EVERYMAN'S
HISTORY
OF
THE
PRAYER BOOK
By
Percy
Dearmer. D. D.
With 99 Illustrations
A.
R. MOWBRAY & CO., LTD.
LONDON: 28 Margaret Street, Oxford
Circus, W.
OXFORD: 9 High Street
MILWAUKEE, U. S. A.: THE YOUNG
CHURCHMAN CO.
First
impression, 1912
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| Percy
Dearmer (1867 - 1936) was a Christian socialist and probably best-known
as the author of A Parson's Handbook, a popular guide to
the ritual and conduct of Anglican liturgies. He was also chief
editor of The English Hymnal, one of the major hymnals
of the Church of England.
In
this 250-page book he gives an accessible account of the history
and content of the Book of Common Prayer, as it existed in 1912
when the book was written. One can see from this book that the
author was deeply appreciative of the tradition and sources
of the Book of Common Prayer, but in no way blind to its shortcomings,
as he perceived them. He has strong opinions of the way development
of the Book of Common Prayer should take (or should have taken),
but, in most cases his opinions were vindicated by subsequent
events.
An
"American Edition" was also published, which differed
primarily in the inclusion of an additional chapter on the American
Prayer Book. We include this chapter (and the other changes and
additions) here without changing or renumbering subsequent chapters,
resulting in two Chapter 12's.
The
entire book is presented here, along with the copious illustrations.
Note that some of the chapters are fairly long and so may take a
while to download. |
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PREFACE
THIS little book cannot claim to
be either "high-church" or low-church." It is written in
the belief that both those party terms are becoming obsolete, and that
the Churchman of the future will be content to be a faithful Christian,
and an honest man, thinking highly of the Church and lowly of himself.
The writer hopes, however, that it will be found to have a certain breadth,
since one cannot have a real Catholicism without catholicity; and if there
is a word in it which is not Evangelical, he would wish it withdrawn by
this preface. He has kept in mind, throughout, the friendly cheer which
comes to us in these happier days from our separated fellow-countrymen
on the one side and from the Orthodox Churches of the East on the other
; nor has he been forgetful of the debt we owe both to the Roman Church
of earlier days, which sent the Gospel to our Western Islands, and with
it the service-books from which our own is so largely derived, and also
to the Lutheran and other Reformers, who won for us some part of our Christian
freedom. "Excellent courage our fathers bore." Only to those
on each side he would plead that, if anything in these pages displeases
them, they should remember the other side. Everyman's History of the
Prayer Book is written for Everyman; and, after all, the Master whom
we are each trying to follow is above all our divisions, rebuking our
uncharities, and blessing every step we take along that Gospel way which
is narrow to us only because we come so far short of God's infinite breadth.
Everyman's History of the Prayer Book is for Everyman, endeavouring
to present that amount of matter which Everyman ought to know something
about. The author has already written a very small introduction to the
subject, called The Prayer Book, What it is, and he has avoided
repeating from that little work more than seemed necessary, so that it
may be taken, with one or two pamphlets, as a manner of appendix, completing
what he has tried to say.
Here are some of the more recent books on the subject:— F. Procter
and W. H. Frere, New History
of the Book of Common Prayer (Macmillan,
12s. 6d.); L. Pullan, The History of the Book of
Common Prayer (Longmans, 1s.); B. Reynolds, Handbook
to the Book of Common Prayer (Rivingtons, 4s. 6d.);
P. Jackson, The Prayer Book explained (Cambridge University
Press, 2 Parts, 2s. 6d. each); A. W. Robinson, The
Church Catechism Explained (Cambridge, 2s. 6d.);
H. O. Wakeman, Short
History of the Church of England (Rivingtons, 7s. 6d.);
and a little manual by Dr. Moule, Bishop of Durham, The Story of
the Prayer Book (Longmans). The First and Second Prayer
Books have been recently published again as a volume in "Everyman's
Library"
(Dent, 1s.). For further liturgical study the reader is recommended
to go first to the works of Bishop Dowden, Brightman, Duchesne, and
Frere, and to the publications of the Alcuin Club and the Henry Bradshaw
Society.
To her Majesty Queen Alexandra the writer offers humble and loyal thanks
for the permission so graciously given to print a reproduction of Professor
Tuxen's picture of a beautiful incident in her Majesty's Coronation.
The writer owes much gratitude to the friends who have helped him in
his work, especially to Mr. F. C. Eeles, Dr. Frere, and Mr. Brightman.
He is also much indebted to those who have helped in providing pictures,
to whom acknowledgements are given in the List of Illustrations.
The American
editor has introduced into the work only such changes as are necessary
in order to adapt it to use in the American Church and according to
the American Book of Common Prayer.
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