The Traditional Anglican Liturgy (1662) Part I
The Reform of the liturgy in England began in 1540 under the leadership of Thomas Cranmer. The Book of Common Prayer was revised again in 1552, and a final revision was completed in 1662. The service below is from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
Introduction Soon after Henry VIII's break with the papacy, efforts toward liturgical reform began to gain momentum in England. It was not until 1549, however, after Edward VI had ascended the throne, that the first comprehensive reformed liturgy was issued. The principles upon which this book was based were spelled out in the order called on in the old service books and in the Act of Uniformity for the first revision of The Book of Common Prayer. These documents state that the first Book of Common Prayer was (1) "grounded upon the Holy Scripture," (2) "agreeable to the order of the primitive [i.e., early] church," (3) designed to be unifying to the realm, and (4) intended for the edification of the people. Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was its chief architect. In compiling the book, he made use of various sources, including writings of early church fathers, English reformation formularies, German church orders, Quinones's revised breviary, Eastern liturgies, Gallican rites, and various uses of the medieval Roman rite. The 1549 book was not well received. It was too conservative for some, too radical for others, and too open to diverse interpretations to encourage uniformity. The Clerk's Book, published that same year, contained some revisions. Marbeck's [Merbeck's] commissioned musical setting contained further changes. The rubrics were widely disregarded. It was too radical for the Devonshire rebels, for such bishops as Bonner, Thirlby, and Gardiner, and for priests who continued the use of old service books or who "counterfeited Masses." On the other hand, it did not go far enough in its revisions to satisfy the Norfolk rebels, or continental reformers such as Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr who had come to England and had been given positions of prominence in the universities, or the Anabaptists, or some of the clergy and bishops such as Hooper and Knox. The second Book of Common Prayer (1552) is sometimes spoken of as a radical plot foisted upon the people. It was, in fact, in many ways a compromise and an effort to arrive at a middle way or via media. With Mary's accession to the throne and the restoration of Roman Catholicism and the medieval Sarum use in England, religious exiles carried the 1552 book to the continent where it was revised by the exiles in Frankfurt and Geneva. After the accession of Elizabeth, with the return of the exiles, pressure mounted for the establishment of a liturgy more closely akin to those of the continental reformers. However, the 1552 book was again imposed with only a few changes. When James VI of Scotland came to the throne as James I of England, he was confronted by Puritans with the Millenary Petition, which called for a number of changes in the rites and ceremonies of the church. The resultant Hampton Court Conference (1604) made few concessions. At the time of the Restoration, despite efforts of Puritans to force more radical change on the one hand and of Laudians (followers of Archbishop Laud, who attempted to force the return of high churchmanship and ritual catholicity on the nation) on the other, relatively few changes were made in the 1662 revision. The Architectural Setting. The first Book of Common Prayer assumed a style of architecture in which the nave and chancel were divided by a screen. The congregation would occupy the nave for the daily offices and the Ante-Communion (the liturgy of the Word portion of the eucharistic rite) and, at the offertory, move into the chancel to place their alms in the "poore menes boxe." Those who would receive Communion remained in the chancel, where the celebrant, "standing humbly afore the middes of the Altar," would proceed with the rite. For the use of the nave for liturgies of the Word and the chancel for the liturgy of the sacrament, there was precedent among both Lutherans and Calvinists on the continent. In Lent 1550, John Hooper, preaching before the court, expressed a wish that the magistrates "turn the altars into tables." On St. Barnabas's Day, June 11, a table was set up in place of the high altar at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and that summer Bishop Ridley exhorted the clergy and wardens to set up an "honest table" in each church in the diocese. In November the council commanded each bishop to give orders that altars be taken down and tables set up instead. The tables were normally placed in the midst of the chancel with their long sides parallel to the north and south walls. The 1552 Book of Common Prayer consistently referred to it as a "table" or as "God's board," not once calling it an "altar." The priest was to stand "at the north side" and the congregation to gather around. The Elizabethan settlement called for the table, with a cover of "silk, buckram or other such like," to stand in the place of the old altar except when the communion is to be celebrated. These "carpets" varied in color; there was no attempt to follow a color sequence. Some more affluent churches had different frontals for festal and ordinary use, and some had black for use in Lent or on occasions of national mourning. For celebrations of the Eucharist, the table was to be covered with a fair linen cloth (reaching down almost to the floor on all four sides) and to stand in the midst of the chancel or in the body of the church if the chancel could not accommodate the communicants. In many places, the table stayed at all times in the midst of the chancel because of the inconvenience of moving it or because of theological considerations. In some churches seating for the communicants was provided on two, three, or all four sides of the chancel. A tablet containing the Decalogue was to be put up on the east wall over the table. Often the tablet(s) contained the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer as well. Altar rails came into use early in the seventeenth century. Originally the rails were not used for the administration of communion but for the protection of the costly hangings and to keep the table from being used as a desk, or as a repository for hats, or for other profane purposes. In some cases, the new rails surrounded the table in the midst of the chancel, but generally they extended across the chancel to protect the altar when it was placed at the east end, either altar-wise or table-wise. Eventually communicants would begin to kneel at the rails for the receiving of communion. In exceptional circumstances, candles were placed on the table, but normally nothing was placed on the table except the books, vessels, and elements necessary for a eucharistic celebration. Fonts were typically made of stone, set near the door, and large enough for the immersion of infants, though those of puritan persuasion sometimes used a basin and substituted pouring or sprinkling for immersion. Occupying an important position in the nave, typically against the north wall, was a triple-decked pulpit, which was often enhanced by hangings and by cushions for the books. On the lowest level was the desk for the clerk, a lay assistant who led the people in their responses and, if there was no choir, in the metrical psalms and hymns. Behind this, on a higher level, was the desk for the officiant, at which he read the daily offices and typically the Ante-Communion. On a yet higher level was the pulpit for the preaching of sermons. In some churches a pew near the pulpit was designated as the "churching pew" for use at the rite then called "The Churching of Women," more recently the "Thanksgiving of Women after Childbirth." In the churches of the period, the pews in the nave were generally arranged in such a way that most people faced the pulpit. In parish churches where there was a choir, it generally occupied a gallery in the west end or over the rood screen. Smaller churches often had instead a "singers' pew," typically in the west end. If we can judge by later practice, the congregation often turned to face the choir during psalms, hymns, or anthems. The Vestments. The first Book of Common Prayer (1549) had designated that for the Eucharist the celebrant wear "a white Albe plain, with a vestement [chasuble] or Cope," and that assisting priests or deacons were to wear "Albes with tunacles." For other rites, the clergy were to wear a surplice. The use of a hood with the surplice was recommended for preaching and for general use by the clergy in cathedral or collegiate churches. A bishop, when celebrating the Eucharist or executing "any other publique minystracyon shall have upon hym, besyde his rochette, a Surples or albe, and a cope or vestment, and also his pastorall staffe." The 1550 ordination rites specified that a candidate for ordination as a deacon or priest be vested in a "a playne Albe," and that a candidate for ordination as a bishop and the presenting bishops be vested in "Surples and Cope." The ordination rites had been out only a day or two when Hooper, who was soon thereafter nominated to the bishopric at Gloucester, preached before the king denouncing the vestments. In the 1552 Book of Common Prayer, a rubric preceding Morning Prayer dealt with vesture: "And here is to be noted, that the minister at the tyme of the Comunion and all other tymes in his ministracion, shall use neither albe, vestment, nor cope: but being archbishop or bishop, he shall have and wear a rochet; and being a preest or deacon, he shall have and wear a surplice onely." Exiles on the continent during Mary's reign rejected the use of the surplice. The 1559 revision replaced the 1552 rubric on vestments with one which reads: "And here is to be noted, that the Minister at the tyme of the comunion and at all other tymes in his ministracion, shall use such ornamentes in the church, as were in use by aucthoritie of parliament in the second yere of the reygne of king Edeard the VI." The rubric was apparently designed to restore the use of eucharistic vestments, but it did not have that effect. Archbishop Parker's "Advertisements" of 1566 simply ordered the use of a cope by the celebrant, the gospeller, and the epistoler at celebrations of the Eucharist in cathedral and collegiate churches, and of a surplice and hood at other services and for preaching. In other churches, the minister was to wear the surplice for all rites. These regulations were not universally followed. In many places a black gown was worn for preaching and often for presiding or assisting at the services. Ceremonial Actions. The 1549 Book of Common Prayer prescribed little ceremonial. In the eucharistic prayer, the celebrant was to make signs of the cross over the bread and wine during the epiclesis and to take the bread and the cup in his hands at the Institution Narrative. Baptism included a signation, vesting with the "Crisome," and an anointing. The marriage rite included the giving of a ring and specified a sign of the cross with each of the two blessings. Visitation of the Sick provided for an optional anointing. Though few ceremonial actions were required, the only rubric that explicitly forbade an old action was printed immediately after the Institution Narrative: "These wordes before rehersed are to be saied, turning still to the Altar, without any eleuacion or shewing the Sacrament to the people." Among the "Notes" at the end of the book is one which reads, "As touching, kneeling, crossing, holding up handes, knocking upon the brest, and other gestures: they may be used or left as every mans deuocion serueth without blame." Though some priests were accused of "counterfeiting Masse" rather than using the book in the way in which it was intended to be used, many found the retention of even these few required ceremonial actions objectionable. The 1552 book dropped all indications for the use of the sign of the cross except for the signation in baptism, all directions for any manual acts in the eucharistic prayer, and all references to anointing. The 1549 book had not specified the posture for receiving Communion, and in some places people received while seated. The 1552 book specified kneeling as the posture, but explained in a rubric that this did not imply "anye reall and essencial presence there beeying of Christ's naturall fleshe and bloude." The 1559 revision dropped this rubric but retained the direction to kneel. The 1549 book had retained the use of wafers which were to be put in the communicants' mouths by the priest. The 1552 book allowed use of bread "such, as is usuall to bee eaten at the Table wyth other meates," and this was to be put into the communicants' hands rather than their mouths. Provisions regarding ceremonial actions were not changed in the 1559 revision, but the Royal Injunctions published that year directed that "whensoever the name of Jesus shall be in any lesson, sermon, or otherwise in the church pronounced, that due reverence be made." Among the issues raised in the Millenary Petition presented to King James, April 1603, were the use of the signation in baptism and the ring in the marriage rite and bowing at the name of Jesus. A committee appointed by the House of Lords in 1641 listed "innovations" that had arisen. These pointed to some of the changes in practice among those of the so-called Laudian school. Among the "innovations" were turning the table altar-wise and calling it an altar, bowing toward the table, putting candlesticks on it, compelling communicants to receive at the rails, turning east for the creed and prayers, offering of bread and wine by the hand of the churchwardens or others "before the consecration," standing for the hymns (canticles) and the Gloria Patri, and carrying children from baptism to the table, "there to offer them up to God." The Music. There is evidence that in some places plainsong settings and polyphonic settings for the old Latin texts were adapted for the new English texts at the time of or even before the appearance of the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549. In The booke of Common praier noted [London, 1550] John Marbeck [Merbecke], organist at the royal chapel at Windsor, provided simple music, one note per syllable, partly adapted from plainsong and partly original, for almost all of the texts of the daily offices, the eucharistic rite, and the burial rites. When the 1552 revision appeared, Marbeck's settings fell out of use because of changes in the texts. The rubrics of the 1552 book allowed for the singing of certain portions of the rites "in a plain tune after the manner of distinct reading." Clement Marot had produced metrical versions of psalms which were sung to popular tunes in the French court. This was imitated in England. Thomas Sternhold began to translate the Psalms, generally in "Ballad Metre" or "Common Metre." Nineteen of these were published in 1547. After Sternold's death, John Hopkins in 1549 published this collection with an additional eighteen metrical versions by Sternhold and seven of his own. There is no evidence, however, that these were used in liturgical services prior to the accession of Mary and the suppression of the Book of Common Prayer. Congregations of English people in exile during the reign of Mary published revised and expanded versions of the Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter, with tunes from German and French sources, including tunes now commonly known as psalm 42, old 100th, old 112th [vater unser], old 113th, old 124th, old 134th [st. michael], commandments, le cantique de simeon [nunc dimittis], and erhalt uns, herr, and with other tunes apparently never before published (for example, old 148th). These congregations in exile, following the examples of continental churches, began to make use of metrical versions of the Psalms and other liturgical texts in the services. Elizabeth's Royal Injunctions of 1559 allowed a hymn at the beginning and end of services. In 1562 The Whole Booke of Psalmes, collected into Englysh metre was first printed. This Psalter, which continued to be published into the nineteenth century, contained metrical versions of Sternhold and Hopkins or others of every psalm and of several Prayer Book texts (the Veni Creator, the canticles, the Lord's Prayer, the Decalogue, the Athanasian and Apostles' Creeds). It also contained several hymns, including two which were translations from German. From 1566 the title page described these metrical psalms and hymns as being allowed before and after sermons as well as before and after the daily offices. One of the hymns (124 lines in length) was for use at the time of the ministration of Communion. During the reigns of Elizabeth and the Stuarts, plainsong, anthems, and new polyphonic service music was used by choirs in cathedrals, royal chapels, college chapels, and a few parish churches with endowed choirs. The music in the typical parish church, however, was largely confined to the metrical psalms and hymns of the Sternhold and Hopkins psalter. With a few tunes repeated, a proper tune was appointed for each text—sixty-seven tunes in the fullest edition (1570). In the typical parish church, the psalms and hymns were normally led by a clerk without the benefit of a choir or any instrument. They were apparently sung at a fast clip and with a pronounced rhythm, for they were derided by some as "Genevan jigs." Later in the reign of Elizabeth, the fashion turned toward slower singing and shorter tunes. Among tunes that are still in use windsor and southwell were apparently first printed in Damon's 1579 edition of the psalter. East's (Est's, Este's) 1592 version introduced several new tunes, including cheshire and winchester old. Ravenscroft's 1621 edition was the first to print with the texts of the Sternhold and Hopkins psalter some tunes from the Scottish psalters, including dundee, martyrs, st. david's, and york, as well as a tune from Archbishop Matthew Parker's Psalter, the eighth tune ['tallis' canon]. Ravenscroft also introduced other tunes, including bristol, durham, manchester, and old 104th. The Rites. The prayer books called for Morning and Evening Prayer to be said daily by all priests and deacons. A minister in charge of a parish was to say them in the church or chapel, after having tolled a bell "that suche as be disposed maye come to heare Goddes worde, and to praie with hymn." The attendance of all in the parish was expected on Sundays and major holy days. On Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Morning Prayer was followed by the Litany, and on Sundays and major holy days, by Ante-Communion, if not the whole of the eucharistic rite. Early in the reign of Elizabeth, the singing of a metrical psalm or hymn was allowed before the beginning of Morning Prayer. The 1552 revision directed Morning Prayer to begin with a penitential section (for which there was precedent in Calvinistic liturgies), which consisted of a scriptural sentence and an exhortation calling to repentance, a general confession lined out by the minister (for which the congregation was to kneel), and a declaration of forgiveness to which the people were to respond "Amen." The elements which followed the opening penitential section were mostly derived from the old rites of Matins, Lauds, and Prime. The minister was to say "wyth a loude voyce" the shorter form of the Lord's Prayer. A short series of versicles and responses which incorporated the Gloria Patri introduced the psalmody. Psalm 95 (Venite) was to be said or sung daily except on Easter Day itself when two brief anthems from the New Testament (Romans 6:9–11 and 1 Corinthians 15:20–22) were to be used instead. The Venite was to be followed by a selection from the Psalms. Proper psalms were appointed for Christmas Day, Easter Day, Ascension Day, and Whitsunday (Pentecost). The Prayer Book provided a table which divided the psalms between Morning and Evening Prayer over the period of a month. As opposed to the medieval systems, this meant that even those who came to church only on Sundays would be exposed to the whole psalter every seven months, but particular psalms might come up at very inappropriate times (Psalms 144–150 on Ash Wednesday or the First Sunday in Lent, for example, or Psalms 50–55 on a festal day such as Epiphany, Trinity Sunday, or All Saints). In some places, the Psalms were sung to plainsong tones, sometimes with a fauxbourdon, from which Anglican chant evolved early in the seventeenth century. The Psalter was not bound with the early prayer books, and in most places, the Psalms appointed would have been read by the minister or the clerk, or the minister and the clerk would have alternated verse by verse (if we can judge by the printing of alternate verses in italics or in a different font in some of the Elizabethan special forms). Each psalm was followed by the Gloria Patri. The Psalms were followed by the reading or singing "in a plain tune after the maner of distinct reading," of a chapter from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. To assure that the Old Testament "except certain bokes and chapiters, whiche be least edifyeng" would be read once each year, the lectionary was arranged according to the civil calendar rather than the church year. Depending upon the date of Easter, post-resurrection material from John and Acts might be read in Lent, or the account of the Passion in Eastern season. A particularly weak point of the system was that those who attended church only on Sundays and Holy Days would often get lessons from the Old Testament which made little sense out of context. At the 1559 revision, proper Old Testament lessons were appointed for the Sundays and Holy Days, but proper New Testament lessons were provided for only three Sundays: Easter, Pentecost, and Trinity Sunday. The chapter from the Old Testament might be read by either the minister or the clerk; that from the New Testament was apparently normally read by the minister. The chapter from the Old Testament was followed by the saying or singing of one or the other of two canticles, Te Deum or Benedicite omnia opera. Since the alternative canticle was from the Apocrypha its use was avoided by those of Puritan persuasion. The chapter from the New Testament was followed by either the Song of Zechariah (Benedictus) or Psalm 100 (Jubilate Deo). Those of Puritan persuasion favored the Jubilate Deo, believing that it was not proper for others to appropriate the singing of the Song of Zechariah (or the Songs of Mary or of Simeon, the first of the alternatives that followed the lessons at Evening Prayer). The appointed place for baptism was between the New Testament lesson and the canticle which followed. On major feasts and on certain saints' days, the Athanasian Creed would be said or sung immediately after the canticle following the second lesson. On most days, however, the canticle would be followed immediately by the Apostles' Creed, which was to be said by all, standing. The creed was followed by the Kyrie and the short form of the Lord's Prayer, said by all, kneeling. The minister was then to resume a standing position for versicles and responses and three collects, the collect of the day and two that were said daily throughout the year, a collect for peace and a collect for grace. Where there was a choir, an anthem often followed this third collect. In other places, a metrical psalm or hymn may have been sung. On Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Morning Prayer was followed by the Litany, said kneeling. This may have been followed by an anthem or a metrical psalm or hymn. This is the point in the Sunday morning service at which women would have been "churched" and couples would have been married. Cranmer's ideal was communion every Sunday and Holy Day, but he did not approve of a Eucharist at which only the priest received. There had to be a "good noumbere" to receive with the priest, "And yf there be not above twentie persons in the Parishe of discretion to receive the communion: Yet there shal be no Communion, excepte foure, or three at the least communicate wiyth the Prieste." Persons not used to receiving more than once a year, and then typically from the reserved sacrament immediately after private confession, did not immediately embrace frequent communions. In many parishes, there was a celebration once a month or even less frequently, yet to keep the ideal of every Sunday communion before the people the Ante-communion was to be said every Sunday. Text: THE EUCHARISTIC RITE OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, 1662 [The Eucharist would be immediately preceded by Morning Prayer and Litany] PSALM 100 [Tate and Brady] (Tune: old hundredth): With one consent let all the earth To God their cheerful voices raise; Glad homage pay with awful mirth, And sing before him songs of praise. Convinc'd that he is God alone From whom both we and all proceed; We, whom he chooses for his own, The flock that he vouchsafes to feed. O enter then his temple gate, Thence to his courts devoutly press, And still your grateful hymns repeat, And still his Name with praises bless. For he's the Lord, supremely good, His mercy is for ever sure: His truth, which always firmly stood, To endless ages shall endure. THE LORD'S PRAYER (Priest alone; the people kneeling): Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; But deliver us from evil. Amen. COLLECT (Priest): Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen. Despite the fact that the prayer book directed that Ante-communion begin with the priest standing at the north side of the table, it seems typically to have been read from the same place as Morning Prayer. The priest alone said the short form of the Lord's Prayer, followed by a prayer that later came to be known as the Collect for Purity, elements that had been part of the priest's private preparation in late medieval rites and the 1549 prayer book. THE DECALOGUE (Priest: the people, still kneeling, respond after each commandment): God spake these words, and said; I am the Lord thy God: Thou shalt have none other gods but me. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, and visit the sins to the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and show mercy unto thousands in them that love me, and keep my commandments. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless, that taketh his Name in vain. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all that thou hast to do; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no manner of work, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, thy cattle, and the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and allowed it. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law. Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long in the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law. Thou shalt do no murder. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law. Thou shalt not steal. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law. Thou shalt not bear witness against thy neighbour. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his. Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee.