sanction was withdrawn and it ceased to be printed. From this
reformed breviary the compilers of the Prayer Book borrowed the
following. (a) Many passages—almost verbatim—in the preface
“Concerning the Service of the Church.” It would occupy too
much space to print them in parallel columns here. (b) Making
the Sunday and Holy-day services identical in structure with the
week-day services. (c) The removal of all antiphons and responds.
This refers to Quignon's first edition only. (d) The increased
amount of Holy Scripture read. Quignon provided a first lesson
from the Old Testament; a second lesson from the New Testament;
and on Saints' Days a third lesson from the Lives of the Saints,
though this lesson was also occasionally taken from Holy Scripture.
(e) The prefixing to every service a form of confession and absolution.
The idea, not the actual language, is borrowed by the Prayer
Book. (f) The substitution of the Athanasian Creed for the Apostles
Creed on certain days instead of the former being an addition to
the latter. So in the Prayer Book, when used, the Athanasian
Creed is substituted for, not added to, the shorter creed. (g) The
uniform assignment of three Psalms to each hour suggests the
average number and arrangement of the Psalms in the Prayer Book
at Matins and Evensong.
3. The Mozarabic Missal. (a) The four short prayers preceding the prayer for the consecration of the water in the office for the public baptism of infants are adapted from the benediction of the font in the Mozarabic Liturgy (Migne, Pat. Lat. tom. lxxxv. col. 465). The evidence for this borrowing is still plainer in the larger form of prayer for this purpose provided in the first book of Edward VI. The Mozarabic Liturgy was printed and published under Cardinal Ximenes in 1500, and may well have been in Cranmer's hands; whereas the Missale gallicanum, a Gallican Sacramentary, containing the same prayers with slight variations, was first published by Cardinal Thomesius in 1680 and must have been unknown to Cranmer. (b) According to F. Procter and W. H. Frere (A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, p. 375: London, 1902), the use of the plural number instead of the singular in the form of the opening versicle's of Morning and Evening prayer is a following of Mozarabic usage. But we have been unable to verify this statement. (c) Many of the new collects introduced into the Prayer Book, though not transferred bodily from any Mozarabic service book, are modelled upon a Mozarabic pattern, and preserve some Mozarabic ideas and phrases, e.g. the references to the Second Advent in the collects for the first and third Sundays in Advent take their tone from the Mozarabic Advent services. The collect for Christmas Day is based on a collect for Christmas Day Lauds in the Mozarabic Breviary (Migne, Pat. Lat. tom. lxxxvi., col. 122). The collect for the first Sunday in Lent is based on a preface (Inlatio) in the Mass for the Wednesday after the fifth Sunday in Lent (ibid., tom. lxxxv., col. 382). The collect for the first Sunday after Easter is based upon an “Alia Oratio” (ibid., col. 517), and an “Oratio ad pacem” (col. 518) for the Saturday in Easter week. The collect for St Andrew's Day is based on a Missa in the Mozarabic Mass for the same festival (ibid., col. 159). Other examples might be given, but this is hardly the place for complete details. (d) The many addresses, beginning with “Dearly beloved brethren” (“the Scripture moveth us,” &c.), introduced into most of the services in the Prayer Book, correspond to the addresses which, under the title of “Missa,” and generally addressed to “fratres dilectissimi” or “carissimi,” form part of every Mozarabic Mass. (e) The prayer of consecration in the Order of Holy Communion, especially as regards the recital of the words of institution commencing “Who in the same night,” &c., follows a Mozarabic rather than the Sarum or Roman model in several respects, but the same features are found in the consecration prayer in the Brandenburg-Nürnberg agenda of 1533, and it is doubtful whether the Anglican borrowing is from a Mozarabic or a Lutheran source. Possibly both the Anglican and Lutheran formulae are derived independently from the Mozarabic; because, as we have seen, a Mozarabic missal was certainly in Cranmer's hands and studied by him.
4. Eastern Liturgies. These were certainly known to Cranmer, but it is remarkable how little he borrowed from them. (a) The prayer which was placed at the end of the Litany in 1549, and now stands as the last prayer but one at the end of Matins and Evensong, as well as of the Litany, was undoubtedly borrowed from the Liturgy of St Chrysostom, where, as likewise in the Liturgy of St Basil, it forms the prayer of the third antiphon after the Deacon's Litany in the Mass of the Catechumens. (b) The concluding prayer of Matins and Evensong, “The Grace of our Lord,” &c., which was added in 1662, may have been taken from Greek liturgies. It is the opening salutation in the Mass of the Catechumens in the Clementine Liturgy. where it occurs again, as it does in the Greek Liturgies before the “Sursum corda”; though there is no evidence to prove that it was not taken directly from Holy Scripture (2 Cor. xiii. 14). (c) The Epiklesis or invocation of the Holy Spirit upon the elements, must have been copied from an Eastern Liturgy. It occurs in the 1549 Prayer Book, but has been omitted in all subsequent editions. It runs thus: “Hear us, O merciful Father, we beseech Thee, and with Thy holy Spirit and word vouchsafe to bl†ess and sanc†tify these Thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine, that they may be unto us the body and blood of Thy most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ.”
This is not an exact translation of any known epiklesis, and Cranmer altered its position from after to immediately before the words of institution. (d) Four petitions in the Litany. “That it may please Thee to illuminate all Bishops, Priests and Deacons,” &c. (altered in 1661 from all Bishops, pastors and ministers) and “That it may please Thee to give to all nations unity, peace and concord,” and “That it may please Thee to succour, help and comfort all that are in danger, necessity and tribulation,” and “That it may please Thee to preserve all that travel by land or by water, all women labouring of child, all sick persons, and young children, and to show Thy pity upon all prisoners and captives!” are almost certainly modelled on corresponding petitions in the Deacon's Litany in the Liturgy of St Chrysostom (ed. F. E. Brightman, p. 362, i. 35, and p. 363, lines 4, 17, 15). At least, they resemble far more closely the Greek petitions than they do any corresponding Latin petitions in the Old Sarum Litany.
5. Lutheran and other continental Protestant service books. The most considerable quantity of the new material which was imported into the Prayer Book was drawn from Lutheran and Genevan service books. The Litany, for example, in the Prayer Book is based upon the medieval Latin Litany, but great variation both in substance and language and by way of addition and omission, are made in it. These variations are largely borrowed from and closely follow the language of various Lutheran litanies, especially that given in the consultation of Archbishop Hermann of Cologne issued in 1543. Lutheran influence can likewise be traced in way of variation introduced into the baptismal and other sacramental or occasional offices. So in the Communion service the most striking departures from ancient precedent have a Protestant origin. The introduction of the Ten Commandments in 1553 seems to be derived from the order of service published by Valerandus Pollanus (Pullain) in 1551; and that of the Comfortable Words in 1549 is borrowed, though all the texts chosen are not identical, from the Consultation of Hermann. It is impossible to pursue this subject here further in detail.
6. Original compositions of the compilers of the Prayer Book, not traceable to ancient or 16th-century originals. These are not numerous. They include most of the collects on Saints' Days, for which, though no direct evidence of authorship is as yet forthcoming, Cranmer is probably responsible, and certain other collects, such as that for the Royal Family (Archbishop Whitgift); that for the high court of parliament (Archbishop Laud); that for all conditions of men (Bishop Gunning), &c.
We proceed to describe next the various stages through which the Book of Common Prayer has passed and the leading features of each revision. Of changes preceding the first Prayer Book it will only be necessary to mention here: (a) The compiling and publishing of the Litany in English by Cranmer in 1544. (b) Royal injunctions in August 1547 ordering the Epistle and Gospel to be read in English at High Mass. (c) A royal proclamation, dated the 8th of March 1548, imposing for use at the coming Easter The Order of the Communion. This was an order or form of service in English for the communion of the people in both kinds. It was to be inserted into the service after the communion of the priest, without making any other alteration in the Latin Mass. It comprised the long exhortation or notice to be given on Sunday, or on some other day, previous to the Communion, the longer exhortation, and the shorter invitation, the confession, absolution, comfortable words, prayer of humble access, formulae of administration and the concluding peace, all as they exist at present, though with variations of some importance.
The first complete vernacular Book of Common Prayer was issued in 1549. It was carried through both houses of parliament by the 21st of January 1549, by an Act of Uniformity which made its use compulsory on and after the following Whit-Sunday. The exact date of the giving of the royal assent, and the question whether this Book received the assent of Convocation, are historical points of difficulty and uncertainty which cannot be treated at length here.
Some of the chief points of difference between this and subsequent Prayer Books were the following: Matins and Evensong began with the Lord's Prayer, and ended with the third collect; there were no alternative Psalm-canticles for Benedictus, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis; the Athanasian Creed was introduced after the Benedictus on six festivals only, and in addition to the Apostles' Creed; the Litany was placed after the Communion service, for which an alternative title was given, viz.; “commonly called the Mass.” Introits were provided for use on every Sunday and Holy-Day; after the offertory
