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published with a Proclamation, and transmitted to the Bishops with a letter enjoining the due observance of it "in their own persons and all their officers and Ministers e."

BOOK OF 1549.

I. But as certain of the Bishopsf were backward in their obedience, so amongst the inferior Clergy there was no small variety of opinion respecting the New form. The people too in places had gone from the opposite extreme into a total disregard for holy things, and these mischiefs it was supposed might be removed, and a more general compliance effected by means of a Liturgy authorized by Act of Parliament. And further, there was still wanting a Formulary of the whole Service, to supply which defect, the same or nearly the same Commission of Bishops and Divines employed, on the former occasion, were convened at Windsor by the king in Mays 1548, and prepared a Book of Common Prayer, which being approved (according to Strype) by Convocation, was ratified by the Lords and Commons in the ensuing January, and came into use from and after the Feast of Pentecost 1549.

To what extent this Book differed in its Eucharistic Service from the preceding Order for the Communion, may be ascertained by the references under that title; the characters by which it is to be distinguished from that which shortly followed it, may be thus described: 1. It had its Introits, or Psalms prefixed to the Collects for the Day. 11. A second Communion for Christmas and Easter day, and a Service for the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene. III. The use of the terms' Mass' and 'Altar' IV. The Mixture of Water with Wine in the Eucharist. v. A Rubric for setting the Elements on the Altar, and the ancient form in delivering them. VI. An Invocation, a verbal Oblation, and signing of the Cross in the Consecration. VII. Transpositions of the 'Gloria in Excelsis,' and other portions of the Communion Service. VIII. Prayers

e

Heylin's Hist. Ref. p. 59.

f "Gardiner of Winchester, Bonner of London, Veysie of Exeter, and Sampson of Coventry and Lichfield." Heylin's Ref. p. 59.

Strype's Mem. vol. ii. book i. pp. 84, 85. According to Collier, September 1. vol. v. 8vo. p. 271.

h From the Journals of the two houses, it appears that the Act in ques

tion was read the third time in the House of Lords on the 15th of January, and the third time in the House of Commons on the 21st of January 1548. Dr. Cardwell's Pref. to the Liturgies, p. xi. Respecting the Convocation, see Strype's Mem. vol. ii. book i. ch. 2. and Heylin on the other side, Life of Laud, p. 326.

for the dead in the Communion and Burial Services. IX. A Rubric for receiving the bread in the mouth, another for reserving the Sacrament, and others supposing daily Communion. x. A Communion at Burials. XI. Anointing

in the Visitation and Communion of the Sick. XII. A Form of Exorcism, Trine immersion, Unction, and the Chrism, in Baptism. XIII. A separate Service for the Consecration of the Water. XIV. Signing of the Cross in Matrimony. xv. The Rochet, Albe, and Vestment or Cope, &ci. xvI. The Athanasian Creed was read only on the great Festivals.

In the composition of this work, it was the desire of the Church to conform entirely to the religion taught by the Scriptures, and to the usages of primitive antiquity. Proceeding upon this principle, they brought together the ancient offices of the Church, which were to serve as landmarks in the construction of the new one. They changed nothing for the mere love of change, and consequently were contented with discarding the innovations of later ages. It is sufficiently evident also from the history of those times, that the compilers of the Prayer Book owed nothing to the personal assistance of foreign Reformers; whilst from the number of venerable ceremonies retained in the several Services, it is equally evident that they were at that time unwilling to recognise the destructive principle by which those Reformers were actuated in the construction of their Offices. In saying this however, it is not intended to be understood that they derived nothing from other reformed Offices then in existence. A supposition of this kind is neither necessary to their vindication, nor warranted by facts. It is certain that several portions of the Service Book of 1549 are to be referred, where they vary from the ancient forms, to a work entitled the 'Simple and pious deliberation of Herman Abp. of Cologne, to be used in that province until an independant Synod, general or national could be convened, &ck.'

i See the Tabular View, p. 2. Rubric 4. * Herman de Weiden, Abp. of Cologne, declared for the reformed doctrines in the year 1543, having the year before invited Bucer, and shortly afterwards Melancthon to visit him. After a strong remonstrance in 1544 from the Clergy of the province against

his formulary of Reformation, he was
through their representations, cited to
appear before the Pope, and likewise.
before the Emperor. In the April of
1546, he was excommunicated.
Simple and pious deliberation' was
translated into English in 1547 and
reprinted in 1548. The whole title

، The

This formulary was not itself original, but founded in a great measure on another previously established at Nurimberg. It was also considerably enlarged as it passed through the hands of Bucer, by whom with the assistance of Melancthon it was prepared for the inspection and approval of the Archbishop. The passages for which the compilers of the English Book were indebted to the work in question, so far as regards the Services collated in the present volume, are as follow:1. The General Confession, the comfortable words, and perhaps a sentence or two in the Prayer for Christ's Church, in the Communion. 11. The Preface, and the opening Prayer in the Office for public Baptism, (although the latter has been recently traced to the more ancient German forms,) together with the Exhortation following the Gospel, the thanksgiving next in order, and the final admonition to the Sponsors. III. The questions and certificate at the commencement, and the Rubric at the end of the Office for Private Baptism; the whole of which are to be found in the Appendix.

In comparing these passages together, and still more the entire Offices themselves, the reader would scarcely fail to observe the great superiority of the Anglican to the foreign formulary. The former is simple and forcible in its style, the latter tediously copious and diffuse; the one renders its exhortations, after the ancient manner, directly subservient to prayer and the Sacraments, the other according to the modern system, converts them into the mere media of religious instruction in general1.

But to proceed, the testimonials to the first Book of K. Edward VI. were neither few nor insignificant, and should be stated as helping to shew at least what were not the causes of its after revision. Abp. Cranmer for instance speaking of the First Service, observes that the manner of the holy Com

is: 'Nostra Hermanni ex gratiâ Dei Archiepiscopi Coloniensis, et Principis Electoris &c. Simplex ac pia deliberatio, qua ratione, Christiana et in verbo Dei fundata reformatio, doctrinæ, administrationis divinorum sacramentorum, cærimoniarum, totiusque curæ animarum, et aliorum ministeriorum ecclesiasticorum, apud eos qui nostræ pastorali curæ commendati sunt, tantisper instituenda sit, donec Dominus

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dederit constitui meliorem, vel per liberam et Christianam synodum, sive generalem sive nationalem, vel per ordines imperii nationis Germanicæ in Spiritu Sancto congregatos.' See also the Continuation of Fleury's History under the head of Weiden, and Strype's Mem. vol. ii. bk. i. chap. 5.

1 See also Dr. Pusey's Scriptural Views of Holy Baptism. Appendix

note m.

munion, which is now set forth within this realm, is agreeable with the institution of Christ, with St. Paul, and the old primitive Apostolic Church, and with the right faith of the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Crossm? The Act of Uniformity further expressed that by the aid of the Holy Ghost, it was with one uniform agreement concluded.' And lastly, the Act of Parliament by which the Second Book of K. Edward was ratified, states that there was nothing in the First, but what was 'agreeable to the Word of God and the primitive Church, very comfortable to all good people desiring to live in Christian conversation: and secondly, that such doubts as had been raised in the use and exercise thereof, proceeded rather from the curiosity of the Minister, and mistakers, than from any other worthy cause".'

BOOK OF 1552.

II. The revision of the preceding Book was commenced at the close of 1550 or the beginning of 1551o. But as in the former instance it had been the influence of a Catholic principle acting within the Church upon modern abuses, so in the present, it was the influence of modern principles from without acting upon what was Catholic. The Liturgy of 1549 did not go sufficiently far to satisfy the foreign Reformers, who with a rooted antipathy towards Romanism, entertained a no less rooted aversion towards whatever savoured of antiquity. The most powerful representatives of these opinions, in reference to the Church of England at this period, were Calvin, Bucer, and Peter Martyr. The consequences were such as might have been anticipated :—whilst the restless activity of the first prevailed with the Court and the Universities, the strong although indirect influence of the other two soon became visible in the altered face of the Liturgy P. Most of the variations were in perfect correspondence with the elements out of which they sprang. I. In the Communion Service several material transpositions took place, and a modern form was substituted for the ancient in the

m Defence of the Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament &c. book v. chap. 18. n Even Bucer found nothing in it, but what was either taken out of the word of God, or at least not contrary to it, if fairly interpreted, a statement indeed quite irreconcileable with the sweeping censure contained in his

Scripta Anglicana. See the Preface to his Censure,' &c.

• Burnet's Ref. vol. ii. page 155. Folio.

P Heylin's Hist. Ref. p. 107; Lawrence's Bampt. Lect. p. 247; and Life of Dr. N. Ridley, p. 333.

Delivery of the Elements. II. Passages were suffered to be omitted, probably upon the ground of a supposed expediency, which operated, it may be feared, with the many, in partially obscuring a doctrine nevertheless constantly maintained and believed on by the Church, viz. the great Commemorative Sacrifice in the Eucharist. III. Prayers for the Dead were discontinued. IV. The Second Communions of the former Book and the Service for the Day of St. Mary Magdalene were removed together with the several ancient and significant ceremonies already enumerated in the outline of that work. The most considerable additions were as follow:-1. A Rubric at the end of the Preface requiring all Priests and Deacons to say daily the Morning and Evening Prayer, either privately or openly, except they be let by some urgent cause. II. The Sentences, Exhortation, Confession, and Absolution, and the Jubilate Deo, Cantate Domino, and Deus misereatur, in the Morning and Evening Prayers. III. The Commandments, and a third Exhortation, in the Communion Service. iv. The Declaration subjoined relative to the kneeling at this Sacrament 9. v. The Ordinal drawn up in 1549, which was now added to the Prayer Book and established as part of it, but the vestments therein required, the Introits, the appeal to the Saints and Evangelists, the Ceremonies of delivering the Chalice with bread at the Ordination of a Priest, and the laying the Bible on the neck, and of placing the Pastoral staff into the hand at the consecration of a Bishop, were omitted. VI. The Athanasian Creed was appointed for several Saints' Days, as well as for the great Festivals.

Upon a general comparison of the two Books it will appear to most reflecting minds, how difficult a thing it is to oppose even prevalent error so broadly as did the Reformers of this time without impairing at least some portions of that truth of which it is the corruption; and to those who are familiar with and venerate primitive forms, that notwithstanding a few judicious alterations the Church was in the main a sufferer by the exchange: not that the Book of 1552 did not at all represent Catholic verity, but that it did not represent it so confessedly and fully, as its predecessor.

૧ For information respecting this App. xxxi. and Strype's Mem. vol. ii. Declaration see Tabular View, p. 80. book ii. chap. 15.

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