The First and Second Prayer Books of King Edward the Sixth

INTRODUCTION -- THE few pages at my disposal for an introduction to the two Prayer-Books of Edward VI. will be best utilised by a brief sketch of the circumstances under which the books in question were issued, and an indication of their leadiug characteristics. I. In the early part of the sixteenth century there was a very gcneral feeling throughout the Church, on the continent as well as in this country, that some liturgical reform was an imperative necessity. The revival of learning had brought into discredit many of the accretions and much of the legendary matter which in course of time had found their way into the services of the Church the multiplication of festivals had seriously dislocated the system whereby the whole Psalter was required to be recited in the course of the week there was no little confusion in the complicated rules which governed the use of the Breviary while the doctrinal reformation which followed on Luthers early protests against the system of indulgences called, in the opinion of many persons, for drastic and far reaching changes, especially in the Eucharistic Service of the Church. We are not concerned here with the continental movements for liturgical reform, except in so far as they have influenced our own Book of Common Prayer. It will be sufficient to notice that such movements were not confined to those who broke away from the Roman obedience. One remarkable book stands out pre-eminently as having been drawn up and used with the sanction of the Pope for more than thirty years. This was the Reformed Breviary of the Spanish Cardinal Quignon, the first edition of which was issued id 1535, being followed by a second and revised edition in 1537. The bookwas designed to facilitate the private recitation of the hour services by the clergy rather than to be publicly used in choir. It met with considerable success, and was evidently widely used for a time, since more than a hundred editions of it were published before its suppression in 1568 and it is noteworthy as having vii viii Prayer-Books of Edward V1 furnished Cranmer with guidance for that revision of the Hour Services of the Sarum Breviary, which has resulted in the Order for Morning and Evening Prayer in our own service book. Indeed no small part of the Preface of the first Prayer-Book of Edward VI. which still finds a place in our present book under the title Concerning the Service of the Church is a literal translation from the preface of the first edition of Quignons work, showing conclusively that it was from this that Cranmer adopted the main principles which guided him in his treatment of the Hour Services. One other continental book must also be mentioned, the Simplex ac pia deliberatio of Hermann von Wied, Archbishop of Cologne. This, which was actually the work of Bucer and Melancthon, was published in German in 1543 and in Latin in 1545. Two years later an English translation appeared in this country 1547, 2nd ed. 1548 u nder the title of A simple and religious Cmszsultation of us Hevman, by the Grace of God, Archbishop of Colone, and Prince Ebctoure, C., by what meanes a Christian vefmmatim, and founded in Gods worde, Of doctrine, administration of Divine Sacramentes, Of Ceremonies, and the whole cure of soules, and other ecclesiasticall ministeries, may be begon among men committed to our pastorall charge, etc. This was not strictly speaking a service book. It wasrather a book of doctrine and discipline. Incidentally, however, it contained much guidance for the Churchs worship, and several forms of prayer, taken to a great extent from the Kirchen-Ordnung, drawn up in 1533 by Osiander for Brandenberg and Niiremberg...