [Nov. 17, 1558], the English Services were revived; but to re-establish them on a legal footing, new Acts of Convocation and of Parliament had become necessary. A.D. 1559, It also became a question whether the Prayer Book should be revived in its original form, that of 1549, or in its altered shape, that of 1552. The Queen, Lord Burleigh, and those who wished to make the English Services comprehensive, and to connect them with the old Church of England, desired to restore the first; but those of the Bishops and Clergy who had adopted Presbyterian customs and principles when abroad during the reign of Mary, considered the second Book more favourable to the novelties which they had learned. In the end, the second Book was adopted, but with some important changes, which made it more like the first one again: especially as to definite recognition of those sacramental principles which the Puritans endeavoured, but always without success, to drive out of the Church. with some changes. The Book, thus re-published under the authority of Church and State as before, remained in use without any further changes until it was suppressed at the time of the great Rebellion. The Puritans were unceasingly |