UC-NRLF Ebb bD5 THE HISTORY OF THE PRAYER BOOK OF THE CJjurci) of SECOND EDITION. ((UNIVERSITY OXFORD, JOHN HENRY PARKER; J. G. F. AND J. RIVINGTON, LONDON. MDCCCXLI. JL OF the Prayer Book by far the greater part consists of the very words of Scripture ; as, the Psalms, the Epistles and Gospels, the scriptural Hymns, and other select passages. The remainder of it expresses the sentiments and the spirit of Scripture, generally in scriptural language 3 . It might be well if this was borne in mind by those, who disparage the Liturgy of the Church of England, and treat it with neglect, perhaps with contempt. Let such persons consider whether they do not expose themselves to the censure of the Apostle, He therefore that de- spiseth, desplseth not man, but God b . a Numerous references to Scripture are given in the margin of the Prayer Book of Bishop Mant. The pas- sages thus referred to are for the most part given at length by Veneer. Both books deserve to be consulted. 1 Thess. iv. 8. IV PREFACE. The little book which is now offered to the public has but slight pretensions to originality. It is, in great measure, a compilation from such works as ap- peared to furnish the information, which was most likely to be interesting and useful. In the early history of the Liturgy, I have been greatly indebted to that invaluable book, the " Origines Liturgicse" of Mr. Palmer. The sub- sequent history of the Prayer Book is, of course, intimately connected with the history of the Reformation of the Church of England. That history, a few years ago, was to be collected chiefly from the folios of Fuller, Hey- lin, Collier, Burnet, and Strype. Re- cently it has been brought before the public in a most acceptable manner by the learned and copious Histories of Mr. Soames ; by " the Book of the Church" of that master of the English language, Dr. Southey ; by the spirited PREFACE. " Sketch of the Reformation" by Mr. Blunt; by the very able, honest, and impartial History of the Church of England, by Dr. Short; and by the eloquent and interesting Biographies of Wickliff , Cranmer, Jewel, and Laud, by Mr. Le Bas. The present work, however, is principally extracted from the folios before alluded to. The ac- count of the Second Prayer Book of Edward the Sixth is taken, (with some abridgment,) almost verbatim, from the accurately learned Preface prefixed by Dr. Cardwell to his highly valuable publication, of " The Two Prayer Books of Edward the Sixth compared together," a book which reflects honour on his industry and research, and on the University, from whose press so many important works throwing light on the history of the Reformation have recently issued. For comments upon the several por- VI PREFACE. tions of the Prayer Book, I must refer the reader to the well-known liturgi- cal works of the pious and eloquent Comber, L'Estrange, Nichols, Wheatly, Waldo, and Shepherd 6 , and especially to the edition of the Prayer Book, published some years ago by Bishop Mant, which is enriched with notes historical, explanatory, and practical, taken from the writings of very many of our most sound and able Divines. EDWARD BERENS. September, 1839. c See also the Prayer Book with notes by the late Mr. Justice Bayley. CONTENTS. CHAP. I. Page 1. Origin of the Prayer Book of the Church of England. English Translations of the Bible. First Prayer Book of Edward VI. CHAP. II. Page 49. Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. CHAP. III. Page 69. The Prayer Book under Queen Mary. Troubles at Frankfort. CHAP. IV. Page 81. The Prayer Book under Queen Elizabeth. Act of Supremacy. High Commission Court. Public Disputation in West- minster Abbey. The English Prayer Book restored. Sunday Proper Lessons. Bishops' Bible. CHAP. V. Page 129. The Prayer Book under James I. Hampton Court Con- ference. Translation of the Bible. Death of Whitgift. Canons of 1603. Vlll CONTENTS. CHAP. VI. Page 172. Prayer Book under Charles the First. Death of Archbishop Abbot, and appointment of Laud. Scotch Prayer Book. Long Parliament. Assembly of Divines. The Directory. Prayer Book abolished by Parliament. Attainder and Death of Laud. Persecution of the Church of England. CHAP. VII. Page 209. Prayer Book under Charles the Second. Savoy Conference. Convocation. Final establishment of the Prayer Book. THE OF THE PRAYER BOOK, 4-c. 4-c. CHAP. I. Origin of the Prayer Book of the Church of England. English Translations of the Bible. First Prayer Book of Edward VI. THE wise and pious men who, towards the middle of the sixteenth century, engaged in the work of freeing the Church of England from the blemishes and imperfections, which had crept in during the darkness of the middle ages, were obliged to proceed with wary and hesitating steps during the reign of the despotic and capricious Henry. Attached by early education and habit to most of the peculiar doctrines of Romanism, his personal vanity was enlisted in the same cause, by B L ORIGIN OF THE PRAYER BOOK the praises, which, from almost all parts of Europe, had been lavished upon his book against Luther in defence of the Seven Sacraments maintained by the Church of Rome, for which book he received from the Pope .the title of " Defender of the Faith." Henry's 'natural abilities were good, his 'ittrtinmeuts as a scholar and a theologian were by no means inconsiderable, and his exaggerated notions of his prerogative as King, concurred with his confidence in his own intellectual powers in rendering him little disposed to brook any opposition to his will. In the early part of his reign there was in his character much that was generous and amiable ; but towards the close of it, when his temper was soured by the disap- pointment of his hopes of happiness from marriage, by the attempts of the Court of Rome to incite his subjects to sedition and rebellion, by the practices of its emissaries, and at length by disease, he degenerated into a sanguinary tyrant. Protestants and Papists were in almost equal danger. On OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 3 the one hand, Sir Thomas More, and Fisher Bishop of Rochester, two of the most learned, honest, and pious men in the kingdom a , were brought to the scaffold for denying the King's ecclesiastical supremacy; and, on the other, Bilney and Frith, and the noble-minded Anne Askew, together with many other con- scientious and single-hearted persons, were consigned to the flames for not admitting that the actual body of Christ was present in the Holy Eucharist. In one instance, on the very same day that three Protestant Clergymen, Barnes, Gerrard, and Jerom, were burnt in Smithfield for combating the tenets of the Church of Rome ; Abel, Fether- stone, and Powel, three zealous Romanists, were executed as traitors, for denying the King's supremacy b . Henry the Eighth died the 28th of Ja- nuary, 1547, and the accession of his son Edward the Sixth gave fresh hopes and a Both Fisher and More, however, persecuted to the death those whom they called heretics. b Collier, ii. p. 182. B2 ORIGIN OF THE PRAYER BOOK encouragement to the advocates of the Re- formation. Edward was affectionately at- tached to Cranmer, who had been one of his sponsors at the baptismal font; and his education had been entrusted to Dr. Richard Cox, one of the ablest and most learned supporters of unadulterated religion. The deceased King left a will, which was drawn up about two years previously, but by his direction transcribed, signed, and attested, about a month before his death. In this will c Henry appointed Cranmer together with fifteen persons of rank, most of them high officers of state, to be his executors. Among these, the Earl of Hertford was elected, and forthwith proclaimed, Pro- tector of the Realm, and Governor of the King's person until he should complete the e The will begins thus, " In the name of God, and of the glorious and blessed Virgin, our Lady St. Mary, and of all the holy company of Heaven." It requires the Dean and Canons of Windsor " to keep yearly four solemn obits" for the deceased monarch, and then in the same clause goes on to establish the Poor Knights of Windsor. OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 5 age of eighteen years. For this office he was deemed most fit, as being the King's uncle by the mother's side, very near to him in blood, but yet not in any degree capable of succeeding to the Crown. In about a fortnight after his appointment to this dig- nity he was created Duke of Somerset 11 . The Protector was well disposed to further the work of reformation ; and under his auspices it made rapid progress, though no step was taken precipitately, or without much consideration. One of the first objects of Cranmer and his fellow-labourers was to enable the people of this land to join in the public worship of the Church, both with the spirit and the understanding, by having that worship celebrated in their own language. They justly argued, that " it was a thing plainly repugnant to the word of God, and the custom of the Primitive Church, to have Public Prayer in the Church, or to minister the Sacraments, in a tongue not under- u Hayward's History of Edward VI. 6 ORIGIN OF THE PRAYER BOOK standed of the people." The several separate books, however, for the Public Offices of the Church, the Missal or Mass Book, the Breviary, and the Ritual , were at that time all in Latin. These books were not only in Latin, but also, though in substance they contained much that was primitive and excellent and well calculated for the purposes of devotion, yet many later ad- ditions had been made to them strongly tainted, in the judgment of our reformers, with superstition and error. Accordingly, in the first year of Edward's reign, the Convocation enquired into the progress e These books were in separate volumes. The Missal or Mass Book was for the most part very ancient, and furnished the groundwork of our present Office for the Holy Communion. The Breviary, which in some degree answers to our present Morning and Evening Service, seems to have had its name from its being formed out of the several Service Books, the Antiphonarium, the Hymnarium. the Collectarium, &c. &c. &c. used in the Latin Church. For the Latin Ritual were substituted our Offices for Baptism, Confirmation, Matrimony, Visitation of the Sick, and Burial of the Dead. OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 7 which had been made, at their desire, in examining, reforming, and publishing the divine service ; and in the following year, the King appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury, with other learned and devout Bishops and Divines, to draw an order for divine worship, having respect to the pure religion of Christ taught in the Scripture, and to the practice of the Primitive Church f . With Cranmer were associated Ridley and five other Bishops, and also six distinguished divines, one of whom was Cox, Almoner and Preceptor to the King, and Dean of West- minster, and Christ Church Oxford g . The Prayer Book was probably compiled by only a few of the Commissioners, particularly Cranmer and Ridley ; discussed and assented f Cardwell from Strype. Fuller and Strype. Burnet gives a different list. It is not improbable that the larger number was appointed in the first instance, in the year 1547, when the Order for the Communion was to be drawn up, and was afterwards reduced to the commission mentioned by Strype, when the object was to compose a Book of Common Prayer. Cardwell. ORIGIN OF THE PRAYER BOOK to by others ; and, when enacted, protested against by three of the Bishops, Day, Skyp, and Thirlby h . In entering upon this important under- taking, Cranmer and his associates proceeded with that wisdom and prudence which cha- racterized all their proceedings. Their object was not to innovate, but rather to prune away and remove innovations. It was their wish, according to their commission, to retain Whatever was sanctioned by Scripture, and by primitive usage, and to reject nothing but what savoured of superstition, or tended to encourage erroneous views, either of doctrine or of religious worship. Nothing was farther from their thoughts than the pre- sumptuous notion of composing an entirely new form for public devotion. They adopted in great measure the formularies, which had long been established in the country, and sanctioned by general use, merely freeing them from the blemishes which had adhered to them during a period of ignorance and i> Ridley's Life of Ridley. OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 9 superstition, and making such scriptural additions as they appeared to require. It seems to have been often assumed by learned men, that there was originally some one Apostolic form of Liturgy' 1 in the Christian Church, to which all the monu- ments of ancient liturgies, and the notices which the Fathers supply, might be reduced. But the truth is, there are several different forms of Liturgy now in existence, which, as far as we can perceive, have been different from each other from the most remote period. The Oriental Liturgy was esta- blished, as its name imports, in the Eastern parts of Christendom ; the Alexandrian was used in Egypt, Abyssinia, and the country extending along the Mediterranean towards the West ; the Roman prevailed throughout Italy, Sicily, and the civil diocese of Africa ; and the Galilean Liturgy was adopted 1 Palmer's Origines Liturgicse. N.B. Mr. Palmer uses the word " Liturgy" in the restricted sense, as denoting the service used in the celebration of the Eucharist. B3 10 ORIGIN OF THE PRAYER BOOK throughout Gaul and Spain k . A sub- stantial uniformity appears to have pervaded them all, though this uniformity did not preclude some degree of variation. The Bishop of each Church seems to have pos- sessed the authority of altering his own Liturgy by the addition of new ideas and rites ; and the exercise of this power, either individually or collectively, accounts for the variations which we find in the Liturgies now extant, originally derived from the same general model. It is clear from the testimony of ancient writers, that the religion of Christ had been preached in the British isles, and many con- verts made, at a very early period. In the fifth century, Christianity seems to have been generally embraced throughout Eng- land. When, in the year 429, Germanus Bishop of Auxerre 1 , and Lupus Bishop of Troyes, were sent into this country to arrest the progress of Pelagianism, they are said k Palmer. 1 Collier, vol. i. p. 43, and 48. OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 11 to have brought with them the Galilean Liturgy, which differed materially from that in use at Rome, and was similar to, or rather identical with, the Spanish or Moza- rabic m Liturgy, which had long been adopted in Spain". This fact, however, appears not to be clearly established. Towards the end of the following century, the Saxons by repeated victories had obtained possession of nearly the whole of England. As their conquests extended, they established their own heathenism, demolished the Christian m Mozarabic ; so called by a wrong pronunciation of mixt Arabic, the Saracenic or Arab conquerors of Spain being mixed and incorporated with the original inhabitants. That excellent man and able minister, Cardinal Ximenes, took effectual care to preserve the Mozarabic rites. He ordered the Missal to be fairly transcribed, and founded a College of Priests, who axe bound by their constitution to say the Mozarabic service every day in a Chapel belonging to the Cathedral at Toledo. The same practice was continued in several parishes in that city, and in a Chapel at Salamanca. Collier, ii. 253. " See that excellent and most learned book, Palmer's Origines Liturgicae, vol. i. p. 8, and 166. 12 ORIGIN OF THE PRAYER BOOK Churches, and suppressed the true worship as far as their dominions reached. Paganism became the prevailing religion, and the Church of Christ was no where visible to any degree, excepting in Wales, Cornwall, and Cumberland, where the Saxons had been unable to penetrate . It was this depressed state of the Church, which induced Gregory the Great, in the year 596, to send Augustine the Monk into England, to attempt the conversion of its Saxon conquerors. In the year after his arrival, having made considerable progress in the great work on which he was sent, and having been himself consecrated at Aries as Metropolitan of the English nation, Augustine dispatched messengers to Rome to announce his success, and to request the Pope's resolution of several questions. One of these questions was, that since there was such a diversity between the offices of the Roman and Gallican Churches, he desired to know which he should follow ? Collier, vol. i. c. 61,62. OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 13 Gregory's answer was, that he should choose that which was most proper for the English Church P. One of the highest authorities on this subject, however, says, " There can be no doubt that Augustine and his com- panions carried with them the Sacramentary of Gregory, by whom they were sent. In fact, the liturgical books of the Anglo-Saxon Church in subsequent times were nothing else but transcripts of that Sacramentary. As, however, each Bishop had the power of making some alterations in the Liturgy of his Church, in process of time different customs arose, and several became so esta- blished, as to receive the names of their respective Churches. Thus gradually the " uses" or customs of York, Sarum, Hereford, Bangor, Lincoln, Aberdeen, &c. came to be distinguished from each other q . The Missals and other ritual books of York and Hereford have been printed. The "use" or custom of Sarum derives its 11 Collier, i. p. 48. 1 Palmer, vol. i. 14 ORIGIN OF THE PRAYER BOOK origin from Osmund, Bishop of that see in 1078, and Chancellor of England. Of Osmund we are informed that he built a new cathedral ; collected together clergy, distinguished as well for learning as for a knowledge of chanting; and composed a book for the regulation of ecclesiastical offices, which was entitled the " Custom book." The substance of this was pro- bably incorporated into the Missal, and other ritual books of Sarum ; and ere long almost the whole of England, Wales, and Ireland adopted it r . The other Missals and Rituals used in England differed from it very little. Nearly at the same time that Osmund established in his diocese, and ultimately in the greciter part of England, his book of Divine Offices, the arrogant and imperious Hildebrand 8 determined that the Liturgy of the Universal Church should be performed in Latin only. For seven or eight hundred ' Palmer, vol. i. p. 186, 7. Pope Gregory VII. OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 15 years' the Service of the ancient Church was, generally speaking, performed in the vernacular or common language of every country". How it happened, that a custom so contrary to reason and common sense as that of celebrating the public Service in a language not " understanded of the people" should have prevailed, and should still prevail, so extensively in Europe, it may be expedient to explain. The conquering arms of the Romans had introduced their language very generally into the countries of Western Europe and of 'the north of Africa. In these countries Latin, being generally spoken by the more educated classes, became the language of their lite- rature, of their courts of law, and of religion. The use of Latin, however, as in some sort the vulgar tongue, which had prevailed throughout the countries alluded to, gradually / I Bingham says 1000. II This assertion is supported, says Heylin, (Hist. Ref. p. 66.) by Lyra and Aquinas, two as great clerks as any in the Church of Rome. See 1 Cor. xiv. 9, 16. 16 ORIGIN OF THE PRAYER BOOK ceased in several of them during the course of the ninth century; and the language of the' first conquerors was insensibly cor- rupted or superseded by the barbarous jargon of their more recent invaders. Latin thus became a subject of study, and all knowledge of it was presently confined to the priesthood and men of learning. It seems clear, however, that in France as well as in Italy, the Services of the Church continued to be performed entirely in Latin, and even that Sermons were for some time delivered in that tongue to an audience most imperfectly acquainted with it. But in Spain, the Gothic ritual had supplanted the Roman, if indeed the Roman had at any time been received in Spain, and at the middle of the eleventh century it was universally prevalent in that Church. Soon after that time, by the united influence (as is said) of Richard the papal legate, and Constance queen of Leon, Alfonso, the sixth of Leon and the first of Castile, was persuaded to propose the introduction of OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 17 the Roman Liturgy. The nobility, and the people, and even the majority of the clergy, warmly supported the established form; and after some heats had been excited on both sides, a day was finally appointed to decide on the perfections of the rival Rituals. To this effect, recourse was had, according to the customs x)f those days, to the " judg- ment of God," and the trial, to which they were first submitted, was that by combat. Two knights contended, in the presence of a vast assembly, and the Gothic champion prevailed. The King, dissatisfied with this result, subjected the Rituals to a second proof, which they were qualified to sustain in their own persons, the trial by fire. The Gothic Liturgy, says the old Spanish his- torian from whom the story is taken, resisted the flames and was taken out unhurt, while the Roman yielded and was consumed. The triumph of the former appeared now to be complete, when it was discovered that the ashes of the latter had curled to the top of the flames, and leaped out of them* 18 ORIGIN OF THE PRAYER BOOK By this strange phenomenon the scales were again turned, or at least the victory was held to be so doubtful, that the King, to preserve a shew of impartiality, established the use of both Liturgies. It then became very easy, by an exclusive encouragement of the Roman, effectually, though gradually, to banish its competitor 31 . It is probable, that in England all the Offices of the Church were performed gene- rally in Latin, some time before the Norman conquest. And not only were the public Offices of the Church performed in Latin, but the Latin translation of the Holy Scriptures, commonly called the Vulgate, was the only translation which was permitted to be in common use. At the commencement of the Christian asra, the Latin was generally supplanting the Greek as a general language, and it x Waddington's History of the Church, vol. ii. p. 97. (from M'Crie.) A narrative substantially the same, but differing in a few minute particulars, is given by Robinson , Charles V. vol. i. note xxii. OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 19 soon might be called the language of the Western Church. From the testimony of Augustine, it appears that the Latin Church possessed a Very great number of versions of the Scriptures, made at the first intro- duction of Christianity, the authors of which were unknown. One of these Latin trans- lations appeared to have acquired a more extensive circulation than the others, under the name of the Old Italic. Towards the close of the fourth century, Jerome, who had previously engaged in a review of the Old Italic version, translated the Old Testa- ment from the Hebrew into Latin. This version, which surpasses all former ones, at length acquired so great authority from the approbation it received from Pope Gregory I. that ever since the seventh century it has been exclusively adopted by the Roman Catholic Church, under the name of the Vulgate version : and a decree of the Coun- cil of Trent, in the sixteenth century, com- manded that the Vulgate alone should be used, whenever the Bible is publicly read, 20 ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS and in all sermons, expositions, and disputa- tions ; and pronounced it to be authentic y . As by far the greater part of our Common Prayer Book consists of the very words of Scripture, and the whole of it is founded upon Scripture, it may be expedient here to men- tion what steps were taken for the purpose of enabling the people of this land to read the Bible in their own language. It was a distinguishing maxim with the Reformers, that the Scriptures were the great repository, the storehouse, of religious truth, and that all doctrines essential to salvation were to be deduced from the Bible, and to be supported by its authority. It was always, therefore, their anxious wish that the people at large should have the power of reading and consulting the Scriptures in their ver- nacular or common tongue. With this view the Bible had been translated into English by Wickliffe, about the year 1380. This version was made from the Vulgate, the Latin translation in common use ; * Hartvvell Home, vol. ii. OF THE BIBLE. 21 Wickliffe not being sufficiently acquainted with the Hebrew and Greek languages to translate from the originals. Before the invention of printing, transcripts were ob- tained with difficulty, and copies were so rare, that in 1429 the price of one of Wickliffe's Testaments was not less than four marks and forty pence, or two pounds sixteen shillings and eight pence, a sum equivalent to more than forty pounds 2 at present. This translation was very instru- mental in preparing the people for the re- formation of the Church of England, which was carried into effect about one hundred and fifty years afterwards. For the first printed English version of the Scriptures, we are indebted to William Tindal, who, having formed the design of translating the New Testament from the original Greek into English, removed to Antwerp for the purpose. Here, with the assistance of the learned John Fry or Fryth, who was burnt on a charge of heresy in z Hart well Home, vo!. ii. p. 234. 22 ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS Smithfield in 1552, and a Friar called William Roye, who suffered death on the same account in Portugal, he finished it, and in the year 1526 it was printed, without a name, either at Antwerp or Hamburgh. Many copies of this translation found their way into England ; and to prevent their dispersion among the people, and the more effectually to enforce the prohibition pub- lished in all dioceses against reading them, Tonstal, Bishop of London, purchased all the remaining copies of this edition, and all which he could collect from private hands, and committed them to the flames at St. Paul's Cross. The first impression of TindaPs translation being thus disposed of, several other numerous editions were published in Holland, before the year 1530. These found a ready sale, but those which were imported into England were ordered to be burned. On one of these occasions, Sir Thomas More, who was then Chancellor, and who concurred with the Bishop in the execution of this measure, enquired of a person who OF THE BIBLE. 23 stood accused of heresy, and to whom he promised indemnity on consideration of an explicit and satisfactory answer, " How Tindal subsisted abroad, and who were the persons in London that abetted and supported him?" To which enquiry the heretical convert replied, " It was the Bishop of London who maintained him, by sending a sum of money to buy up the impressions of his Testament." The Chancellor smiled, admitted the truth of the declaration, and suffered the accused person to escape. The people formed a very unfavourable opinion of those, who ordered the word of God to be burned, and concluded, that there must be an obvious repugnance between the New Testament, and the doctrine of those who treated it with this indignity. Those who were sus- pected of importing and concealing any of these books, were adjudged by Sir Thomas More, in the Court of Star Chamber, to ride with their faces to the tails of their horses, with paper on their heads, and the New Testaments and other books which 24 ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS they had dispersed hung about their cloaks, and at the Standard in Cheapside to throw them into a fire prepared for that purpose, and to be fined at the King's pleasure V In the mean time Tindal was busily em- ployed in translating into English the five Books of Moses, in which he was assisted by Miles Coverdale. He afterwards trans- lated the rest of the historical books of the Old Testament, and the prophet Jonas. Upon his return to Antwerp, in 1531, King Henry VIII. and his Council contrived means to have him seized and imprisoned. After long imprisonment, he was condemned to death by the Emperor's decree in an assembly at Augsburgh; and in 1536, he was strangled at Villefort, near Brussels, the place of his imprisonment, after which his body was reduced to ashes. He ex- pired, praying repeatedly and earnestly, " Lord, open the King of England's eyes." Several editions of his Testament were printed in the year of his death. Tindal " Hart well Home. OF THE BIBLE. 25 had little or no skill in Hebrew, and there- fore he probably translated the Old Testa- ment from the Latin h . In 1535, the whole Bible, translated into English, was printed in folio, and dedicated to the King by Miles Coverdale, a mai/ greatly esteemed for his piety, knowledge of the Scriptures, and diligent preaching ; on account of which qualities, King Edward VI. advanced him to the see of Exeter. Soon after this Bible was finished, in 1536, Lord Cromwell, Keeper of the Privy Seal, and the King's Vicar-general and vicegerent in ecclesiastical matters, published Injunctions to the Clergy by the King's authority, the Seventh of which was, that " every parson, or proprietary of any parish-church within this realm, should, before the first of August, provide a book of the whole Bible,, both in Latin and in English, and lay it in the choir, for every man that would to look and read therein." In 1537, another edition of the English b Hartwell Home's Introduction to the Scriptures. C 26 ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS Bible was printed by Grafton and Whit- church in Germany. It bore the name of Thomas Matthewe, and it was set forth with the King's most gracious licence. The name of Matthewe is allowed to have been fictitious, for reasons of prudence. It may well be admitted, that John Rogers, a learned academic, and the first who was condemned to the flames in the reign of Queen Mary, was employed by Archbishop Cranmer to superintend this edition, and to furnish the few emendations and additions that were thought necessary. " It was wonderful," says Strype the eccle- siastical historian, " it was wonderful to see with what joy this book was received, not only among the more learned, and those who were noted lovers of the Reforma- tion, but generally all over England, among all the common people ; and with what avidity God's word was read, and what resort there was to the places appointed for reading it. Every one that could, bought the book, and busily read it or heard it OF THE BIBLE. 27 read, and many elderly persons learned to read on purpose." In 1538, it was resolved to revise Mat- thewe's Bible, and to print a correct edition of it. With this view Grafton went to France, where the workmen were more skilful, and the paper was both better and cheaper than in England, and obtained permission from Francis I. at the request of King Henry VIII. to print his Bible at Paris. But notwithstanding the royal licence, the inquisitors interposed, and the impression consisting of 2500 copies was seized, and condemned to the flames. Some chests, however, of their books, escaped the fire, being kept for the purpose of being sold as waste paper, and the English pro- prietors, who had fled on the first alarm, returned to Paris as soon as it subsided, and not only recovered some of these copies, but brought with them to London the presses, types, and printers, and renew- ing the work, finished it in the following year. In April, 1539, Grafton and Whit- c2 28 HENRY THE EIGHTH'S PRIMER. church printed the Bible, called the " Great Bible/' in large folio. This impression for the large Volume was revised by Cover dale, who compared the translation with the original, and corrected several places. And now, to make it less offensive, the notes were omitted, and a Preface of Cranmer's added, which is probably the reason of its being called Cranmer's Bible c . This appears to be the edition, from which the Psalms, and the Epistles and Gospels, in Edward the Sixth's Liturgy were taken. Some advances towards allowing the use of the English language in the public service, were made by the publication of Henry the Eighth's Primer, 1545. In the Preface the King says, " We have set out and given to our subjects a determinate form of praying in their own mother tongue, to the intent that such as are ignorant of any strange or foreign speech, may have what to pray in their own acquainted and familiar language, &c." And again, " We have judged it to c Collier, vol. ii. 183. HENRY THE EIGHTH'S PRIMER. 29 be of no small force, for the avoiding of strife and contention, to have one uniform manner or course of praying throughout all our do- minions." This Primer contains, in English, the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Com- mandments, together with Prayers, Suffrages, Hymns, and select passages of Scripture, for morning and evening devotion. It gives also, in English, the Litany, nearly the same with that which we now use, to be said alter- nately by the Priest and people. Towards the end are several excellent prayers, (for the most part taken from the Scriptures, and from the books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus,) on particular occasions, for particular graces and blessings, and against particular sins. And together with these are given, " A fruitful prayer to be used at all times," " A devout prayer unto Jesu Christ, called O bone Jesu," " A prayer to be said at the hour of death," and " A general confession of sins unto God." These prayers, however, are all evidently intended for private devotion, not for congregational or public worship d . d See " The Three Primers put forth in the Reign of 30 FIRST PRAYER BOOK As the holy Eucharist had, through the perverseness of man, been unhappily made the occasion of the fiercest dissension, and as resistance to the doctrine of the Church of Rome respecting this Sacrament, had, during the late reign, brought so many persons of both sexes to the stake, it was an object of primary importance, to set the minds of the people at rest upon this im- portant subject, as soon as possible. In the first year of the reign of Edward, the Con- vocation having unanimously approved of the measure, an Act of Parliament was passed, (Dec. 1547,) converting the mass* into a communion, and requiring that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper should be delivered to the people, and under both kinds c . Henry VIII." printed at Oxford in 1834, under the superintendence of the excellent and deeply-learned Dr. Burton. 5 Cardwell. c The word mass is now generally applied to the Lord's Supper, as administered by the Church of Rome, but, it should seem, most erroneously, if the origin and meaning of the term be taken into the account. The word is the same with the ancient Latin term missa, which OF EDWARD THE SIXTH. 31 In furtherance of this object, a Commission was about the same time issued to Cranmer, and the other divines above alluded to, requiring them to prepare an Office for the Holy Communion. Within four months afterwards, on the 8th of March, 1548, the Office was completed d ; but still a con- siderable portion of it continued to be read in Latin 6 , in compliance with the prejudices of the Romanists. It was forthwith pub- lished, with the King's Proclamation enjoin- ing the use of it, and advising men " to was a general name for every part of divine service. One of the most learned liturgical writers of the Roman Church* judiciously remarks, that the word missa has at least three significations. It sometimes signifies the lessons, sometimes the collects or prayers, and some- times the dismission of the people. Indeed the third reason is the original meaning of the word; for missa is [the same as missio. It was the form used in the Latin Church, Ite, missa est, the solemn words used at the dismission, of the Catechumens first, and then, of the whole assembly afterwards, at the end of their respective services. Bingham, book xiii. chap. 1. d Cardwell from Strype. e Collier. * Mabillon. 32 FIRST PRAYER BOOK content themselves with following authority, and not to run before it ; lest by their rash- ness they should become the greatest hin- derers of such things, as they, more arro- gantly than godly, would seem, by their own private authority, most hotly to set forward f ." It appears that a new Commission was now addressed to the same divines (the Commissioners formerly mentioned), direct- ing them to prepare a complete collection of divine Offices for public worship. This Commission met at Windsor in May, 1548, and drew up a Book of Common Prayer, which was approved by Convocation, and finally ratified by Act of Parliament in the ensuing January. It was enjoined to be used for all divine Offices from the Feast of Whitsunday following, and was published by Whitchurch, on the 4th of May, 1549*. This Prayer Book was substantially the same with that which we now have, though several f Ridley's Life of Ridley, book iv. p. 222. s Cardwell. OP EDWARD THE SIXTH. 33 additions were made to it, and some parts of it altered, in successive reviews. What the most important of these additions and alter- ations were, will be mentioned hereafter. It has already been observed, that it was the object of Cranmer and his fellow-labourers to retain as much of the existing formularies as possible, only translating them from Latin into English. How excellently this translation was made, must be apparent to every person of cultivated taste or of de- votional feeling. It has been forcibly and justly said, in allusion to the use of the ancient liturgies, " These helps, which our Reformers did not disdain, they shewed themselves able to improve, correcting what was objectionable in doctrine, removing what was offensive in taste, and often communi- cating by some happy expression even an additional glow of devotion to passages in themselves (it might have been thought) too beautiful to touch ; for in the whole compass of English literature, many as are the ex- cellent versions of ancient writings which it c3 34 FIRST PRAYER BOOK can boast, it would be in vain to look for any specimens of translation (merely to put the case thus) so vigorous, so simple, so close, and yet so free from all constraint, as are afforded by the Offices of our Church h ."