tions of the Prayer Book. away several of the Puritan portions of Edward's Second Book, Puritan Ediand bringing back some of the discarded ceremonies and vestments of earlier times. The law, moreover, would not allow of any Public Service in England, except that which was prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer. Accordingly, an attempt seems to have been made to bring the book itself into conformity with their views, not indeed by urging any further authoritative revisal, which was hopeless, but by printing it in a somewhat altered form. A series of such Prayer Books appeared between 1578 and 1640. What we may call the first Puritan edition (1578) varies from the authorized book in the following particulars. It commences with the Table of Proper Lessons, For Morning, For Evening, being put in the place of Mattins, Evensong: Minister is printed throughout for Priest: from the Communion Service the first four rubrics are left out; but the reader is expressly referred for them to the Great Booke of Common Prayer. Private celebration of the Sacraments was discarded; hence the phrase great number was substituted for good number, in the second rubric at the end of the Communion Service: in the Office of Public Baptism, the introductory rubric was omitted, which concludes with allowing children, if necessity so require, to be at all times baptized at home: the whole Service for Private Baptism was omitted: and only the third rubric was retained in the Communion of the Sick. Confirmation, with all the rubrics touching upon it, is omitted, as is also the Service for the Churching of Women. A Calendar was also compiled, rather as an addition to that of the Church than as a substitute for it, each monthly portion being placed under the authorized Calendar. It seems that this was too bold an experiment; or the party could not agree in any uniform practice. Afterwards, we find the book brought into a form much more nearly resembling the original. In 1589, the rubric at the end of Public Baptism, the Service for Private Baptism, that for Churching of Women, and the address before the Catechism, were restored to their places. And in these Services, the word Priest remained unchanged; which may perhaps be regarded as a silent but intelligible sign, that these Services 1 A request was made by some eminent members of foreign churches in behalf of their English friends; but the Queen replied,That it was not with her safety, honour, and credit, to permit diversity of opinions in a kingdom where none but she and her council governed, not own- Variations from the Prayer authorized Book. Puritan Editions of the Prayer Book. Bound with the Geneva Bible. were added for apparent conformity, but that the use of them was to be discouraged. A later edition, belonging rather to the next reign, differs from the authorized Book merely by putting, For Morning, For Evening, and Minister, instead of Mattins, Evensong, and Priest; Priest, however, being still unaltered in the Services for Private Baptism and the Churching of Women. In this shape we may suppose that this Prayer Book continued to be printed until 1616, i.e. as long as the Geneva version of the Bible was printed, to which every scriptural quotation had been adjusted. During the next twenty-five years, we find copies of a small size, in which Minister very often stands for Priest, and in which occasionally they are alternated in a most extraordinary manner. These books were always printed by the houses which had the right of printing the Book of Common Prayer, no doubt as part of their exclusive privilege, and usually they were joined to the Geneva Bible: just as some editions of the Bishops' Bible were accompanied by the Prayer Book in its authorized form. It is not certain what was the actual intention, or use made, of these books. They could not be publicly used in the church without risk of penalties; yet even from the size of some editions we cannot say that less than this was aimed at. It is certain also that the Puritans did not conduct their ministration strictly according to the authorized form; and that the Bishops' Bible was not the only Bible used in the Public Service.1 The folio edition of the Geneva Bible of 1578 (like the folio editions of the Bishops' Bible, 1568 and 1572) has two Psalters in parallel columns,—The translation according to the Ebrewe, and The translation used in Common Prayer; this latter being divided into the portions for Morning and Evening Prayer. This looks like a provision for the Public Service, and seems to give the same character to the altered Prayer Book at the beginning of the volume.2 SECT. V.-PURITAN SUBSTITUTES FOR THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.3 So early as 1567, the more violent of the Puritans began to separate themselves from the worship of the Church, and to meet 1 Abp. Whitgift's Articles (1584); Cardwell, Doc. Ann. XCIX. 2 Clay, Elizabethan Liturgical Services, Pref. pp. xv.-xix.; Lathbury, Hist. of Convoc. p. 188. 3 See Rev. P. Hall, Reliquia Liturgica, vol. I. Introd. pp. viii.— xiii.; Lathbury, Hist. of Convoc. pp. 188-192. 'And at in private houses, where they had ministers of their own. In 1574 was published A Full and Plain Declaration of Ecclesiastical Discipline out of the Word of God; and in 1584, A Brief and Plain Declaration concerning the Desires of all those Faithful Ministers that have and do seek for the Discipline and Reformation of the Church of England, was printed in London by Robert Waldegrave. Also, in the same year (1584), A Book of Common Prayer was presented to Parliament 'with the hope of approval and legal sanction,' and beyond this, a hope of its being substituted for the Book of Common Prayer. This book was altered before its publication, so far as regards the acknowledgment of the office and authority of the magistrate in matters of religion : 3 for the liberty claimed, and apparently conceded, by the Puritans, in the Book of Discipline, they neither allowed, nor intended to allow, had the Book of Prayer obtained the sanction of the law. Bancroft writes, "In the Parliament (27 of her Majesty, as I remember), the Brethren having made another Book, termed, at that time, A Booke of the Forme of Common Prayers, &c., and containing in it the effect of their whole pretended Discipline; the same book was penned altogether statute and law-like, and their petition in the behalf of it was, viz. May it therefore please your Majesty, &c. that it may be enacted, &c. that the Book hereunto annexed, &c. intituled A Booke of the Forme of Common Prayers, Administration of Sacraments, &c. and everything therein contained, may be from henceforth authorized, put in use, and practised throughout all your Majesty's dominions. See here, when they hoped to have attained to their purposes by law, and to 1 Life of Grindal, ch. xii. 2 Life of Parker, bk. IV. ch. v. P. 68. 4 Dangerous Positions, bk. III. ch. Bancroft, Survey of Holy Disci- x. pp. 96, sq. pline, p. 66, and Dangerous Positions, Puritan Substitutes for the Prayer Book. Private The Book of A Book of Prayer preParliament. sented to Puritan Substitutes for the Prayer Book. The Middle burgh Book of Prayer. have had the same accordingly established, they offered to the Parliament a book of their own, for the Form of Common Prayers, &c.; and thought it (as it seemeth) altogether inconvenient to leave every minister to his own choice to use what form he list, other than such as were allowed in some church which had received the Discipline: for any such they liked of indefinitely. Whereby to me it seemeth manifest, that they never meant to have required the enacting of that chapter, De reliquis Liturgia Officiis; but only to set down what course their brethren should follow for the interim, until they might take further order for a book of their own.' An edition (probably the first) of this Puritan Book of Common Prayer was printed in London by Waldegrave, without date; yet doubtless either in 1584, or the early part of 1585; for it was prohibited by an order of the Star Chamber in June 1585: and a second edition, somewhat altered in arrangement, appeared at Middleburgh (where a company of English merchants resided under the ministry of Cartwright) in 1586; a third, an exact reprint, but much neater in appearance, in 1587; and a fourth, with additions, in 1602. In 1587 this book was introduced into the Low Countries, its use having been hitherto confined almost exclusively to Northamptonshire, where Edmund Snape resided. As regards the authorship of the volume,-whether or no Cartwright himself, or his friend Travers, or Dudley Fenner, then at Middleburgh, or even Snape, had any hand in the writing,— it is certain that nothing more was attempted than a brief and desultory compilation from the Genevan form of Calvin, and that perhaps not directly, but through one or other of the abbreviations of Knox's Book of Common Order. The first, or London, edition of this book is reprinted in the first volume of the Rev. P. Hall's Fragmenta Liturgica; and a collation of the Middleburgh editions in the first volume of his Reliquiæ Liturgicæ. CHAPTER IV. THE PRAYER BOOK FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES I. [A.D. 1603-1649.] UPON the accession of King James I. (March 24th, 1603), the earliest measure adopted by the general body of the Puritans was to present to him (in April) the famous Millenary petition, so called from the great number of signatures attached to it. Upon the subject of the Prayer Book they urged that of these 'offences following, some may be removed, some amended, some qualified: In the Church Service: that the cross in baptism, interrogatories ministered to infants, confirmations, as superfluous, may be taken away: baptism not to be ministered by women, and so explained: the cap and surplice not urged: that examination may go before the Communion: that it be ministered with a sermon: that divers terms of priests and absolution and some other used, with the ring in marriage, and other such like in the book, may be corrected: the longsomeness of service abridged church-songs and music moderated to better. edification that the Lord's Day be not profaned: the rest upon holidays not so strictly urged: that there may be an uniformity of doctrine prescribed: no popish opinion to be any more taught or defended: no ministers |