Endnotes

ENDNOTES

1 These are the words of the late Miss Freeman Shepherd, a very learned and extraordinary woman, and a rigid papist.

2 It is not unknown that, at the Hampton Court Conference, several alterations were proposed by Dr. Reynolds and his associates to be made in the Liturgy then in common use, as well as in the Bible. These however were in general objected to by the king, and only a few changes made, which shall be mentioned below. While on this part of the subject it may not be unacceptable to the reader to hear how the present Liturgy was compiled, and who the persons were to whom this work was assigned; a work almost universally esteemed by the devout and pious of every denomination, and the greatest effort of the Reformation, next to the translation of the Scriptures into the English language. The word LITURGY is derived, according to some, from lith, prayer, and ergon, work, and signifies literally the work or labour of prayer or supplication; and he who labours not in his prayers prays not at all: or more properly letourgia, from leitov, public or common, and ergon, work, denoting the common or public work of prayer, thanksgiving, &c., in which it is the duty of every person to engage; and from litaneuw, to supplicate, comes litai, prayers, and hence Litaneia, LITANY, supplication, a collection of prayers in the Liturgy or public service of the Church. Previously to the reign of Henry VIII. the Liturgy was all said or sung in Latin, but the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, in 1536 were translated into English, for the use of the common people, by the king’s command. In 1545 the Liturgy was also permitted in English, as Fuller expresses it, “and this was the farthest pace the Reformation stept in the reign of Henry VIII.”

In the first year of Edward VI., 1547, it was recommended to certain grave and learned bishops, and others then assembled, by order of the king, at Windsor Castle, to draw up a communion service, and to revise and reform all other offices in the Divine service; this service was accordingly printed and published, and strongly recommended by special letters from Seymour, Lord Protector, and the other lords of the council. The persons who compiled this work were the following:—

1. THOMAS CRANMER, Archbishop of Canterbury.

2. George Day, Bishop of Chichester.

3. Thomas Goodrick, Bishop of Ely.

4. John Skip, Bishop of Hereford.

5. Henry Holbeach, Bishop of Lincoln.

6. NICHOLAS RIDLEY, Bishop of Rochester.

7. Thomas Thirlby, Bishop of Westminster

8. Doctor May, Dean of St. Paul’s.

9. John Taylor, then Dean, afterwards Bishop, of Lincoln.

10. Doctor Haines, Dean of Exeter.

11. Doctor Robinson, afterwards Dean of Durham.

12. Doctor John Redman, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.

13. Doctor Richard Cox, then Almoner to the King, and afterwards Bishop of Ely.

It is worthy of remark that as the first translators of the Scriptures into the English language were several of them persecuted unto death by the papists, so some of the chief of those who translated the Book of Common Prayer, (Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Ridley) were burnt alive by the same cruel faction.

This was what Mr. Fuller calls the first edition of the Common Prayer, published in 1548. Some objections having been made to this work by Mr. John Calvin abroad, and some learned men at home, particularly in reference to the Commemoration of the Dead, the use of Chrism and Extreme Unction, it was ordered by a statute in parliament (5 and 6 of Edward VI.) that it should be faithfully and godly perused, explained, and made fully perfect. The chief alterations made in consequence of this order were these: the General Confession and Absolution were added, and the Communion Service was made to begin with the Ten Commandments, the use of oil in Confirmation and Extreme Unction was left out, also Prayers for the Dead, and certain expressions that had a tendency to countenance the doctrine of transubstantiation.

The same persons to whom the compiling of the Communion Service was intrusted were employed in this revision, which was completed and published in 1553. On the accession of Queen Mary this Liturgy was abolished and the Prayer Book, as it stood in the last year of Henry VIII., commanded to be used in its place. In the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1559, the former Liturgy was restored, but it was subjected to a farther revision, by which some few passages were altered, and the petition in the Litany for being delivered from the tyranny and all the detestable enormities of the bishop of Rome left out, in order that conscientious Catholics might not be prevented from joining in the common service. This being done, it was presented to parliament, and by them received and established; and the Act of Uniformity, which is usually printed with the Liturgy, published by the queen’s authority, and sent throughout the nation. The persons employed in this revision were the following:—

1. Master Whitehead, once Chaplain to Queen Anna Bullein.

2. Matthew Parker, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury.

3. Edmund Grindall, afterwards Bishop of London.

4. Richard Cox afterwards Bishop of Ely.

5. James Pilkington, afterwards Bishop of Durham.

6. Doctor May, Dean of St. Paul’s, and Master of Trinity College Cambridge.

7. Sir Thomas Smith, Principal Secretary of State.

Of these Drs. Cox and May were employed on the first edition of this work, as appears by the preceding list.

In the first year of King James, 1604, another revision took place, and a few alterations were made which consisted principally in the addition of some prayers and thanksgivings, some alteration in the Rubrics relative to the Absolution, to the Confirmation, and to the office of Private Baptism, with the addition of that part of the Catechism which contains the Doctrine of the Sacraments. The other additions were, A Thanksgiving for divers Benefits, A Thanksgiving for Fair Weather, A Thanksgiving for Plenty, A Thanksgiving for Peace and Victory, and A Thanksgiving for Deliverance from the Plague. See the Instrument in Rymer, vol. 16. p. 565, &c. When the work was thus completed, a royal proclamation was issued, bearing date March 1, 1604, in which the king gave an account of the Hampton Court conference, the alterations that had been made by himself and his clergy in the Book of Common Prayer, commanding it, and none other, to be used throughout the kingdom. See the Instrument, Rymer, vol. 16., p. 575.

In this state the Book of Common Prayer continued till the reign of Charles II., who, the 25th of October, 1660 “granted his commission, under the great seal of England, to several bishops and divines to review the Book of Common Prayer, and to prepare such alterations and additions as they thought fit to offer.” In the following year the king assembled the convocations of both the provinces of Canterbury and York, and “authorized the presidents of those convocations, and other the bishops and clergy of the same, to review the said Book of Common Prayer,” &c., requiring them, “after mature consideration, to make such alterations and additions as to them should seem meet and convenient.” This was accordingly done, several prayers and some whole services added, and the whole published, with the Act of Uniformity, in the 14th of Charles II., 1661; since which time it has undergone no farther revision. These several additions have made the public service too long, and this is the principal cause why this part of Divine worship is not better attended. This excellent service is now burdensome through its extreme length; and the clergy shorten their sermons, making them superficial, to prevent too much weariness in their congregations. After being an hour and a half at prayers, they dismiss their audience with fifteen or twenty minutes’ preaching; thus the people are not sufficiently instructed. This is a short history of a work which all who are acquainted with it deem superior to every thing of the kind produced either by ancient or modern times.

It would be disingenuous not to acknowledge that the chief of those prayers were in use in the Roman Catholic Church from which the Church of England is reformed; and it would betray a want of acquaintance with ecclesiastical antiquity to suppose that those prayers and services originated in that Church, as several of them were in use from the first ages of Christianity, and many of the best of them before the name of pope or popery was known in the earth.