CHAPTER VIII.

THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER SINCE THE LAST REVISION.

SINCE the year 1662, the Book of Common Prayer has remained in the state to which it was then brought; attempts have been. made to introduce changes in its language, and certain liberties have, been allowed, and minor subsidiary points altered, but otherwise it remains still the same as it was then. Some however of the unsuccessful attempts at change deserve notice.
 

The Declaration of William III. favourable to the Presbyterians.

Parliament desire the summoning of Convocation.

The direction to say the Daily Prayer is thus altered¹¹:— ‘And all priests and deacons that have cure of souls shall exhort the people of their congregations to come frequently to prayers on week-days, especially in the great towns, and more particularly on Wednesdays and Fridays, at least for the reading of the Litany: and where a congregation can be brought together, the ministers shall give their attendance for saying of Morning and Evening Prayer.’

The word Priest is altered to ‘Minister,’ and Sunday to ‘Lord’s-day.’
 

The 148th Psalm is substituted for Benedicite. The 100th Psalm is placed before Benedictus.

In the versicles after the Creed, the response, Because there is none other that fighteth for us, &c., is altered:— ‘That we may serve thee without fear all the days of our lives.’

In the Prayer for the Queen, the words most gracious are omitted; and after heavenly gifts is added,— ‘ direct all their counsels to thy honour and glory: Bless all their righteous undertakings.’
 

It is proposed to omit the Lord’s Prayer, when there is a Communion. The Gioria Patri is struck out.

After the Prayer, ‘We humbly beseech Thee, &c.,’ the following addition is made: ‘Then the Minister continuing in his place shall use the Collect, Almighty God, to whom all hearts, &c. Then shall the Minister rehearse distinctly the Ten Commandments . . . or sometimes the eight Beatitudes, especially on Communion days. See the Communion Service. Then shall follow the Collect for the day. Then the Epistle and Gospel. Then (if there be no Communion) the Nicene Creed. Then the General Thanksgiving, &c. The Prayer commonly called S. Chrysostom’s. 2 Cor. xiii. 14. The grace, &c. Then the Minister shall declare unto the people what Holydays or Fasting Days . . . (Rubr, after Nicene Creed) . . . enjoined by the King, or by the ordinary of the place, not being contrary to the laws of this Realm.¹³ The Singing Psalm, Query of what translation? Q. Q. Whether the Minister may not here be directed to use in the pulpit before Sermon the Prayer for the whole state of Christ’s Church, &c., accommodated to the purpose; or some such other prayer? Note, that when there is no Communion at all, this shall be read in the same place with the rest of the service.’
 

Occasional Prayers.

Rubric before the Prayer in the Ember-weeks.

Rubr. ‘See the Commination. A Sermon or Homily then to be used. Whereas the observation of the fast of Lent is an ancient and useful custom, designed for the bringing. of all Christians to serious examination of their lives past: to repent of their sins, and to fit themselves for the worthy receiving of the Communion at Easter: It is most earnestly recommended to all persons, but more particularly to all Churchmen, to observe that time religiously, not placing fasting or devotion in any distinction of meats, but spending larger portions of their time in prayer, meditation, and true abstinence, and in works of charity, forbearing feasting an entertainments.’

This is to be read the Lord’s-day before Ash- Wednesday.
 

The sentences from the Apocrypha are omitted; and a rubric prefixed to four sentences.¹⁶ directing them ‘to be read only in those churches where the custom is that the minister has any share of the offerings.’

It is proposed to make a shorter form of warning, ‘seeing in many parishes the returns of monthly communions are commonly known.’
 

The clause,— ‘For thou only art holy; thou only art the Lord,’ — is altered:— ‘For thou only art the holy One of God; thou only art the eternal Son of God.’

Additional Collects to be said ‘when there is no Communion’:— our present Collects for the 5th, 12th, 16th, 17th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd Sundays after Trinity.
 

Rubric at the end of the Office:— ‘And in every great town or parish there shall be a Communion once a month; and in every parish at least four times in the year, that is, on Christmas-day, Easter-day, Whitsun-day, and some Lord’s-day soon after harvest, at the ministers discretion. And all ministers shall exhort their people to communicate frequently.

Addition to the declaration about kneeling:— ‘But to take away all pretence of scruple, if any, not being satisfied herewith, shall, some day in the week before they intend to receive the holy Communion, come to the minister of their parish, and declare that they are verily persuaded in conscience that they cannot receive it kneeling without sin; then+the minister shall endeavour to give them satisfaction in this matter; after which, if they still press it, then the minister shall give them the sacramental bread and wine in some convenient place or pew without obliging them to kneel.’

Rubrics.

Parents may be Sponsors

Second Prayer.

The Sureties.

‘Whereas the sign of the cross is by this Office appointed to be used in Baptism according to the ancient and laudable custom of the Church, it is not thereby intended to add any new rite to the Sacrament as a part of it, or as necessary to it; or that the using that sign is of any virtue or efficacy of itself; but only to remember all Christians of the death and cross of Christ, which is their hope and glory; and to put them in mind of their obligation to bear the cross in such manner as God shall think fit to lay it upon them, and to become conformable to Christ in his sufferings.

‘If any minister at his institution shall declare to his bishop, that he cannot satisfy his conscience in baptizing any with the sign of the cross; then the bishop shall dispense with him in that particular, and shall name a curate who shall baptize the children of those in that parish who desire it may be done with the sign of the cross according to this Office.’
 

Note: ‘This to be retained, and also a larger one to be considered of, and that made by Dr. Williams to be proposed in Convocation, in order to a review and acceptance of it.
   ‘Q. What do you learn further in this Creed?
   ‘A. I learn that Christ hath had, still hath, and ever will have, a Church somewhere on earth.

   ‘Q. What are you there taught concerning this Church?
   ‘A. I am taught that it is catholic and universal, as it receives into it all nations upon the profession of the Christian faith in baptism.
   ‘Q. What privileges belong to Christians by their being received into this Catholic Church?
   ‘A. First, the communion of saints, or fellowship of all true Christians in faith, hope, and charity. Secondly, the forgiveness of sins obtained by the sacrifice of Christ’s death, and given to us, upon faith in him, and repentance from dead works. Thirdly, the rising again of our bodies at the last day to a state of glory. Fourthly, everlasting life with our Saviour in the kingdom of heaven.’

At the end of the Answer, ‘My duty towards God, &c., the words are added,— ‘especially on Lord’s-days’¹⁷; and then follows a division of the Answer into four heads, in the form of a broken Catechism upon the first four Commandments; the last being, — ‘Q. What learn you by the fourth Commandment? A. To serve him truly all the days of my life, especially on Lord’s-days.’ A similar broken Catechism is inserted after the Answer, ‘My duty towards my neighbour, &c.’ and also after the explication of the Lord’s Prayer. In the latter part upon the Sacraments there are many verbal alterations with a view to greater plainness.
 

into an address at the time of Confirmation :-’You have been lately informed for what end you ought to come hither. And I hope you come prepared according to the exhortation then made to you; that is, with a serious desire and resolution openly to ratify and confirm before the Church, with your own mouth and consent, what your sureties promised in your names when you were baptized; and also to promise that, by the grace of God, you will evermore endeavour yourselves faithfully to observe such things as you by your own confession have assented unto.’

The prayer for the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit is altered:ù Renew and strengthen them, we beseech thee, O Lord, more and more, by the Holy Ghost the Comforter, and daily increase thy’ graces in them. Fill them with the knowledge of thy will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; and enable them to walk worthy of their holy calling with all lowliness and meekness; that they may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, shining as lights in the world, to the praise and glory of thy Name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ A third prayer in the same strain is added before the blessing; and also an ‘Exhortation to the confirmed, who are to be required to stay and hear it.’ The concluding rubric directs that ‘none shall be admitted to Confirmation, but such as shall be judged fit to receive the Communion upon the next occasion.’
 

Communion

Note :— ‘The whole Office for the Sick may be used if the persons concerned can bear it; otherwise the Minister is to proceed as is here appointed’: and to the rubric directing the order of administration, last of all the sick person, the words are added, ‘unless the Minister perceive him ready to expire.’

A ‘Psalm or Hymn,’ composed of verses from the Psalms, is substituted for Ps. cxvi.; and a rubric at the end of the office directs ‘the Blessing to be used, if this office be used before or after service.’

’The proper Office for Ash- Wednesday.’

A new preface is proposed upon the subject of fasting, and the superstitious application of it to distinction of meats instead of humiliation before God; and then, instead of the curses from Deut. xviii., the Beatitudes are read, as in the Communion Office, with the response after each, ‘Lord, have mercy, &c.’; and are followed by ‘the judgment of God denounced against sinners,’ viz. 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10; Gal. v. 19-21; and Ephes. v. 5, 6; with a response, ‘O Lord, preserve us from these sins, and from thy wrath which they justly deserve.’ The address and the remainder of the service are retained with only a few verbal alterations.
 

THE COMMINATION.

Note:— ‘Whereas we have often been imposed upon by men pretending to Orders in the Church of Rome, it is therefore humbly proposed, whether, since we can have no certainty concerning the instruments of Orders which they show, they may be admitted to serve as Deacons or Presbyters of this Church without being ordained according to the following Offices.’
 

The letters of Orders are to be given them in the form used by Archbishop Bramhall:²⁰ — ‘Non annihilantes priores ordines (si quos habuit), nec validitatem nec invaliditatem eorundem determinantes, multo minus omnes ordines sacros Ecclesiarum Forinsecarum condemnantes, quos proprio judici relinquimus; sed solummodo supplentes, quicquid prius defuit per canones Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ requisitum, et providentes paci Ecclesiæ ut schismatis tollatur occasio, et conscientiis fidelium satisfiat, nee ullo modo dubitent de ejus ordinatione, aut actus suos presbyteriales tanquam invalidos aversentur . . . .’

New hymns were to be composed in place of Veni Creator.
 

It was proposed, by way of return to primitive custom, to turn the imperative formula used in ordination into a prayer, thus:—

‘Pour down, O Father of Lights, the Holy Ghost on this thy servant, for the office and work of a Priest in the Church of God, now committed unto him by the imposition of our hands, that whose sins he does forgive, they may be forgiven, and whose sins he doth retain, they may be retained, and that he may be a faithful dispenser of God’s holy word and sacraments, to the edification of his Church, and the glory of his holy name, through Jesus Christ, &c. The invocation of the Trinity thus displaced was to be prefixed to the form of words used at the delivery of the Bible:— ‘In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Take thou authority, &c.’
 

These numerous and important alterations were not offered to Convocation; it was quite certain that they would be rejected by the Lower House, who, in the appointment of their prolocutor, and in the debate on the address,²¹ evinced that they were opposed to the attempts now made by the Court and Bishops for the comprehension of Dissenters, as brethren in the Protestant religion. The House of Bishops, also, lacking nine of its ablest members, was powerless to control the clergy, who were disposed to sympathise with Sancroft and his nonjuring brethren.²² Hence, although Convocation was authorized to proceed to the business of considering alterations in the Prayer Book and the Canons, and a scheme had been prepared for the purpose, no actual step was taken; and disputes between the two Houses were prevented by successive prorogations from December 13 until the close of the session.²³

The whole attempt in favour of comprehension was thus defeated, but the question of further liturgical reform remained; besides the liturgical controversies of the Nonjurors,²⁴ there was going on all through the eighteenth century a series of agitations in favour of a fresh revision, carried on mainly in the interest of those who sympathized with anti-Trinitarian views.²⁵ These came nearer to recognition in America²⁶ than in England. Here, so long as Convocation remained suppressed, such proceedings were inoperative, but after the revival of Convocation in 1852 the question again came to the front and in a more practical form.
 

Arising out of the same Commission and in response to letters of business from the Crown a Report was drawn up and adopted (July 4, 1879) by the Convocation of Canterbury in view of amending the rubrics, so as to make them an exact guide to everything which the Priest is to do. The Report was formally presented to the Queen with a draft Bill which it was intended should first become law; its object was to facilitate the amendment of services by allowing Convocation to prepare schemes which, after being laid before Parliament, should, if unopposed, become law by an Order in Council. But no further action has since been taken with regard either to the Bill to amend procedure or to the alterations proposed in the Report. Some of these proposals give a formal sanction to usages which are already customs in one or another church.³² Some have found a place in other revisions. The following are among the most noteable changes proposed:

The Ornaments Rubric is explained away in a non-natural sense, so as to justify the disuse of the vestments which has prevailed I widely since Elizabethan days.

Proper Psalms are selected for ten additional Holy Days: the Sanctus, concluding the Preface in the Communion Office, should be printed as a separate paragraph: for Baptism of Infants, if three Sponsors cannot be found, two may suffice, and the parents may be Sponsors. For Burial, at the request, or with the consent of the friends, a shortened service may be used at the grave, or no service; or in cases for which the office may not be used, prayers taken from the Book of Common Prayer (only not from the Order of Burial, or of the Holy Communion), and portions of Scripture approved by the Ordinary may be read: or, if occasion require, the service at the grave after the Burial may be said in the church after the Lesson.³³

The observance of certain Octaves is proposed. The Easter Anthems are to be said on the seven following days. The Collect for S. Michael’s Day and for All Saints’ Day is to be repeated on the seven days following, after the Collect for the Day.

An explanation is offered for the removal of doubts, and to prevent disquietude, in the use of expressions in the Quicunque vult:— ‘(1) That the Confession of our Christian faith, commonly called the Creed of S. Athanasius, doth not make any addition to the faith as contained in Holy Scripture, but warneth against errors which from time to time have arisen in the Church of Christ. (2) That as Holy Scripture in divers places doth promise life to them that believe, and declare the condemnation of them that believe not, so doth the Church in this Confession declare the necessity for all who would be in a state of salvation of holding fast the Catholic Faith, and the great peril of rejecting the same. Wherefore the warnings in this Confession of Faith are to be understood no otherwise than the like warnings of Holy Scripture.³⁴

Since 1879 the position has greatly changed. The liturgical expansion which has been such a marked feature of the Catholic revival has gone on apace: old puritan glosses have been discarded; truer and less narrow interpretations have been given to the old provisions; but as yet no revision has been made.
 

1 Cardwell, Conferences, p. 394.

2 Tillotson, Letter to Baxter (April) 11, 1675); Cardwell, p. 396.

3 Long’s Vox Cleri, p. 3: Cardwell, p. 396, note.

4 Cardwell, Conferences, p. 405.

5 Ibid. p. 410. With the Convention Parliament, by whom William and Mary were seated on the throne, the Convocation did not assemble. It was the second Parliament, in the first year of the new reign, which petitioned the throne to summon the Convocation. Lathbury, Hist. of Convoc. p. 320 .

6 The commission included some well-known names: Stillingfleet, Patrick, Tillotson, Sharp, Hall, Beveridge, Tenison, Fowler, Grove, and Williams were subsequently raised to the episcopal bench. Blue Book of June 2, 1854 (see below), p. 92; Lathbury, u. s. p. 321, note; Cardwell, 412, 427 and ff.
 

7 Ibid. P: 413. The following are the heads of this, paper: (1) Ceremonies to be left indifferent. (2) To review the Liturgy, and remove all ground of exception; to leave out Apocryphal lessons, and correct the translation of the Psalms. (3) Ministers only to subscribe one general declaration of submission to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Church of England, and promise to teach and practise accordingly. (4) To make a new body of canons. (5) To regulate the ecclesiastical courts. (6) That those who have been ordained in any of the foreign Reformed churches be not required to be re-ordained here, to render them capable of preferment in this church; (7)but none to be capable of ecclesiastical preferment that shall be ordained in England otherwise than by bishops.

8 An account of the proceedings is given by Bp. Patrick in the Narrative of his Own Life, p. 149. ed. Oxf. 1839; Cardwell, Conferences, pp. 416 and ff.

9 Burnet, Hist. of Own Time, II. 31.

10 The alterations, amounting to 598 articles, were prepared in an interleaved copy of a black-letter edition of the Book of Common Prayer (1683-86). This document was not made public, and, indeed, was for many years supposed to have been lost. A copy was communicated to Calamy, who thought that the scheme would have brought in two-thirds of the Dissenters; but his copy was lost by lending (Lathbury, Convoc. p. 325, note): an abstract was published in his Life of Baxter, p. 452 (Cardwell, Conferences. p. 429). The Book, however, was left with Tenison, afterwards Archbishop, and passed with his papers into the hands of Dr. E. Gibson, bishop of London, by whom it was placed in the Lambeth Library. The document is now accessible in the form of a Blue Book: (pp. 110), being a ‘Return to an Address of the House of Commons, March 14. 1854, and ordered by the House to be printed, June 2, 1854.’ A Diary of the proceedings of the Commissioners, from October 3 to November 18, was written by Dr. John Williams, which is also printed in the Parliamentary Return in an Appendix of Illustrative Documents, pp. 94 and ff.

11 Cp. throughout the objections raised in 1640. p. 153, and in 1661, pp. 172 and ff.
 

12 For this use of particular, instead of general expressions, cp. above, p. 175·

13 Note:— ‘This rubric was occasioned by King James’s enjoining his Declaration (which was against law to be read in churches.’

14 This was done by Bishop Patrick and revised by Burnet, Stillingfleet and Tillotson, Nichols, Defence (ed. 1715), p. 118.
 

15 The Beatitudes are also given on another paper inserted in the Book, with a distinct response or prayer after each; e. g. ‘Our Lord Christ spake these words and said, Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Lord, have mercy upon us, and endue us with an humble and contented spirit, &c.’

16 1 Cor. ix, 7, 11, 13, 14; Gal. vi. 6, 7.
 

17 Proposed at the Savoy Conference; see above, p. 182.

18 The second Collect at the end of the Communion Office.

19 Cp. the objections (1661), above, p. 186.
 

20 See Bramhall, Works, I. p. xxxvii. (ed. 1842).

21 They refused to describe the English Church under the general head of ‘Protestant Religion.’ See Lathbury, p. 325; Cardwell, p. 424.

22 Lathbury, p. 332.

23 Ibid. Several other measures were in contemplation by various members, and among others a book of family prayers, probably compiled by Tenison. Life of Prideaux, p. 61; Cardwell, p. 425, note.
 

24 See for the Nonjurors Add. Note 1, p. 226.

25 See Abbey, English Church and its Bishops, i. 225 ; Cardwell, p. 459, and the pamphlet literature. See Brit. Mus. Catalogue of Liturgies (1899), pp. 504 and ff., for a list, by no means exhaustive, of the pamphlets.
    At the back of a great part of the movement lay the proposals of Dr. Clarke as to revision of the Prayer Book, in the third part of his Scripture-Doctrine of the Trinity, condemned by Convocation in 1714 (Synodalia, ii. 785). The usual Puritan objections were also again dished up.

26 See below, pp. 238 and ff.

27 See Brit. Mus. Cat., u. s., pp. 510-515.

28 Use may be made of this enlarged selection where there is only one Afternoon Service, by reading each set of Lessons in alternate years.

29 In some new Lectionaries a further improvement has been introduced, so that more chapters of the Old Testament may be read in the Sunday Services, by the method of a two-years’ course of First Lessons.

30 ‘Short morning prayers’ were commonly said daily at an early hour in the XVIIth century.’ (Lathhury, Hist. P. B. 163.) Special services have been put out again and again by simple Episcopal authority both before and since the XVIth century. There was thus ample precedent to justify the bishops in sanctioning all that was wanted without parliamentary intervention.
 

31 Joyce, Acts of the Church, 290-298. The Act is printed in The Prayer Book interleaved with notes of other Statutes which repeal or affect clauses of the Act of Uniformity, p. xix-xxviii. (7th edition). See also Blunt, Annotated, B. C. P., 93-95.

32 E.g., an anthem or hymn may be sung after the Third collect, and a sermon may be preached; or this may come after the Morning or Evening Prayer. A sermon may be preached as a separate service, preceded by a collect with or without the Lord’s Prayer, or by the Bidding Prayer, or by any duly authorized special service. After a sermon the service may be concluded with a Blessing, or a hymn may be sung, and a collect said before the Blessing. A person desiring the prayers of the congregation may be mentioned in the usual way in the Litany. The shortened Form of Service, as now often used, is sanctioned. The Litany may be omitted on Christmas Day, Easter Day, and Whitsunday.

33 cp. the Puritan Exceptions at the Savoy Conference, above, p. 186.

34 The Convocation Prayer Book, being the Book of Common Prayer with altered rubrics, was printed by way of experiment in 1880.