Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/157

COMMON PRAYER 153 derived from the Ephesine liturgy of St. John. To this the remnant of native Christians in the west and southwest, who had escaped the fury of the Saxon invaders, clung with great te- nacity, and Augustin upon his arrival in Eng- land in 596, on his mission to convert the Saxons, found it in common use wherever Christian worship was tolerated. Being de- sirous of establishing the Roman ritual, to which the British bishops strongly objected, he applied for instructions to Pope Gregory the Great, who authorized him to choose either the Gallican or the Roman services, or selec- tions from various forms, as he might find most suitable. The result Avas a species of amalga- mation of liturgies. Different dioceses or dis- tricts adopted different modifications of the forms of public worship, in all of which, how- ever, the influence of the early English liturgy was more or less perceptible. After the Nor- man conquest a vigorous effort was made to secure uniformity in the performance of divine service, and about 1085 Osmond, bishop of Salis- bury, compiled the "Sarum Use," or prayer book of the diocese of Salisbury, which even- tually became the principal devotional rule of the Anglican church for nearly four centuries and a half. Other local uses, however, pre- vailed, such as those of Bangor, Hereford, York, and Lincoln ; and the Roman system was recognized in most of the monasteries. The service books of the several English uses were in the Latin language ; but long before the period of the reformation books of private de- votion in the vernacular, called "Prymers," had been introduced, of which three, contain- ing the Lord's prayer, the creed, the ten com- mandments, and other offices of worship, were put forth between 1535 and 1545. Early in the reign of Henry VIII. amended editions of the Salisbury breviary and missal appeared, and subsequent to 1538 many editions of the Epistles and Gospels in English were publish- ed. In 1544 the litany was translated, with the omission of the names of saints which had accumulated in the Latin litanies. These pub- lications were but the preliminary steps to ward the introduction of a reformed prayer book. In 1542 a committee of convocation was ap- pointed, with the sanction of Henry VIII., to consider what revision should be made in the existing service books. The committee sat for several years, and during the life of Henry were compelled to act with extreme caution, as the " statute of six articles," passed through his personal influence, made their labors penal. After his death in 1547 their number was enlarged, and, the obnoxious statute having been repealed, they produced at the close of the year " a form of a certain ordinance for the receiving of the body of our Lord in both kinds, viz., of bread and wine," which was ratified by parliament in March, 1548, and was authorized to be used until the whole of the projected service book should be prepared. In the following December they laid before parliament a reformed book of common prayer, which, together with an " act for uniformity of service," was adopted by that body in January, 1549, and came into general use on Whitsunday, June 9. This book, known as the first service book of Ed- ward VI., was the result of six years of dili- gent labor on the part of the revisers, who endeavored to reduce the different uses prev- alent in England to one, the reformed Salis- bury use of 1516 and 1541 forming their basis, and to make their work simple and intelligible. They translated into English from the existing service books the prayers, psalms, hymns, epistles, and gospels, omitting what appeared to them to have been derived from other sources than Scripture or primitive practice, and expunging, especially from the communion service, the prayers of invocation to the Virgin Mary and the saints. Where new elements of thought are visible, the sources which supplied them were the reformed breviary of Cardinal Quignones, recommended by Pope Paul III., and especially the " Consultation " of Her- mann, archbishop of Cologne, compiled in 1543 with the aid of Bucer and Melanchthon. To the latter formulary the baptismal office was largely indebted, and through it to one of Luther's compilations, made as early as 1523. The new book comprised the order for matins and even song, corresponding with morning prayer and evening prayer in the modernized prayer book, and which were a condensation of the " seven hours of prayer" in the brevi- ary; the introits, collects, epistles, and gos- pels used at the celebration of the holy com- munion ; the office of the communion; the litany ; the rite of baptism ; confirmation, which included the catechism; matrimony; the visitation and communion of the sick ; the burial of the dead ; the purification of women ; and a form of service for Ash Wednesday. The psalms appointed to be sung at matins and even song were taken from the " Great Eng- lish Bible " of Cranmer, and this version is used in the "Book of Common Prayer" to the present day in preference to that contained in the authorized version of the Scriptures. This service book did not require absolute uni- formity in outward observances, but allowed the practice in minor details of public wor- ship to be guided by individual tastes and preferences. But a statute passed both houses of parliament in January, 1549, enjoining un- der the severest penalties that after the feast of Pentecost following, all ministers of the church within the realm of England should be bound to use the form of the said book and no other. In 1550 a "Form for the Order- ing of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons" was drawn up, which was subsequently incorpo- rated with the prayer book. Scarcely had the new book come into use when it encoun- tered opposition from the more radical school of reformers, headed by Hooper, bishop of Gloucester, and several continental Protes-