Matins and Evensong, Venite, the Hymns, Te Deum, Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis, and all the Psalms and Versicles; and in the Mass, Gloria in Excelsis, Gloria Patri, the Creed, the Preface, the Pater Noster, and some of the Sanctus and Agnus. As concerning the Salve festa dies, the Latin note, as I think, is sober and distinct enough; wherefore I have travailed to make the verses in English, and have put the Latin note unto the same. Nevertheless, they that be cunning in singing, can make a much more solemn note thereto. I made them only for a proof, to see how English would do in song. But by cause mine English verses lack the grace and facility that I would wish they had, your Majesty may cause some other to make them again, that can do the same in more pleasant English and phrase. As for the sentence" [the English sense], "I suppose it will serve well enough. Thus Almighty God preserve your Majesty in long and prosperous health and felicity. From Bekisbourne, the 7th of October. "Your Grace's most bounden "Chaplain and Beadsman, "To the King's most excellent Majesty." From other transactions between the Archbishop and the King, it may be inferred that the suggestion was first sent by the former, perhaps at the request of Convocation, to the latter, then returned in the form of an order from the Crown to the Archbishop as head of the Convocation; and that the above letter is the official reply to that order. It does not appear that the King permitted this English Processional to be published. The previous Procession alluded to by Cranmer in this Letter was the Litany nearly as it is now used, which was ordered to be sung in English (as it had long been known to the people through the Prymers) by a mandate of the Crown, dated June 11, 1544'. Use of the Ver It had always, in fact, been the practice of the Church of England to encourage and promote the intelligent use of her services by the people at large: and in this, perhaps, nacular. she has always differed considerably from other European churches. From the earliest periods we find injunctions imposed upon the Clergy that they should be careful to teach the people the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments in their own tongue. Thus, in A.D. 740 there was an excerpt of Egbert, Archbishop of York, to the effect, "that every priest do with great exactness instil the Lord's Prayer and Creed into the people committed to him, and shew them to endeavour after the knowledge of the whole of religion, and the practice of Christianity"." About the same time, in the southern Province, it is ordered "that they instil the Creed into them, that they may know what to believe, and what to hope for." Two centuries later there is a canon of Ælfrie, Archbishop of Canterbury, enjoining the clergy to "speak the sense of the Gospel to the people in English, and of the Pater noster, and the Creed, as oft as he can, for the inciting of the people to know their belief, and retaining their Christianity." Similar injunctions are to be found in the laws of Canute in the eleventh century, the constitutions of Archbishop Peckham in the thirteenth, and in the canons of many diocesan synods, of various dates in the medieval period. Many expositions of the Creed, Lord's Prayer, Ten Commandments, and other principal formulæ are also to be found in English, and these give testimony to the same anxious desire of the Church to make the most use possible of the language spoken by the poor of the day. Interlinear translations of some, at least, of the offices, were also provided, just as the English and Welsh Prayer Book is printed in parallel columns in modern times. But in days when books were scarce, and when few could read, little could be done towards giving to the people at large this intelligent acquaintance with the services except by oral instruction of the kind indicated. Yet the writing-rooms of the Monasteries did what they could towards multiplying books for the purpose; and some provision was made, even for the poorest, by means of Hornbooks, on which the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Angelic Salutation were written. The following The Salisbury Processional was republished in Latin some time in 1514, probably because the king would not consent to have it used in English as proposed by Cranmer. * One chief reason of this difference is doubtless to be found in the fact that the Latin language was spoken almost, if not quite, vernacularly in France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, to a late period, as it is now in Hungary: and that the modern languages of these countries were formned out of it. In England Latin was never vernacular, and it furnished only a small part of our settled xxiv is an engraving made from one of two which were found by the present writer under the floor of Over Church, near Cambridge, in 1857. It is of a late date, and has had "In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," in the place of the Angelic Salutation; but it is given as an illustration of the traditional practice, and because it is of special interest from being found in a church. While these horn-books were thus provided for the poor, the Scriptorium of the Monastery also provided Prymers in English and Latin for those who could afford the expensive luxury of a book. The Latin Prymers are well known under the name of " Books of Hours." Vernacular Prymers exist which were written as early as the fourteenth century, and many relics of old English devotion of that date will be found in the following pages of this volume. These English Prymers contained about one-third of the Psalms, the Canticles, the Apostles' Creed, with a large number of the prayers, anthems, and perhaps hymns. They continued to be published up to the end of Henry VIII.'s reign; and, in a modified form, even at a later date: and they must have familiarized those who used them with a large portion of the Services, even when they did not understand the Latin in which those services were said by the Clergy and choirs. Books were also provided in which were given tables of reference to the Lessons, Epistles, and Gospels. The following is the title of one, and a specimen of the references is annexed: "Here begynneth a rule that tellith in whiche chapitris of the bible ye may fynde the lessouns, pistlis and gospels, that ben red in the churche aftir the vse of salisburi: markid with lettris of the a. b. c. at the begynnynge of the chapitris toward the myddil or eende: aftir the ordre as the lettris stonden in the a. b. c. first ben sett sundaies and ferials togidere: and aftir that the sanctorum, the propre and comyn togider of al the yeer: and thanne last the commemoraciouns: that is clepid the temporal of al the yere. First is written a clause of the begynnynge of the pistle and gospel, and a clause of the endynge therof." "The first sonenday Į Rom. xiii. c. of aduent. J Mattheu. xxi. c. d. We known, this tyre. Such provisions for the accompaniment of the Latin Service went a good way towards rendering it intelligible to those who could read. Nor must we omit to mention the sermons for Christian Seasons, and on the elements of Christian Faith and Practice, which went under the name of the "Festivale or "Liber Festivalis." These were printed by Caxton in 1483, and often reprinted between then and the time when our present Homilies and other books of the kind were set forth'. Soon after the accession of Edward VI., which occurred in January 1546-7, a Visitation of all the Dioceses of England was commenced, and the well-known "Injunctions of Edward VI." were printed on July 31st, 1547. In May of the same year a King's letter' was sent to the Archbishops, giving notice of an intended Visitation, and in October some other Injunctions were issued by the Royal Visitors, which appear never to have been printed. They are here copied (with the exception of the last three, which have no bearing on our subject) from Fothergill's MS. Collections in York Minster Library 3. "Injunctions given by the King's Majestie's Visitors in his Highness' Visitation to Robt. Holdgate Ld. A. B. the Dn. Chapter, and all other the Ecclesiastical ministers of and in the Cathedral Church of York, 26 8bris An. 1547. [1] "Ye shall at all days and times when nine lessons ought or were accustomed to be sung, sing Mattins only of six Lessons and six Psalms with the song of Te Deum Laudamus or Miserere, as the time requireth, after the six Lessons: and that dayly from the Annunciation of our Lady to the first day of October ye shall begin Mattins at six of the clock in the morning, and residue of the year at seven of the clock. [2] "Item. Ye shall sing and celebrate in note or song within the said Church but only one Mass, that is to say, High Mass only, and none other, and daily begin the same at nine of the clock before noon. [3] "Item. Ye shall daily from the said feast of the Annunciation to the said first day of October, sing the Evensong and Complin without any responds: and begin the same at three of the clock in the afternoon. The residue of the year to begin at two of the clock, or half an hour after. [4] "Item. Ye shall hereafter omit, and not use the singing of any hours, prime, dirige, or commendations; but every man to say the same as him sufficeth or he is disposed. [5] "Item. Ye shall sing, say, use, or suffer none other Anthems in the Church but these hereafter following, and such as by the King's Majesty and his most Honourable Council hereafter shall be set forth. Anthem. "Like as Moses lift up the serpent in the wilderness, even so was our Saviour Jesus Christ lift upon the Cross, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have joy for ever. For God so loved The necessity for a vernacular Service is strongly asserted in the Preface to the edition of the Prymer [A.D. 1545] which goes by the name of "the King's," though probably the king had nothing to do with it further than signing an order for its publication. It is there declared, "The party that understandeth not the pith and effectualness of the talk that he frankly maketh with God, may be as an harp or pipe having a sound, but not understanding the noise that itself hath made;" and the king is then made to say that he has given to his subjects "a determinate form of praying in their own mother-tongue, to the intent that such as are ignorant of any strange speech, may have what to pray in their own acquainted and familiar language with fruit and un lerstanding." But the credit thus given to the king was gen in the adulatory spirit of the age. Such books had long been provided for the laity by the Clergy, but they were now to be issued under royal authority: and it would have been more honest to have said how the case really stood. After his condemnation, Archbishop Cranmer wrote, in a letter to Queen Mary, that the Revision Committee, though composed of men who held different opinions, "agreed without controversy (not one saying contrary) that the Service of the Church ought to be in the mother tongue." Ridley also writes to his chaplain that he had conferred with many on the subject, and "never found man (so far as I do remember), neither old nor new, gospeller nor papist, of what judgment soever he was, in this thing to be of a contrary opinion." the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that such as believe in Him should not perish, but have life everlasting. "V. Increase, O Lord, our faith in Thee. Collect. "Most bountiful and benign Lord God, we, Thy humble servants, freely redeemed and justified by the passion, death, and resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ, in full trust of salvation therein, most humbly desire Thee so to strengthen our faith and illuminate us with Thy grace, that we may walk and live in Thy favour, and after this life to be partakers of Thy glory in the everlasting kingdom of Heaven, through our Lord Jesus Christ. So be it. Another Anthem. "Be it evident and known unto all Christians that through our Lord Jesus Christ forgiveness of sins is preached unto you, and that by Him all that believe are justified from all things from the which we could not be justified by the law of Moses. So be it. "V. O Lord, for Christ's sake our Saviour. "R. Accept and hear our humble prayer. Let us pray. "We sinners do beseech Thee, O Lord, to keep Edward the sixth, Thy Servant, our King and Governor; that it may please Thee to rule his heart in Thy faith, fear, and love; that he may ever have affiance in Thee, and ever seek Thy honour and glory. That it may please Thee to be his defender and keeper, giving him the victory over all his enemies, through our Lord Jesus Christ. So be it. "The residue of the day ye shall bestow in virtuous and godly exercises, as in study and contemplation of God His most holy word. "All which and singular Injunctions before mentioned the Lord Archbishop of this Church, his Chancellor, Archdeacons, or Official, shall publish and send, or cause to be published and sent and observed in to every Church, College, Hospital, and other ecclesiastical places within his Diocese. [6] "Item. All Sermons, Collations, and Lectures of Divinity hereafter to be had or made in visitations, Synods, Chapters, or at any other time or place, shall not be used in the Latin Tongue, but in the English, to the intent that every man having recourse thereunto may well perceive the same." These remarkable Injunctions have quite the appearance of taking up the reform of the Liturgy exactly where it had been laid down through the refusal of Henry VIII. to sanction the English Processional: for what are here called "Anthems" are exactly similar in character to those parts of the Service which were printed for each Festival in the Latin Processional of Salisbury, the variable part of the Litany, by which it was adapted to the different seasons of the Christian year. They were also used in the "Hours," and seem to show the original form of the "Anthem "." But all sound reasons for offering up the praises and prayers of the Church in Latin had really passed away many years before this. The reverent prejudices which had still held men to the old habit were also dying off; and the time had arrived when the English language could with wisdom be wholly adopted by the English Church in her work of Divine Service. The books out of No records have yet been discovered which throw any light upon the details of which the Prayer the Committee's work in producing the Prayer Book of 1549. It appears to have Book was formed. occupied them for several months, notwithstanding their previous labours; and there is every mark of deliberation and reverence in the result. The foundation of their work, or rather the quarry out of which they extracted their chief materials, was the Reformed Salisbury Use of 1516 and 1541 but some other books were evidently used by them, and it may be safely concluded that they did not end their labours before they had gone through a large amount of liturgical research. The 1 See also the Easter Processional Anthem at p. 105. following list may be taken as fairly representing the principal books which the Committee of Convocation had before them as the materials for their work of revision :: The Salisbury Portiforium', Missal, Manual, and Pontifical. The York and other Uses'. The Reformed Breviary of Cardinal Quignonez. 1535-63. Simplex ac Pia Deliberatio of Hermann, Archbishop of Cologne. 1545. The same in English. 1548. (A previous edition also in 1547.) The Prymer in English, of various dates". The "Great" Bible". How far the Book of Common Prayer was influenced by these works will be shown in the margin and the foot-notes of the following pages. But even a superficial glance at the latter will make it apparent that the new book was, substantially, as it still remains, a condensed reproduction, in English, of those Service-books which had been used in Latin by the Church of England for many centuries before. The Reformation in Germany was in active progress at this time (not having yet lost the impetus given to it by the strong-handed leadership of Luther), and Cranmer had been much in correspondence with Melancthon and some other German divines during the reign of Henry VIII. But these foreign reformers had scarcely any influence upon the Prayer Book of 1549; and were probably not even consulted during its progress towards completion. Melancthon and Bucer assisted the Archbishop of Cologne in preparing his "Consultation" (one of the books referred to), and they probably used Luther's version of the ancient Nuremberg offices. But this volume contributed little to our Prayer Book beyond a few clauses in the Litany, and some portions of the Baptismal Service; and it is somewhat doubtful whether in the case of the Litany our English form was not in reality the original of that in Hermann's book. Most likely the latter was translated and brought before Convocation with the hope that it would have much influence; but the Committee of Revision were too wise and too learned in Liturgical matters to attach much importance to it". It is, in some respects, unfortunate that we cannot trace the book of 1549 into any further detail during the time when it was in the hands of the Committee. We cannot even form any definite conjecture as to the parts respectively taken by its members in the work before them; nor can one of the original collects which they inserted be traced back to its author. And yet there is some satisfaction in this. The book is not identified with any one name, but is the work of the Church of England by its authorized agents and representatives; and as we reverence the architects of some great cathedral for their work's sake, without perhaps knowing the name of any one of them, or the portions which each one designed, so we look upon the work of those who gave us our first English Book of Common Prayer, 1 "Breviarium seu Portiforium secundum Morem et Consuetudinem Ecclesiæ Sarisburiensis Anglicana." It is called "Salisbury Use" in the Preface of our Prayer Book; and that term, or Sarum Use, is adopted generally for the Breviary, Missal, and other Service-books of the same origin. 66 2 Referred to in the Prayer Book Preface, as the Use of Bangor, York Use, and Lincoln Use.” Hereford Use, "Breviarium Romanum, ex sacra potissimum Scriptura, et probatis Sanctorum historiis nuper confectum, ac denuo per eundem Authorem accuratius recognitum, eaque diligentia hoc in anno a mendis ita purgatum, ut Momi judicium non pertimescat. Lugduni. 1543." "Simplex ac pia deliberatio de Reformatione Ecclesiarum Electoratus Coloniensis." "A simple and religious consultation of us Hermann by the grace of God Archbishop of Colone and Prince Elector, &c., by what meanes a Christian reformation, and founded in God's worde, Of doctrine, Administration of Divine Sacraments, Of Ceremonies, and the whole cure of soules, and other ecclesiastical ministries, may be begun among men until the lord graunte a better to be appoynted, either by a free and christian counsaile, generall or national, or else by the states of the Empire of the nation of Germany, gathered together in the Holy Ghost. Perused by the translator thereof and amended in many places. 1548. Imprinted at London by Jhon Daye and William Seres dwellynge in Sepulchre's paryshe at the signe of the Resurrection, alytle aboue Holbourne Conduit. Cum gratia et privilegio imprimendum solum." 6 See Maskell's " Monumenta Ritualia Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ," vol. ii.; and Burton's "Three Primers of Henry VIII." "The Byble in Englyshe, that is to saye, the content of all the holy scripture bothe of ye olde and newe testament, truly translated after the veryte of the Hebrue and Greke textes, by ye dylygent studye of diverse excellent learned men, expert in the forsayde tonges. Printed by Rychard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch. Cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum. 1539." 8 It may be added that Cranmer had married a niece of Osiander, who is said to have prepared the Nuremberg formularies for Luther, and who was also the original compiler of a Catechism for Nuremberg and Brandenberg, of which that of Justus Jonas is a Latin translation. John à Lasco is said to have had some influence with Cranmer, and he certainly lived with the Archbishop at Lambeth from September to February in the year 1548-9. But the Prayer Book was before Parliament on Decem. ber 9th, 1548-9, and was before the King in Council previously. It passed the Lords on January 15th, and the Commons on the 21st. Foreigners were very forward in interfering, but their suggestions were civilly put aside at this time. |