Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/735

LITURGY 711 It has not been ascertained that this Prayer Book ever received the sanction of Convocation, and it probably never came into complete use. Such use was in any case short-lived, for Edward VI. died on July 6, 1553, and the English Prayer Book was abolished and the Latin missal restored to use by one of the first Acts of Queen Mary, in October 1553. Queen Mary died on November 17, 1558, and another complete change of policy took place. The reformed Prayer Book was brought into use again on June 24, 1559, not in the exact shape which it bore in 1552, but with various modifications, which we forbear to enumerate in detail. It may be said of them, as of the various alterations introduced subsequently into the Prayer Book, that their general tendency was conservative rather than destructive, and in a Catholic rather than in a Protestant direction. The next important revisions of the Prayer Book took place in 1604, under James I., after the Hampton Court Conference, and in 1661-62, after the restoration of Charles II. The Book of Common Prayer had been abolished under the Commonwealth, and it could only be used under the risk of heavy penalties from 1645 to 1661. It was now restored with a considerable number of additions and alterations, after having been discussed without any satisfactory result between churchmen and Puritans at the Savoy conference in 1661. When these had received the sanction of the Convocations of Canterbury and York, it was attached to an Act of Uniformity which received the royal assent on May 19, 1662, by the pro visions of which Act it came into general use on St Bartholomew s Day, August 24, 1662. Since that date, although various slight changes have been made in recent years, nothing has been done amounting to a revision or new edition of the Prayer Book, or demanding notice in these columns. A few words are added about other national versions of the reformed liturgy. The Liturgy of the Scottish Episcopal Church. This liturgy in nearly its present form was compiled by Scottish bishops in 1636, and imposed, or, to speak more accurately, attempted to be imposed upon the Scottish people by the royal authority of Charles I. in 1637. The prelates chiefly concerned in it were Spottiswood, bishop of Glasgow; Maxwell, bishop of Ross; Wedderburn, bishop of Dunblane; and Forbes, bishop of Edinburgh. Their work was approved and revised by certain members of the English episcopate, especially Laud, archbishop of Canterbury; Juxon, bishop of London; and Wren, bishop of Norwich. This liturgy has met with varied fortune, and passed through several editions. It is now used as an alternative form with the English communion office in the Scottish Episcopal Church. Among its more noteworthy features are (a) the retention in its integrity and in its primitive position after the words of institu tion, of the invocation of the Holy Spirit j 1 (b) the reservation of the sacrament is permitted for the purpose of communicating the absent or the sick ; (c) the mixed chalice is explicitly ordered ; (d) the minimum number of communicants is fixed at one or two, in stead of three or four. The general arrangement of the parts ap proximates more closely to the First Prayer Book of Edward VI. than to the present Anglican Book of Common Prayer. The American Liturgy. The Prayer Book of the " Pro testant Episcopal Church " in America was adopted by the General Convention of the American Church held in 1789. It is substantially the same as the English Book of Common Prayer, but among the more important variations we may 1 The present clause runs thus: " And we most humbly beseech thee merciful Father to hear us, and of Thy almighty goodness vouchsafe to bless and sanctify with Thy word and Holy Spirit these and Thy gifts and creatures of Bread and Wine, that they may become the Body and Blood of Thy most dearly-beloved Son." This petition is found iu the Eastern but not in the Roman or Anglican liturgies. name the following : (a) the arrangement and wording of the communion office rather resembles that of the Scottish than of the Anglican liturgy, especially in the position of the oblation and invocation immediately after the words of institution; (b) the Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis, and Athauasian creed are disused ; (c) ten selections of psalms are appointed to be used as alternatives for the psalms of the day. In addition to these there are various verbal and other unimportant alterations. The Irish Prayer Book. The Prayer Book in use in the Irish portion of the United Church of England and Ireland was the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, but after the disestablishment of the Irish Church several changes were introduced into it by a synod held in Dublin in 1870. These changes included (a) the excision of all lessons from the Apocrypha, (6) of the rubric ordering the recitation of the Athanasian creed, (c) of the rubric ordering the vestments of the second year of Edward VI. , (d) of the form of absolution in the office for the visitation of the sick, (e) the addition of one question and answer in the Church Catechism, bringing out more clearly the spiritual character of the real presence. The Presbyterian Church. The Presbyterian churches of Scotland at present possess no liturgy properly so called. Certain general rules for the conduct of divine service are contained in the "Directory for the Public Worship of God," agreed upon by the Assembly of Divines at West minster, with the assistance of commissioners from the Church of Scotland, approved and established by an Act of the General Assembly, and by an Act of Parliament, both in 1645. In 1554 John Knox had drawn up an order of liturgy, closely modelled on the Genevan pattern, for the use of the English congregation to which he was then ministering at Frankfort. On his return to Scotland this form of liturgy was adopted by an Act of the General Assembly in 1560, and became the established form of worship in the Presbyterian Church, until the year 1645, when the Directory of Public Worship took its place. Herein regulations are laid down for the conduct of public worship, for the reading of Scripture, and for extempore prayer before and after the sermon and in the adminis tration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord s supper, for the solemnization of marriage, visitation of the sick, and burial of the dead, for the observance of days of public fasting and public thanksgiving, together with a form of ordination, and a directory for family worship. In all these cases, although the general tenor of the prayer is frequently indicated, the wording of it is left to the dis cretion of the minister, with these exceptions : at the act of baptism this formula must be used "I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; " and for the Lord s Supper these forms are sug gested, but with liberty to the minister to use "other the like, used by Christ or his apostle upon this occasion : "- " According to the holy institution, command, and example of our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ, I take this bread, and, having given thanks, break it, and give it unto you. Take ye, eat ye ; this is the body of Christ which is broken for you ; do this in re membrance of him." And again ; "According to the institution, command, and example of our Lord Jesus Christ, I take this cup and give it unto you ; this cup is the New Testament in the blood of Christ, which is shed for the remission of the sins of many ; drink ye all of it." There is also an unvarying form of words directed to be used before the minister by the man to the woman and by the woman to the man in the case of the solemnization of matrimony. The form of words on all other occasions, including ordination, is left to the discretion of the officiat ing minister, or of the presbytery. Continental Protestant Churches. The Calvinistic Churches. Rather more of the liturgical element, in the shape of a set form of