The first Book of Common Prayer was printed in 1549. To celebrate the Feast of the Holy Trinity and our Prayer Book Tradition we will celebrate the Holy Eucharist using this historic liturgy Sunday, June 19th at the 11:15 AM service. A service booklet with the liturgy included has been prepared.A Brief History
Henry VIII had the liturgies of the Church said in Latin throughout his reign, even after his separation from Rome. However, once Henry died and the young Edward VI attained the throne in 1547, the stage was set for some very significant changes in the religious life of the country. One such change was producing in English the first Book of Common Prayer. It is generally assumed that this Prayer Book is largely the work of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, but as no records of the development of the prayer book exist, this cannot be definitively determined.
The 1549 Book of Common Prayer was not created in a vacuum, but derives from several sources such as the ancient Sarum Rite which was the Latin liturgy developed in Salisbury in the thirteenth century and widely used in England, and a reformed Roman Breviary of the Spanish Cardinal Quiñones and a book on doctrine and liturgy by Hermann von Wied, Archbishop of Cologne.
There were a number of books required for all the Latin liturgies. The priest's part of the Mass was contained in the Missal, which is the book on the Altar. The Mass also required a book for the choir, and another which gave the unique parts for each day; not only did the lections change from day to day (as they do now), but there were also many other differences (prayers, etc.) from one day to another.
The Latin Missal was divided into two parts: the Ordinary, and the Canon, the latter corresponding approximately to the Eucharistic Prayer we know today. The Canon was fairly similar among the three or four Uses employed in England; the Ordinary less so. Although this Sarum Missal was one of the main influences on the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, there are more differences than similarities.
While the general outline of the service, and many of the prayers of the Canon are quite similar, many other parts, particularly the rubrics involved with the priest's actions, were drastically changed and simplified.
The 1549 BCP was in use only for three years, until the extensive revision of 1552. Many of the 1552 BCP were made as compromises to keep peace with the growing presence and influence of "English Puritan's". "Puritans" were a grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. They actually were an activist movement within the Church of England dating back to around 1564. They by in large felt that the English Reformation had not gone far enough, and that the Church of England had retained too much Catholic theology and liturgical practice. "Puritans" formed into and identified with various religious groups advocating greater "purity" of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group piety.
Puritans adopted an anti-Catholic and Reformed theology that was developed by Martin Luther, John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli and others. In church polity, over all Puritans advocated for separation from all other Christians, in favor of autonomous gathered churches. These separatist and independent strands of Puritanism became prominent in the 1640s, when the supporters of a Presbyterian polity in the Westminster Assembly were unable to forge a new English national church. We still see this "separatist" attitude in modern day Protestantism. The bottom line here is that since 1552 forward the Church of England and Anglicanism struggle to retain a consistent and right understand and practice of its Apostolic and Catholic faith and legacy.
However, much of the 1549 BCP tradition and language remain in all this historic Prayer Books of today. Please join us as we explore our Anglican liturgical legacy.
