CHAPTER I The History of the Prayer Book "Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls."-JER. vi. 16. THE HE English Book of Common Prayer is chiefly derived from the Latin "Breviary," "Missal," and "Manual," which were used in England for many centuries before the Reformation. The Pre-Reformation "Breviary" contained the Daily Services Service-books. (including the Lessons); the "Missal" contained the Service for the Holy Communion (including the Epistles and Gospels); and the "Manual" contained the Offices for Baptism, the Visitation of the Sick, Burial, &c. These ancient Prayer Books of the Church of England had their origin in Apostolic times, Their Primitive having gradually grown up out of Services origin. which were brought to France by Apostolic missionaries, who came from Ephesus and Smyrna. The Services thus transplanted from the East were used in common by the Churches of France, Spain, and England; but additions peculiar to How differing each country gradually gathered around Liturgies arose. B the original formularies, and in course of time the devotional system of each became so far different from that of the others as to be a national rite, though bearing abundant marks of relationship to the rest. Just as Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Englishmen differ from each other in some respects, and yet have the common characteristics of the European family of nations: so their ancient devotional systems plainly come from the same original stock, though differing in many particular features.1 But by far the greater proportion of the Services of the Church is (and always has been) taken from the Psalms and other portions of Holy Scripture. § 1. The Latin originals of the Prayer Book. THE Eastern missionaries, St. Pothinus and others, who brought over to France the devotional forms of the Eastern Church, brought them in the Greek language; and Greek words (such as Kyrie Eleëson) were retained in the Latin services in reverent memory of the ancient liturgical language, as the Latin headings of the Psalms and Canticles are retained in our Greek superEnglish Prayer Book. But as Latin was seded by Latin. the universal language of the Roman Empire in Europe, the services were soon translated out of Greek into Latin; and they were used in the latter tongue in England as well as elsewhere until the 1 The Roman Breviary, &c., was not introduced into England until about a century and a half ago, when the priests of the Roman sect were chiefly Jesuits, and so bound to use it. It was never used therefore in the Church of England. Nor was it generally used in France until after the Revolution. |