YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE
BOOK OF COMMON
PRAYER

SEWANEE THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY

GENERAL EDITOR — The Rev. Arthur R. Gray, Edu
cational Secretary of The Board of Missions; sometime
Chaplain of the University of the South.
THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH, by the Rt. Rev.
A. C. A. Hall, D.D., LL.D., Bishop of Vermont
"It is at once moat comprehensive and most condensed; and its dealing with some
of the difficult and important questions of our time, such as the Resurrection, the In
carnation, and especially the Atonement, is a remarkable piece of clear theological
statement and logical argument.11 — Rt. Rev. W. C. Doahe.
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, by the Very Rev.
Samuel Hart, D.D., LL.D., Dean of Berkeley Divinity
School.
"It is admirably adapted to the uses of students of theology, and is, beyond com
parison, the best book of its kind for the reading of Churchmen in general." — Drr*
George Hodges, Dean of the Episcopal Theological School.
APOLOGETICS, by the General Editor.
"Distinctly pragmatic, but also thoroughly theistic." — Dr. VV. P. DuBose.
"This volume has many excellencies; .but the chief of them is its masterly exposure
ofthe claims of Naturalism." — Princeton Theological Review.
MANUAL OF EARLY ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
to 476 a.d., by the Very Rev. Chas. L. Wells, Ph.D.,
Lecturer in History, McGill University, Montreal ; some
time Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, New Orleans.
" Compact, clear, and admirably arranged. ... A boon alike to men preparing
themselves for examination and to the general reader." — The Church Timet (London).
"Adapted for lay use ; . . . . the layman . , . will find this a book ... fit to set
him on the way towards the mastery of Church History."— The Expository Times.
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY from 476 a.d., by the
Rev. Wilson Lloyd Bevan, Ph.D., Professor of History
and Economics, University of the South. (Shortly.)
THE OLD TESTAMENT, by the Rev. Loring W.
Batten, Ph.D., S.T.D., Professor of the Literature and
Interpretation of the Old Testament, General Theological
Seminary. (In preparation.)
THE NEW TESTAMENT, by the Rev. William H. P.
Hatch, B.D., Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of the Literature
and Interpretation of the New Testament, The General
Theological Seminary. (In preparation.)
ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY, by the Rev. Georgb Wii>
liam Douglas, D.D., Canon of the Cathedral of St. John
the Divine, New York. (In preparation.)
CHRISTIAN ETHICS. (To be arranged for.)
*% In uniform volumes, 12-mo. cloth, printed on imparted
English paper, price $130 per volume, post, prepaid.

SEW A NEE THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY
THE
BOOK OF COMMON
PRAYER

BY
SAMUEL HART, D.D.,LL.D.
DEAN OF BERKELEY DIVINITY SCHOOL, CUSTODIAN OF THE
STANDARD BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER

SECOND EDITION, REVISED

W$t ainttwjsitp $re*0
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH
SEWANEE, TENNESSEE

Copyright, 1913
By The University Press of
Sewanee Tennessee

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EDITOR'S PREFACE
THE object of this series is to provide for the
clergy and laity of the Church a statement, in
convenient form, of its Doctrine, Discipline and
Worship — as well as to meet the often expressed de
sire on the part of Examining Chaplains for text
books which they could recommend to candidates
for Holy Orders.
To satisfy, on the one hand, the demand of general
readers among the clergy and laity, the books have
been provided with numerous references to larger
works, making them introductory in their nature;
and on the other hand, to make them valuable for use
in canonical examinations, they have been arranged
according to the canons of the Church which deal
with that matter.
It is the earnest hope of the collaborators in this
series that the impartial scholarship and unbiased at
titude adopted throughout will commend themselves
to Churchmen of all types, and that the books will
therefore be accorded a general reception and adopted
as far as possible as a norm for canonical examina
tions. The need of such a norm is well known to all.
And finally a word to Examining Chaplains. They
will find that the volumes are so arranged that it will

EDITOR'S PREFACE

be possible to adapt them to all kinds of students.
The actual text itself should be taken as the minimum
of requirement from the candidate, and then, by
reference on their part to the bibliographies at the
end of each chapter, they can increase as they see fit
the amount of learning to be demanded in each case.
It has been the endeavor of the editor to make these
bibliographies so comprehensive that Examining
Chaplains will always find suitable parallel readings.
If in any way the general public will be by this
series encouraged to study the position of the
Church, and if the canonical examinations in the
different dioceses can be brought into greater har
mony one with another, our object will be accom
plished.
Arthur R. Gray.

PREFACE
THE primary purpose of this volume is to guide
Candidates for Holy Orders in their study of
the History and the Contents of the Book of Common
Prayer as it has been set forth for use in the Amer
ican Church. To this end, I have followed the
method of familiar lectures, such as can be^inter-
rupted by question and answer; assuming through
out that the reader has an acquaintance with the
Book, but that he wishes to be informed as to its
origins, its principles, its purposes, and some of the
details of its phraseology and use. I have endeav
ored, therefore, to answer the questions which such
a reader might be minded to ask, and to suggest to
him lines of inquiry for more thorough study. It
will be evident that in such a method many matters
will receive attention which are of comparatively
little importance, and liturgical scholars will see
that this book lacks balance and perspective; but I
hope that the defect will be in part excused by some
little addition to its interest and to its practical
usefulness. Moreover, in such a hand-book it is
frequently necessary to express an opinion; but it
should not be thought that the present writer con
siders all his opinions of equal value, or indeed that

PREFACE

he would attach undue importance to any opinion of
his own. It must be left to the reader to distinguish
between opinions and statements of historical or theo
logical facts.
There are few books as interesting or as valuable
as the Book of Common Prayer. "The difficulties that
people find with the Prayer Book," says the author of
Ecclesia Discens, "are mainly due to their not using
it as it was intended to be used, systematically and
continuously. In one sense it is hard to master, be
cause it contains a great deal that is worth learning.
A practical acquaintance with the year of worship
which it provides and with some of its occasional
offices is a liberal education in the things necessary
to salvation."

In the second edition the writer has been able to
correct some errors, availing himself of the kindly
criticisms of friends. The Index has been much
enlarged.

S. H-

Berkeley Divinity School,
St. Luke's Day, 1912.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Introductory  i
The English Prayer Book  5
The American Prayer Book  17
II. The Preliminary Pages of the Prayer Book:
Title, Ratification, Preface  35
Concerning the Service of the Church  36
The Psalter  39
Lessons of Scripture  42
Hymns and Anthems  47
The Calendar, with Tables and Lessons  48
Tables and Rules  53
III. Morning and Evening Prayer  64
The Creed of Saint Athanasius  96
IV. The Litany  100
V. Special Prayers and Thanksgivings  1 1 1
The Penitential Office  115
VI. The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels  117
Coincidence of Holy Days  133
VII. The Holy Communion — I:
History of the Office  138
VIII. The Holy Communion — II :
Commentary on the Office  166
The Communion of the Sick  202
IX. The Ministration of Baptism :
Public Baptism of Infants  209
Private Baptism of Children  219
Baptism of those of Riper Years  222
X. The Catechism  227
Questions and Answers on the Church  232

x CONTENTS 
XI. The Order of Confirmation  23°
XII. The Solemnization of Matrimony  244
XIII. The Visitation of the Sick  254
XIV. The Burial of the Dead  261
XV. Other Offices :
The Churching of Women  271
Forms of Prayer to be Used at Sea  272
The Visitation of Prisoners  273
Thanksgiving-day  273
Family Prayers  274
XVI. The Psalter  275
XVII. The Ordinal  278
Consecration of a Church ; Institution of Min
isters  287
Index  291

THE
BOOK OF COMMON
PRAYER

THE
BOOK OF COMMON
PRAYER i.
INTRODUCTORY
THE Prayer Book, or rather the Book described
by its title as "The Book of Common Prayer,
and Administration of the Sacraments, and other
Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, . . . together
with the Psalter or Psalms of David", really con
sists of five books, which had never been brought
together within one cover until the time of the Eng
lish Reformation; in fact, it is only in the English
Church and those connected with it that the five
books are to-day customarily printed and bound to
gether. These constituent parts of our Prayer Book
are called, in the anglicized form of their Latin
names, the Breviary, the Processional, the Missal,
the Manual, and the Psalter. The last named is
really a book of the Bible, arranged for use on the
successive days of the month, and bound up with the
service-books — a provision made almost necessary
by the fact that it is used in Church in an old trans
lation which is rarely printed elsewhere. In regard

THE BOOK OF COMMON PR A YER

to each of the other parts of the volume a few words
may be said.
The Breviary, so called because it was originally a
compendium or concise arrangement of devotional
offices, contained the services for the several hours of
each day of the week, modified for special days of
the Church's year, with the Calendar and rules for
their use; it also contained the Psalter, the several
Psalms being distributed according to the places in
which they were to be read. The present Roman
Breviary is in four good-sized volumes, one for each
season of the year. The parts corresponding to it in
our Book are the general rubrics, with calendar and
tables, and the Order for Daily Morning and Even
ing Prayer.
The Processional was a book of Litanies, so called
because Litanies were often sung in procession.
Our Litany, with the special Prayers and Thanks
givings and the Penitential Office, corresponds to
this. The Missal contained the service used at the cele
bration of the Mass or Eucharist,' including the
Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, the psalms or verses
sung in connection with them, the Prefaces, and cer
tain variable prayers for different days. The Order
for the Holy Communion, with the Collects, Epis
tles, and Gospels, as of old, corresponds to this.
The Manual included all the services which we
call Occasional, as they were used by the priests, in
cluding also that for Confirmation as being a paro-

INTRODUCTORY

chial service. To it corresponds the offices for Bap
tism and those which follow.
After the Psalter there is placed in our Book —
though really it is another book bound up with the
former — what was called a Pontifical : that is, a col
lection of offices used by Bishops. It includes with
us the three Ordination services, with their Litany
and Communion Office, the form for the Consecra
tion of a Church, and that for the Institution of a
Rector. The Articles of Religion are, in accordance with
long-established custom, bound with the Prayer
Book; but they have their own title-page and are
not a part of the Prayer Book at all.
It may be interesting to note that both the Breviary
(as indeed its name denotes) and the Missal were
made up of more than one earlier book. The
Lessons, extracts from Homilies, and other readings
for the daily offices were contained in the Legenda;
the Antiphons and other sung parts in the Antiph-
onal; the complicated rules for reading the ser
vices in the Ordinal or Directorium, which latter,
from the great number of large black letters on its
pages, contrasting with the white of the paper, was
called in Latin 'Pica' ('magpie'), anglicized into
'Pie'.1 The Missal was also used in distinct parts :
the Sacramentary contained what was said or sung by
the celebrant, and his assistants had the Epistle-

1 This gave name to ' pica' type and perhaps to printers' ' pi '.

THE BOOK OF COMMON PR A YER

book or Apostle and the Gospel-book for their parts
of the service. There was also a Gradual-book for
the choir, containing the gradual psalms sung be
tween the Epistle and the Gospel, and a Troper
with later additions to the musical part of the
service. We are familiar in our Church with
Litany-books and Altar Services; our Bishops have
Ordinals with other services which they use ; and in
England separate Epistle-books and Gospel-books
have been printed.
All the services contained in the ancient books
mentioned as in use in the Western Church — and
the Eastern Church has in principle the same offices —
continued to be used in England throughout the
reign of King Henry VIII, who died early in 1547.
Before that time, the translation of the Bible known
as the Great Bible and first published in 1539 (an
edition of Coverdale's translation of 1535), had been
placed in the churches. In 1 543 it had been ordered
that Lessons of Scripture should be read in English"
at Matins and Vespers, and announcement had been
made that a reformation of the service-books was to
follow; and in the next year, as will presently be
noted, an English Litany had been set forth. But
no other actual changes had been made, except that
the name of the Pope and the name of St. Thomas a
Becket had been erased from the books. But
schemes for revision were in hand, which led to the
publication of the first English Prayer Book in the
next reign.

INTRODUCTORY

The English Prayer Book2
The Book of Common Prayer has been used by
some twelve generations of men and women and
children in England; it has been carried into all the
colonies of English people everywhere ; it was used
on this continent as soon as English Churchmen set
foot on it, and it has been constantly used in our land
since the settlement of Jamestown in 1607, when the
book itself was not sixty years old. To-day there are
about two million copies of the book in the churches
and homes of the United States; its words are on
the lips of Christian people all over the world, and
its thoughts are in their hearts, and we feel sure that
it will be used and that its influence will extend as
long as there shall be English-speaking Christians on
the earth, and that we can hardly doubt will be until
the Church shall come to the end of her earthly his
tory and the Lord shall return from heaven.
We belong to a Church which teaches us to use a
book now, in nearly every part, three hundred and
sixty years old; a book which comes from a date
hardly a century after the invention of printing and
not much more than a century and a half after the

2 The writer does not apologize for using, at the beginning of
this and the following chapter, parts of A Short History of
the Book of Common Prayer, which he wrote in 1899, at the
request of the late Mr. George C. Thomas, for the use of the
teachers and scholars of the Church of the Holy Apostles,
Philadelphia, in commemoration of the 350th anniversary of
the first English Prayer Book.

THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER

discovery of America ; a book which is not older than
the English Bible, to be sure, but is sixty years
older than the translation which is now read in our
churches ; a book with which some people have found
fault, of course, but which has gained a stronger and
stronger hold on the affection and esteem of those
who have really come to know it. It is worth our
while to know such a book well, and to learn what we
can about it. ^
There had been Christians in the country which is
now called England, from an early date; and those
Christians had held the same creeds, had had the
same ministry, and had used practically the same
forms for daily worship and ministering the Sacra
ments, as Christians in other parts of the world.
There never was a Church without some kind of a
Prayer Book. It would have its beginning in the
teaching of Apostles or of men who stood very near
to them ; additions would be made to it by good men
as they found out what was needed ; and so it would
grow to be a part of the religious life of the people.
But there was no printing in those days, and very
few people could read and write; so that for the most
part the use of a service-book was a matter of hearing
and of memory. Then again, the missionaries who
brought Christianity to the British Isles — whether
those of earlier days who found the Britons in pos
session, or those beginning with Augustine in 597
who converted the Anglo-Saxons by whom the
Britons had been in part displaced — spoke Latin,

INTRODUCTORY

which was for a long time the only civilized language
for Western Europe ; and the services of the Church
were kept in Latin, the people watching the priest
to know what he was doing, rather than listening to
what he said, except when he preached in the lan
guage which they used and understood. Thus it
came about that there was no 'Common Prayer',
no response in any service except by a few who were
trained to repeat the necessary Latin words; and
what was worst of all, the people could not understand
the Word of God when the Lessons or any other part
of the Bible was read in church. They were indeed
taught in English — and this should be thankfully
remembered — the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the
Ten Commandments, with some of the Psalms and
some of the Collects; and there were service-books
in English, called 'Primers' or 'First Books', which
became more common after the invention of printing,
but very few were able to use these. Thus, as only
priests and monks could understand the daily services,
the common people were not expected to go to them ;
and the rules for finding the parts of the services
became very complicated and hard to follow and the
Lessons from the Bible became very short and dis
connected. On Sundays and Holy-days the people
went to church for the service of the Holy Commun
ion, or the 'Mass' as it was then commonly called;
and probably most of them could follow the service
after they became used to it; but they did not join
with the priest in its words, and they rarely received

THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER

the Sacrament. And still further, as there had
crept into the Church errors of one kind and another,
about which we read in the history of those times,
the services came to be in some things different from
what they had once been and what they ought to
have been.
Among the changes in England at the time of the
Reformation, one of the most important was the
adoption of a Book of Common Prayer in the lan
guage of the people. The first service to be put into
English was the Litany; this was set forth by
Archbishop Cranmer under the authority of King
Henry VIII in 1544. Within a few years Henry
died and was succeeded by his son, the boy king
Edward VI. In his reign, early in the year 1548,
there was published "The Order of the Commun
ion" in English, which was to be used on and after
the Easter of that year. It did not displace any
part of the Latin service of the Mass; but it pro
vided that after the priest had consecrated the bread
and wine and had received the Sacrament, he should
say a service of preparation for the communicants
and then should administer to them both of the con
secrated elements, using in all an English form of
words. This new service had in it what we now
have in the Exhortation and Invitation ("Ye who do
truly"), the Confession and Absolution, the Comfort
able Words, and the Prayer of Humble Access
("We do not presume"), and the administration in
both kinds with the former half of the sentences now

INTRODUCTORY

used, followed by a Benediction. This great and
important act, giving to the people in their own
tongue a service for the full reception of the
Eucharist, prepared the way for an act still greater.
The Archbishop and those who were associated with
him continued their work, and soon had ready for
the printers a complete Book of Common Prayer.
It was duly authorized and first used on Whitsun
day, which was the ninth day of June, in the year
1549- This Prayer Book did not have in it, nor did it
need to have, much that was new. Its compilers
had the old service-books, and in particular that
form of the Latin service-book known as the Use of
Sarum (Salisbury), which had been most widely fol
lowed in England since about the year 1180; and in
these books was much which had been used from the
beginning: Collects which even then were a thousand
years old, Epistles and Gospels which had been in
use nearly as long, besides the Book of Psalms for
worship and all the fest of the Bible for Lessons;
and for the ministration of the Sacrament and other
holy rites they wished, as indeed they felt it their
duty, to follow the custom of the Church in her best
and purest days, with adaptation to the needs of the
time. And for their assistance they had before
them, besides the Latin services with which they
were familiar, the Greek Liturgies and the ancient
Spanish services, the plans for reformation of the
daily services proposed by the Spanish Cardinal

10 THE BOOK OF COMMON RRA YER

Quifiones " and studied by Cranmer, and suggestions
from the reforming Archbishop of Cologne, Hermann
by name, and from other German sources.
In the use of this material the compilers were
guided by three principles. First, they wished to
put the services into English, so that all could under
stand them and read them (or at least commit their
parts understandingly to memory), and thus use
them ; and this was largely, if not entirely, done by
Archbishop Cranmer himself, who had wonderful
skill as a translator from Latin and a writer of Eng
lish. Secondly, they were determined to make the
services simple, in order that they might be 'under-
standed' and readily followed and learned, and also to
make them instructive, especially by providing for
large readings from God's Word. And thirdly, they
felt it their duty to correct errors of doctrine and of
practice which in course of time had found their way
into the service-books and into the manner of using
them. The result was, as has been said, the Prayer
Book of 1 549, often called the First Book pf Edward
VI, which with some changes, but very few of real
importance, is still used in the English Church and
in our own. The detailed history of the several of
fices, as well before the adoption of this first English
Book as after it, will be best given later on, as each
office comes under consideration ; but a general state
ment as to the several revisions may be made here.

' Commonly called ' Quignon ' by English writers.

INTRODUCTORY 11
First, we must note that in the present English
and American Books, Morning and Evening Prayer
from the Lord's Prayer through the third Collect,
the Litany, the Collects with the Epistles and
Gospels, and the Occasional Offices (beginning with
that for the Ministration of Baptism and perhaps
making an exception of the Burial Office) have not
been greatly changed from the services of 1 549 ; while
the Ordination services remain almost exactly as
they were set forth in 1550. As to the Communion
Office, it was modified in several important particu
lars in 1552, and in the English Church has been
little changed since that date except in the Words of
Administration ; our Church has taken the Prayer of
Consecration from the Scottish Liturgy.
The cause for the next revision, which followed
within four years, was that there early grew up an
influential party which held and taught that the
Reformation had not gone far enough when the first
Prayer Book was adopted, and insisted on the need of
greater changes in things religious and devotional
than had yet been made ; while others were pushing
for a return to some things which had been aban
doned ; and in those troublous times the leaders did
not always feel sure that they had been working
along the right lines. A revision was ordered, and
changes were made, some of them in the direction of
the Reformation on the Continent, but almost all in
reality affecting rather the form than the doctrine of
the earlier Book. It will be well to remember that in

1 2 THE BOOK OF COMMON PR A YER
this book the penitential introduction was prefixed
to Morning and Evening Prayer, the Ten Com
mandments were placed at the beginning of the
Communion Office, and this service and those which
follow were put practically into their present form;
the one notable exception being that at the ad
ministration of the Holy Communion the words pro
vided were the second half of the present forms:
"Take and eat this . . . ", "Drink this in remem
brance . . .", what i& now the former half having
been prescribed in 1549 but omitted in 1552. This
second book was to come into use on All Saints' Day
in 1552; but there was delay at the printers, and it
can hardly have been used at all; for Edward died
in July, 1553, and his sister Mary who succeeded
him held to the Roman obedience and put a stop to
the work of reformation. For the five cruel years of
her reign the use of the English Prayer Book was
forbidden by law. The great Queen Elizabeth,
Edward's and Mary's sister, came to the throne in
1558; and in the following year the Prayer Book was
again published and came at once into general use.
It was the edition of 1552, modified by bringing to
gether at the administration of the Holy Communion
the words provided in the first and the second Books of
Edward VI, so as to give the forms now used, and
with scarce any other changes ; yet under the Queen's
influence, though it was the Book of 1552, there
seem to have been retained with it some of the
usages and spirit of that of 1549.

INTRODUCTORY 13

The Puritan influence, strongly opposed to Epis
copacy and the Prayer Book, was held in restraint
during her long reign, and necessary opposition to it
strengthened the convictions of English Churchmen.
When her successor, James I, came to the throne in
1603, a conference of Churchmen and Puritans was
held under the presidency of the king at Hampton
Court ; but the king threw the weight of his learning
and his pedantry against the insurgent party, and
the new edition of the Prayer Book in 1604 practically
differed from the preceding only in the addition to
the Catechism of the questions and answers as to
the Sacraments. James died in 1625, and in the
troublous times of his son, Charles I, the combined
influence of Presbyterianism and Puritanism, aided
by the King's unwise attempt to force a Prayer Book
on Scotland in 1637 and by his other blunders, led to
the apparent overthrow of the Church of England.
Archbishop Laud was beheaded; in 1645 an ordi
nance of Parliament established Presbyterianism and
abolished the Book of Common Prayer and forbade
its use in public or private; in 1649 the king, who
always kept faithful to the Church, was brought to
the block; and the Presbyterian establishment re
mained in force till the end of the Commonwealth in
1660. After the accession, or rather restoration, of
Charles II in 1661, a debate was held at the Savoy
Palace in London between twelve divines of the
Church of England and twelve of the opposing party,
who brought almost innumerable objections against

14 THE BOOK OFVOMMON PR A YER

the Prayer Book, verbal and rubrical and doctrinal.
It led to the recognition that the system of the
Church and that of the Puritans were irreconcilable,
and that the logical place of the latter was not as
dissenters but as separatists. A thorough review of
the Prayer Book was undertaken, however, by the
authorities of the Church; the book was carefully
edited; in the Prayer for the Church in the Com
munion Office an explicit oblation and a commemo
ration of the departed were inserted ; a large number
of minor changes, nearly all editorial, were made;
and the Standard Prayer Book of the Church of
England for nearly 250 years has been the edition of
1662. No alteration has been made in the Book
since that date, except the necessary changes of
names in the prayers for the sovereign and the royal
family and the provision (in 1871) bf new tables of
Lessons; some permission for shortening the daily
services has been given by authority of Convocation
and Parliament (1872), but the rubrics remain as
before. An attempt at revision was made in 1689 as part
of the scheme of comprehension under William and
Mary, but the report (not printed till 1855) was
never presented to Convocation; there is a reference
to it, but based on no accurate knowledge of its con
tents, in the Preface to our Prayer Book. In 1879
the Convocations of Canterbury and York proposed
amendments to the rubrics in reply to 'Letters of
Business' from the Crown ; but no action was taken

INTRODUCTORY 15
on their recommendations. Quite recently 'Letters
of Business' have been again issued for this purpose;
and at this writing (1912) a report from an influential
Committee is under discussion with a view to some
such revision as was accomplished in our Church
seventeen years ago.
In English works on the Prayer Book, and elsewhere, the
reader will find frequent references to two rubrics which are not
in our American Book, the ' Ornaments Rubric ' and the ' Black
Rubric'. The Ornaments Rubric stands just before the beginning of
Morning Prayer, and is now in these words : " And here it is
to be noted, that such Ornaments of the Church and of the
Ministers thereof at all times of their ministration, shall be re
tained and be in use, as were in this Church in England, by the
authority of Parliament, in the second year of the reign of
King Edward the Sixth." The word ' ornaments ', as applied to
a church, includes what we should call 'furnishings', such as
altar-cloths and candlesticks ; and as applied to ministers, it in
cludes vestments.
The first Book of Edward VI contained directions as to the
dress of the clergy, including a surplice at matins and evensong
and " a white alb plain with a vestment [which seems to mean
a chasuble] or cope." The second Book forbade the use of
alb, vestment, and cope, but ordered for priests and deacons a
surplice only. In Elizabeth's Book of 1559, the Ornaments
Rubric, as far as the ornaments of the minister were con
cerned, took the present form ; the reference to the ornaments
of the church was inserted in 1662. This rubric has been and
still is in England the occasion of great controversy, the ques
tion really being whether the Prayer Book requires the use of
what are known as the 'eucharistic vestments' The opinions
of men learned in ecclesiastical and statute law have been
diverse ; there is a lack of agreement as to the meaning of the
date ; and some have held that the rubric was modified by other
legal action taken in Elizabeth's reign. It is to be feared that

16 THE BOOK OF COMMON PR A YER

some opinions and some decisions of courts in the matter have
been affected by prejudice ; and to most of us it seems that
over-great importance has been attached to the interpretations
of the rubric. It can hardly be held to have any legal or
canonical weight in this country ; and a commentary on the
American Book may be excused from expressing an opinion as
to its application.
The Black Rubric stands after the rubrics at the end of the
Communion Office, and is really a declaration in defence of the
requirement that communicants shall receive the Sacrament
kneeling. It is printed in italic, like the rubrics ; but when the
rubrics are printed in red ink, as they ought to be by reason of
their name which expresses ancient custom, this remains in
black ; hence it is called the Black Rubric. It was first placed
in the Book of 1 552, and was again inserted in its present form
in 1662. Although evidently not written by a careful theologian,
it is of value as distinguishing between the right meaning of
kneeling at the reception of the Sacrament and a possible per
version of it. Our Church has lost nothing, except a cause of
endless controversy, by its omission.
It may be well to note that in the American Prayer Book
proper there is no mention of ministerial vestments ; and that
in the Ordinal it is simply provided that persons to be or
dained deacons or priests shall be " decently habited ", and
that a Bishop-elect when presented to the Presiding Bishop
shall be "vested with his rochet" and before the ' Veni Creator'
shall " put on the rest of the Episcopal habit." The only allu
sion to vestments in our Canons is the provision that a lay-
reader "shall not wear the dress appropriate to clergymen
ministering in the congregation" (Canon 22, § iii). In this
lack of rubrical or canonical provision, we fall back upon the
law of custom ; and it is certainly a fair question how far the
lawfulness of custom may be interpreted for us by the Orna
ments Rubric of the English Church.

INTRODUCTORY 17
The American Prayer Book
In this country, as soon as Englishmen began to
make settlements, they brought with them the Prayer
Book. The first use of the Book within the present
limits of the United States appears to have been in
1579, when the chaplain of Sir Francis Drake read
prayers at the time of a landing on the Pacific coast
near the site of San Francisco; but the first perma
nent settlement at which it was used was Jamestown
in Virginia, where services began with the beginning
of the colony in 1607. The adherents of the Church
of England in the several colonies held different
relations to the civil authority, but they all acknowl
edged the somewhat shadowy authority of the Bishop
of London as their Diocesan and used faithfully the
Prayer Book of the English Church. In some
places — the most notable instances being in Con
necticut — copies of that book were the Church's
first and most effective missionaries. As no Bishop
came to visit the colonies, the services for Confirma
tion and Ordination could not be held ; but the other
services were constantly used, the only variation
noted being that some clergymen omitted the exhor
tation to the sponsors of children baptized, that they
should bring them to the Bishop to be confirmed.
After the Declaration of Independence, the united
parishes of Christ Church and St. Peter's in Phila
delphia were the first to direct the omission of the
Prayers for the King and Royal Family of Great
3

18 THE BOOK OF COMMON PR A YER
Britain ; in other places like action was soon taken ;
and presently Prayers for the United States and for
Congress were read in many churches. But a con
siderable part of the clergy, especially in the north
ern colonies, were strong adherents of the Crown,
and held that they were still bound by the oath of
allegiance which they had taken at their ordination.
Some of these, under pressure of circumstances,
ceased to minister at all in public, or contented
themselves with reading from the Bible, preaching,
and saying the Lord's Prayer; some found safety
within the British lines; and a few, in spite of
threats and actual violence, continued to read the
services in their churches without alteration or omis
sion. But as soon as the war was practically over,*
Churchmen throughout the land began to consider
the problems which confronted them, and in particu
lar those which were involved in the necessary ar
rangements for public worship under the new condi
tion of affairs and for securing the Episcopate.
Action was first taken in Connecticut, where on the
25th of March, 1783, Samuel Seabury was elected
Bishop and sent to ask for consecration in England
or Scotland. He was consecrated in Aberdeen in
November, 1784; when he returned to his diocese
in the following year he gave instructions to his
clergy as to the necessary changes in the services,
*The cessation of hostilities was proclaimed April 19, 1783,
but the treaty of peace was not signed till September 3 of that
year.

INTRODUCTORY 19
and a year later, in 1786, he set forth for his Diocese
the Communion service as used by the Scottish
Bishops who had consecrated him. Before this
time, however, delegates from seven Southern
States, as they were then called (for 'Southern'
meant New York and all south of it, the division
being at Byram River), had met in Philadelphia
near the end of September, 1785 ; and it was one of
the 'fundamental principles' enunciated in the call
for this meeting that they should "adhere to the
Liturgy" of the Church of England "so far as shall
be consistent with the American Revolution and the
Constitutions of the respective States." This Con
vention of 1785 drafted "an Ecclesiastical Constitu
tion for the Protestant Episcopal Church in the
United States of America"; adopted a petition to
the English Archbishops and Bishops that they
would grant the Episcopate to the Church in this
country; agreed to a few alterations in the Prayer
Book due to the change in the form of government,
and also appointed a committee to consider "such
alterations in the Liturgy as it may be advisable to
recommend for the consideration of the Church here
represented." A large number of changes in all
parts of the Prayer Book were reported; and the
Convention agreed to "propose and recommend"
them, leaving the question of their adoption to an
other Convention.
This revision (if it may be so called) was largely
the work of the Rev. Dr. William Smith, formerly of

20 THE BOOK OF COMMON PR A YER

Pennsylvania and Provost of the University, but then
of Maryland ; and the publication of a book embodying
the proposed changes was left to him with the Rev.
William White (afterwards Bishop of Pennsylvania)
and the Rev. Dr. Wharton of Delaware. The Book,
known as the 'Proposed Book', was published on the
first day of April, 1786.' It was at once seen to have
proposed too many and radical changes ; no one seems
to have thought it satisfactory ; and it was used but in
a few places and for a short time. The English Bish
ops wrote that they were grieved to observe some of the
changes which had been made in the forms of wor
ship, and particularly that the Nicene Creed and the
Athanasian Creed had been omitted altogether, and
that the clause "He descended into hell" had been
omitted from the Apostles' Creed ; and they more
than intimated that they would take no steps to
grant the Episcopate to the Church in the United
States until these matters were corrected. Another
Conv^tion of delegates from the 'Southern' States
met^rX)ctober, 1786; it voted unanimously to re
store the Nicene Creed, making it an alternative for
the Apostles', barely adopted a motion to restore the
clause as to the descent into hell, and negatived a
proposal to replace the Athanasian Creed. The
English Bishops were satisfied with this action, and
on February 4, 1787, in the Chapel of Lambeth
6 It was reprinted in England with the label, "American
Prayer Book", and is sometimes quoted as having an authority
¦which it never possessed.

INTRODUCTORY 21
Palace, Dr. William White was consecrated Bishop
of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Samuel Provoost Bishop
of New York.
The next Convention — it was really the first Gen
eral Convention — met at Philadelphia in the autumn
of 1789; a complete union of the Church in all the
States was effected on October 2nd ; the Convention
was organized in two Houses, and action was at once
taken in regard to the Prayer Book. Bishops Sea-
bury and White (Bishop Provoost being detained at
home by sickness) began to propose amendments to
the English Prayer Book; the House of Deputies,
with Dr. William Smith presiding, appointed
committees to propose new formularies, but all was
done here also on the lines of the English Book ; the
"Proposed Book" was not mentioned, and had little
influence on the result.
The work, though it was accomplished in two
weeks, was not careless or hasty. The two Bishops
and those of the deputies who specially had the
matter in hand — such men as Dr. Smith and Dr.
Parker of Massachusetts — had long had both the
principles and the details of an American revision
under consideration. Many minor changes were
made in the use of words and phrases liable to be
misunderstood or lacking in precision; a desire to
avoid repetitions, to shorten some of the services, and
to provide for special needs, accounts for other
changes; and in some cases, few of them involving
any principle, concession was made to objections

22 THE BOOK OF COMMON PR A YER
which were not very reasonable. It is not possible
here to name any but the most important of the par
ticulars in which this first American Book differed
from the English.6 The most serious omisssion was
that of the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis, to
gether with the latter part of the Benedictus ; valua
ble additions were the prefixing of Habakkuk ii. 20,
Malachi i. 11, and Psalm xix. 14, 15, to Morning and
Evening Prayer, and the insertion (though dis
cretionary) of our Lord's Summary of the Law after
the Ten Commandments ; there was also an advantage
in the insertion of a service for Thanksgiving-day
and of Family Prayers; and the Form for the Visi
tation of Prisoners, not in the English Book, was
taken from the Irish Prayer Book of 171 1.
But the most important of all things at this revision
was the adoption, in the Order for the Holy Com
munion, of the Scottish form of the Prayer of Conse
cration, with a single modification, itself in the
direction of primitive usage, proposed at this time
by deputies from Maryland. The Churchmen in
New England, and especially in Connecticut, had
beome familiar with it from Bishop Seabury's office,
now in use for some three years ; and when Bishop
Seabury, following a promise made to his consecra-
tors as well as his own convictions, proposed that it
• A full account of them will be found in the article on the
American Prayer Book in Frere's Procter's New History of
the Book of Common Prayer, pp. 243 ft.; they will also be
readily seen, of course, in a comparison of the two Books,

INTRODUCTORY 23
be substituted for the English form, he found that
Bishop White did not oppose it. There was some
objection to it, we are told, when it began to be read
in the House of Deputies; but Dr. Smith, himself
(by the way) a Scotchman, reproved those who found
fault with something which they had not heard, and
thereupon read the prayer with so impressive a tone
and manner that it was accepted "without opposition
and in silence". Thus there was provided for the
Church in the United States a Prayer of Consecra
tion for the Holy Communion which conformed to
the usage of the primitive Church by containing
an explicit Oblation and an explicit Invocation of
the Holy Spirit after the recital of the Words of
Institution; a gift of untold value and, it cannot
be doubted, a bond of unity in this Church for all
time. The new Prayer Book went into use October i,
1790. The Ordinal was set forth in 1792, the first
service read from it being that of the Consecration of
Bishop Claggett of Maryland, on whom hands were
laid by Bishops White, Provoost, and Madison, of
the direct English succession, with Bishop Seabury,
who had been consecrated in Scotland. In 1799 the
Form of Consecration of a Church, based on that
drawn up by Bishop Andrewes of Winchester in
1620, and a Prayer to be used at the Meetings of
Convention, were added to the Prayer Book; and in
1804 an office of Institution of Ministers, already
adopted in Connecticut and New York, was also

24 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER

added. The Articles of Religion were adopted in
their American form in 1801.
The only change made in the Prayer Book or
Offices, after their adoption as above stated, until
the year 1886, with the exception of modifications in
the Tables of Lessons in and after 1877 and the cor
rection of a few manifest errors, was the change of
'north' to 'right' at the beginning of the Communion
Office, which was made in 1835. The House of
Bishops, however, on several occasions expressed
their formal opinion upon matters as to which the
rubrical directions were not sufficiently clear, or for
which (as for the proper postures in certain parts
of the Communion service) there were no rubrical
directions. In 1826, a proposal made by Bishop Hobart, of
New York, for the authorization of shortened ser
vices, was approved by both Houses of the General
Convention; but it found so little favor in the
Church at large that it was quietly dropped at the
next Convention. In 1853, the Rev. Dr. William
A. Muhlenberg and others presented to the Bishops
a memorial asking that provision be made for a re
laxation of the obligation of the rubrics in certain
cases. It led to much discussion, but to no immedi
ate results, except a declaration from the Bishops
that Morning Prayer, the Litany, and the Order for
the Holy Communion were separate services; that
on special occasions the clergy might use any parts
of the Bible and the Prayer Book at their discretion,

INTRODUCTORY 25
and that the Bishops might set forth forms of service
under peculiar circumstances. Other proposals for
the modification of rubrical requirements were made
in 1868 and later years; but the plans suggested or
proposed were not adopted.
At the General Convention of 1880, a resolution
introduced by the Rev. Dr. William R. Huntington,'
then of Massachusetts, but later of New York, was
adopted, providing for the appointment of a joint
committee to consider and report whether, at the end
of the first century of the work of the fully organized
Church in the United States, there was occasion for
"alterations in the Book of Common Prayer in the
direction of liturgical enrichment and flexibility of
use". This committee presented a report in 1883,
together with the 'Book Annexed' showing the
Prayer Book as it would appear if all the additions
and alterations proposed by it should be adopted. A
large number of these proposals, with some others
introduced by individual members, were approved;
and, as required by the Constitution, the Dioceses
were notified of them that final action might be taken
at the next Convention. In 1886, the Convention
had before it the 'Book Annexed as Modified', show
ing the Prayer Book with all the changes which had
been approved three years before. When the matter

' His death, while these pages were in writing on the 26th day
of July, 1909, calls for a tribute of affectionate esteem from one
whose privilege it was to work with him and to learn from him
in liturgical matters.

26 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER

came to a vote, eighty-four resolutions of addition or
amendment were adopted, and some twenty-five
substitutes for other proposals were sent to the next
Convention ; it was also agreed that a Book of Offices
should be prepared, to contain forms for occasions
for which no provision was made in the Prayer Book.
In 1889, seventeen resolutions of amendment were
finally adopted, and some fifty more received for pre
liminary approval ; the plan of a B,ook of Offices was
allowed to drop. And in 1892, forty-three additions or
alterations were finally adopted, nearly all — as was in
deed the case at the preceding Conventions — by a prac
tically unanimous vote. Then a Standard Prayer Book,
embodying all the changes made, with a careful revis
ion of the text, was set forth. All editions printed since
that time have been made to conform to the Standard ;
and, with the possible exception of the Authorized and
Revised Versions of the English Bible, there is no book
in the world more carefully printed than our Prayer
Book ; while the editing of its text, being more mod
ern, is better than that of the Bible itself.
It remains to speak of the more important of the
changes made in our Prayer Book by the action com
pleted in 1886, 1889, and 1892." By far the larger
part call for no notice here, having to do with correc
tions of the rubrics or the readjustment of some of
the less frequently used services.

8 In the latter part of this Book, changes made at any time in
the course of the last revision are generally attributed to 1892,
the year of the publication of the Standard.

INTRODUCTORY 27
Provision was made for shortening Morning and
Evening Prayer, for omitting the Commandments
and the long Exhortation in the Communion Office,
and for abbreviating some of the Occasional Offices,
all under carefully stated conditions. A large num
ber of invitatory sentences, not penitential, was pre
fixed to Morning and Evening Prayer; Magnificat
and Nunc Dimittis, with the omitted verses of
Benedictus, were restored; the full number of
versicles was placed after the Creed at Evening
Prayer, and a new Prayer for the Civil Authority
was provided for the same service. In the Litany,
a petition for more labourers was provided; the
Penitential Office was inserted (three of its prayers
had been in the former Book); and three occasional
Prayers — for Unity, for Missions, and for Fruitful
Seasons (Rogation prayers), and one occasional
Thanksgiving, for a Child's Recovery from Sick
ness, were added. Collects, Epistles, and Gospels
were provided for a first Communion on Christmas-
day and on Easter-day and for the festival of the
Transfiguration ; the title of the Sunday next before
Advent took the place of that of the Twenty-fifth
Sunday after Trinity ; and several needed rubrics were
inserted. In the Communion Office, besides the per
mission to omit the Decalogue except once on each
Sunday, and the Exhortation after it has been read
on one Sunday in the month, it was required that
the Nicene Creed be said on the five great festivals
ofthe year; five new Offertory sentences were pro-

28 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
vided ; the Sanctus and the Prayer of Consecration
were printed in paragraphs; and the Warnings
were placed after the Blessings and Collects. A form
of presentation of candidates and a Lesson (the latter
for discretionary use) were inserted in the Confirma
tion Office; some of the omitted clauses were re
stored to the exhortation in the Marriage Service;
and three additional prayers were placed at the end
of the Burial Office. Note should be made also of
the provision of twenty selections of Psalms instead
of ten, and of Proper Psalms for ten days to which
they had not been assigned before.9
It is this Prayer Book, according to the use of the
Church in the United States, received from the
English Church, adapted to our needs in this Re
public in 1790, again carefully revised with reference
to possibilities of service for a new century in 1892,
offered to all the people of the land by the Church
whose special use it is, which forms the subject of
the notes and comments in the following chapters.

•The days newly provided with Proper Psalms are the First
Sunday in Advent, the Circumcision, the Epiphany, the Puri
fication, the Annunciation, Easter-even, Trinity Sunday, the
Transfiguration, Michaelmas, and All Saints' Day.

INTRODUCTORY 29

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
A few books are almost necessary for any study of the
Prayer Book. Such are : —
Bishop Barry's Teacher's Prayer Book, in its American edi
tion ; and —
The English Prayer Book of the present reign.
And with these it is very desirable to have —
Bright and Medd's Latin version of the English Prayer Book
and the American Communion Office, which gives the original
of Collects, Canticles, etc., and the Epistles and Gospels and
the Psalms from the Vulgate ; also —
The First Prayer Book of Edward VI (1349), accessible in
cheap form in Everyman's Library and in The Ancient and
Modern Library of Theological Literature. There are also
editions of the Prayer Book of 1549 with the Order of Com
munion of 1548 and the Ordinal of 1550 (wrongly given as 1549),
one published by Rivingtons in 1869 and one edited by Dr.
Morgan Dix and published in New York in 1881. (The
Ancient and Modern Library has also the Second Book of
Edward VI and the Elizabethan Book.)
The successive editions of the English Prayer Book, with the
Scottish Book of 1637, have been reprinted in Pickering's
sumptuous edition ; they are given in parallel columns in Reel
ing's Liturgice Britannicce, a very valuable book but not often
offered for sale.
In the Parker Society's Publications is a volume containing
the two Edwardine Books with the Order of Communion of
1548; they are also published in Cardwell's Two Books of
Common Prayer. The Litany of 1544 can be found (of all
queer places) at the end of the Parker Society's volume lettered
" Private Prayers Queen Elizabeth."
McGarvey's Liturgia Americana (Philadelphia, 1895) gives
in parallel columns the editions of the American Book with the
non-English sources, and some useful notes.

30 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Of the numerous works on the whole Prayer Book, historical
and explanatory in character, the following may be specially
mentioned : —
Wheatly (Charles), Rational Illustration of the Book of
Common Prayer. An old book with much material from still
older writers, but very interesting and with much out-of-the-
way information.
Palmer (William),- Origines Liturgictz, or Antiquities of the
English Ritual. Now out of date, but it gave an inspiration
to all modern study of the Prayer Book.
Lathbury (Thomas), A History of the Book of Common
Prayer and other books of authority.
Stephens (Archibald John), The Book of Common Prayer,
with notes, legal and historical. 3 volumes.
Procter (Charles) and Frere (W. H.), A New History of
the Book of Common Prayer, with a rationale of its offices. A
well-known book of a former generation, rewritten (1901) in
the light of recent scholarship, and the best general book On
the subject. It contains (pp. 234-252) a pretty full history of
the American Prayer Book by the writer of this volume, and
throughout the commentary has notes on the differences be
tween the English and the American Books.
Burbridge (Edward), Liturgies and Offices of the Church.
Particularly good as to origins and the connection with Greek
and Latin sources.
Campion (W. M.) and Beamont (W. J.), The Prayer Book
Interleaved. Daniel (Evan), The Prayer Book, its History, Language,
and Contents.
Blunt (John Henry), The Annotated Book of Common
Prayer. A book of wide learning, giving Latin originals and
the Vulgate Psalter ; but not recently revised. There is also a
compendious edition, without the Latin, having a monograph
on the American Prayer Book by the present writer.
Pullan (Leighton), The History of the Book of Common
Prayer (in the Oxford Library of Practical Theology). Full,
and with recent material ; better arranged than Frere's Procter.
It has a chapter on the Scottish, American, and Irish Books.

INTRODUCTORY 31
Maude (J. H.), A History of the Book of Common Prayer
(in the Oxford Church Text Books). A good small Manual,
but with some misprints.
Procter (F.) and Maclear (G. F.), An Elementary Introduc
tion to the Book of Common Prayer.
S. P. C. K. Prayer Book Commentary for Teachers and
Students, by various authors. A great deal of valuable ma
terial in small space. It has a Concordance to the Prayer
Book and a Concordance to the Psalter.
Luckock (H. M.), Studies in the History of the Book of
Common Prayer.
Dearmer (Percy), The Parson's Handbook. It contains
" Practical Directions as to the Services according to the Eng
lish Use " as interpreted by the author.
Parker (James), An Introduction to the History of the Suc
cessive Revisions of the Book of Common Prayer.
Parker (James), The First Prayer Book of Edward VI com
pared with the successive Revisions ; also, A Concordance to
the Rubricks.
Butler (Clement M.), History of the Book of Common
Prayer. Garrison (J. F.), The American Prayer Book. Bohlen
Lectures, 1887.
Temple (Edward L.), The Church in the Prayer Book. An
American book ; instructive and devotional.
Huntington (William R.), Short History of the Prayer Book.
Coxe (Bishop A. C), Thoughts on the Services. New edi
tion, edited by Bishop Whitehead.
The " Proposed Book " of 1785, with the omission of the Visi
tation of the Sick and the Articles, was reprinted for the Re
formed Episcopal Church in 1873.
The history of the English Prayer Book is treated in the
volumes named above, and at least incidentally in all histories
of the English Church. Those the titles of which follow next
have specially to do with principles and origins : —

32 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Freeman (Philip), The Principles of Divine Service. Very
learned and valuable; deals specially with the English Daily
Offices and Communion Service.
Duchesne (Mgr. L.), Christian Worship: Its Origin and
Evolution ; a Study of the Latin Liturgy up to the time of
Charlemagne. Of great and wide learning ; absolutely neces
sary for the careful student. (Translated, S. P. C. K.)
Pullan (Leighton). The Christian Tradition: Chapter V,
on the Genius of Western Liturgies.
Here may be noted also, Daniel (H. A.), Codex Liturgicus
Ecclesia Universes. Vol. I, Roman ; Vol. II, Lutheran ; Vol.
Ill, Reformed and Anglican; Vol. IV, Oriental.
Warren (F. E.) Liturgy of the Ante-Nicene Church. Of
wide scope and very instructive.
Warren (F. E.) , Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church.
The following bear specially on the direct sources of the
English Book : —
The Roman Breviary, Missal, etc.
The Sarum Breviary, Missal, etc. ; also other English uses.
The Marquess of Bute's translation of the Breviary into
English is of great use.
Mozarabic Service-books.
The Quignonian Breviary ( Cambridge, 1888 ; Henry Brad
shaw Society, 1908, 191 1). The second volume of the later
publication (the Second Recension) contains a life of Cardinal
Quignon. Maskell (William), Monumenta Ritualia Ecclesia Angli-
cana. Valuable and interesting. It contains, among other
things, an Ancient Primer in English.
Maskell (William), The Ancient Liturgy of the Church of
England, according to the Uses of Sarum, Bangor, York, and
Hereford, and the modern Roman Liturgy, arranged in parallel
columns. Contains also the Liturgy of St. Clement in Greek.
Gasquet (F. A.), and Bishop (E.), Edward VI and the Book
of Common Prayer (1890). Gives Cranmer's schemes for re
forming the services before 1549, and many other details not
before published.

INTRODUCTORY 33
Cardwell (Edward), History of Conferences and other Pro
ceedings connected with the Revision of the Book of Common
Prayer, 1558-1690.
The Order of Communion of 1548 has been reproduced by
photography for the Henry Bradshaw Society (1907). This
Society has also published the excessively rare Clerk's Book of
1549, with notes.
The black-letter Prayer-Book of 1636, with manuscript
changes made in it for the Book of 1662, has been reproduced
by photography ; as has also the manuscript book appended to
the Act of Parliament of 1661, which is the present English
Standard. The Book of Common Prayer interleaved with the proposed
Revised Liturgy of 1689 (1855).
The Convocation Prayer Book, being the Book of Common
Prayer with altered rubrics as recommended by the Convoca
tions of, Canterbury and York in 1879.
Dowden (Bishop John), The Workmanship of the Prayer
Book ; also, Further Studies in the Prayer Book. Very inter
esting and helpful.
The services contained in Peter Hall's Reliquia Liturgica
and Fragmenta Liturgica deserves to be examined by careful
students of liturgical history ; his reprints are not always exact.
For the history of the American Prayer Book, the Journals
of General Convention should be consulted ; also, Bishop
William White's Memoirs of the Episcopal Church, which is
an original authority of great value ; Chapter VI in the second
volume of Bishop W. S. Perry's History of the American Epis
copal Church, on the Prayer Book as ' Proposed ' and finally
Prescribed, with parts of later chapters; and notices in other
histories. See also the notes to the present writer's facsimile
edition of Bishop Seabury's Communion Office.
The Reports of the Committee on Liturgical Revision (1883-
1892) will be found in the Journals of General Convention;
the Book Annexed and the Book Annexed as Modified show
the changes proposed ; and a number of pamphlets published
4

34 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
at the time show the progress of the work and the arguments
for and against its continuance. The report of the committee
appointed to prepare a Standard Book, containing much his
torical matter, is printed as an appendix to the Journal of the
General Convention of 1892.
The occurrence of the 350th anniversary of the first English
Prayer Book in 1899 gave occasion for the publication of sev
eral historical sketches of the book.
For the origins of the American Communion Office, see be
low, Bibliography of the Communion Service.
A Concordance to the English Prayer Book, by the Rev. J.
Green, was published at London in 1851 ; and a Concordance
to the American Prayer Book, by the Rev. J. Courtney Jones,
was published at Philadelphia in 1898.

II.
THE PRELIMINARY PAGES OF THE
PRAYER BOOK
Title, Ratification, Preface
THE Title-page, as has indeed been already
noted, declares what the Book contains, and
names by its formal title the Church which has set it
forth. Strictly speaking, a 'rite' is a service, and a
'ceremony' is an observance in a service; in the 'rite'
of the burial of the dead the casting of the earth is a
'ceremony' ; but it may be questioned whether the
words here were not meant to be synonymous. The
Table of Contents enumerates twenty-nine items, the
order of which ought to be familiar to all who use
the Book ; it ends with the Psalter. Then follow in
italic the titles of the three items of our 'Pontifical'
and, separated from them, the title of the Articles.
The Ratification gives JJie sanction of authority to
the Book for the members of the Church which set it
forth. It might have been thought that the thorough
revision of the Prayer Book in late years, including
the insertion of not a few things which were new,
would have called for a new ratification; but such
was not the opinion of the legal authorities. There
is, therefore, nothing in the Book to show that it is
not exactly as it was established and ordered to be
put into use in the year 1790; and in future years, if

36 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER

not at present, there will be need of something
like 'higher criticism' to determine the dates of the
several parts of a volume which bears but one date.
The Preface, presumably from the pen of Dr.
William Smith, is a well-worded statement of the
principles on which our forefathers in the Faith un
dertook and carried out this important part of the
task which the circumstances of the "critical time of
the Republic" and the Church in the Republic laid
upon them. It should be carefully read.
Concerning the Service of the Church
The two pages following the Preface contain cer
tain general directions, after the manner of rubrics,1
as to the Service of the Church and the use of the
Psalms and of the Lessons of Scripture ; the tables
of Proper Psalms and of Selections of Psalms, in
cluded in these pages, are repeated at the beginning
of the Psalter.
While the normal Prayer Book service for any
Sunday includes the Order for Morning Prayer, the
Litany, and the Order for the Administration of the
Lord's Supper or Holy Communion; and while for

'The word 'rubric', originally meaning in both Latin and
English red earth or ochre, came to be applied to the parts of a
book which were written or printed in red, and in particular to
the headings or titles of laws ; thence it passed to the directions
in liturgical books for the conduct of the services and the use
of the several parts, which were customarily written, and later
printed, in red. In ordinary Prayer Books, instead of being in
red ink, rubrics are now printed in italic type.

PRELIMINARY PAGES OF PRAYER BOOK 37
all days other than Sundays, Morning Prayer is pro
vided, with the Litany on Wednesdays and Fridays,
and Evening Prayer for every day in the year;
and while, moreover, there is special provision for the
administration of the Holy Communion on any day,'
yet our Church states here that the three morning
services "are distinct, and may be used either
separately or together"; and by the proviso, "that
no one of these services be habitually disused", she
certainly implies that it is lawful to use on any
morning one or two only of the services named.
And while the normal order of the services is cer
tainly, first Morning Prayer, then Litany, and then
Holy Communion, there is no requirement that this
order shall be followed; indeed, the second clause
under the head "Concerning the Service of the
Church" gives permission for the use of the Litany
after Evening Prayer. It belongs to practical Pas
toral Theology rather than to Liturgies to decide in
each case what is the best order of services for a con
gregation and what are the hours at which they may
most profitably be held; and it belongs also to the
clergyman of the parish or congregation to decide,
subject to the counsel of his Bishop, as to the inter
pretation, for himself and his people, which he will
give to the proviso just quoted. It may be well to
note that nothing in the paragraph under considera-

2 See the first rubric after the heading of Collects, Epistles,
and Gospels.

38 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER

tion allows any omission in any service other than is
permitted by the rubrics of that service.
The proviso in this paragraph certainly cannot
override the requirement in the first rubric after the
Collects at the end of the Communion Office, which
provides that upon every Sunday and other Holy-day
there "shall be said all that is appointed at the Com
munion, unto the end of the Gospel, concluding with
the Blessing" ; that is to say, assuming that there is
a clergyman to officiate, the former part of the Com
munion Service, with the Epistle and Gospel, must
be said at some time on each Sunday and Holy-day.
Although permission is given for reading the
Litany after the Collects of Evening Prayer, it must
be remembered, as just noted, that this is not its
normal place. Yet sometimes advantage may well
be taken of the opportunity to say the Litany at
Evening Prayer, as when in a small congregation the
only week-day service in Lent is after noon, or when
it is desirable for some other reason to have a
separate Litany service as an act of supplication,
with or without a sermon.
The third clause provides for what were once
called 'Third Services', for special congregations or
for special occasions, and its wording, with a fourfold
restriction, should be carefully noted. "Subject to
the direction of the Ordinary" does not mean that
the Ordinary need be asked for approval in every
case, but that the minister is not to arrange a ser
vice if the Ordinary has given other directions for it.

PRELIMINARY PAGES OF PRAYER BOOK 39
The Ordinary {judex ordinarius, judge by reason of
his order or position) is the Bishop, or if there is no
Bishop the person who exercises the "ecclesiastical
authority", that is, generally under our canons, the
President of the Standing Committee of the Diocese.
The fourth clause requires that, on any special Fast
or Thanksgiving day or other special occasion, if
the Bishop sets forth a form of service, that form is
to be followed. If the Bishop does not set forth a
form of service, the minister (see below) may select
Lessons at his discretion. The Psalter
The instructions as to the reading of the Psalms
are simple, and carry out the rule adopted in the first
English Prayer Book, of a monthly instead of a
weekly recitation of the Psalter. The direction in
our Prayer Book before the last revision, that in
February the Psalter "shall be read only to the twenty-
eighth or twenty-ninth day of the month", is doubt
less still binding by the rule of common sense. It is
convenient, when there is daily service, in months
with thirty-one days, to read selections at Evening
Prayer on the thirtieth and at Morning Prayer on
the thirty-first day, and then to end the month with
the Psalms which lead to the great doxology of
Psalm cl.
The Proper Psalms are never to be displaced by Se
lections. Until the last revision our Book followed
the English in assigning Proper Psalms to none but

40 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER

the four great feasts and the two great fasts of the
year; the English Book had none assigned to Ash-
Wednesday and Good Friday until 1662, and had and
still has no provision for displacing inappropriate
Psalms by others chosen from varied Selections. The
ten Selections of our Book of 1790 and the twenty
Selections of 1892, with the Proper Psalms on sixteen
days, have greatly jdded to the richness and appro
priateness of our services, as also to their adapt
ability to places, times, and men's manners. Some
times at Evening Prayer the Psalm for the fifteenth
day of the month is too long, or one of those for the
thirteenth or the twenty-second day cannot be read to
edification ; or at Morning Prayer we may find the
Psalm for the thirteenth day coming into a penitential
service, or the Psalms for the tenth day falling on (say)
the first Sunday after Easter. The thoughtful clergy
man will look carefully at the Psalms as well as at the
Lessons which he is to read, and will secure on all
special days as great a unity in the service as he can ;
while yet he will not forget that the Psalter is in its
entirety a great mirror of human life, and that there
is a vast power of instruction and of worship in its
regular and unbroken use.
It may be convenient to note the times or occasions
for which the several Selections of Psalms are specially
appropriate : —
The First, for Saints' Days ;
the Second, made up from the ancient Com
pline Psalms, for a night service ;

PRELIMINARY PAGES OF PRA YER BOOK 41

the Third, for Saints' Days, or for Ascension
tide;
the Fourth, for Thanksgiving-day or Harvest
festivals ;
the Fifth, for the Holy Communion ;
the Sixth, for a penitential service ;
the Seventh, consisting of one Psalm of distinct
ively Old Testament mould, may
do for some memorial occasions ;
the Eighth serves for a solemn service of peni
tence ;
the Ninth, for Christmas or Epiphany-tide ;
the Tenth and Eleventh are generally suitable to
replace an unsuitable Psalm ;
the Twelfth is well adapted to a Parochial or
Church anniversary ;
the Thirteenth is suitable for a missionary service ;
the Fourteenth, for an ordinary service in Lent ;
the Fifteenth, for a service of thanksgiving;
the Sixteenth, for Palm-Sunday or Easter-tide;
the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth,
while differing in tone, may all be
classed as general ; while
the Twentieth is a special doxology.

Note. — As has been said, and as will be specially noted when
we come to the study of the Daily Offices, the theory of the
Breviary was and is that the Psalter is to be read through once
in each week and that (with a few exceptions) each Psalm is to
be read but once. But the substitution of offices for the dead
or offices in honor of the Virgin Mary for the regular services,
and the introduction of numerous Saints' days having special
Psalms assigned to them, practically overthrew the original

42 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER

scheme ; the Breviary to-day provides for the constant use of
Proper Psalms and Selections of Psalms, as we should call
them; and projects of reform have been made in modern
times " by which the recitation of the whole Psalter would be
rendered possible at least several times in the course of the
year"— and this, when the theory is that it is to be recited
fifty-two times in a year.
Lessons epjf Scripture
In the historical sketch of the Daily Services, pre
fixed to the notes on Morning and Evening Prayer, it
will be noted that, one of the most important of the
changes made in those services when the Prayer
Book was set forth in English was the provision for
large readings of Holy Scripture in two Lessons'
each day from the Old Testament and two from the
New, and the exclusion of all Lessons from the
writings of the Fathers or from legendary histories.
That rule has been preserved in the English and the
American Prayer Books, to the great edification of
those who use them. As first appointed in 1549,
the Lessons consisted almost invariably of whole
chapters, and nearly everything in the Old Testa
ment and the Apocrypha (except Chronicles) was
read once a year. The Gospels and Acts were read
through three times a year for the Second Morning
Lessons, and the Epistles twice a year for the
Second Evening Lessons; the book of Revelation
was not read at all in course. This order was broken

s This is ' lections ', ' readings '.

PRELIMINARY PA GES OF PRA-YER BOOK 43
by the provision of special Lessons for certain of the
Holy-days which had a place in the Calendar ; but,
except for some changes in these special Lessons,
the tables of 1549 remained unchanged in England
until 1871.
In the first Prayer Book there were very few Proper
Lessons; in fact, the continuous reading of Scrip
ture was unbroken on Sundays except on Easter-day,
Whitsunday, and Trinity-Sunday; and no one of
these days had all four of its Lessons assigned, so
that very incongruous chapters must have been often
read. In 1559, proper First Lessons were assigned
to each Sunday in the year, Isaiah beginning to be
read at Advent and Genesis at Septuagesima; the
historical books served till about the middle of the
Trinity season, and chapters from the Prophets and
from Proverbs were assigned to the rest, while there
were no proper Second Lessons on Sundays except
on the three first mentioned; and these tables also
remained unchanged until 1871. In this year the Eng
lish tables were recast ; tables of Daily Lessons, the
general plan of which is followed by our own present
tables, were adopted; while a choice of two First
Lessons was given for each Sunday evening, and
proper Second Lessons were assigned to Septuages
ima, the Sunday next before Easter, and the First
Sunday after Easter. Thus on all Sundays in the
year except six, the Second Lessons in the English
Church are still those for the day of the month — a
provision which has something indeed in its favor,

44 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
but which would not commend itself to many who are
in the habit of using our Book.
The Tables of Lessons in our Book of 1790 were
taken from the Proposed Book of 1785, and seem to
have been the work of Dr. William Smith, in consul
tation with Bishop White. They gave us for eighty
years a far more satisfactory and instructive course
of Sunday and week-day Scripture reading than the
Church of England had. In the Old Testament
Lessons many chapters were divided, and many
less edifying passages were omitted ; and the exclu
sion of the Apocrypha made room for all which it
was thought best to read from the canonical books.
In the Second Lessons, the division of chapters in
the Gospels and the Acts — none was divided in the
Epistles — called for a full reading of all the New
Testament twice a year, except that the Revelation
was not read at all. All Holy-days were given
proper First Lessons, and chapters from the
Apocrypha served for a large part of those; and
some Holy-days had proper Second Lessons. And
all Sundays had four Proper Lessons, the scheme of
this arrangement being practically the same as that
in our present tables, with Isaiah beginning at Ad
vent and Genesis at Trinity-Sunday; only the First
Lessons for the last Sundays after Trinity were
taken from the Proverbs. After the adoption in
England of the tables of 1871, permission was given
by the General Convention for their use in our
Church ; but they were not found in accordance with

PRELIMINARY PA GES OF PRA YER BOOK 45
the principles of selection to which our clergy and
people were accustomed.
Our present Tables of Lessons date from 1883, and
(as far as they were new) they were largely the work,
it is believed, of Bishop Lay of Easton. Few changes
were made in the Sunday Lessons, but those for
Holy-days were nearly all selected anew, and the
Calendar Lessons were entirely rearranged, the lines
being those suggested by the English tables of a
few years earlier, but the details being quite different.
There were larger omissions from the Old Testament
than before, by which room was made for Lessons
from the Apocrypha on nineteen days in November;
in the former half of the year the Gospels were
appointed for Second Lessons at Morning and the
Acts and Epistles at Evening, while in the latter half
of the year this arrangement was reversed ; and place
was kept on the thirteen last free days of the year for
the whole of the book of Revelation.' A Commis
sion of the General Convention has now (1912) in
hand a new revision of the Tables of Lessons.
The general rubrics as to the use of the Lessons,
found on page viii of the Prayer Book, should be
carefully noted. The phrase 'Movable Holy-days'
occurs here for the first time; it means those which
do not fall always on the same day of the month, and
therefore 'move' in the civil or Roman calendar; and

*The English tables strangely omit three chapters of this
book.

46 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
it includes all Sundays and all Holy-days, such as
Ash-Wednesday, Good Friday, and Ascension-day,
which depend directly upon Easter and move with
it. It hardly needs to be noted that in the fourth
paragraph "the Lesson from the Gospels appointed
for that day of the Month" does not mean the Gospel
appointed for the Communion Service for that day.
The provision in the fifth paragraph, applicable to
any week-day which is not a Holy-day, gives to the
minister the opportunity of selecting the most edify
ing lessons, when there are but one or two week-day
services between Sundays; yet he needs to remem
ber that a variation from the appointed order may
disturb those who are in the habit of reading all the
Lessons at home, and also that sometimes strange
or unfamiliar passages of Scripture have a message
peculiarly their own.
It may be noted here that the Table of Proper
Lessons for the Forty Days of Lent and for the
Rogation and Ember-days (page xi of the Prayer
Book) is not obligatory; these Lessons "may be
used in place of those appointed in the Calendar",
but it is not required that they be so used. And
the writer trusts that he may be pardoned for ex
pressing his opinion that they are not very satis
factory, at least as far as those specially provided for
Lent are concerned.' And on the Ember-days in

5 The Lessons for Ash- Wednesday and Holy Week are the
same as those in the required tables.

PRELIMINAR Y PA GES OF PRA YER BOOK 47
December it seems ill-advised to break in on the
reading of Isaiah and Revelation for any other
passages, even if technically more appropriate. But
criticism here, as elsewhere, may well be held in
suspense for the present.
The question as tdTBe Lessons to be read when a
Sunday and a Holy-day concur will be considered
under the head of Collects, Epistles, and Gospels.
Hymns and Anthems
The note as to 'Hymns and Anthems' declares in
what places Hymns and Anthems may be sung;
namely, "before and after any Office in this Book,
and also before and after Sermons." It does not
require that a Hymn or Anthem shall always be sung
wherever it is lawful to sing it ; and the judgment of
the best 'ritualists' (that is to say, students of ritual
and of liturgical use) seems to be calling for less
singing of Hymns, at least before and after ordinary
services, than has been the custom of late. The use
of other Hymns than those in the authorized Hymnal
and other Anthems than those in the words of Holy
Scripture or of the Book of Common Prayer, is not
explicitly forbidden here; but, in the judgment of the
writer, there is a moral obligation not to use others,
unless indeed it can be shown that some uses of
them (as, for instance, at the receiving of alms) are
extra-rubrical. As to this, a note will be made when
the rubric in the Communion Office is reached.

48 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
The Calendar, with Tables of Lessons
The Table of Lessons for the several months (on
pages xii-xxiii inclusive) is in reality, as the Table
of Contents shows, "The Calendar, with Tables of
Lessons." The Calendar occupies three columns —
in March and April, four columns. In one of those
columns are the numbers of the days of the month ;
in second, the Sunday Letters; in a third, the names
of the immovable Holy-days; and in the prefixed
column for March and April are the Golden Numbers.
The Dominical or Sunday Letters are the first
seven letters of the alphabet ('A' being printed as a
capital, to catch the eye more readily), placed in
succession against the numbers which indicate the
day of the month and repeated throughout the Calen
dar. If the year begins with Sunday, then every
day in the year against which the letter 'A' stands is
Sunday ; if January 4th is the first Sunday, ,then 'd'
is the Sunday Letter of the year and every day
marked 'd' is Sunday. Conversely, if we know the
Sunday Letter of a year, we can easily determine the
day of the week on which any date in the civil
year falls ; as for instance, if we know that the Sun
day Letter of the year 1890 was 'g', we see that the
4th day of July in that year was a Wednesday, inas
much as the letter of that day is 'c', and 'c' follows
three letters after 'g'. But a leap year has two Sun
day Letters, the 29th day of February moving all the
later days of the year one step back in the week;

PRELIMINARY PA GES OF PRA YER BOOK 49
thus, if 'd' is the Sunday Letter with which the year
begins, February 29th will be Sunday, and the next
Sunday will be March 7th, which has the letter 'c',
so that this will be the Sunday Letter for the rest of
the year.
The letters marking the first days of the several
months in succession ('A' for January, 'd' for Febru
ary and March, 'g' for April, etc.) may be remem
bered as the initial letters of the words of the jingle: —
" At Dover Dwells George Brown, Esquire,
Good Christopher Fipps, And David Fryer."
If we know that the Sunday Letter of a year was
'e', we can tell from this that June in that year began
on Sunday; February, March and November, on
Saturday ; September and December, on Monday, etc.
This Sunday Letter is commonly used in almanacs to
mark the Sundays.
The Calendar in our Prayer Book contains only
those immovable Holy-days for which services with
Lessons, and Collect, Epistle and Gospel, are pro
vided. That in the English Book contains a large
number of other names, and formerly had some as
tronomical and legal notes, such as, 'Sol in Gemini',
'Dog Days', 'Term ends*. Some of the days still
marked are more or less familiar to us, as St. Valen
tine on February 14, St. David (the Welshman) on
March 1, St. George on April 23 (Shakespeare's
birthday), St. Swithun on July 15, St. Etheldreda
on October 17; some are the days of great doctors
5

50 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
of the Church Universal, as St. Gregory the Great,
St. Jerome, St. Augustine ; some commemorate men
whom we should call distinctively British saints, as
St. Alban, St. Boniface, St. Edward the Confessor;
some are days for one reason or another especially
held in honor or serving to fix dates, as Lammas on
August i, Holy-Cross Day on September 14, O
Sapientia (the first pre-Christmas antiphon) on
December 16; one, 'Evurtius, Bp.', on September 7
(the name being a misprint for 'Enurchus'), inserted
in 1604, was evidently intended to make Queen
Elizabeth's birthday a holiday; while for some in
sertions and some exclusions or omissions, as of St.
Patrick's Day, no reason can now be assigned. Im
perfect as this part of the English Calendar is, it cer
tainly serves to keep in mind some thought of the
continuity of the Church and the Communion of
Saints. These days thus noted are called 'Black-
letter Days', as having" their names printed in black
when the days of observance (for which special ser-
vies are provided) are printed in red as the rubrics
are; when black ink is used for all, a difference in
type marks the two classes. The names of festivals
in our Calendar are the same as the red-letter days of
the English Calendar, with the addition of the Trans
figuration on August 6, which we inserted and
provided with a service at our revision of 1892.
The numbers in the prefixed column in the Calen
dar for March and April are the Golden Numbers,
and mark the days of the full moon within the period

PRELIMINAR Y PA GES OF PRA YER BOOK 51
by which Easter is determined; in a complete as
tronomical calendar of this kind they would be in
serted throughout the year. They extend from i to
19, because after nineteen years the full moons
fall on the same day of the month j1 the numbers will
be found set against the years in order in the table
on page xxvi of the Prayer Book. Now the Golden
Number of the year 1900 is i, and the full moon with
in the Paschal period of that year fell on April 14;
the number 1 therefore is set in the Calendar against
April 14, and on that day there will be a full moon in
all years removed from 1900 by any multiple of
nineteen years, as 1919, 1938, 1957, 1976, 1995, etc.
The full moons of any year are eleven days behind
those of the preceding year; therefore 1901, which has
2 for its Golden Number, had a full moon on April 3,
and therefore 2 stands against April 3 in the Calen
dar; it shows that the full moon of 1920, 1939, etc.,
will be on that day. Again 1902, the Golden Num
ber of which was 3, had a full moon eleven days
further back, on March 23 ; the number 3 stands then
against that day, and gives the full moon for 192 1,
1940, etc. To go back eleven days more for 1903,
to March 12, would carry us out of the Paschal
period ; we therefore pass into the next lunar month
and find a full moon thirty days later, or on April 11,

* There is a slight error in this statement, if a long period of
time is involved ; but the error will not amount to more than
one day in the three centuries 1 900-2199.

52 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
and set against that day the number 4. Thus we
proceed till the number 19 stands against March 27,
and gives us the full moon for the years 1918, 1937,
1956, etc. Now knowing the Golden Number of a
year, which is a very easy thing to remember in this
century, if we also know the Sunday Letter we can
readily discover the date of Easter; for Easter-day is
the Sunday next after the full moon which falls upon
or next after the twenty-first day of March, which
is the vernal equinox. The date, therefore, against
the Sunday Letter next after the Golden Number of
a year is Easter for that year.'
The rule for the date of Easter and the rule for
determining it by the use of Golden Number and
Sunday Letter are carefully stated on pages xxiv

7 If the reader happens to have before him a Prayer Book
printed before 1900, he will find all the Golden Numbers but
two removed by one day from those given above and in more
recent Prayer Books. The reason is that the error in the cycle
of nineteen years, partly relieved by the extra day in leap-year,
had accumulated so that this change was necessary in the year
1900 ; it had been provided for, as later changes are provided
for, by a rule, the full explanation for which must be sought in
such essays as Professor DeMorgan's in The Interleaved
Prayer Book, or articles in the (Roman) Catholic Encyclo
paedia. The average period from full moon to full moon, or
new moon to new moon, is a little less than 29J days: lunar
calendar months are therefore considered as having alternately
twenty-nine and thirty days, and a lunar year of twelve months
is assigned has 354 days, eleven less than an ordinary solar year,
as noted in the text. For the rules as to intercalary months, the
larger treatises must be consulted.

PRELIMINA RYPA GES OF PRA YER BOOK 53
and xxv of the Prayer Book under the heading which
is next to be considered.
Tables and Rules
First stand rules for determining the date of the
Movable Feasts and Holy-days, that is to say (as
above noted), those which change their place from
year to year in the civil or Roman calendar. The
rule for the date of Easter, already quoted, is that
which has prevailed in the Church from the time of
the Council of Nicaea or Nice in the year 325. From
the very first, Christians had observed the Lord's
Day or Sunday as "an Easter-day in every week";
and there can be no doubt that the annual com
memoration of the Resurrection at the Passion-tide
was also very early observed. But while most Chris
tians kept the annual Easter on the first day of the
week, there were others who held that the com
memoration should be on the fourteenth day of the
lunar or Jewish month, on whatever day of the week
it fell. Against these latter, called Quartodecimans,
or Fourteenth-day men, from their practice, the
Council decided that the Christian Paschal or Easter
should always be kept on a Sunday ; and as Alexan
dria was the centre of astronomical learning, it was
agreed that the Bishop of that city, the only Bishop
who at that time had the title of Pope, should by
'Festal Letters' notify the Christian world, year by
year, of the date at which the great festival should
be observed.

54 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
It was soon found desirable to arrange the dates
for a series of years according to a table or cycle ;
and the cycle of nineteen years, which we still use
with its nineteen Golden Numbers, came into gen
eral use. Owing to the, fact that no number of years
possesses an exact number of lunations, and to the
further fact that the motions of the moon in the
heavens are not precisely uniform, these tables do
not always place the full moon upon the day on
which it is in exact opposition to the sun; in other
words, the full moon of this "ancient ecclesiastical
computation" is not always on the same day as "the
real or astronomical full moon". The divergence,
however, is rarely so large as to attract the attention
of anyone- but an astronomer, and never as large in
ratio as is the divergence in some parts of the year
between the sun-time as shown by a dial and the
mean-time as kept by our clocks and watches ; these
latter give correct sun-time on only four days in each
year, and are sometimes more than a quarter of an
hour or a hundredth part of a day away from it. It
is far more convenient, therefore, to follow a settled
rule which can be readily applied for years in
advance, and to neglect any minor inaccuracy into
which it may lead.
Moreover, the moon of the heavens is the full
moon at the moment of absolute time at which she is
exactly opposite the sun as viewed from the earth,
or is removed from him 180 degrees in longitude,
and this can be determined to a fraction of a second;

PRELIMINARY PA GES OF PRA YER BOOK 55
whereas all that is needed for the ecclesiastical full
moon is that it be assigned to a day, "the fourteenth
day of a lunar month". Now in 1903 the moon was
in opposition to the sun, that is to say, there was an
astronomical full moon, by New York time, on
Saturday, April 11, at about half-past seven o'clock
in the evening ; this was also the day given by the
Prayer Book tables for the ecclesiastical full moon ;
so that there was no question that in New York —
and for that matter, as can readily be seen, any
where on this continent — Easter was to be observed
on the following day, Sunday, April 12. But
when it is half-past seven o'clock in the evening on
the 75th meridian of west longitude, a little west of
New York, it is half-past twelve o'clock in the morn
ing of the next day on the meridian of Greenwich
near London; and thus in 1903, if Easter had
been determined by the moon of the heavens which
was not full in England till Sunday, April 12, the peo
ple of that land would have been obligedto defer their
Easter observance to the next Sunday, April 19, and
the two great branches of the Anglican Church would
have had variant calendars for a large part of the year.
But the Golden Number rule had decided that the
Paschal or Easter full moon was everywhere on April
11, and therefore Easter itself was everywhere ob
served on April 12. Such examples present them
selves from time to time, and show the advantage
of tables, proving that the provision for their use
is by no means arbitrary.

56 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
The question may be asked, why the full moon
is said to be on the fourteenth day of the lunar
month, if the full moon is mid-way between two
new moons and the period of a lunation is on the
average about twenty-nine and a half days. The
answer is that new moon and full moon for the
purposes of a lunar or Jewish month were both
determined by observation; that the new moon
cannot be seen until about a day and a half after
it has passed the sun, while the day of full moon
can be readily observed; and that therefore it is
a shorter period from visible new moon to visible
full moon than from visible full moon to visible new
moon, and the full moon may be expected to
occur on the fourteenth day of the month which
begins on the day when the new moon is first seen
in the heavens.8
Easter-day is shown by the tables to control the
Church's year from Septuagesima, nine weeks before
it, to Trinity-Sunday, eight weeks after it; and
in fact, by affecting the numbering of the Sundays
after Trinity, it controls the year until the Sunday

8 There is abundant material in the encyclopaedias and else
where for the study of the Calendar. Some historians call the
ancient British Church, which did not keep Easter by the same
.rules as the Church of Rome, Quartodeciman. This is a mis
take ; the British Church kept Easter on Sunday, but it used an
ancient cycle, less accurate than the new cycle which had come
into use at Rome, and thus sometimes had a day for Easter
differing from that which was observed in the imperial city.

PRELIMINARY PA GES OF PRA YER BOOK 57
next before Advent. Christmas, which is an im
movable feast, and is kept by the Roman calendar,
controls the year from Advent-Sunday until the
stopping of the Sundays after Epiphany by Septua-
gesima. Advent-Sunday, elsewhere called the First
Sunday in Advent, is the fourth Sunday before
Christmas; and, when it does not fall on St.
Andrew's Day (November 30), it is the nearest
Sunday to that day; its range is, therefore, from
November 27 to December 3, inclusive.
The Table of Feasts includes : all Sundays ; five fes
tivals of our Lord ; two of the Blessed Virgin (which
are really also in honor of our Lord); twelve days
which bear the names of eleven original Apostles (in
two cases two Apostles being commemorated on the
same day) and of St. Matthias, St. Paul, and St.
Barnabas ; two in honor of the Evangelists who were
not Apostles; the Nativity of St. John Baptist, St.
Stephen's Day, All Saints' Day, Holy Innocents'
Day, and the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels,
with the two days next following Easter and Whit
sunday. Of these the Sundays, Mondays, and Tues
days, amount to fifty-six in number, or in years be
ginning with Sunday, or leap-years beginning with
Saturday, to fifty-seven; the Ascension-day comes
always on Thursday; and the remaining twenty-five
may come on any day of the week. We have there
fore eighty-two or eighty-three feast days appointed
in each year. As may be readily computed, the
number of appointed days of abstinence in each ordi-

58 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER

nary year is ninety-five or ninety-six. But in each
year some immovable feasts will concur with Sun
days or days of abstinence, reducing the total (on an
average) to about 169; so that there are about forty-six
per cent of all the days in the year, on which the
Church bids us to special devotion.'
Our Church appoints but two Fasts, the First
Day of Lent, commonly called Ash-Wednesday, and
the Friday of the week before Easter, known to
English-speaking people as Good Friday. But she
designates "Other Days of Fasting" under four
heads. These are: (1) The Forty Days of Lent,
which, as is readily seen, do not include the Sundays
in Lent ; (2) The Ember-days at the four seasons of
Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter; (3) The
three Rogation-days preceding Ascension-day, which
festival, it is noted, is for English-speaking people
Holy Thursday ; (4) The weekly remembrance of the
Lord's Passion and Death on Fridays, an exception
being made in the case of Christmas falling on that
day of the week.
Something will be said of Lent in a later chapter."
The Ember-days, days of the ymb-rene or 'around-

»Dr. Densiow tells me that in the thirty years ending with
1910, there were 103 concurrences with Sundays and 113 with
days of abstinence. He has enabled me to correct the former
statement on this page. For further notes on the Sundays and
Saints' Days, with some account of the history of the Church
Year, the student is referred to the chapter on the Collects,
Epistles, and Gospels.
10 See Chapter VI, on The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels.

PRELIMINARY PA GES OF PRA YER BOOK 5< i
running' or 'circuit', so called by our Anglo-Saxon
ancestors from the regular order in which they come,
must have been at the first, as it would seem, days
of prayer with special reference to the seasons of
the year; in Latin they are called Quatuor Tempora,
'the four times', 'the four seasons'. But they be
came days of fasting in preparation for the quarterly
ordinations and of prayer for those who were to be
admitted to Holy Orders; and about the year noo
they were settled according to the rule which still
holds. They are the Wednesday, Friday, and Satur
day after the First Sunday in Lent and after Whit
sunday (here alone in the Prayer Book called Pente
cost), and (to put the statement precisely) the
Wednesday next after the 14th day of September
(Holy-Cross Day) and that next after the 13th day of
December (St. Lucy's Day), with the following Fri
days and Saturdays ; for all three days in each case
must be in one week. The winter Ember-days
always fall in the week of the third Sunday in
Advent. In accordance with ancient custom, the
stated days for Ordination are the Sundays af
ter the Ember-days; that is to say, the Second
Sunday in Lent, Trinity Sunday, the Sunday in
the Trinity season next after the Wednesday fol
lowing September 14, and the Fourth Sunday in
Advent. Some account of the Rogation-days, which in part
serve as a preparation for the Feast of the Ascension,
but are especially days of prayer for a blessing on

60 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
the fruits and other produce of the earth, will be
found among the notes on the Litany.11
A paragraph added to the Tables of Feasts and
Fasts designates the First Thursday in November, or
such other day as shall be appointed by the civil
authority, to be observed as a Thanksgiving-day.
This appointment, with a service, was made in the
Proposed Book of 1785, and was the first provision for
a thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth to be. ob
served throughout the country. As is well known,
the New England States had an established custom
that the governor should in the autumn appoint a
day of public thanksgiving and prayer; and the
custom had spread to the other States in the north
ern part of the country, but without any uniformity
as to the day. In these States the Prayer Book ser
vice was used on the appointed days; and in the
Southern States, which had no Thanksgiving-day
designated by their governors, the first Thursday in
November was observed by Churchmen. It was in
the time of the Civil War that the President of the
United States first appointed an autumnal Thanks
giving-day for national blessings; and from that time
on, the last Thursday in November has been annually
appointed by the President (and also, in some of the
States which had the old custom, by the governors),
and has been observed throughout the country."
11 See Chapter IV, on The Litany.
" See W. DeL. Love's "Fast and Thanksgiving-days of New
England."

PRELIMINARY PA GES OF PRA YER BOOK 61
The tables which follow owe their careful and lucid
arrangement to the Rev. Dr. Francis Harison, who
prepared them for the revision of our Book in 1892.
Those of practical use and of constant service are on
pages xxvi and xxvii, being a list of Easter-days
from 1786 to 2013, and a table which from the
date of Easter in any year gives information as to
other movable days and changeable numbers in
that year. The two General Tables are of use for
chronologists and curious investigators; the first
helps us to find the Sunday Letter as far as the
year 5000, etc., and the second determines the place
of the Golden Numbers in the Calendar as far as
the year 8500.
It may be worth while to note that we cannot work
backward from these tables further than the date of
the Change of Style, as it is called — in countries of
the Roman obedience 1582, in England 1752 — with
out making allowance for that change. Whitaker's
Almanack (English) prints annually a table of Easter-
days and Sunday Letters for the years 1500-2000,
which allows for the change of style; it is well
arranged and of much interest.
The reader may care to have at hand a few facts
as to dates with reference to the Calendar. The earli
est possible Easter date is March 22, if a full moon
falls on March 21 and that day is Saturday; the
latest possible Easter date is April 25, if a full moon
falls on March 20 and the next on April 18 and that
day is Sunday. The following table shows the years

62 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
when Easter has recently fallen or will soon fall on
days at or near the extremes : —
March 22, 1818 (not again till 2285).
23, 1845, 1856, 1913.
24, (not since 1799), 1940.
25, 1883, 1894, 1951.
April 23, 1848, 1905, 1916 (not again till 2000).
24, 1859 (not again till 20 11).
25, (not since 1736), 1886, 1943.
There was but one Sunday after the Epiphany in
1799, 1 81 8, 1845, 1856; this will be the case again
in 1913, and then not till 2008.
There were six Sundays after the Epiphany six
times in the last century: 1810, 1821, 1832, 1848,
1859, 1886; the years in this century for the same
number are 1905, 1916, 1943, 1962, 1973, 1984, and
then 2000.
The reason for a divergence between the Eastern
Church (that of Greece and Russia) and our own
in the date of Easter is not that they have a dif-
erent rule, but that their Calendar is still of Old
Style and is thirteen days behind ours. In 1907,
the full moon fell on our March 28, and our
Easter was the following Sunday, March 31 ; but
by their reckoning the full moon named fell on
March 15, before the equinox, and they waited
for the next full moon on their April 15; this day
being Sunday, their Easter was postponed till their
April 22, which was our May 5; and thus they

PRELIMINARY PAGES OF PRAYER BOOK 63
were five weeks behind us in the observance of
the festival. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The bibliographical references for this chapter must be to
books already named at the end of the last chapter, and to
encyclopaedia articles on chronological subjects.
The late Rev. Dr. Samuel Seabury (grandson of the Bishop)
wrote a book on the Theory and Use of the Church Calendar ;
and in Appendix IV to the Journal of the General Convention
of 1871 is a very learned and exhaustive paper on the Paschal
Cycle by the Rev. Dr. F. A. P. Barnard, then president of
Columbia College.

III.
MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER
THE Orders for Daily Morning and Evening
Prayer, traditionally called 'The Divine Office',
stand first in the Prayer Book, and rightly precede
the sacramental offices for which they are a prepa
ration. Their origin is partly from 'natural piety',
partly from the night vigils of the early Christians,
and party from community or monastic life. The
preparation for them in ante-Christian times may
perhaps be traced to the daily morning and evening
sacrifices of the temple, but more certainly and
directly to the synagogue worship of the Sabbath-
eve and Sabbath, and of two (or perhaps more) other
days in the week; and also to the private prayers of
devout men "in the evening and morning and at noon
day" (Psalm lv. 18), or sometimes "seven times in a
day" and "at midnight" (Psalm cxix. 164, 62). The
synagogue worship, consisting of Psalms with a les
son from the Law, to which later a lesson from the
Prophets was added (see Acts xiii. 15), with perhaps a
sermon or exhortation based on what had been read,
and mingled thanksgivings and prayers called 'Bene
dictions', corresponded in a way to our family devo
tions rather than to our Church services ; so that it is
hardly an exaggeration to say that Morning and Even
ing Prayer have grown out of family and private wor-

MORNING AND EVENING PRA YER 65
ship. We read at the first of no general gatherings of
Christians except to "break the bread" of the Eucha
rist, though occasion was taken at such gatherings to
hear the preaching of the word (see Acts xx. 7) ; but
it would seem not at all improbable that in their
houses they would assemble in smaller groups for
prayer and praise. By the third century, as the
pressure of persecution was removed, it was possible
to hold in common a service for the eve and the
morning of the Lord's Day which had displaced the
Sabbath — perhaps it was first held on Easter-even
and Easter-day. And when, a century or two later,
many Christians began to live in communities, they
were able and glad to have common prayers often ;
besides those of evening and night and morning, they
could meet for them at intervals in the busy part of
the day. Thus there grew up, largely under the in
fluence of the Benedictine rule, the eight (or seven)
regular — "canonical" — hours of prayer, binding on
members of religious communities and a model for
all Christians. In their order, they were thus named :
Vespers at sunset, Compline at bedtime, Nocturns
or Matins at midnight or early dawn, Lauds at
sunrise, Prime at the beginning of work, Tierce at the
third hour or the middle of the morning, Sexts at the
sixth hour or midday, Nones at the ninth hour or the
middle of the afternoon.1 The daily eucharistic office

'The chief meal of the day was at nones ; the meal has now
slipped back to midday, and carried the word ' noon ' with it.
6

66 THE BOdK OF COMMON PRA YER
was regularly held after Prime. Matins was the
longest service and generally passed directly into
Lauds, so that the number of services came to be
reckoned as seven.
The origin of these services is to be found in the
ideas suggested by the titles assigned to them. Thus
to the private prayers, which seem to be the instinct of
personal religion, we trace Compline and Prime ; and
these, it must be noted, were said in the dormitory
and not in the church, being bedside rather than
chapel services, and were very short; Vespers and
Matins, with Lauds, belonged to the vigils which
treated every day as in a sense a Lord's day; while
the three day-offices, as they were called, belonged
especially to the community, and they too were
short, like our noonday prayers for Missions.
It is not possible here to trace the history of the
Divine Office; it may be read in books named at
the end of this chapter. Beautiful in their ideal, the
services of the seven hours could not be maintained
except in monastic establishments and in 'collegiate'
churches which had a large staff of clergymen ; and
we have seen in our own times a similar retro
gression, for the survival of public daily prayers has
been chiefly in cathedrals and other large churches
and in colleges. The whole number could never
have been customarily attended by men and women
outside of the communities, and even the monks and
the clergy soon began to say the services one after an
other "by accumulation" ; combining them into two

MORNING AND EVENING PRA YER 67
or at the most three, and repeating them in private,
as is the custom in the Roman Church to-day.
In this way it came to pass that the Psalter
was read through in order once a week ; there were
also daily Lessons from Scripture and the Fathers
or other sources, along with the Canticles and the
Creed and a few familiar prayers. These, of course,
were all in Latin; but at least as early as the year
1400 there were English 'Primers' for those who
could read or could learn from the reading of others,
containing a translation of a great part of the con
tents of the Latin offices. Still, there was little
"common prayer" left from the more ancient offices;
the amount of Scripture in the Lessons had become
very small ; and the rubrics and rules for the services
had grown so complicated that "many times there was
more business to find out what should be read than
to read it when it was found out."
The first definite plan for a revision of the daily
offices included in the Breviary came from a
Spanish Cardinal, by name Quifiones (often called
by the English Quignon), whose work- was pub
lished in 1535. It was a simplification of the ser
vices then in use, providing for a weekly reading or
singing of the Psalms, the continuous reading of
both the Old Testament and the New, the simplifica
tion of the rubrics, and the removal of much non-
scriptural matter which was not to edification; all
was still kept in Latin. Eight years later, in 1543,
Henry VIII being still king, Cranmer began a re-

68 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
vision in England, on the lines of Quignon's work.
He soon carried it farther than the Spanish Cardinal
had done; and in 1547, early in Edward VI's reign,
he had ready a scheme for reducing the daily ser
vices to two, repeating therein the Psalter once a
month, and reading the Lessons and saying the
Lord's Prayer in English; the Lessons being ar
ranged so as to go through the Old Testament once,
and the New Testament three times, in each year.
Out of this grew very soon, and with true Anglican
instinct, the order for Morning and Evening Prayer
in the first English Prayer Book of 1549. Cranmer
and those who were associated with him in the work
did not originate these services : they did not really
compile or arrange them; but they translated, sim
plified, revised, and in the right sense of the word
popularized services that had long been in use, and
provided for large readings from the Word of God,
for which the people were an-hungered. The Les
sons of Scripture which (except for single verses called
'capitula') had all been read at Matins, were soon
made four for each day, and distributed between morn
ing and evening. If we keep in mind that the Morn
ing and Evening Prayer of 1549 were almost exactly
the parts of our services which begin with the Lord's
Prayer and end with the Collect for Grace and that
for Aid against Perils, we can readily see how they
were taken from, and thus preserve, five of the older
offices. Our Morning Prayer is Matins with Lauds and

MORNING AND EVENING PRA YER 69
Prime. From Matins come the Lord's Prayer with
its versicles, the standing Invitatory Psalm xcv
(Venite), the appointed part of the Psalter in order,
a Lesson (now taken always from the Old Testament),
and the Te Deum as the Church's response to God's
prophetic Word.2 To Lauds belonged Benedicite (in
the new Book said only when Te Deum was omitted,
that is, in Lent) ; Benedictus (now sung in response
to the New Testament Lesson as a thanksgiving for
the Incarnation); the versicles, and the Collect for
the day or the week taken from the eucharistic ser
vice; and the Collect for Peace. To Prime belonged
the Creed and the Collect for Grace.
In like manner, Vespers and Compline were com
bined in Evening Prayer or Evensong, the service
being assimilated to that of the morning for sim
plicity's sake. To Vespers we may assign the
Psalms and the Magnificat, together with the Ver
sicles, the Collect from the eucharistic service, and
the Collect for Peace; while to Compline belong
Nunc Dimittis, the Creed, and the Collect for Aid
against Perils; a Lesson, as just noted, was also ap
pointed for each service. No provision was made
for continuing the day-offices of Tierce and Sexts
and Nones, except as their Psalms were read in
order at morning and evening; they were wisely left
to private devotion.

2 In the Latin office, Te Deum had been the respond to the
ninth Lesson at Sunday Matins.

70 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER
In 1552, the penitential preface of Sentences, Ex
hortation, Confession, and Absolution was prefixed,
corresponding to private devotions which had been
said before the offices ; Te Deum and Benedicite were
made interchangeable; and Psalms were provided
as alternatives for Benedictus, Magnificat, and Nunc
Dimittis. In 1662, the Prayers for the King, the Royal
Family, and the Clergy and People, and the Prayer
of St. Chrysostom, with 'The Grace', were added;
and in this form these services stand in the English
Book to-day. Thus it is very easy to trace their
several parts back to their originals ; and the reasons
for the modifications made in them are readily seen.
In this country, when the Prayer Book was first
set forth after the Revolution, in 1789-90, three non-
penitential sentences were prefixed to both Morning
and Evening Prayer; an alternative form of abso
lution was inserted from the Communion Office; the
Venite was made to consist of seven verses of Psalm
xcv and two verses from Psalm xcvi; Benedictus
was reduced to four verses; the Nicene Creed
was made an alternative for the Apostles'; the
number of versicles after the Creed was reduced
to two with their responses; Magnificat and Nunc
Dimittis were omitted, and alternatives from the
Psalter were provided for Cantate and Deus Mis-
ereatur; and finally, the Prayer for all Conditions
of Men and the General Thanksgiving were brought
into both services from their English place in the

MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER 71
Special Prayers and Thanksgivings. In the revision
which ended in 1892, a large number of special Sen
tences, corresponding to the ancient Invitatories,
were prefixed; the full Benedictus was restored, as
were also Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis; omitted
versicles (but without the Lord's Prayer) were
replaced after the Creed at Evening Prayer; and
permission was given for the shortening of both ser
vices, under certain carefully stated conditions.
Both in 1790 and in 1892 there were rubrical and
other minor changes, some of which will be noted
elsewhere. Our daily services have, therefore, for their central
part, the recital of the Psalms as an act of meditation
on the varied aspects of life in its dependence on
God, and the reading of God's Word for His honor
and for man's instruction. This meditation and in
struction are introduced by an act of repentance, and
lead to hymns of thanksgiving and the public pro
fession of faith in the great truths of revelation; and
on this follow in turn a few simple petitions for the
worshippers, for the Church, and for all in authority,
with a thanksgiving for God's many mercies.
Attention has been called to the rubrics which
regulate the use of the offices at different times. It
should be carefully noted :
1. That at Morning Prayer on Sunday, unless the
Holy Commuion is immediately to follow, nothing
must be omitted until after the Prayer for the Presi-

72 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER
dent ; and if neither the Litany nor the Holy Com
munion is to follow, none of the prayers which stand
after that for the President may be omitted. The
Holy Communion, in the rubrics quoted, evidently
means the whole service with the celebration of the
Sacrament, and not the preliminary part "unto the
end of the Gospel", known as the Ante-Communion.
And permission to omit is not a command to omit;
it may sometimes be well to read the penitential in
troduction of the service, even if a part or all of the
congregation will be presently called to another con
fession in the Communion Office.
2. That at Morning Prayer on week-days, unless
the Holy Communion is immediately to follow, noth
ing may be omitted until the end of the Collect for
Grace; but on any week-day the short bidding form,
"Let us humbly confess", may take the place of the
exhortation. On any week-day Morning Prayer may
end with the Collect for Grace and 2 Cor. xiii. 14.
3. That at Evening Prayer on Sundays, the whole
service must be said to the end of the Collect for
Aid against Perils; the bidding form is printed as an
alternative for the exhortation, and may be used on
any day.
4. That Evening Prayer on week-days may begin
with the Lord's Prayer after one or more of the sen
tences and may end with the Collect for Aid against
Perils. The rubric seems to require at least one
more Prayer; but there is no doubt that 2 Cor. xiii.
14 is a 'Prayer of Benediction'.

MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER 73
Again it may be noted that 'may' is not 'shall',
and that on many occasions it is well either to begin
Evening Prayer with the Confession, as when there
is but one week-day service, and that in the evening,
or to read all the prayers as printed, as when the
Sunday evening congregation is practically different
from that of the morning.
The opening sentences are in three divisions:
general, specific, and penitential. Some of the sen
tences assigned to special days or seasons may well
be used at other times: thus, 'From the rising of
the sun' is suitable for Saints' days or for missionary
services or when the Holy Communion is to follow;
'This is the day' and 'If ye then be risen' are suit
able for any Sunday; 'Seeing that we have a great
High Priest' and 'Christ is not entered' may well
be read on Thursday; 'O send out thy light' is
always appropriate. The careful ministrant will
also select a penitential sentence that suits the
thought of the day; the three from Psalm li are
suitable for Friday; 'Enter not into judgment',
for Advent; 'Rend your heart', for the earlier part
of Lent, and 'To the Lord our God', for the lat
ter part of that season; 'I will arise' is not inappro
priate even on a festival; the first and the last are
general. The purpose of the Exhortation is evident; it is
based on the penitential sentence just read, and first
calls for a moment's meditation upon the purposes

74 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
of assembling in God's house; and secondly, it re
minds us that we ought not to enter upon His
worship without confession of our sins and- the as
surance of His forgiveness and acceptance. The
Confession is called 'General' as distinguished from
specific; it is public, not private. The congrega
tion is to say it 'after the Minister', that is to say,
following his lead from clause to clause; and to this
end capital letters are inserted, . to show when each
rhetorical clause begins ; before each such capital as
'According', 'And grant', 'That we may', there
should be a distinct suspension of the voice. There
ought also, that the connection of the words may be
plainly felt, to be a semi-pause before 'declared unto
mankind' and before 'live a godly', and no such
pause after the word 'godly'. The old custom, and
one still followed in some places,' was for the minis
ter to say each clause alone and for the people to
repeat it after him ; this was changed in our Church
by advice of the House of Bishops in 1835. A like
use of capitals is seen in the Lord's Prayer, the
Creed, the Confession in the Communion Service,
the next to the last prayer in the Penitential Office,
the Prayer after the exhortation based on the Gospel
in the Baptismal Offices, and two long answers in
the Catechism.
'Amen', at the end of the Confession, is printed
in roman type; at the end of the Absolution it is in

'This is done frequently when services are intoned.

MORNING AND EVENING PRA YER 75
italic type.' An italic 'Amen' is a response, to
be said by the people after a prayer or thanksigving
said by the minister; it is never to be said by the
minister, not even at the end of 'The grace of our
Lord'. A roman 'Amen' is a part of the prayer or
formula which it closes, and is to be said by the
person or persons who have said that which precedes ;
thus, at the end of the Confession or the Lord's
Prayer or the Creed both minister and people are to
say it ; at the end of the second part of the Gloria
Patri, the people alone ; at the end of the Baptismal
formula, the minister alone; at the end of the
formula at laying on of hands in Confirmation or
Ordination, the Bishop alone is to say the 'Amen'.
The Declaration of Absolution is to be said by the
priest alone. If a deacon or a lay-reader is reading
the service, no priest being present, he passes at
once from the Confession to the Lord's Prayer.
The distinction in the use of the terms 'Minister'
and 'Priest' is carefully observed in our Prayer Book,
with one or two possible exceptions which will be
noted. The former includes a deacon or, in those
services which a layman may canonically read —
Morning and Evening Prayer, the Litany, and the
Order for the Burial of the Dead — a lay-reader.
The English Book has in this place but the first of
the two forms of absolution, technically known as

'In the rubric after the first Absolution it is in roman be
cause the rubric is in italic, and thus in this one place the rule
is reversed.

76 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Declarative; the other, called Precatory, was brought
here in the American Book from the Communion
Service, to which it properly belongs. It seems to
have been thought that, being less formal in phrase
ology, it was less definite in meaning than the other;
but in fact the Church has always held that a preca
tory absolution is the most solemn and authorita
tive. It is so with benedictions: "God bless you"
is more solemn and means more than "In God's
Name I bless you." The English Book has a third
form of absolution, called Indicative, to be used at
the Visitation of the Sick, "if the sick person hum
bly and heartily desire it"; it is of mediaeval origin,
and has been omitted from our Book, the ancient
precatory absolution being retained, as will be noted
in due time.
Matins, it will be remembered, properly begins
with the Lord's Prayer. This is to be said here and
in the corresponding place at evening by minister
and people together; and the same rule is to hold
"wheresoever else" this prayer "is used in Divine
Service." The meaning of this phrase, which
seems to apply to every recurrence of the Lord's
Prayer in the Prayer Book, is made doubtful by the
custom, practically universal in England and at least
prevalent with us, that the minister alone says this
prayer at the beginning of the Communion Office ;
near the close of that office, the people are bidden to
repeat it with the minister. The people are also in
structed to say the Lord's Prayer with the minis-

MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER 77
ter in the Litany, and in case of imminent danger
at sea, but nowhere else. A rubric at the end of
the Communion Office in the English Book shows
that 'Divine Service' includes that office; and it
is the opinion of the present writer that this
rubric bids the people always to say the Lord's
Prayer with the minister. Whether custom in one
particular place overrides the rubric must be consid
ered when we come to the study of the special place.
It is interesting to trace the versicles with their
responses to their source, which is usually in the
Psalms. "O Lord, open thou" is from Psalm li, and
may be a survival of a private act of penitence before
the beginning of public worship. In the old offices
it was said but once a day, at the beginning of
Matins; and it was followed here, as still in the
English use, by words which began each of the other
offices, taken from Psalm lxx. I: "O Lord, make
speed to save us; O God, make haste to help us."
The Gloria Patri (which both in Latin and in Eng
lish has an interesting history) is said as from lips
which the Lord has opened; and upon it follows
with a response, "Praise ye the Lord", a translation of
the Hebrew 'Hallelujah', which in the form 'Alle
luia' stands here in the Roman service, for use except
from Septuagesima to Easter, when a Latin para
phrase is substituted for it.
The Venite stands as the great Invitatory Psalm,
of practically daily use in the Christian Church. It
is called an 'Anthem' ; yet not in the older sense of

78 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
'Antiphon', of which the word is a corruption (and
as to this see in notes on the Litany), nor in the
later sense of a 'set piece' of music bringing out the
meaning of words by repetition, but apparently as
made up in our Book bf parts of two Psalms, in
accurate phrase a cento. On Easter-day there are
three anthems in place of the Venite, selected from
passages in St. Paul's epistles; on Thanksgiving-
day, nine verses selected from Psalm cxlvii take its
place; when Morning Prayer is read in prison (see
page 312 of the Prayer Book) Psalm cxxx, De Pro-
fundis, is read instead of Venite; on the 19th day
of the month, unless a Selection is used, the Morn
ing Prayer form of the Venite is omitted.
There is no rubric as to the manner in which the
Psalms for the day of the month, the Proper Psalms
on certain days, or the Selections allowed for use on
other days, shall be said or sung. Custom has ruled
that when they are read, the minister shall read one
verse and the people shall reply with the next, and so
on.s When few people could read, it would appear
that the minister read the Psalms as he did the
Lessons, the people sitting, sometimes with their
hats on, but rising and removing their hats at each
Gloria; it was a complaint of some puritanically in
clined people, that they were obliged to rise and un
cover themselves too often because of the frequent

5 In a few places Psalms are read, and in more places sung,
by half-verses, in accordance (it is thought) with Hebrew use.

MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER 79
occurrence of the Gloria; and it was a part of the
reply that it was "seemly that at all times women
should be covered and men dis-covered" in the
church: Later there was in many places a dialogue
between the parson and the clerk in reading the
Psalms; apparently it is not known when the present
custom began to prevail. No authority has decided
how the Gloria at the end of Canticles and Psalms
should be read ; on the whole, it seems best that the
minister should always read the former clause, the
people responding with the second ; but it is not un-
liturgical that it shall be said 'full', that is, by
minister and people together.
Our rubric requires the Gloria Patri only at the
end of the whole portion or selection of Psalms for
the day. It is, however, very rarely omitted after
the Canticles — except that the Te Deum never has a
Gloria6 — and is usually read or sung after each
psalm. The English Book especially requires it not
only at the end of each Psalm but also after each
portion of Psalm cxix ; our Book having no such re
quirement or permission, and a proposal to insert it
having been rejected in General Convention at the
time of the later revision, it seems incorrect for us
to use the Gloria with this Psalm except at the end
of each morning's or evening's portion. The per
mission to sing Gloria in excelsis at the end of the

6 Is this because the Te Deum is not taken directly from the
Bible?

80 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Psalms in Morning or Evening Prayer is peculiarly
American, but by no means contrary to ancient use,
as will be seen in the notes on that venerable hymn
where it occurs in the Communion Office.
Te Deum Laudamus is confessedly the greatest of
uninspired hymns, if indeed we ought to deny the
title of inspired to that which is largely composed of
the words of Scripture and has been for ages used
in the lofty praises of the Church. The legend that
it was composed by St. Ambrose and St. Augustine
on the occasion of the baptism of the latter, a.d.
387, is without historical foundation. A recent
editor of the works of Niceta, Bishop of Remesiana
in the region now known as Servia about the year
400, Dr. A. E. Burn, is confident that he has traced
the authorship, or at least the compilation, of the
hymn, to this little-known man. At any rate, it can
be with great confidence traced back very nearly to
his time. Its structure should be studied, if pos
sible, in the original Latin. It consists of three
strophes, the first and the second each containing
four verses and leading to a doxology, while the
third, after four (or perhaps five) verses, leads to a
petition for a share in the glory of the saints. After
these strophes follow verses or 'little chapters' of
Scripture and versicles which are common to the
conclusion of this hymn and others. The words are
in a rhythm, not metrical in the classical sense, but
following the general form of the ancient Saturnian
verse which reappeared in late Latin and gave rise

MORNING AND EVENING PRA YER 81
to our ballad or common metre. Each of the four
verses of the strophes begins with a form of the pro
noun of the second person, Tu, Te, or Tibi ; thus : —
i. Te Deum laudamus : te Dominum confitemur.
2. Te sternum Patrem : omnis terra veneratur.
3. Tibi omnes angeli : tibi cash et universae potestates ;
4. Tibi cherubim et seraphim ' : incessabili voce procla-
mant:
Upon this follows the doxology, taken from Isaiah,
"the hymn of praise ever ascending to God the
Father from all that He has made" : —
5. Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus : Dominus Deus Sabaoth ;
6. Pleni sunt cash et terra : majestatis gloriae tua;.
The second division is the hymn of praise of the
Universal Church inspired by apostles, prophets, and
martyrs, and framed in a doxology to the Holy
Trinity, thus: —
7. Te gloriosus : apostolorum chorus ;
8.- Te prophetarum : Iaudabilis numerus ;
9. Te martyrum candidatus : laudat exercitus.
10. Te per orbem terrarum : sancta confitetur ecclesia :
1 1 . Patrem immenss maj estatis ;
12. Venerandum tuum verum unigenitum Filium ;
13. Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum.
It is to be noted that apostles, prophets (that is,
those of the Christian Church), and martyrs, are

'These words are the Hebrew forms of the plural of
'cherub' and 'seraph'. The English Book has ' cherubin' and
'seraphin', which are the Aramaic form adopted by Greek
translators.

82 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
placed in the order of their number, and to this cor
respond the words 'chorus', 'numerus', and 'exer-
citus'. Now 'numerus' was a word often used of a
'band' of soldiers, and the 'candidati' were the
picked troops of a body-guard, and it may be thought
that 'chorus' has the sense of 'cohors' ; so that the
three phrases prepare for the thought of the Church
militant, which ever confesses the Triune God."
In the third division of the hymn, the assembled
Church sings its creed of faith in the Divinity, the
Incarnation, the Death and Resurrection, the Ascen
sion and Return, of her Lord, and bases on it an
earnest prayer for present help and for a share in the
glory of His saints.
14. Tu rex gloriae, Christe ;
15. Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius.
16. Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem :
non horruisti virginis uterum.
17. Tu devicto mortis aculeo :
aperuisti credentibus regna caslorum.
18. Tu ad dexteram Dei sedens in gloria Patris :
19. Judex crederis esse venturus.
20. Te ergo quaesumus tuis famulis subveni :
quos pretioso sanguine redemisti.
21. jEterna fac cum Sanctis tuis gloria munerari.
'Sedens', in verse 18, seems a better reading than
'sedes', and 'numerari' (to be numbered) is quite

8 On this supposition, the translation ' noble ' is well justified,
but it is hard to illustrate 'goodly', and the explanation is
therefore only suggested as possible.

MORNING AND EVENING PRA YER 83
certainly an ancient miswriting or misprint for
'munerari' (to be rewarded).
Here the hymn proper ends. But there have been
added to it the old 'capitellum' for the Te Deum,
Psalm xviii. io (verses 22, 23), and the correspond
ing words for the Gloria in excelsis, Psalm cxlv. 2
(verses 24, 25). The remaining verses are Antiphons
of not infrequent use, "Vouchsafe, O Lord", and "O
Lord, have mercy", being found very early at the end
of the Gloria in excelsis as a morning hymn, and "O
Lord, in thee" (Psalm lxxi. 1) having been the open
ing clause of a prayer after the Gloria. In two of
the recent musical settings of the Te Deum for a fes
tival occasion the somewhat sombre ending has been
relieved by the repetition of the opening strain "We
praise thee, O God", at the end.
The translation of this great hymn deserves care
ful study, for which help will be found in Bishop
Dowden's "Studies in the Prayer Book." We may
note here the three changes made in the American
Book from the English: 'adorable' for 'honourable', in
verse 12; "Thou didst humble thyself to be born of
a Virgin", in verse 16 (a fine example of Bishop
White's rhythmical power, but should it not be the
Virgin?); and 'be' for 'lighten' in the next to the
last verse, which has the advantage of being literal
and unemphatic (the Latin is 'fiat').
The alternative for the Te Deum is Benedicite
omnia opera, taken from the Song of the Three Holy
Children — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or

84 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
(to use the Greek forms of their Hebrew names)
Ananias, Azarias, and Misael — as it is given in the
additions to the Book of Daniel in the Apocrypha.
It may be called an expanded paraphrase of Psalm
cxlviii. To gain a full understanding of this hymn
it should be recited or sung, after the first two intro
ductory verses, in triplets, bringing together the
Heavens, the Waters above, the Powers of the Lord;
Sun and Moon, Stars, Showers and Dew; Winds,
Fire and Heat, Summer and Winter; Dews and
Frosts, Frost and Cold, Ice and Snow; etc. The
omission of "O Ananias, Azarias, and Misael" in
the American Book has reduced the last section to a
couplet. The hymn ends with Gloria Patri, which
anciently had here a special form. Since 1552, there
has been no rubric directing the use of Benedicite at
any time; but there is a prevalent custom to follow
the rule of 1549 and use it in Lent. It may be con
sidered whether it may not well be used, as Dean
Burgon suggested, when the first Lesson is the
opening chapter of Genesis or some other passage
telling of God's works in nature, or after some
remarkable phenomenon in the natural world, such as
an eclipse or a storm, or at Rogation-tide, or in har
vest ; it is appropriate for Thanksgiving-day.
Benedictus at Morning Prayer and Magnificat and
Nunc Dimittis at Evening Prayer, the songs of
Zacharias and the Virgin Mary and Simeon, being the
'evangelical canticles' and a commemoration of the
Incarnation, are normally used each day ; and in the

MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER 85
judgment of some ritualists, they should never be
displaced by their alternatives unless these occur in
the second Lesson or in the Gospel of the service. The
Church, however, has made no such rule; and Jubi
late is sometimes specially appropriate, as in the
Epiphany season or after Lessons from the Acts of
the Apostles which tell of the extension of the
Church among the Gentiles. So also, Cantate may
well be sung after many of the Lessons from the
historical books of the Old Testament, and Deus
Misereatur, which is by no means a penitential Psalm
(in the English Book it has a place in the marriage
service), follows well upon some passages in both the
Gospel and the Epistles. A connection with an
cient use is observed if either of the Gospel canticles
is used at Evensong.
The recital of the Creed follows naturally after
listening to God's Word and thanking Him for its
teaching and before entering upon solemn acts of
prayer. For the history of the Apostles' Creed
(which is the baptismal symbol of the Western
Church), and that called the Nicene (which is the eu
charistic symbol and, except for the words "and the
Son" following "who proceedeth from the Father",
the formal confession of the faith of the Church
Catholic), reference must be made to books specially
treating of the subject. Creeds were not of old said
in public worship. In the Liturgy or Communion
Office the Nicene Creed was first introduced about
the year 500, and to this day the Roman Church does

86 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
not say the Creed at every mass ; in the daily offices
the Apostles' Creed must have been first used at a
somewhat later date. Permission to say the Nicene
Creed in the daily offices is peculiar to the American
Book; it originated apparently from the desire to say
the Nicene Creed before the celebration of the
Communion and at the same time to avoid the
duplication of Creeds in the one continuous service,
which was the custom ; this being done in Morning
Prayer, Evening Prayer was conformed to it. The
rubric before "the Creed called the Nicene" in the
Communion service, which requires that that Creed
shall be said on the five chief festivals of the year,
would seem to direct, or at least suggest, that if for
any reason there is no celebration of the Holy Com
munion on those days (for instance, when a layman
is reading the service), the Nicene Creed should be
said in the assigned place at Morning Prayer. The
beginner in theology should be asked to note in re
gard to the phraseology of this Creed: (i) That the
preposition in the phrases "God of God", etc., means
'deriving from' or 'proceeding from', and should have
strong emphasis; (2) That 'very' is an adjective and
means 'real' or 'true'; (3) That the relative pronoun
in "By whom all things were made" refers to the Son,
'by' having the old sense of 'through' ; (4) That, as
the punctuation shows, 'The Lord' and *Giver of life'
are two distinct titles of the Holy Ghost.
In both of the Creeds the traditional division into
twelve articles is marked by placing either a colon or

MORNING AND EVENING PRA YER 87
(in two cases) a full stop at the end of each article.
In the Apostles' Creed, the word 'again' in "he
rose again from the dead" (omitted in our Book until
the last revision), sometime needs explanation, and
some readers need to be cautioned against emphasiz
ing it. It does not mean 'a second time', but like
the prefix in the Latin resurrexit or the Greek
avearrj, it denotes a return ; in Biblical English it is
used for the modern adverb 'back' ; and in common
talk it still has a like sense: "I and the lad will go
yonder, and come again" ; "The man fell, but picked
himself up again."
In the 'Proposed Book' of 1786, the Nicene Creed,
as well as the so-called Athanasian (see page 96),
was omitted entirely, and the clause "He descended
into hell" was dropped from the Apostles' Creed.
The English Bishops objecting, not unreasonably,
to this action, in 1786 the Convention (not yet
'General') voted to allow the use of the Nicene Creed
and to restore the Apostles' to its full form. In the
General Convention of 1789, which set forth the
Prayer Book in the form in which it went into use
the following year, this clause was added to the
rubric before the Apostles' Creed: "And any
Churches may omit the words, 'He descended into
hell', or may, instead of them, use the words 'He
went into the place of departed spirits', which are
considered as words of the same meaning in the
Creed." At the last revision the permission to omit
was withdrawn, and the rubric took its present form.

88 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
The reason for the rubric was, and to some extent is,
the misunderstanding by many persons of the word
'hell' in the sense which it has in the English Bible,
always in the Old Testament and frequently in the
New, as ajso in the Creed ; and those who framed it
felt that the difficulty was so real that it called for a
distinct explanation, and might become so serious
in some places that explanatory words should be sub
stituted for those which were not understood, or
even that a clause introduced into the Creed at a
comparatively late date, and really adding nothing to
the faith, should be by competent authority omitted.
That competent authority was recognized as in 'any
Churches' ; and 'any Churches' in the ecclesiastical
phraseology of the day meant 'any dioceses' ; for the
doctrine of diocesan rights was in most quarters
firmly held at the first. The right, then, was re
served to any diocese to make the omission or the
substitution mentioned in the rubric, and the right
of making the substitution still remains. That right
has never been exercised, and quite certainly never
will be exercised; but it has been, and doubtless still
is, a great advantage to the Church to be able to ex
plain in clear words and in a conspicuous place the
meaning of a phrase which, by reason of a change in
the use of a word, has been a stumbling-block to
some. The Creeds are said by minister and' people to
gether, that each may profess the common faith ; in
the Eastern Church the pronoun was in the plural, but

MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER 89
now all say 'I believe'. And in the Creed all stand,
partly no doubt from reverence, and partly as being
Christ's soldiers on duty, professing each day their
allegiance to Him and to the truth which He
taught. The custom that those worshippers who are
so placed in church that they do not ordinarily face
the east, should at the Creed set their faces with the
rest of the congregation towards the sun-rising, is
thought to be ancient;" that of turning at each
Gloria, it may be noted, has not the same antiquity.
The custom of doing reverence at the name of Jesus
by bowing the head, though nearly universal, is not
known to have been followed in England before the
thirteenth century.
After the mutual salutation of minister and people,
in words the full meaning of which has been dulled
for most of us by thoughtless repetition, we pass to
prayer. Our Book has omitted the Lord's Prayer
with the three-clause litany preceding it, which
stands here in the English Book ; and having at first
reduced the number of 'suffrages' or versicles with
their responses in both services to two, still keeps
the two most spiritual petitions in Morning Prayer,
but has restored the others (in part modified) in
Evening Prayer. These suffrages are said by way of
anticipation or preparation for the collects or prayers
that follow them. The Litany, as will be soon
noted, gives us two examples of the ancient way of

•But cf. Frere's Procter on this custom, page 391.

90 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
saying a prayer: first, its general intent was ex
pressed in a versicle and response, and then the
minister said 'Let us pray' and recited the full
prayer, the people responding with 'Amen'. The
collection of suffrages in our Evening Prayer is like
that with which the people were familiar of old at
'bidding the bedes' ; and in this phrase it must be
remembered that 'bede' or 'bead' meant originally a
petition; 'to bid bedes' is to offer petitions; 'to tell
bedes' is to count prayers. We may assign the last
petition, "O God, make clean", to the Collect for the
day; and the first, "O Lord, show thy mercy", to the
Collect for Grace or for Aid against Perils; "Give
peace in our time" will then be a preparation for the
Collect for Peace; and the second and third and fourth
will be seen to belong with the prayer for the Civil
Authority, that for the Clergy and People, and (per
haps) that for All Conditions of Men, respectively.
At Morning Prayer, the application must be more
general, and the two suffrages may well be referred
to the work of the Son of God in redemption and
that of the Holy Spirit in sanctification.
The use of the Collect for the day in the daily ser
vices is as a memorial of the eucharistic service of
the preceding Sunday or of the morning; it links the
petitions which are to follow with the great act of
worship and prayer of the week or of the special
time.10 If, as provided in the second rubric after the

10 See Chapter VI, beginning.

MORNING AND EVENING PRA YER 91
general heading of Collects, Epistles, and Gospel?,
the Collect appointed for any Sunday or other Feast
is used at the evening service of the day before — an
old and edifying custom — the Collect serves to
introduce the thought of the morrow and to prepare
for its observance. If, as in Advent or Lent, the
Collect for the season is said with another Collect in
the Communion Office, both should be said in the
daily services ; or if when a Sunday and a Holy-day
concur, both of their Collects are said in the one
service, both should be said in the other also.
Our Book, wisely and with true instinct, bids us
omit the variable Collect at Morning Prayer if it is
presently to be said at the Holy Communion. This
variable Collect was said of old at Lauds, and to
Lauds belonged also the Collect for Peace; the
Collect which follows was taken, with the Creed,
from the office of Prime. The careful student
will note the beauty of the ancient second and third
Collects, and that the two Collects for Peace differ as
praying for peace in the active service of God and
for the peace of rest in Him ; and if he has the Latin
before him, he will learn from "quern nosse vivere,
cui servire regnare est" the meaning of an obscure
phrase in the prayer at morning, which confesses
that the true life of man consists in the knowledge
of God.
In the English Book, the Litany is ordered to be
said after the Collect for Grace, and it contains ex
tended petitions for the Sovereign and for others in

92 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Civil Authority. In our Book the Litany has but
one general petition for all -Christian Rulers and
Magistrates, and the place assigned it in the morn
ing service is after the Prayer for the President.
The reason for the change of place is said to have
been that President Washington, whose home was at
some distance from Pohick Church and from Christ
Church, Alexandria, while always at service in the
morning, did not often attend in the afternoon ; and
it was thought seemly to provide that this prayer
should be read when he was present. There is no
provision in our Book for an 'Anthem' during the
prayers in the morning; but the use of a hymn
before the Litany is allowed by the general rubric
before the Tables of Lessons. In our Evening
Prayer we have the rubric, which admits of a
diversity of interpretations, "In places where it may
be convenient, here followeth the Anthem"; the
English Book reads after the third Collect, both
morning and evening, "In Quires and Places where
they sing, here followeth the Anthem." Both seem
to authorize a somewhat elaborate musical 'perform
ance' in this place; custom certainly interprets a
hymn as permissible; but both Books seem to expect
some restraint in the use of the permission given.
The Prayer for the President and all in Civil Au
thority is taken from the English Prayer for the
Sovereign, inserted at the end of the Litany in 1559;
that for the Clergy and People first appears in the
Litany of 1544, and then in the Litany of 1559; both

MORNING AND EVENING PRA YER 93
were put into their present place, as has been already
noted, in 1662. The Prayer for all Conditions of
Men was probably composed by Peter Gunning,
Bishop of Chichester and of Ely, who died in 1684;
it is thought to be in its present form an abridgment
of a long prayer intended to take the place of the
Litany ; but this may be no more than an inference
from the use of the word 'finally'. The General
Thanksgiving was written by Edward Reynolds,
Bishop of Norwich, who died in 1676; he should
not be confused, as is constantly done, with John
Rainolds, or Reynolds, the learned puritanical divine,
president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, who
was prominent among the translators of the Author
ized Version. The word 'General', in the title of
the Thanksgiving, is opposed to 'special' or 'specific' ;
it does not imply that it is to be said audibly by the
whole congregation — a practice for which there is
no authority. The Prayer of St. Chrysostom was
translated for the Litany of 1544, and was first
printed in Morning and Evening Prayer in 1662;
its history will be given in the chapter on the
Litany. In the daily service — the Divine Office — we are
using a precious part of our inheritance in the wor
ship of the early Church, and are-continuing steadfast
in the prayers of Apostles and apostolic men. In
Morning and Evening Prayer we have universal ele
ments, contributed by natural piety and by churchly
custom, tested by the experience of the ages, cast

94 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
more than three centuries and a half ago into a form
adapted to the genius and the needs of English-
speaking people, and in our own land twice rever
ently revised with reference to the changing needs of
Christian people; and we are under obligations to
hold to the treasures of the past and to commend
them to the men of new generations. It is the Eng
lish-speaking Churches alone which provide an order
for daily Common Prayer; on the English-speaking
Churches rests the responsibility of continuing its
use and of profiting by it and commending it.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
General Works, and Roman, Sarum, and Quignonian Brevi
aries, as noted at end of Chapter I.
English Primers, in the Parker Society's publications ; to
which add —
Littlehales (Henry, editor), The Prymer, or Prayer Book of
thcLay People in the Middle Ages.
Baumer (Dom S.), History of the Breviary. In German and
a French translation. This book has been called "monu
mental ".
Batiffol (Pierre), History of the Roman Breviary. In French
and an English translation. Learned and full and interesting.
Baudot (Dom Jules), The Roman Breviary. Rather a popu
lar book, based on the two preceding.
Neale (John Mason), The Breviary, Roman and Gallican,
in Essays on Liturgiology. The whole book is well worth
reading. Neale (John Mason), Notes on the Divine Office. Histori
cal and mystical, learned and quaint.
Hallam (R. A.), Lectures on the Morning Prayer. Excellent
for homiletical use.

MORNING AND EVENING PRA YER 95
For the Canticles, consult Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology.
But for the Te Deum, Bishop John Wordsworth's article in the
Dictionary should be balanced by Bum's Niceta of Remesiana
and by the same author's book next cited.
For the History of the Creeds : —
Burn (A. E.), An Introduction to the Creeds and to the
Te Deum. Very full and learned.
Gibson (Bishop C. S. G.), The Three Creeds (in the Oxford
Library of Practical Theology) .
Swete (H. B.), The Apostles' Creed.
McGiffert (A. C), The Apostles' Creed.
For an account of the office-books of the Eastern Church,
consult Neale's General Introduction to his History of the
Holy Eastern Church, Vol. II.
A brief but complete synopsis of the Daily Divine Worship
of the Orthodox Church is found in the Euchology, done
into English by G. V. Shann (Kidderminster, 1891).
Note. — In the English Prayer Book, the so-called ' Creed
of St. Athanasius ' or ' Athanasian Creed', or ' Athanasian
Hymn ' or (from its initial words in Latin) ' Quicunque vult' or
more accurately ' Quicumque vult', stands before the Litany,
with a rubric requiring that it be read at Morning Prayer in
stead of the Apostles' Creed on thirteen specified days, includ.
ing the five great festivals. It was for a long time believed to
have been written by the great theologian whose name it bears ;
but it is certainly of Latin composition and written after the
time of St. Augustine, though earlier than the year 500, and in all
probability it was framed by some writer in the south of Gaul.
It combines in itself, as has been said, a creed, a canticle, and
a sermon on the creed ; and it has also at the beginning and the
end minatory or warning clauses. Its purpose was evidently
to serve in a time of danger to Christian souls, lest in deny
ing the Faith under pressure of persecution they should deny
their Lord and their God. Not being used by the Greek
Church in any of its offices, it cannot be rightly called a Catho
lic Creed ; and though in some ways it gives a helpful state
ment of the Catholic Faith, yet by reason of its form, the number

96 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
of phrases which call for explanation, the insufficiency of some
definitions, and the awkwardness and inaccuracy of its trans
lation, it is not well fitted for public recitation. Our Church
was quite within her rights, and in the opinion of many of us
acted very wisely, in omitting it from the Prayer Book ; Bishop
Seabury would have preferred that it should be retained in the
Book without any requirement as to its use. The Creed
follows, as It stands in the English Prayer Book, with a dec
laration as to its meaning and interpretation adopted by the
Convention of Canterbury in 1879.
The Confession of our Christian Faith, commonly
called
THE CREED OF SAINT ATHANASIUS
Quicunque vult
Whosoever will be saved : before all things it is necessary
that he hold the Catholick Faith.
Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled :
without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
And the Catholick Faith is this : That we worship one God
in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity ;
Neither confounding the Persons : nor dividing the Sub
stance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son :
and another of the Holy Ghost.
But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost, is all one : the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal.
Such as the Father is, such is the Son: and such is the
Holy Ghost.
The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate: and the HolyGhost
uncreate. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible:
and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible.
The Father eternal, the Son eternal : and the Holy Ghost
eternal. And yet they are not three eternals : but one eternal.
As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three un
created : but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible.

MORNING AND EVENING PRA YER 97
So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty : and
the Holy Ghost Almighty.
And yet they are not three Almighties : but one Almighty.
So the Father is God, the Son is God : and the Holy Ghost
is God.
And yet they are not three Gods : but one God.
So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord : and the Holy
Ghost Lord.
And yet not three Lords : but one Lord.
For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity : to
acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord ;
So we are forbidden by the Catholick Religion : to say, There
be three Gods, or three Lords.
The Father is made of none : neither created, nor begotten.
The Son is of the Father alone : not made, nor created, but
begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son : neither
made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
So there is one Father, not three Fathers ; one Son, not three
Sons : one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.
And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other ; none is
greater, or less than another ;
But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together: and
co-equal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid : the Unity in Trinity,
and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.
He therefore that will be saved : must thus think of the
Trinity. Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation : that
he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus
Christ. For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess : that our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man ;
God, of the Substance of the Father, begotten before the
worlds : and Man, of the Substance of his Mother, bom in the
world ;
Perfect God, and perfect man : of a reasonable soul and
human flesh subsisting ; 8

98 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead : and inferior
to the Father, as touching his Manhood.
Who although he be God and Man : yet he is not two, but
one Christ ;
One ; not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh : but by
taking of the Manhood into God ;
One altogether ; not by confusion of Substance : but by
unity of Person.
For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man: so God
and Man is one Christ ;
Who suffered for our salvation : descended into hell, rose
again the third day from the dead.
He ascended into heaven, he sitteth on the right hand of
the Father, God Almighty: from whence he shall come to
judge the quick and the dead.
At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies :
and shall give account for their own works.
And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting :
and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.
This is the Catholick Faith : which except a man believe
faithfully, he cannot be saved.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son : and to the Holy
Ghost ;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be : world
without end. Amen.
Synodical Declaration of the
Synod of Canterbury
"For the removal of doubts and fo prevent disquietude in
the use of the Creed commonly called the Creed of St. Athana
sius, it is hereby solemnly declared —

"That the Confession of our Christian Faith, commonly
called the Creed of St. Athanasius, doth not make any
addition to the faith as contained in Holy Scripture, but
warneth against errors which from time - to time have
arisen in the Church of Christ.

MORNING AND EVENING PRA YER 99

"That as Holy Scripture in divers places doth promise life
to them that believe, and declare the condemnation of
them that believe not, so doth the Church in this Con
fession declare the necessity for all who would be in a
state of salvation of holding fast the Catholic Faith, and
the great peril of rejecting the same. Wherefore the
warnings in this Confession of Faith are to be understood
no otherwise than the like warnings of Holy Scripture ;
for we must receive God's threatenings, even as His prom
ises, in such wise as they are generally set forth in Holy
Writ. Moreover, the Church doth not herein pronounce
judgment on any particular person or persons, God alone
being the Judge of all."

IV.
THE LITANY
THE word 'Litany' is Greek, Xtraveia, from
the verb XiWojum or XirTo/jtai, to 'petition'
or 'pray' ; but the Litany of our-service books is
distinctively Western in its history and its use. It
corresponds in definition to the Latin rogatio and
in sense to preces. The 'Lesser Litany' — Kyrit
eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison ("Lord have
mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy") — is
indeed still said in Greek in the Latin services, a
reminder of the time when the Church at Rome
worshipped in Greek and an Apostle used the Greek
language in addressing it ; and there are still in the
Greek liturgies the so-called 'Deacon's Litanies',
like English bidding-prayers, in which the deacon
makes mention of the persons or things for which
the people should pray, and a response of Kyrie
eleison is made to each clause.
But neither of these is exactly what we mean by
the word. Our Litany, though doubtless influenced
by such forms as these, is traced back at Rome and
in Gaul to popular services of supplication in times
of special distress and danger, said or sung in pro
cession. The name specially associated with these
services is that of Manfertus, Bishop of Vienne in
the Rhone valley, who about the year 470 called his

THE LITANY 101

people to special devotions of this kind on the three
days preceding the festival of the Ascension. "Men's
hearts were failing them for fear and for looking
after those things which were coming upon the
earth." The barbarians were invading the Empire,
there were earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, fam
ine and pestilence, present danger and fear for the
future. Thus the prayers or 'rogations' began with
processions about the fields and the desolated country ;
at Rome and elsewhere like customs grew up,
appealing to the people because they could readily
take an intelligent part in them, and assuming that
definite form which is still preserved. We are told
that they were specially encouraged at Rome by St.
Gregory (about the year 590) ; and when St. Augus
tine and his companions entered Canterbury on a
Rogation-day in 597, they were singing a 'litany' or
'procession'. A Litany of the Saxon Church has
been preserved for us, of date before 1000, showing
the antiquity of most of our petitions; and we have
also a vernacular English Litany of date about
1400.1 From the very popularity (perhaps we may say, in
formality) of these services, corruptions crept into
them. They had been, as ours are now, specially
addressed to Christ by those whom He had redeemed ;
but about the eighth century petitions to the departed
saints that they would pray for their suppliants were

1 It can be found in Maskell, Monumenta Ritualia, ii. 223.

1 02 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
introduced; and after a time, a Litany meant little
more than ora pro nobis, said after each name in the
recitation of a long roll of saints, some biblical, some
historical, some obscure, some occasionally imaginary.
This 'invocation', it may be noted, has never found
its way into the text of the Roman Breviary or Mis
sal, except in hymns and antiphons; and it has
been abridged in the authorized Roman Litany,
though in it fifty-two saints and angels are still in
voked — not asked to do what none but God can do,
but asked to pray to God for us on earth, presumably
as having nearer access to Him than we can have.
The Litany is the first service in our Prayer Book
which was put into English, the only service which
dates in its English form from the reign of King
Henry VIII. In 1543 a special 'procession' had
been enjoined from fear of famine and distress;
among other things, war had broken out both with
Scotland and with France. The King sent a com
mission to Cranmer, bidding him draw up a Litany
in English, and possibly making some suggestions
in the form of a preliminary draft. In the next
year, 1544, Cranmer had the Litany ready and it
was set forth for use. Whatever the King had
suggested, the work was the Archbishop's through
out. It is evident that he used material from the
current Latin form, from a similar service set out
by Luther, and from the Greek Liturgies. And
in the Litany, Cranmer, as a translator, compiler,
composer, and master of English, was at his very

THE LITANY 103

best; he framed a universal service, a 'general sup
plication'. The transitional character of the time of composi
tion is shown by the fact that not all invocation of
saints was omitted, while yet the breach with Rome
was irrevocably made ; the doctrinal reformation, we
may say, was incomplete, though the political ref
ormation was assured: 'Saint Mary, Mother of God',
'All holy angels and archangels', 'All holy patriarchs
and prophets . . ,' were asked to 'pray for us,' and a
little further on was the petition, "From the tyranny
of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormi
ties, Good Lord, deliver us." In another and more
pleasing way, the introduction of new petitions bears
testimony to the sense of spiritual need awakened by
better acquaintance with the Scriptures. Every
reference to God's Word is new; as the prayer to be
kept 'from contempt of thy Word and Command
ment', the prayers that the clergy may have 'true
knowledge and understanding of thy Word', that the
people 'may hear meekly thy Word' and may 'receive
it with pure affection', and that we may 'amend our
lives according to thy holy Word. ' So also a deep
spiritual sense is shown by the insertion of petitions
that magistrates may 'execute justice and maintain
truth', that God's people may be kept 'from hardness
of heart', and that they may 'love and fear' Him. The
combining of several petitions under one response,
with which some critics find fault, seems to the
present writer to be one of the most praiseworthy

104 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
features of Cranmer's work. The use of 'Good
Lord', in addressing our Saviour Christ, is to be
noted as peculiarly English.
Few changes have been made in the Litany since
its compilation. The invocations of angels and
saints were omitted in 1549, when the service was
put into the first Prayer Book ; the petition against
the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome was omitted in
1559, under Queen Elizabeth; the petitions against
rebellion and schism were inserted in 1662, after
England had had experience of both. In the prepa
ration of our American Book, the State petitions, as
they may be called, were omitted; at the last revi
sion the petition for labourers in the harvest was in
serted, a suggestion to that effect having been made
in Reformation days by Hermann, Archbishop of
Cologne. A few marks of quaintness remain in
the use of words, especially in the English Book;
hardly any in our Book call for notice, except that
few people know that the 'kindly fruits of the earth'
mean the 'natural' fruits, those which each green
thing bears 'after its kind.'2
A few other words and phrases call for brief note.
In the first petition, 'the Father of Heaven' means
practically 'heavenly Father' ; the Latin is Pater de

' ' Kind ' is the participle of the verb ' kin' ; ' kind ' people
are related people, and related people are, or ought to be, kind
to each other. ' Kindly ' is often a very good translation for the
Latin plus, as meaning that which does its natural duty ; e.g.,
pius Apneas, pia testa.

THE LITANY 105

ceelis Deus; and in reading there should be a semi-
pause after 'Father'. 'From all inordinate and sinful
affections' replaces the English 'From fornication
and all other deadly sin' (see Colossians iii. 5), and
practically means the same. 'Sudden death' means
death unprepared for. 'Prosperity' in the last depre
cation is in the English Book 'wealth', that is, the
state of 'weal' ; in England they pray for the Sov
ereign, "grant him in health and wealth long to live'
(compare in Psalm Ixvi. 12, "Thou broughtest us out
into a wealthy place")." 'To love and fear thee' re
places 'to love and dread thee'; and 'after', it needs
hardly be said, means 'according to', which has
actually been substituted for it later on. 'Finally to
beat down' seems to mean 'to beat down finally' or
'thoroughly'. An analysis of the Litany is made comparatively
simple by the careful way in which it is printed in
our Book. It begins with Invocations of each
Person of the Godhead and of the Holy Trinity;
which, by the way, should always be said by the
minister first and then repeated by the people.
Then follows the 'Remember not, Lord,' addressed
to Christ, which is the ancient Antiphon (see below)

sIt is said that Bishop Seabury did not wish to make the
change in these two places ; and that when he assented to it,
he said to Bishop White : " I trust that you will not hence
forth speak of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but will
call it the Common-prosperity of Pennsylvania."

106 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
to the Penitential Psalms, and stands as such at the
beginning of the Visitation of the Sick. This intro
duces the Deprecations, or petitions to be delivered
from specified evils and dangers, — physical, moral,
and spiritual ; and these lead to the Obsecrations, or
prayers appealing to the successive acts in our
Lord's redemptive work from the Incarnation to the
Pentecostal gift; to which succeeds one more most
earnest and far-reaching Deprecation.
We pass then to Intercessions, that is prayers for
others or for ourselves in connection with others; and
the Church thereby helps us to bring all, in all their
varied needs, before their common Intercessor in the
heavens, quickening thereby our devotion and widen
ing our sympathies, and leading to the prayer that all
may be brougnt to repentance and forgiveness and
amendment of life. One earnest petition to the Son
of God leads to the Agnus Dei, repeated with a two
fold response for peace and for mercy. Then after
'O Christ, hear us', come the three petitions of the
Lesser Litany and the Lord's Prayer said without
the Doxology.
The portion of the service which follows is full of
what Archbishop Trench called 'fossil history',
showing a composite structure and the survival of
earnest supplications in time of distress. As was
said in speaking of the versicles which follow the
Creed in the daily service, we have here two ex
amples of versicle and response, distinctly marked
by 'Minister' and 'Answer', followed by 'Let us pray'

THE LITANY 107

and a full prayer. That which begins 'O God,
merciful Father', dates from about the year 800, and
is the old prayer against distress of soul and persecu
tion, from which latter (we may well remember)
many Christians are suffering to-day. Owing to a
misunderstanding, ' Amen ' is not printed after this
prayer, as it should be, and 'O Lord, arise', is there
fore said as if it were a response to what precedes.
In point of fact, it is not this at all, but belongs to
what follows, thus giving the only full example of a
Psalm with its Antiphon remaining in our Prayer
Book.' Here the Psalm is the forty-fourth, of
which but one verse is recited, but the whole of
which is suggested (as the whole of Psalm xxii was
suggested by our Lord's use of its first verse on the
Cross) ; the Antiphon is said before and after it to
show its application to the present needs of the
Church and God's ability to supply them, and then
the Gloria of the Psalm is said, seemingly out of
place in a Litany but rarely omitted at the end of a
Psalm.5 Then follow four pairs of 'preces', taken
from the old Roman Litany against the evils of war
which was said for some now unknown reason on

* An Antiphon is a phrase or clause, said before and after a
Psalm or Canticle (sometimes abbreviated in the former case),
as giving the key-note of the sense in which the Psalm or Can
ticle is used or the interpretation which is to be put upon it.
5 Maude, in his handbook, holds that ' O Lord, arise', is here
not an antiphon, but a respond ; the difference is rather one of
name than of fact.

108 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
St. Mark's Day.6 Another ancient prayer is intro
duced in the ancient way, and the Litany is then
brought to an end, as may be seen by noting how
it is printed at the end of the Prayer Book for use at
Ordinations. The General Thanksgiving is printed
here for convenience, to make sure that in the normal
service the element of thanksgiving shall not be
omitted. And the Prayer of St Chrysostom stands
where Cranmer placed it in 1544, apparently to lead
the devotions on from the Litany to the service of
the Holy Communion.
This Prayer of St. Chrysostom was taken from the
ancient Greek Liturgy which bears the name of the
'golden-mouthed' Patriarch of Constantinople (John
was his name, and Chrysostom his title), and also in
the earlier Liturgy of which this is an expansion and
which bears the name of Basil ; it cannot in fact be
traced back to either of those Fathers, but it is as old
as the ninth century. In these Liturgies — it must
be remembered that the word 'liturgy', when accu
rately used, means the service for the Eucharist —
the prayer stands near the beginning and in close
connection with the 'Deacon's Litany' mentioned
above. It may well have been that Cranmer, look
ing into this part of the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom

6 Perhaps ' O Son of David ' is a misreading for ' O Son of
the living God', FILIDEIVIVI in abbreviation being mis
taken for FILIDAVID or FILIDVD; but the phrase as
it stands is in the Gospels on the lips of the Syrophoenician
woman.

THE LITANY 109

as he was preparing his Litany, was struck with the
beauty and appropriateness of the prayer which
served to lead the way to the solemn office that was
to follow, and thus translated it with great felicity
into words which have become familiar. It was
not until 1662 that it was placed at the end of Morn
ing and Evening Prayer; and until that time it may
have kept in the minds of worshippers its original
meaning as an introductory prayer, the expression
of a wish that God would guide and accept the
'desires and petitions' which His servants were
about to present, especially as the Litany usually
preceded the Communion Service. For us it has
become a customary closing prayer, and it signifies
now that we put our petitions, imperfectly framed in
our minds and expressed in our words, into the
hands of the great Intercessor, that He may fulfil
them as is best for us; and we venture to ask con
fidently for no more than we know He wishes to give
us, "in this world knowledge of His truth, and in
the world to come life everlasting."
'The Grace' was first introduced into the English
Prayer Book in 1559. Its place in the Greek Litur
gies is at the very beginning of the central part of
the service or 'Anaphora', where it introduces the
words 'Lift up your hearts'. It has now become a
customary 'final Prayer of Blessing'.
The appointed Litany-days are Sundays, Wednes
days, and Fridays : Sundays, as being the days when
the largest congregations can be bidden to this great

1 1 0 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
act of supplication and intercession; Fridays, as
being the weekly commemoration of the Passion;
and Wednesdays, possibly as thought to be related
to the betrayal of our Lord. Of old, Wednesdays
and Fridays were called 'station-days', that, is
days when the Christian soldier was to think him
self specially on duty, for statio in Latin means a
soldier's "post". The Litany should also be said on
Rogation Monday and Tuesday and Ember Satur
days. When the allowed permission is taken to
omit a part of the Litany, as is constantly done
on ordinary occasions, the words 'Let us pray'
should be said before the prayer 'We humbly beseech
thee'.' The Litany is always said at Ordinations,
and in England at the Coronation of a Sovereign.
The use of the Litany-desk or fald-stool (that is,
'folding-chair') placed below the chancel or choir,
that the Litany may be said 'in the midst of the
Church' among the people, is ancient. And in
cathedral and other elaborate services, the parts
printed in roman type are sometimes sung by two
clergymen or lay-clerks together, except where the
word 'Minister' (in the English Book 'Priest') is
printed.8 The Litany is also occasionally sung with
the choir in procession.8
'The omitted part of the service should not be called the
' Lesser Litany ', for it is more than that, but the ' discretionary
part of the Litany '.
8 In Ely and Exeter Cathedrals, we believe, it is the regular
practice for two lay-clerks to sing it together.
9 See Karslake (W. H.),The Litany of the English Church.
(London, 1876.)

V.
SPECIAL PRAYERS AND THANKSGIVINGS
THE 'Prayers and Thanksgivings upon Several
(that is to say, separate or distinct or special)
Occasions' need not be noticed at length. In
accordance with the general rule of worship, that
what is particular in statement should follow what
is general, the special prayers are read last among
the prayers-and the special thanksgivings follow the
General Thanksgiving. It may well be noted that
the rubrics placed in the section devoted to 'Special
Prayers and Thanksgivings' are as obligatory as
any others. It is a duty to the State as well as to
the Church that our congregations should pray for
Congress 'during their session' ; and it would seem
that this requires that it be read on each Sunday
when the largest congregation is assembled, and
at least twice or thrice a week when there is daily
service. The Prayer for a General or Diocesan Con
vention should be constantly read while the Conven
tion is sitting; and on no account should the Ember
or Rogation Prayers be omitted on any of the days
to which they are assigned. On the other hand, the
permission to insert in the Prayer for All Conditions
of Men the clause, 'especially those for whom our
prayers are desired', enables the minister to ask for
special remembrance of the sick or suffering or

1 1 2 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
afflicted on frequent occasions without too often
repeating the special prayers. In a small congrega
tion, where everyone is known and when a case of
serious sickness or a death calls for everyone's sym
pathy, the special prayers mean more than in a large
congregation, where their application does not come
home to all with the like emphasis. It is the opin
ion of the writer that the minister may make
changes in the words just quoted, printed as they
are in italic, at his discretion; as for instance,
'especially the sick person', 'especially the family in
affliction', or even 'especially thy sick servant the
Governor of this State', or 'thy sick servant John
Jones'. And it would seem that no reasonable ob
jection could be made to the minister's saying before
the prayer, 'The prayers of the congregation are
desired for a sick man', or 'for John Jones, in his
sickness' ; this seems less awkward and more direct
than, as was once the custom in some places, to use
this form of 'bidding' before the words, 'The Lord
be with you'.
The Prayer for Congress is modified from the
English Prayer for the High Court of Parliament.
It stood in the Proposed (American) Book of 1786,
while Congress was the only federal branch of gov
ernment, so that its use antedates by four years the
provision of a prayer for the President of the United
States. By a strange irony of history, the Prayer
for Parliament is traced to the pen of Archbishop
Laud, who in 1625, when he was Bishop of St.

SPECIAL PRA YERS AND THANKSGIVINGS 1 13
Davids, set forth in an "Order of Fasting" a form
of prayer for that body which some twenty years
later sent him to the block, as the first man in Eng
land condemned to death by an ordinance of Parlia
ment. The Prayer for Convention is framed upon a
rhetorical passage at the end of the Homily for Whit
sunday ; it was set forth in 1799. In this, 'the Coun
cil of the blessed Apostles' means that of which we
have a record in Acts xv. The Prayer for the Unity
of God's People, placed in our Book at the last revis
ion, is taken from the service at the end of the Eng
lish Prayer Book for use on the anniversary of the
accession of the Sovereign; it seems to date from
Queen Anne's reign. That for Missions is peculiar
to our Book, and was also inserted at the last revision ;
it is one of the prayers in the collection published by
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and is,
with a slight modification, Bishop C©»i«>'s prayer for
India. The six Prayers which follow are from the
English Book, with some modifications; they date
respectively from 1549, 1549, 1552, 1559, 1662, and
1604. The second Ember Prayer was brought here
from the Ordinal ; the first (specially appropriate, as
it would seem, to the earlier part of the week) was
written by Bishop Cosin, whose influence on the re
vision of the English Bcok (1660-1662) was both wise
and strong. The Prayers for Fruitful Seasons, well
suited for haying and harvest, or for any time of
anxiety for the crops, as well as for the historic
Rogation-tide, are not in the English Book, and date
9

114 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
with us from 1892: the first is the only thing for
which we are (at least directly) indebted to the pro
posed English revision of 1689; the second is Ameri
can. None of the Prayers which follow are in the
English Book, except that for a Sick Child, which
stands there in the Visitation of the Sick ; they date
with us from 1790. The attribution of all or some of
them to Bishop Jeremy Taylor is a mistake. Those
for a Sick Person, for Persons under Affliction, and
for Persons going to Sea, have added much to the
helpfulness of our services.1
The first of the Special Thanksgivings has been
brought to its present place from the Churching
Office. The four which follow, and the next but one
after them, date from 1604, when they were called
'An enlargement of thanksgiving for divers benefits,
by way of explanation'; that for Restoring Public
Peace at Home was inserted appropriately in 1662,
when the use of the Prayer Book, forbidden by law
for fifteen years, had been resumed; its suggestion
came from Bishop Wren, a stern royalist.8 The
three Thanksgivings at the end are peculiar to our
American Book; the first and the third date from
1790, and the second from 1892.

'The words in italics in these prayers, it needs hardly be
said, are to be modified in gender and number according to the
facts of each case. ' Condemnation', in the heading of the last
prayer, means condemnation to death.
2 ' Outrage ' means ' outbreaking' ; and ' seditious ' is used in
its Latin sense of ' civil disturbance', trouble and war at home.
'Apparent', in the preceding Thanksgiving, means 'evident'.

SPECIAL PRA YERS AND THANKSGIVINGS 1 15
The Penitential Office
The Penitential Office for Ash- Wednesday is the
survival of the ancient public acts of penitence with
which the Church entered upon the solemn season of
Lent. All its parts, with the exception of one short
prayer, are in the service called in the English
Prayer Book, "A Commination, or denouncing of
God's anger and judgments against sinners, with
certain prayers, to be used on the first day of Lent,
and at other times as the Ordinary shall appoint."
It dates from 1549, and consists of a brief exhorta
tion, the recital of curses contained in Deuteronomy
xxvii and others, to each of which the people
respond 'Amen', and a long homily made up of
passages of Scripture, leading to the Miserere and
Prayers. In our Prayer Book of 1790, the service
was omitted, but the three prayers beginning with
'O Lord, we beseech thee' were placed after the
Collect for Ash-Wednesday, with a rubric directing
their use on that day at the end of the Litany. In
1892, the Psalm and versicles were replaced, the
prayer 'O God, whose nature and property' was
brought in from another place in the English Book,
and, the comminatory part of the service being still
excluded, the service became a Penitential Office.
Its great solemnity, as well as its historic use, seem
to limit it to occasions which may be reckoned with
Ash-Wednesday as times of public penitence. There
is no rubric as to the way in which the Psalm is to

1 16 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
be said ; it seems most natural that it should follow
the custom of the Psalter in the daily offices. The
use of Psalm li here and of the six others in Morning
and Evening Prayer on Ash- Wednesday, brings all
the Penitential Psalms into the services of that day.
The High-priestly blessing from Numbers vi given
here in the first person plural as a benedictory
prayer — in the Visitation of the Sick it is in the
second person singular, and is thus a blessing — pro
vides a form which may be used by a lay-reader or a
deacon at the close of a service, or at family prayers,
or on other occasions.

VI.
THE COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS
WE pass now to the Collects, Epistles, and
Gospels, which belong to the part of the
Prayer Book corresponding to the Missal, as they
have their place in the service of the Holy Commun
ion ; though the Collect for the day is also repeated
in Morning and Evening Prayer, as indeed it was
formerly used in the daily offices. Something must
be said of the Collects and their history, of the
selection and arrangement of the Epistles and Gos
pels, and of the titles of certain days and portions of
the Christian year.
The New English Dictionary gives this definition
of the word Collect as a liturgical term, enclosing part
of it in quotation marks: "A name given to 'a com
paratively short prayer, more or less condensed in
form, and aiming at a single point, or at two points
closely connected with the other,' one or more of
which, according to the occasion and season, have
been used in the public worship of the Western
Church from an early date; applied particularly to
the prayer, which varies with the day, week, or
octave, said before the Epistle in the Mass or Eucha
ristic service, and in the Anglican service also in
Morning and Evening Prayer, called for distinction
the Collect of the day."

1 18 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
The Collect in itself is, as the description says,
distinctively Western in its form arid use; there is
nothing corresponding to it in the Oriental Litur
gies. The word 'Collect' does not occur in the
present Roman service-books, though it has worked
back from England, at least into France, as a popular
name. It is found in old Latin books in the forms
'collecta' and 'collectio' ; the Gregorian Sacramentary
once calls the prayer 'oratio ad collectam' and twice
'collecta'; the Gallican books, as Mr. Warren tells
us, earlier used 'collectio', and later 'collecta'.
'Collecta' is formed on the same principle as the
classic 'vindicta' and 'repulsa' , and means a gathering
of the people, either for worship at the place to
which they come or to go to the place appointed for
worship; the Collect then was the prayer 'ad col
lectam', 'at the assembling'. 'Collectio', on the other
hand, seems to scholars to show that the prayer
called by that name was a concise summing up of
what had been already said more fully. A writer of
the fifth century tells us that, after the monks had
knelt in private devotion, they stood up while the
officiant in words 'collected the prayer'. As to the
idea that the Collect was so called from 'collecting'
into a prayer the teaching of the Epistle and the
Gospel, Dr. Bright says that it is "purely imagina
tive." Though at present we find the word 'collectio'
in older manuscripts than the word 'collecta' , it seems
to the present writer that 'collecta' from 'ad collectam'
must be the older form, and that we may safely say

THE COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS 119
say that our Collects were so called as appointed for
the use of a congregation gathered together.
The Collects in our Prayer Book are for the greater
part taken from three ancient Sacramentaries, or
liturgical service-books, of the Western Church;
those not so taken have been framed on the same
model, for which it would seem that we are indebted
to Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome (440-461). The
oldest Sacramentary bears his name; the others are
called by the names of Gelasius and of Gregory the
Great, also Bishops of Rome (492-496 and 590-
604). It must be noted, however, that the earliest
known manuscripts of these documents date from
about the years 550, 700, and 800 respectively, and
that the only known Leonine manuscript is not com
plete. Bearing this in mind, it will be interesting
to see how far back we can trace the eighty-six Com
munion Collects in our Book.
The Collects first found in the Sacramentary of St.
Leo, as it has reached us, are seven; those for the
3rd Sunday after Easter and for the 5th, 9th, 10th,
12th, 13th, and 14th Sundays after Trinity.
The Collects first found in the Sacramentary of
St. Gelasius are twenty-one ; those for the 4th Sun
day in Advent, the first Communion on Christmas
Day, the Innocents' Day, the Sunday before Easter,
Good Friday (the second Collect), Easter-day, the 4th
and 5th Sundays after Easter, the Sunday after
Ascension, and the ist, 2nd, 6th, 7th, 8th, nth, 15th,
16th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st Sundays after Trinity.

120 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
The Collects first found in the Sacramentary of St.
Gregory are twenty-nine; those for St. Stephen's
Day, St. John Evangelist's, the Epiphany, the ist,
2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Sundays after the Epiphany,
Septuagesima, Sexagesima, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and
5th Sundays in Lent, Good Friday (the first Collect),
Ascension-day, Whitsunday, Trinity-Sunday, the
3rd, 4th, 17th, 22nd, 23rd, and 24th Sundays after
Trinity, the Sunday next before Advent, the Conver
sion of St. Paul, the Purification, the Annunciation,
and the festival of St. Michael and All Angels.
The rest, twenty-nine in number, were composed
expressly for the Anglican Prayer Books : namely, in
1549, those for the ist and 2nd Sundays in Advent,
Christmas-day, the Circumcision, Quinquagesima,
Ash- Wednesday, the ist Sunday in Lent, Good
Friday (the third Collect), the first Communion on
Easter-day (apparently), the ist and 2nd Sundays
after Easter, and all the Saints' Days not already
mentioned, except St. Andrew's; in 1552, that for St.
Andrew's Day; in 1662, those for the 3rd Sunday in
Advent, the 6th Sunday after the Epiphany, and
Easter-even — this latter based on the Collect in the
Scottish Prayer Book of 1636 (the Collect for St. Ste
phen's Day was also enlarged at this time) ; in 1886, in
the American Book, that for the Transfiguration.1

'Besides these Communion Collects, the second and third
Collects at Morning and Evening Prayer, with 'Assist us
mercifully', at the end of the Communion Service, and 'O
Lord, we beseech thee', in the Penitential Office, and also the

THE COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS 121
The reason why so many of the Saints' Day
Collects were newly written for the Book of 1549
was that the old Collects contained reference to the
merits or the intercession of the Saints. The work
of Cranmer in translating the Collects is worthy of
careful study. A few of them he put into English
almost word for word from the Latin, as, for in
stance, that for the twenty-first Sunday after
Trinity; but in more he expanded the somewhat
stern idiom of the Latin into the freedom of good
English rhetoric, as in that of the second Sunday in
Lent, a literal translation of which would be: "O
God, who seest that we are bereft of strength ; Guard
us inwardly and outwardly ; that we may be fortified
in body against all adversities, and cleansed in mind
from evil thoughts ; through our Lord. ' ' a
The Epistles and Gospels which we use 3 have come
to us, with but few exceptions, from the 'Comes',

Collect (or Prayer) for the Clergy and People, are traced to the
Gelasian Sacramentary ; the Collect for Purity at the beginning
of the Communion Office, and the Collects beginning 'We
humbly beseech thee', ' Direct us, O Lord', and ' O God, whose
nature and property', to the Gregorian; while the second,
fourth, and fifth at the end of the Communion Service, and the
Collect for the Communion of the Sick were composed for the
Prayer Book of 1549.
8 From Dr. Bright's essay on the Collects in the S. P. C. K-
Commentary, to which reference should be made for a thor
ough and interesting discussion of the Collects as translations
and paraphrases.
'Since 1662, they have been read from the (so called)
Authorized Version of 161 1.

1 22 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
'Companion', 'Hand-book', which we can trace
back to an early day; it has been attributed to St.
Jerome (who died in the year 420). It contained the
Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays and chief fes
tivals throughout the year, and perhaps originally
Prophecies also — that is to say, readings from the
Old Testament. Now, the fact that in the Eastern
Church both the Epistles and the Gospels are
selected in order from the books of the New Testa
ment, and the further fact that the same passages (or
'pericopes') of the New Testament are found in the
'Comes' as the Epistles and Gospels of the Western
Church, seem to carry back the 'Comes' to an early
time; and it may well be that it is the order of the
readings and not the selection of the readings them
selves which we may attribute to St. Jerome. Our
Epistles show that in some places the order was not
disturbed; thus, those for the first four Sundays
after the Epiphany are absolutely consecutive, and
those for the sixth to the twenty-fourth Sundays
after Trinity (inclusive), with one exception, are
from St. Paul's Epistles in the order in which they
stand in the New Testament.
The use in our Book goes back, then, through the
English and the Sarum, to the 'Comes', with but few
variations except sometimes in the length of the pas
sages designated. This is one of the particulars in
which England has a use more ancient than Rome ;
for at some date, which cannot now be determined,
the Roman Church introduced variations into the

THE COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS 123
scheme of Epistles and Gospels which she must have
had in early days. We can easily trace what hap
pened (or was done) in the Sundays after Trinity, or,
as Rome calls them, the Sundays after Pentecost.
The first Sunday after Trinity lost its proper Gos
pel — the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, so
well chosen to suit the Epistle — and borrowed that
of the fourth Sunday after Trinity ; into the place of
this was drawn back the Gospel of the fifth Sunday,
and so on; so that for the rest of the season the
Roman Gospels are one Sunday out of the way. But
in the English use the ancient order remains.
In the former half of the Christian year, from Ad
vent to Trinity — which brings before us the succes
sive events or lessons of the Lord's life — the Sunday
Gospels contain the special teaching, and the Epis
tles are chosen to illustrate and emphasize that teach
ing, even in the four Sundays after the Epiphany on
which, as already noted, they are consecutive. The
choice of Gospels for the Sundays after the Epiph
any shows a thoughtful selection of readings to
illustrate the several Epiphanies of the incarnate
Christ: first, in His home-life; second, in the be
ginning of His 'signs' ; third, in His power over
diseases of the body; fourth, in His power over the
world of nature and of the mind ; fifth, in the history
of the Church; sixth, in the great consummation.
In the latter half of the year, on the Sundays after
Trinity, it is the Apostles who are teaching and the
Lord who "confirms their word" by His signs and

124 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
His lessons of truth. After a few readings from the
general Epistles of St. John and St. Peter and one
(on the fourth Sunday) from St. Paul, we have that
long range of selection from St. Paul's Epistles in
their New Testament order, with one exception on
the eighteenth Sunday, to which attention has been
already called. And if there is need of supplying two
Sundays at the end of the year, the Epistle for the
fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, taken for the first
vacant Sunday, carries on the order one step further.
The connection of Epistle with Gospel and of both
with the Collect on the several Sundays is worth
careful study; it is illustrated in Bishop Coxe's
"Thoughts on the Services" and Bishop Doane's
"Mosaics". In the notes on the Calendar (page 61), attention
has been called to the fact that, as far as dates are
concerned, the part of the year from Advent to the
eve of Septuagesima is regulated by Christmas or
Epiphany, which is kept . by the Roman ' Calendar,
and the part from Septuagesima to the eve of Advent
is regulated by Easter, the date of which is deter
mined by the Jewish or lunar Calendar. The
Epiphany is older in observance than Christmas; in
the East it is called the Epiphanies (in the plural),
and while it is primarily the festival of the Bap
tism — the date of which it may well preserve as the
6th day of January — it also commemorates the
Nativity and the visit of the Wise Men ; it is for the
oriental Christians a greater day than Christmas.

THE COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS 125
The first writer, as far as we know, who placed the
date of the Nativity on the 25th of December was
Hippolytus of Rome, about the year 220; but the
testimony of St.. Chrysostom, soon to be cited, and
perhaps the testimony of Tertullian, give us reason
to think that its observance dates from an earlier
time. It was introduced into the East a century
and a half later; we have the sermon in which on
Christmas, probably in the year 386, St. Chrysostom
commended it to the Christians of Antioch as an
observance not ten years old indeed among them,
but kept at Rome, where men had access to the
archives, from the beginning and by old tradition.'
The name 'Christmas' (the special 'mass' or 'service'
of Christ) can be traced back to the year 1123; it
displaced in our language the name 'yule', appar
ently a word of merriment, and perhaps connected
with 'jolly'. The nations Christianized by Latin-
speaking missionaries call the feast by words such
as the French 'Noel', derived from 'natalis' , meaning
'dies natalis Domini' , 'the Lord's birthday'. The
time of preparation for it is 'Advent', the name
of which explains itself. In the Roman use it
includes four Sundays; in the Milanese (Ambro
sian) and Mozarabic, it has six, beginning on the

4 None of the chronologers seems to note that at the time of
our Lord's birth the solstice occurred on the 25th of Decem
ber ; the error in the Julian Calendar accumulated between
Caesar's reform and the Council of Nice — three days in 400
years — has never been corrected.

1 26 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Sunday after St. Martin's Day (November n); in
the 'Comes', five, one being our 'Sunday next before
Advent' .
St. Stephen's is the earliest recorded Saint's day ;
St. John Evangelist and the Innocents naturally
stand with him close to Christ. The old English
name of the Innocents' Day is 'Childermas'. The
festivals of the Circumcision, the Purification
('Candlemas'), the Annunciation ('Lady Day', i.e.,
'Our Lady's Day') and the Nativity of St. John
Baptist, take their dates from Christmas.
'Lent' (a word first found about 1275) is a short
ened form of the substantive 'lenten' (first found
about 1000), and means 'spring'. It appears to be
of the same stem as 'long', 'length', and to have
reference to the lengthening of the days at that time
of the year. The fast before Easter was at first of
short duration and very rigid, in some cases of forty
hours ; next, it included the week-days of six weeks ;
then, in the seventh century, four days being pre
fixed, it became our Lent of forty week-days. In
Milan Lent still begins on the eve of the first
Sunday; and with us the Collect for that Sunday
makes mention of fasting as if it were then about to
begin. The difference between Latin and English
observances is shown by the contrast between the
'Carnival' of the former, and the 'Shrove-Tues-
day' — that is 'shrift-Tuesday', 'confession-Tuesday'
— of the latter. Ash- Wednesday, ' caput jejunii' ,
'the head of the fast', takes its name, as is well

THE COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS 127
known, from the Biblical custom of sprinkling ashes
upon the head in token of mourning.
The fourth Sunday in Lent is Refreshment or
Refection Sunday, from the Gospel, or Mothering
Sunday, from the custom of visiting the mother
church or the mother's home. The fifth Sunday
in Lent is Passion Sunday, as the services begin to
look forward to the Passion ; but Passion Week gen
erally means, in older writers at least, Holy Week or
the week next before Easter. The Sunday before
Easter is Palm Sunday, though until the last revis
ions of the tables of Lessons there was in the re
formed Anglican services no mention of the Lord's
entry into Jerusalem. It should be noted that in the
Gospels for the first six days of Holy Week, with the
second morning Lessons for the Sunday and Good
Friday, there is brought before us the full record of
the Passion as written by the four Evangelists.
Thursday before Easter was known as early as St.
Augustine's time as the 'day of the Lord's Supper' ;
the English name of 'Maundy' Thursday, dating
from about 1300, meant originally the washing of the
feet of the poor in obedience to the Lord's 'new
commandment', 'mandatum novum' , the day being
called 'dies mandati' . On Good Friday we have
three Collects, a survival of the ancient solemn
prayers of intercession on that day. In the first
Collect, we commemorate the suffering and victorious
Christ ; in the second, we pray for the Church ; and
in the third, we pray that God will 'fetch home' (1)

1 28 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
His ancient people Israel, who worship Him within
the lines of a special covenant, but do not know the
Messiah who has come; (2) the 'Turks' or Mohamme
dans, who worship one God^and acknowledge Christ,
but profess higher allegiance to a later 'Prophet' ; (3)
Infidels, that is to say unbelievers, the heathen who
do not know the one true God ; and (4) Heretics, a
word which historically can mean here only the
separated bodies of Christians in the East, who for
reasons involving no personal blame on their part are
formally outside the Catholic Church. The name
'Good Friday' is distinctly English and Flemish.
Easter-even has been from of old a stated time for
the baptism of adults.
Easter, as the Venerable Bede tells us, takes its
English appellation from 'Eostre' or 'Eastre', the
name of a goddess whose festival was celebrated at
the vernal equinox; her name, derived from 'east',
shows that she was the goddess of the dawn or the
sun-rising. The word first occurs as used by King
Alfred about the year 890. In most other languages
the name of the festival is from the Hebrew 'pesach'
('passover') through the Greek irao-^a, which, by
the way, has no etymological connection with the
verb Trao-^ft).5 The feast has been observed from the

6 The old pronunciation of the name of Queen Esther was
the same as of the festival Easter, a fact which has led to some
curious misunderstandings. The writer has seen in an old
record the entry of a service on ' Esther-day '

THE COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS 129
earliest times. There is a possible allusion to it in
i Corinthians v. 7, compared with xvi. 8. St. Poly
carp, who was martyred in the year 155, is reported
to have attributed to St. John himself the custom by
which it was kept in proconsular Asia ; and at Rome
the observance can be traced back to about the year
120. The rules for the determination of Easter and
the feasts dependent upon it have been considered in
the discussion of the Calendar.
The whole period of fifty days from Easter to
Whitsunday was in the early times considered one
continuous festival ; and the Council of Nice (325),
following more ancient custom, forbade kneeling in
worship during that time, as on all Lord's Days.
The name 'Pentecost', irevnoKoarri, though really an
ordinal and meaning 'the fiftieth [day]', was applied
to the period as well as to the high festival on which
it closed; its earliest occurrence in the latter sense
is in the year 305. There seems to be no room for
reasonable doubt that the Coming of the Holy
Spirit, 'the Pentecostal Gift', was on Sunday, seven
weeks after Easter; but that it was parallel to the
giving of the Law at Sinai, and that this event was
seven weeks after the Exodus, seems to rest on late
traditions. The word 'Pentecost' has passed into
Christian use outside of England and some of the
northern nations of Europe; but 'Whitsunday' has
been the English name from at least the year 1050.
The New English Dictionary has not yet (1912)
reached the letter W; but Professor Skeat's re-

130 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
searches have made it certain that the word is really
'White Sunday', early shortened into 'Whit-Sunday'
and then by a misunderstanding sometimes called
'Wit-Sunday', that is 'Wisdom-Sunday', with refer
ence to the gift of the Spirit.
But why it was called 'White Sunday' is not so
clear. Probably the right explanation is seen in the
fact that Eastertide and Whitsuntide were the great
seasons for adult baptism; in the south of Europe,
Easter was the time specially chosen, and the white
robes of the candidates gave to the first Sunday after
Easter the name of 'Dominica in albis ' , that is to say,
'in albis depositis' , as the robes were laid aside on
that day. But in the northern countries the later day
was naturally preferred, and the Sunday of the white
robes, Pentecost, was the White Sunday. It is in
teresting to note that the word passed at a very early
day from English to Icelandic, and that Skeat quotes
this evidence from an Icelandic dictionary. Dr.
Neale's ingenious argument that the word is
'Whitsun-day' and that 'whitsuh' is the German
'pfingsten' (which is confessedly from the Greek
irani)Koo"rr), \ 'fiftieth'), is quite impossible; the Anglo-
Saxon 'hwita sunnan' cannot be a derivation or a
corruption of the German 'pfingsten', of which the
earlier form is 'pfingeste'. The correct spelling,
therefore, is 'Whit Sunday'; the best Prayer Book
use is for 'Whitsunday' ; modern use at the Oxford
Press and the King's Printers, and Dr. Coit's au
thority in this country from 1845 to 1871, have

THE COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS 131
given 'Whit-sunday' ; Dr. Neale's influence gave
us 'Whitsun-day' from 1871 to 1892; now our Book
reads, as do the English Standard and the Cam
bridge Press and as did our Standards before 1845,
'Whitsunday'. 'Whitsun-week' indeed goes back to
1549, before the derivation from 'pfingsten' was
dreamt of; it is an abbreviation of 'Whitsunday-
week'; 'Whit-Monday' and 'Whit-Tuesday' are
common forms. The octave of Whitsunday was
from an early time observed in honor of the Holy
Trinity; but it was in England that it came first to
be observed as 'Trinity-Sunday' and to attain the
dignity of a separate festival, giving its name to all
the following Sundays of the year. The special
observance is attributed to St. Thomas a Becket,
about 1 165; but it would appear to have been older
by at least a century.
When, including the Sunday next before Advent,
there are twenty-six Sundays after Trinity, the ser
vice for the sixth Sunday after the Epiphany is best
brought in to the vacant place; when there are
twenty-seven, the services for the, fifth and sixth
Sundays after the Epiphany are most suitably used.
Note has been made on an earlier page of the Ember-
days and the Rogation-days.
The reasons for assigning the festivals of the
Apostles to the days on which they stand in the
Calendar are for the most part now unknown. St.
Andrew's Day, observed from at least the fourth cen-

1 32 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
tury, seems to be the only festival of an Apostle
claiming to be really on the anniversary of his death.
St. Peter's Day, still in the Roman use St. Peter and
St. Paul's Day, is the day on which in the year 258
the supposed remains of the two Apostles were
removed to a shrine in the place called 'At the Cata
combs'. St. Philip and St. James's Day commemo
rates the dedication of a church at Rome in honor of
those Apostles on the first day of May in or about
the year 561. The Conversion of St. Paul seems to
have been assigned to the Epiphany season by
reason of his being the 'Apostle of the Gentiles'.
"The other festivals of Apostles," says Bishop John
Wordsworth, "differ so much in the East and the
West that, although at present we have no explanation
of the dates to offer, we may consider them days of
dedication of churches or of translation of relics
rather than actually traditional days of their mar
tyrdom." The Festival of the Transfiguration was first
formally assigned in the West to the sixth day of
August in 1457. It cannot be the actual day of the
Transfiguration; but it was chosen as commemo
rating a special act of deliverance granted to the
Christians under Mohammedan oppression. Michael
mas is the day of the dedication of a church at
Rome to St. Michael the Archangel.
All Saints' Day ('All Hallows') dates from about
the year 740. It is said that it was originally ap
pointed on another day, about 610, to celebrate the

THE COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS 133
dedication of the Roman Pantheon as a Christian
church. The Anglican Church on this day com
memorates all who have departed this life in the
faith and fear of God and await a joyful resurrec
tion; the Roman communion commemorates on the
first day of November the canonized saints who are
believed to be with Christ in heaven, and has an
other festival, All Souls' Day, on the -second of
November in memory of the souls in purgatory, for
which she drapes her altars in black.
Coincidence of Holy-Days
Neither the English Prayer Book nor our own
gives any rule as to the service to be used when a
Holy-day 'concurs' with another Holy-day or a Sun
day ; that is to say, when two Collects, Epistles, and
Gospels and two sets of Lessons are appointed under
different rules for the same day. And neither Book
makes any provision for postponing the observance
of a Holy-day until some later free day; as for in
stance, in the case of the Annunciation falling in
Holy Week, the ancient use was to defer the obser
vance of that feast until a week from Easter-Monday.
The following table was approved by the Convoca
tion of Canterbury in 1879, and is generally accepted
in practice among us. It places in two columns
those Feasts and Holy-days which can concur, the
name of the 'superior' day being placed in the first
column or that at the left hand, and that of the
'inferior' day in the second column or that at the

134

THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER

right hand; the intention being that in any case of
'concurrence' the service appointed for the day in
the left-hand column shall be said, with the insertion
of the Collect for the day in the right-hand column
after the other appointed Collect, thus making a
'commemoration' of the other day.
The Service for
ist Sunday in Advent
4th Sunday in Advent

With the Collect for
St. Andrew
St. Thomas

St. Stephen, St. John "j
Evangelist,
The Innocents
Conversion of St. Paul

The Purification
Septuagesima, Sexagesima
Sexagesima, Quinqua-
gesima, Ash- Wednes
day, ist, 2d, 3d Sundays
in Lent
AnnunciationSunday before Easter to
Tuesday in Easter-
week, inclusive
Easter-day, Monday and
Tuesday in Easter-
week, ist Sunday
after Easter
ist Sunday after Easter
St. Mark, St. Philip and
St. James

> Sunday after Christmas
3d Sunday after Epiphany
[¦ 4th Sunday after Epiphany,
< Septuagesima, Sexagesima,
|^ Quinquagesima
Conversion of St. Paul
- St. Matthias

\

3d, 4th, 5th Sundays in
Lent
Annunciation

? St. Mark

St. Philip and St. James
2d, 3d, 4th, 5th Sundays
after Easter

THE COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS 135
The Service for With the Collect for
Ascension-day St. Philip and St. James
Whitsunday, Monday and
Tuesday in Whitsun- j» St. Barnabas
week, Trinity Sunday
St. Barnabas and all other
Holy-days to AU Saints'
Day, inclusive

Sundays after Trinity

In proposing this table, it was added that if there
were 'additional' services the service appointed for
the day in the right-hand column might be said with
the 'commemoration' of the other, except on Good
Friday, Easter-day, Ascension-day, Whitsunday,
and Trinity-Sunday. It was intended that the word
'service' should include the Lessons, except that a
lesson from the Apocrypha might at any time give
place to one from Canonical Scripture. The table
with its notes possesses no canonical or rubrical au
thority; but it represents good authority of custom.
It should be noted that when Christmas falls on
Sunday, the next Sunday is the Circumcision and
there is no Sunday after Christmas, the Christmas
Collect ceasing on 'New Year's Eve' ; and that
Hturgically there is never a second Sunday after
Christmas, for if January 2, 3, 4, or 5 falls on
Sunday, the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel to be
read are those for the Circumcision ; such a Sunday,
however, has proper Lessons provided and for that
purpose is called the second Sunday after Christ
mas. When the Circumcision or the Epiphany

136 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
falls upon Sunday, its service is the only one for
that Sunday.
When Thanksgiving-day, by custom the last
Thursday in November, falls on St. Andrew's Day,
it seems most proper (if there is but one service), to
use both Collects with the Epistle and Gospel for St.
Andrew's Day and the rest of the Thanksgiving-day
service. Perhaps it should be added that the Collect, Epistle,
and Gospel for a week-day not otherwise provided for
are always that of the preceding Sunday, even when
the service of the Sunday has yielded to that of a
Holy-day; and that when a Holy-day falls on a week
day, the Collect of the preceding Sunday is not to be
said after its Collect. The rubrics provide for the
services to be used on the days between the Inno
cents' Day, the Epiphany, Ash-Wednesday, Ascen
sion-day, and the following Sundays respectively.
The Collect for each Sunday or Holy-day is
always to be said at both Morning and Evening
Prayer on that day, even when it immediately pre
cedes another Feast-day or a Sunday; but at Evening
Prayer the Collect for that Feast-day or Sun
day may be also said. On Eves, not being them
selves Sundays or other Feasts, one Collect only
should be said. Ash-Wednesday, Good Friday, and
Easter-even are Holy-days but not Feasts; their
Collects are not said at Evening Prayer of the pre
ceding days.

THE COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS 137
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THE CHRISTIAN YEAR
Works on the whole Prayer Book, as before.
Wordsworth (Bishop John) , The Ministry of Grace ; Chap
ters vi, vii, viii. Scholarly and valuable.
Pullan (Leighton), The Christian Tradition (in Oxford
Library of Practical Theology) ; Chapter vi, Festivals of the
Church. Scholarly and valuable.
Articles in Dictionary of Christian Antiquities (see article on
'Lectionary' for the 'Comes') and in [Roman] Catholic En
cyclopaedia; also article on 'Festivals and Fasts, Christian', in
Enclycopaedia of Religion and Ethics.
The New English Dictionary, and Skeat's Etymological Dic
tionary. Interesting notes on Church Festivals will be found in Brady
(John), Clavis Calendaria; Hone (William), Every Day Book ;
and Neale (John Mason), Church Festivals and their House
hold Words in Essays on Liturgiology. Wheatiy on the
Prayer Book has much interesting material.
Full comparative tables of Calendars, with notes on all the
black-letter days of the English Calendar, will be found in
Blunt's Annotated Book of Common Prayer.

VII.
THE HOLY COMMUNION— I.
History of the Office
WE learn from the three Synoptic Gospels and
from St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corin
thians how it was that the Lord Jesus, the same night
in which He was betrayed,. in connection with the
sacrifice and feast of the Passover, instituted the
Sacrament of His Body and Blood. All four of the
writers tell us the words with which He gave His
disciples the bread and the wine over which He had
spoken in thanksgiving and blessing, but none of
them has preserved the words in which He gave
thanks and blessed. That the Apostles after the
Lord's Ascension and the Coming of the Holy Ghost
observed the ordinance, no one doubts ; but we can
not learn from the New Testament much as to the
manner in which they did it, except that they broke
the bread (Acts ii. 46; xx. 7) and ate it, drinking
also from the cup which had been blessed {1 Cor. x.
16-18; xi. 20-29). The whole service is called in the
Acts 'The Breaking of the Bread', and perhaps by
St. Paul in the passage last cited 'The Lord's Supper',
though it may be that by this term he means the
common meal known as the Agape or Love-feast
which accompanied the Sacrament.

THE HOL Y COMMUNION- 1. 1 39
At least from St. Augustine's time (about 450)
the Sacrament has been frequently called The Lord's
Supper. Its most common name in the primitive
Church was The Eucharist, that is to say, The
Giving of Thanks, probably with the distinct thought
of a. blessing asked in a thanksgiving (compare the
Words of the Institution in the several Gospels) ; but
we cannot affirm that the word tvyapurria in any
place in the New Testament means or necesarily im
plies the Sacrament. In the East both the service
and the consecrated elements were and are often
called 'The Mysteries', or 'The Holy Mysteries' ; but
it must be remembered that the word ftwrr^piov
does not mean something concealed or hard to under
stand; it means a revealed truth (as in Ephesians
iii. 3-6), or an imparted blessing. St. Paul speaks
(1 Cor. x. 16) of the cup and the bread as being each
a Communion, Koivtovia, that is to say (most probably)
something of which all the communicants partook ; it
was not until the fourth century that the name 'The
Communion' or 'The Holy Communion', strictly ap
plicable to the reception, was given to the whole
sacramental act.
For many years the name most used in the Roman
Communion has been that of 'The Mass', in Latin
Missa.. It is first found in the last quarter of the
fourth century in the Epistles of St. Ambrose and the
Itinerary of Silvia. Of itself it is an absolutely
colorless word, being a verbal substantive derived
from mitto, missus, as collecta is derived from colligo,

140 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
collectus; and at first meaning any religious service,
it came to be commonly applied to the distinctive
act of worship of the Christian Church. It is held
by most scholars that missa was first a solemn di-
missory formula at the end of the service, as to-day at
the end of the Roman office the priest says, "he,
missa est" , and then came to be applied to the service
itself. One would prefer the derivation, for which,
however, there is but slender evidence, on the anal
ogy of collectaS The prayer ad collectam, on the
occasion of the assembling of the people, became
the 'Collect' ; so the act of worship ad missam, on
the occasion of the commission of the people for
official duty, may have become the 'Mass', and the
word may thus have . served as a translation of the
Greek word 'Liturgy', in its literal sense of a public
service, of which we must speak in a moment.
To call the Holy Communion 'The Sacrament' or
'The Blessed Sacrament', as if there were no other,
though the former is in somewhat common use among
the people and the latter among devotional writers,
unless it is evident that the speaker is using a rhetor
ical licence, is hardly correct ; and to call the Com
munion Office a 'Celebration' (without adding such
words as 'of the Eucharist' or 'of the Holy Commun
ion') is hardly reverent.8
The distinctive name of the service used for the

1 See the New English Dictionary.
8 The New English Dictionary gives no literary example of
this use, but cites it as modern- colloquial.

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— I. 141
Eucharist is the Greek word 'Liturgy', Xeirovpyla,
or 'the Divine Liturgy'. It came to be used in
English before the year 1600, and by as careful a
scholar as Hooker, for any 'prescript form of prayer' ;
but in a formal treatise and in its study the word
should be kept to its strictly proper sense. Its
derivation is almost certainly from an adjective con
nected with the word Xa6<s, 'people', from which we
get our word 'lay', and from the noun epyov, f epyov,
which appears in our language as 'work'. It means
therefore 'public service' ; and it was applied in
Athens to a work for the public which a wealthy
citizen discharged at his own expense, such as fitting
out a war vessel or providing for the presentation of
a drama. From this the Church applied it almost
in our modern sense of 'public service', for the
appointed order of her great act of worship. It is a
great word with a great history.
But the consideration of names and words has
drawn us away from the history of the service.
There is little to be added from the New Testament,
except to notice that the Epistle to the Hebrews is
full of what maybe called 'eucharistic allusions',' and
that some such allusions may be found elsewhere.
St. Paul's argument (1 Cor. xiv. 16) that one praying
in the congregation should pray in words that are
understood, in order that the 'plain' man may know

"The subject is treated in an interesting, if exaggerated,
way in J. E. Field's The Apostolic Liturgy and the Epistle to
the Hebrews ; see Bibliography.

142 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
when to say 'Amen' at the 'thanksgiving', may
well refer to the eucharistic service, especially as we
remember how great stress the early Church laid
on this response from the people. And St. Paul
towards the end of his Epistle to the Romans (xv.
15, 16) uses words which very soon had distinctive
ly liturgical sense, one of them being \eirovpy6v itself,
and the others Upovpyovvra, 17 irpoatpopd, and r^yuta-
p,evn iv irvevfiaTi ay Up. We may translate thus:
"That I should be a leader of liturgical worship [or
common service] for the nations, to the end that the
oblation of the nations may prove to be acceptable,
since it has been sanctified by [in] the Holy Spirit."
And it may not be amiss to suggest that part of
the imagery of the Book of Revelation seems to have
been based on the worship of the Christian Church.
We pass on now to the history of that worship as
it has led to the forms of the Communion Office in
the English Book and in our own.
The earliest account of the eucharistic service
which has reached us is contained in the Apology
for the Christians written by Justin Martyr (of
Samaria) to the Emperor Antoninus Pius in or about
the year 152. ' As he describes it, the parts of this
service "on the day called Sunday", when "all who
live in cities or in the country come together to one
place", were these: —

* First Apology, chapters 65-67 ; a translation is in the Ante-
Nicene Christian Library.

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— I. 1 43
i. The memoirs of the Apostles or the writings of
the Prophets are read, as long as time permits.
2. The President instructs and exhorts to the imi
tation of these good things.
3. All rise together and offer prayers.
4. We salute one another with a kiss [and alms are
received for the poor].
5. Bread, and wine mingled with water, are
brought to the President.
6. He taking them gives praise and glory to the
Father of the universe, through the name of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit, and offers prayers and
thanksgiving at considerable length, according to
his ability.
7. The people assent, saying 'Amen'.
8. They who are called deacons distribute to the
congregation the elements which have been blessed
and carry a portion to those who are absent.
Here we see a definite order of the service, while
yet there is preserved to the officiating Bishop or
priest, presumably speaking under divine or pro
phetic guidance, freedom of utterance in prayers and
thanksgiving. That order has never been changed,
in any essential part of its outline. Every full and
formal celebration of the Holy Communion to this
day is with a service which contains the reading of
New Testament Scriptures (the 'memoirs of the
Apostles' are probably the Gospels and the 'writings
of the Prophets' the Epistles), a sermon or homily,
prayers, acts of charity, the presentation of the

144 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
appointed elements, the blessing of the elements by
the celebrant with thanksgiving and prayer, the
'Amen' of the congregation, and the communion in
the elements which have been consecrated. The his
tory of the service is the history of its modifications
along these lines, which had evidently been fixed
so early that in a half century after the death
of St. John they were the established rule of the
Church. The earliest extant liturgy completely written out
is that known as the Clementine, and found in the
so-called 'Apostolic Constitutions', of about the year
350 ;6 it was evidently composed as an ideal form of
service, some of the prayers being quite long, and
was probably never used ; but it shows the order and
mould of the service at that time in the East. Its
teaching as to these matters is confirmed by the
Catechetical Lectures of Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem,*
delivered in the year 347, in which he explains in a
devotional way the parts of the service as they follow
in order. Without doubt the liturgies still in use in
the Orthodox Eastern Church — best known to us as
the Churches of Greece and Russia — go back in all
their essential parts and in their order to the
times of the Constitutions and of Cyril, except that
the Clementine form does not contain the Creed and

*Book VIII, beginning; translated in the Ante-Nicene Chris
tian Library.
6 Lectures xxii, xxiii ; translated in Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers ; see also Burbidge, pp. 28 ff .

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— I. 145
the Lord's Prayer, probaby because in the earliest
days they were not committed to writing but were
supplied — at least the Lord's Prayer — from memory.
And the fact that the earliest Latin liturgies have the
same outline and order assures us that while the wor
ship of the Church of the West was still in Greek it
was in all essential points the same as that of the
Church of the East. Of this more will be said
presently. Holding in mind this fact of the essential unity of
all liturgical service, we note that we find, at as early
a date as a century after that last mentioned, five
families of liturgies, all in general agreement, but
differing somewhat in their tone, and distinguished
by the position given to what is called the 'Great
Intercession' (the 'Prayer for the whole State of
Christ's Church'). They are as follows: —
i. The West Syrian (Antioch and Jerusalem) and
Byzantine (Csesarea and Constantinople). Its pres
ent forms are the liturgy of St. James, used on the
island of Zante on St. James's Day and at Jerusalem
on the last day of the year, much admired by the
Scottish Churchmen and the English Non-jurors,
and the Liturgies of St. Basil and St. Chrysostom,
which are used, the former1 on special days and the
latter on ordinary days, throughout the Orthodox
Church of the East. These all have the Great Inter
cession after the Invocation of the Holy Spirit which
completes the act of Consecration.
2. The East Syrian, of Persia and Mesopotamia,

1 46 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
now used by the Nestorians, who, on account of
formal heresy dating from the year 431, are separated
from the Orthodox Church. In these the Great In
tercession precedes the Invocation.
3. The Alexandrian or Coptic, used in Egypt and
Abyssinia by the Monophysites, whose separation
from the Orthodox Church dates from 451. (The
Greek Liturgy of St. Mark is no longer in use.) The
Great Intercession in liturgies of this type is con
tained in the Preface to the Triumphal Hymn or
Tersanctus. 4. The Gallican Liturgies, once used in Gaul,
Spain, and North Italy, and probably to some extent
in Britain. They have been called Ephesine or
Johannine, but they cannot be traced to Ephesus
or to St. John, though doubtless of Eastern origin.
These Liturgies were largely superseded by the
Roman rite in the time of Charlemagne. Their sur
vival to our day is probably in the Ambrosian
Liturgy, still used in a modified form at Milan, and
certainly in the Mozarabic Liturgy, still used in the
form given it by Cardinal Ximenes (1500) in a few
chapels in Toledo. In these the Great Intercession
follows immediately upon the first presentation of
the elements (the 'Offertory').
5. The Roman Liturgy, which in its present form
has a part of the Great Intercession before and a
part after Consecration of the Elements. We
have no example of the early Liturgy of the Church
of Rome. In the form in which it prevails, as almost

THE HOLY COMMUNION— I. 147
the only eucharistic service employed in the Roman
obedience throughout the world, it shows the influ
ence of Gallican forms and strange traces of confu
sion and duplication of parts ; but it has been prac
tically unchanged since about the year 800. 7 The
special form which it assumed in England, from the
time of Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, in 1085, is that
known as the Sarum Use. The present English Lit
urgy belongs to the Roman (or Western) family ; and
the general structure of our own is traced back
through the English to the same source.
But the English Office has a connection with one of
the other four families of liturgies, and ours has in
its most important part followed another of those
families. The position of the great Prayer for the
Church, in the English Book since 1549 and in our
own, following as it does upon the first offering of
the elements and preceding the central part of the
service, is distinctly Gallican; it may have been
taken from the Mozarabic Use, with which Cranmer
was certainly acquainted. And in our American
Prayer Book the provision of an explicit Oblation
and explicit Invocation of the Holy Spirit, following
immediately upon the words of the Institution, and
made an essential part of the Prayer of Consecration,
is due to the conscious and almost immediate influ
ence of the Greek Liturgies. For it was from the

7 As to the Leonine, Gelasian, and Gregorian Sacramen-
taries, see page 118.

148 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
study of the Greek Liturgies that the English Non
jurors and Scottish Churchmen from about the year
1718 placed the Oblation and the Invocation in their
Liturgies; and Bishop Seabury, having received
from them the form of the Prayer of Consecration for
the service which he set forth in Connecticut in 1786,
secured its adoption in the Prayer Book of the
Church of the United States, as has been noted
above.8 Our Communion Office, therefore, is of the Eastern
or Greek mould in its central act; it has the Great
Intercession in the Gallican position; and in other
matters it conforms to the general outline of the
Western or Latin or Roman Liturgy, while it is in
no sense distinctly Roman. This Roman outline,
moreover, is broken in upon and obscured, both in
the English Book and in our own, by the insertion
of a public form of preparation, beginning with the
Exhortation and ending with the Comfortable
Words, the suggestion of which came from reformers
in Germany. The second arid the third of the five
families of liturgies mentioned, having been used for
centuries by bodies outside of the communion of the
Catholic Church (though the services themselves are
not unorthodox), have not affected our service.
The following table shows in parallel columns
the successive parts of the Greek Liturgies, of the
Roman Liturgy in its pre-Reformation English form
•See p. 22.

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— I.

149

(and practically in its present form), of the English
Liturgy of 1549, and of the American Liturgy.' A
few notes of explanation are added below.

Greek

Roman Litur

English Litur

American

Liturgies

gy, Sarum Use

gy of 13 49

Liturgy

[Service of

Preparation,

Prothesis]

including

Lord's Prayer

Lord's Prayer

Lord's Prayer

and Collect

and Collect

Deacon's Lit

and Collect

for Purity

for Purity

any

for Purity

Introit
Introit
Little En
Lord, have
Lord, have
Command
trance, with
mercy
mercy
ments, and
Book of Gos
Lord, have
pels
mercy
Gloria in
Gloria in
excelsis
excelsis
Prayer, Epis
Collect, Epis
Collect, Epis
Collect, Epis
tle, and Gos
tle, and Gos
tle, and Gos-
tle, and Gos
pel
pel, with Grad
ual, etc.
- pel
pel
[Homily]
Creed
Creed
Prayers for
Creed
Homily or
Sermon
Catechumens
Sermon
and for the
Faithful
Great En
Offertory,
Offertory,
Offertory,
trance with
with presenta
• with presenta
with presenta
the elements
tion of ele
tion of alms
tion of alms
ments
and elements
and elements
9 For the full Greek, Latin, and English forms, see the Bib
liography at the end of this Chapter.
150

THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER

Greek
Liturgies
Creed

Salutation

Roman Litur- English Litur- American
gy, Sarum Use gy of TJ4Q Liturgy
Prayer for the
Church,
Invitation,
Confession, Absolution, Comfortable Words

Salutation

Salutation

Lift up your Lift up your Lift up your
hearts hearts hearts
Preface, Tri- Preface, Tri- Preface, Tri
umphal Hymn umphal Hymn umphal Hymn
Benedictus Benedictus Benedictus
and Hosanna and Hosanna and Hosanna

Prayer for the Prayer for the
Church on Church on
earth, with earth, and
names of for the de-
Saints parted

Commemora tion of Re
demption

1. Words of
Institution
2. Oblation
3. Invocation
of the Holy
Spirit

2? Prayer for Commemora-
acceptance of tion of Re-
service, and demption
3? for a bless- 3. Invocation
ing on it for of the Holy
consecration Spirit

1 . Words of
Institution
2. Oblation
3. Offering of
gifts to heav
enly altar

1. Words of
Institution
2. Oblation

Lift up your
hearts
Preface, Tri
umphal Hymn

Prayer of
Access

Commemora tion of Re
demption

1. Words of
Institution
2. Oblation
3. Invocation
of the Holy
Spirit

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— I.

151

Greek
Liturgies

Roman Litur
gy, Sarum Use

English Litur
gy of 1549

American Liturgy

Prayer for
living and
departed

Prayer for the
departed

Intercession

Holy things
for the holy

Doxology

Doxology

Doxology

Lord's Prayer

• Lord's Prayer

Lord's Prayer,
Invitation,
Confession,Absolution, Comfortable Words

Prayer of
Access

Prayer of
Access

Prayer of
Access

Communion

Communion

Communion

Communion Lord's Prayer

Thanksgiving

Post-Commun ion Collect

• Post-Commun ion Verse

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving
Gloria in ex
celsis
Dismissal
Dismissal
Benediction
Benediction
The differences between the order of our service
and that of the English Book since 1552 are thus
shown : —
Present English
Commemoration of Re
demption
3? Prayer for the benefit to
Communicants
1. Words of Institution
American
Commemoration of Re
demption
1. Words of Institution
2. Oblation
3. Invocation of the Holy
Spirit
152 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Present English American
Intercession
Doxology
Communion Communion
Lord's Prayer Lord's Prayer
Prayer of Intercession and Thanksgiving
self-oblation or Thanksgiving
Gloria in excelsis Gloria in excelsis
Benediction Benediction
In the Greek Liturgies the service of the Prothesis
includes an elaborate preparation of the elements, with
prayers for the preparation of the priest and others ;
it is said in the chapel of the Prothesis, which corres
ponds to our credence-table, but it is at the side of the
sanctuary and not included in it. There are two En
trances, but with full ceremonial: the Little En
trance with the Book of the Gospels, and the Great
Entrance with the elements which have been prepared
for consecration. The Prayers for the Catechumens
have altogether or quite disappeared, as there is no
recognized body of catechumens now. (In the
Roman service the priest says in this place
"Oremus", 'Let us pray', but there is no prayer
following except on Good Friday.) The Salutation
is in the familiar words, "The Lord be with you",
and has the response "And with thy spirit". The 'Lift
up your hearts', in Latin 'Sursum corda', is first
quoted in the Canons of Hippolytus (about 200) and
by Cyprian of Carthage (martyred in 258), but as an

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— I. 153
already familiar phrase. The 'Holy, Holy, Holy',
from Isaiah vi. 3 and Revelation iv. 8, is best called
the 'Triumphal Hymn', or (if the term is preferred)
the 'Tersanctus', that is 'Thrice Holy'. It is often
given the name of 'Trisagion', which has exactly the
same meaning in Greek as has 'Tersanctus* in
Latin, but which to the Greeks means a short hymn
sung by them as an earnest litany-like prayer: "Holy
God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, Have
mercy upon us."
The Creed was not said in the eucharistic service
of the earliest times. In fact, we are told that it
was introduced by two Bishops of doubtful orthodoxy
about the year 500, in order to prevent additions to
it which might condemn their peculiar views. In
the Roman Church it is now said only on Sundays
and on a few other special days.
The Gloria in excelsis is an Eastern Hymn, and is
found in its full form, as is well known, about the
year 450. But in the East it is a daily morning
hymn, and has no place in the Liturgy. At Rome it
was for a long time used only when a Bishop was
celebrating the service, at first on Christmas, then
on Sundays, and finally on other days. The use of
the phrase "Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of
the Lord, Hosanna in the highest", is common to
Liturgies of both East and West.
In the Roman use, the retention of the words
'Kyrie eleison', transliterated from Kvpie eXevaov
('Lord, have mercy'), is one of the indications that

154 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
the service was originally in Greek. For a consider
able time there was at Rome an Old Testament
Lesson, or 'Prophecy', before the Epistle and
Gospel; it is still retained by the Roman Church on
certain week-days in Lent and at Ember seasons,
and the Mozarabic Liturgy has it in every service.
(It may not be unreasonable, as suggested further on,
to find a reappearance of the Prophecy in the Ten
Commandments of the English and American
Books.) The 'Gradual', sometimes corrupted into
'Grail', was a Psalm, and is now a verse, sung after
the Epistle from the steps {'gradus') of the lectern
at which the eucharistic lessons were read. It was
followed by 'Alleluia' or in penitential seasons by
a long-drawn-out melody called a 'Tract' ; and 'Al
leluia' was sometimes followed by a 'Sequence' or
'Prose' (from 'prorsus', that which goes forward), an
example of which is 'In the midst of life' in the
Burial Office. There was little preaching at Rome,
and the homily was early omitted there.
The consideration of the order of the parts of the
Prayer of Consecration is reserved for a later page.
The First Prayer Book of Edward VI was preceded
by "The Order of the Communion", set forth in
March 1548, and ordered to be first used on Easter-
day. Nothing was to be changed in the Latin ser
vice so long in use; but after the priest had conse
crated the elements and himself received the Com
munion, he was to say the new 'Order' in English.

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— I. 155
This consisted of the Exhortation, the Invitation
('Ye who do truly'), the Confession and Absolution,
the Comfortable Words, and the Prayer of Humble
Access ('We do not presume'), which were followed
by the administration in both kinds with the words,
"The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was
given for thee, preserve thy body unto everlasting
life" ; "The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
was given for thee, preserve thy soul unto everlast
ing life" ; and then the Benediction with 'The Peace
of God'. All the parts of this 'Order' as well as of
the preparatory 'Warning', suggested by and largely
derived from German reforming services, passed into
the Prayer Book of the following year, and still re
main, with but slight variations, in the English and
American Books.
But in framing the Communion Office in 1549
Cranmer did much more than translate the ancient
Latin service and incorporate into it the new order
for the preparation of the communicants and for
administering to them both the consecrated bread
and wine, of the latter of which they had been for
some three centuries deprived. He followed indeed
the old office, but with the omission of the psalmody,
etc., after the Epistle and with provision for the pre
sentation of alms for the poor, until the Hosanna
after the Triumphal Hymn. Then he practically re
wrote the whole of the Great Intercession and the
Prayer of Consecration in words more full and clear
and beautiful than before and evidently with the

156 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
design of better arrangement. First, he brought
together the petitions for the living and the departed
into one new prayer with the bidding words, "Let
us pray for the whole state of Christ's Church. " His
form is almost exactly that of the present prayer
with that title, if we substitute for the final paragraph
the third of the additional prayers in our Burial
Office ('We give thee most high praise'), with special
mention of the Virgin Mary, the Patriarchs, Proph
ets, Apostles, Martyrs, etc., followed by the words,
"We commend unto thy mercy, O Lord, all other
thy servants, which are departed hence from us with
the sign of faith, and do now rest in the sleep of
peace; Grant unto them, we beseech thee, thy mercy
and everlasting peace, and that at the day of the
general resurrection we and all they which be of the
mystical body of thy Son may altogether be set on
his right hand." Upon this followed without a
break the Prayer of Consecration, with first a brief
commemoration of Christ's redemptive work; then
the Invocation of the Holy Ghost upon the gifts and
creatures of bread and wine, "that they may be unto
us [this is the Roman phrase] the Body and Blood of
thy most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ" ; then the
narrative of the Institution; then the Oblation
('Wherefore, O Lord and Heavenly Father'), as we
have it now, with the rest of the prayer as in our
Book, and a petition in these words: "Command
these prayers and supplications, by the ministry of
thy holy angels, to be brought up into thy holy taber-

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— I. 157
nacle before the sight of thy divine Majesty";
all concluded by the Lord's Prayer. The 'Order of
the Communion' was then inserted, after a saluta
tion and greeting, its Benediction (now enlarged to
its present form) being deferred till after the newly
written Thanksgiving.
A comparison of this office with the Roman, hav
ing reference to the parts of the Prayer of Consecra
tion, makes it evident that a devout and scholarly
hand was attempting to bring order out of confusion.
In all the ancient liturgies, it may be safely said,
the Words of Institution, the Oblation, and the In
vocation, had a place, and in this order, which
the Greek Church has never lost or obscured.10
In the Roman Liturgies at a comparatively early
time, and probably as a result of combination of
forms, there had come to be two clauses of the Con-
secratory Prayer which might be called Oblations
and two which might be called Invocations; they
are marked in the table 2? and 2, 3? and 3, respec
tively. Now, there can be little doubt that the clauses
marked 2 ? and 3 ? are anticipatory and not an essen
tial part of the service. Cranmer saw that the Obla-

10 In our copies of the East Syrian (Nestorian) Liturgies the
Words of Institution are not found ; but it seems quite certain
that they were omitted in the writing for reverence' sake and
were repeated from memory. The (Roman) Catholic En
cyclopaedia says that " it is certain that all the old Liturgies
contained" a prayer of Invocation.

158 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
tion which he wished to preserve was that which fol
lowed the Words of Institution, and therefore he
omitted that marked 2 ? ; but he failed to see that the
prayer (marked 3) for the presentation of the gifts
by the ministry of God's Angel upon the heavenly
altar, was in reality a prayer for the 'operation of the
Holy Spirit' in blessing, and he fell back upon the
prayer for blessing (3 ?) which precedes the Words of
Institution, and made it, out of true place, a definite
Invocation of the Holy Spirit. Finally, before the
Doxology which closed the whole prayer, he turned
the petition for the divine action — for God's 'Holy
Angel' seems certainly to be His Holy Spirit or His
Word — into a petition for the ministration of His
'holy angels' in bringing the worship before God.
Thus the order of the essential parts of the prayer
in the Book of 1549 became 3, 1, 2 — Invocation,
Words of Institution, Oblation — an order which had
never been employed before, and the consideration of
which must have caused the Archbishop anxious
thought after it had passed into use.
It seems strange that the learned scholar who had
framed such a prayer as this for eucharistic worship
should have been content to substitute for it three
year later the bald and unprimitive form which still
remains in the English Prayer Book. The removal
of the Prayer for the Church to a place after the
Offertory made the service in this particular conform
to Gallican or Mozarabic Use; and the abbreviation of
this prayer at the end by this omission of all refer-

THE HOL V COMMUNION— I. 1 59
ence to the departed was due no doubt to contro
versies under the influence of Calvinistic and Zwing-
lian reformers on the Continent. Cranmer was a
man of doubtful mind in regard to many matters;
educated in the mediaeval school of theology, he had
felt obliged to break with it in some important par
ticulars; and we can hardly wonder that he was at
one time minded to advance with the scholars of the
Continent, two of whom (Bucer and Peter Martyr)
were Professors of Divinity at Oxford and Cambridge,
and at another time inclined to fall back upon what
had been so long held as the faith and practice of
Western Christendom.
But the influences which changed the Book of 1549
into that of 1552 were not altogether what would
be called Protestant or, at a later time, Puritan. The
Prayer Book which inserted an Absolution into
Morning and Evening Prayer and introduced into the
Baptismal Office the declaration that the baptized
child was regenerate, which retained conspicuously
the sign of the Cross in Baptism and required kneel
ing at the reception of the Holy Communion, did
not seek to satisfy all the objections of the radical
reformers. Now the Prayer of Consecration in the
new Book of 1552, after a short commemoration of
redemption and a prayer that the communicants
may be made partakers of Christ's most blessed
Body and Blood, including no offering of the elements
to God and no prayer for their sanctification by the
Holy Spirit, simply provided for a repetition of the

160 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Words of Institution and the reception of the ele
ments by priest and people. The Invocation which
had preceded these Words was removed, though a
phrase describing its desired effect in the soul was
retained ; and the Oblation which had followed them
was removed also, though phrases carrying out part
of its thought were turned into a memorial prayer
at the end of the service. The result certainly was
to teach that the consecration of the gifts was
effected by the repetition of the Words of Institution
introduced by a brief prayer for a blessing to ensue
upon their reception.
This was distinctly Roman doctrine, such as Cran
mer had learned from the scholastic authors whom
he had studied in his youth ; not the doctrine of the
Missal, for that, though confusedly, taught the need
of an offering to God and of a prayer for God's bless
ing, but the doctrine of the theologians taught in the
books. Is it to be wondered at, that, finding the
new Eucharistic Office acceptable neither to the ad
herents of the old theology nor to the advocates of the
new, and (as suggested above) finding that he had
after all placed the parts of the Consecratory Prayer
in the wrong order, Cranmer fell back on the old
theory of consecration and put the prayer into the
short and apparently uncontroversial form of 1552,
which the English still retain? It certainly seems
to have been under the influence of Roman mediaeval
theology, if with the further thought that it would not
be offensive to radical reformers, that it was adopted,

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— I. 161
to be the use of the Church of England for centuries
to come.
Other changes in the service were made in 1552,
all of which we inherit. The removal of the Great
Intercession to an earlier place in the service has
been already noted; we should add that a petition
for the acceptance of the alms was inserted in it,
and that it was seriously abbreviated at the end.
The placing of the preparation of the communicants
before 'Sursum corda' instead of after the Consecra
tion seems due to right instinct ; for certainly they
should be prepared to take part in the whole of the
great act of worship and not in the act of communion
alone; confession and absolution should precede the
offering and the prayer for blessing which are the act
of the whole church. The removal of 'Gloria in ex
celsis' to the end of the service makes it a part of
the noble thanksgiving which precedes the blessing
and violates no liturgical principle, if indeed it may
not be called an act of liturgical propriety. And the
insertion of the Ten Commandments before the
Collect for the day was of the nature of a penitential
introduction to the service, furnishing thoughts for
self-examination before each of the petitions for
mercy which had stood in the former office. A dis
tinctively 'Protestant' change in the service was the
displacement of the formulas of administration — in
both of which it should be noted, the Book of 1549
had read 'body and soul' — by the words, "Take and
eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee,

162 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thanks
giving" ; "Drink this in remembrance that Christ's
blood was shed for thee, and be thankful". In the
Elizabethan Book of 1559, the 1549 and 1552 formulae
of administration were combined. Finally, in 1662
a rubric as to the presentation of the Bread and
Wine was inserted before the Prayer for the Church,
the words 'and oblations' were inserted into that
Prayer, and the present commemoration of the de
parted was added at its end.
The history of the American Communion Office
calls for a brief statement as to the Scottish Offices
from which our Prayer of Consecration has come to
us. Episcopacy had been disestablished in Scotland
in 1560; reintroduced in 1610, it was again dis
established in 1638 on the ground that Episcopacy
was contrary to the Word of God; once more re
stored in 1660, it was again disestablished after the
Revolution of 1688 as not being "agreeable to the in
clinations of the people". Most of the Churchmen
of that country were loyal to the deposed Stuart
family, and they fell under the ban of severe laws, the
most stringent of which were passed after the rising
of 1745." There was a strong bond of political sym
pathy between them and the English Non- jurors,
who from faithfulness to the Stuarts had refused to
take the oath of allegiance to the new line of sov-

"'England and Scotland had been united as one Kingdom
with one Parliament in 1707.

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— I. 163
ereigns; and there was also a strong bond of ec
clesiastical sympathy which brought them together.
Both the Scottish Churchmen and the English Non
jurors had among their clergy men of sound learning
who made a study of liturgical matters; and for sev
eral reasons their minds were turned toward the
Church of the East. They began to prepare forms of
service for the Holy Communion; and recognizing
no obligation to follow the English service in all its
details, they first made use of the ill-fated Prayer
Book which James I had sent to Scotland in 1637, in
which the Communion Office closely resembled that
of the first Book of Edward VI; and then, as they
pursued their studies, they accepted the teaching
and order of the Greek Liturgies, and among them
in particular the Liturgy of St. James.
In or about the year 1700 appeared Stephens's
"Liturgy of the Ancient Christians"," containing for
the first time in the English language the Words of
Institution, the Oblation, and the Invocation in their
primitive order; and the same order was followed in
the Non-jurors' Book of 1718, and in Scottish Offices
of a later date. These offices, which contained only
the Communion service, beginning with the Exhorta
tion?- were printed by themselves and were familiarly
known as 'wee bookies' ; they followed the general
arrangement of the English Book of 1549, but placed

12 Not to be confused with his " Liturgy of the Ancients",
published in 1696 ; they are both reprinted in volume ii of
Hall's Fragmenta Liturgica.

164 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
the parts of the Prayer of Consecration in the order
just named. It was in the form of this service as
published in 1764 that Bishop Seabury had wor
shipped in Edinburgh during the years 1752-1753,
while he was studying medicine and waiting for his
twenty-fourth birthday that he might be ordained,
and which he found in use by the Bishops who conse
crated him to their sacred office. In the 'Concordate'
which he made with them, and which they and he
signed on the following day, the Scottish Bishops
say that though they are "very far from prescribing
to their brethren in this matter, they cannot help
ardently wishing that Bishop Seabury would en
deavour all he can, consistently with peace and pru
dence, to make the celebration of this venerable
Mystery [of the Eucharist] conformable to the most
primitive Doctrine and Practice in that respect,
which is the pattern the Church of Scotland has
copied after in her Communion Office"; and Bishop
Seabury agreed "to take a serious view of the Com
munion Office recommended by them, and if found
agreeable to the genuine Standards of Antiquity, to
give his Sanction to it, and by gentle methods of
Argument and Persuasion to endeavour, as they have
done, to introduce it by degrees into practice, with
out the compulsion of Authority on the one side or
the prejudice of former Custom on the other."
The story has been told on earlier pages how Bishop
Seabury in 1786, after the publication of the 'Pro
posed Book' in the 'South', set forth an edition of

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— I. 165
the Scottish Communion Office for use in his diocese,
and how at the General Convention of 1789 he
secured the insertion of the Prayer of Consecration
from this office in the Prayer Book set forth by the
authority of the Church in the United States, and
that with the full approval of all who shared with
him in the important work of the Convention. Thus
a great gift, which England could not impart to us
because she had it not, came to the Church in this
land from a body which men called "a shadow of a
shade", and which called itself "the Catholic re
mainder of the Church of Scotland".

VIII.
THE HOLY COMMUNION— II.
Commentary on the Office
THE Order for the Holy Communion, the
Divine Liturgy, consists of two parts, which
were called in Latin 'Missa Catechumenorum' and
'Missa Fidelium'. At the former, which consisted of
prayer, the reading of the Scripture, and instruction
or exhortation, those who were preparing for bap
tism or even under discipline were allowed to attend,
and the ancient liturgies contain prayers to be used
at their dismissal ; at the latter, the Christian Mys
teries, only the faithful were present. In our office
the point of division is not exactly defined. The
rubric at the end of the service requires that "upon
the Sundays and other Holy -days, though there be
no Sermon or Communion, shall be said all that is
appointed at the Communion, unto the end of the
Gospel, concluding with the Blessing". This would
imply that the division of the service should come
after the Gospel if there is no Sermon, or after thjs
Sermon if one is provided, and seems to assume that
the Creed will not be said if the celebration of the
Sacrament is not to follow. But as the Offertory
Sentences may be used at any time 'when the alms of
the people are to be received', it is proper to defer
the Benediction until the offerings have been made.

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— II. 167
The English Prayer Book orders that when the
'Ante-Communion' is read the service shall conclude
with the 'General' Prayer for the Church, making
the preliminary part of the service end there; and
this has come to be the usage with us, if a pause
is made for the withdrawal of catechumens or non-
communicants.1 Formerly this was not so, the
Communion-alms being received from the commu
nicants alone.
The first two rubrics are disciplinary, and call for
interpretation by ecclesiastical lawyers rather than by
commentators on the Prayer Book. It may be well
to note that suspension or 'repelling' from the Holy
Communion is not excommunication; that 'advertise'
is old English and means 'notify' (see Numbers xxiv.
14 in the Authorized Version, where the Hebrew for
'advertise thee' is literally 'cause thee to know');
and that Canon 40 § II, makes provision for further
possible action after the minister has given notice to
the Ordinary (that is the Bishop) that he has thus
disciplined a communicant.
The rubric before the Lord's Prayer speaks first of
the Table at which the service is to be said, its cov
ering, its place in the Church, and the part of it at
which the officiating minister is to stand. The word
'Table' or 'Holy Table' is by no means peculiar to
Reformation or post-Reformation times ; it has been

1 In this pause, the organ should not be played. Read in
Bishop Coxe's Christian Ballads "The Soul-Dirge."

168 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
used from the fourth century,2 and the correspond
ing Greek word is the common name for that which
was more commonly, though by no means exclus
ively, called 'Altar' in the West. The first Book of
1549 used indifferently the names 'Altar' and 'God's
Board' ; and, by the way, 'table' and 'board' were
interchangeable in English, as when we speak of the
'tables' on which were painted the Creed and the
Lord's Prayer and the Commandments. Neither
'table' nor 'altar' of iself implies or denies anything
as to doctrine.3 A 'fair' cloth, says a careful writer,
implies "good repair as well as cleanliness"; it
seems also to mean that the cloth shall not be em
broidered with colors.
The phrase 'in the body of the Church or in the
Chancel' comes to us from 1552. Its earlier part, 'in
the body of the Church', carries us back to the time
when it was customary in England, if the Communion
was to be celebrated, to bring the Lord s Table into
that part of the church in which the congregation
were assembled, that they might hear and take part
in the service; the chancels in most of the old
churches being so deep, with a great deal of choir
space, and sometimes so separated from the nave by
a heavy screen, that the people could not readily
either hear or see the officiant at the end of the
building. To this day, in some churches in England,

2 Cf. St. Paul in 1 Cor. x. 22.
3 As to the use of the word ' altar ' in the Institution Office,
see note on that office.

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— II. 169
the communicants go into the choir after the Prayer
for the Church or even at an earlier time, for con
venience in taking their part in the service, literally
'drawing near with faith'. This removal of the
Lord's Table seems to have been common in England
until the time of Charles I ; with us it is quite un
known. The word 'chancel', from the Latin can-
celli, meaning 'bars of lattice-work', and then the
part of a public building latticed off for judges or
officers (chancellors), doubtless includes all parts of a
church which we call by the name choir, sometimes
also presbytery and sanctuary (or chancel proper),
as appears from our use of the word 'chancel-arch'.
The 'right side of the Table' was, in our Book until
1835, as it has been in the English since 1552, the
'north side' ; in the Book of 1549 the rubric read "The
Priest standing humbly afore the midst of the Altar,
shall say the Lord's Prayer with this Collect". There
can be no doubt that the change of word in 1835 was
not meant to change the position of the officiating
minister; but while in England, where all chancels
are in the east,4 the north side meant a definite di
rection, in our country, where chancels are at all
points of the compass, it had to be interpreted on the
assumption that the chancel was in the 'ecclesiastical
east', and the word 'right' was adopted to avoid am
biguity.

* The orientating of churches in England dates back to early
times.

170 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
The phrase 'right side' has given rise to much
controversy, the points of which it is not necessary
to reproduce. It seems certain, historically, that
'side of Table' means the long side as distin
guished from the 'end'; that when the Lord's Table
was brought into the body of the Church for the
Communion it stood lengthwise, and that this posi
tion was not unusual even in the chancel ; and that it
was largely owing to Archbishop Laud that the
Tables were finally turned about to stand crosswise
or 'altar-wise', with the short ends north and south.
With the lengthwise position of the Table, the priest
obeying the rubric would stand facing south; what
was he to do when the Table was turned? If he
went with the Table, he found himself facing east,
in the same direction as the congregation; if he
stayed where he was, he found himself at the end of
the Table, facing south. This is the historical or
ritual difficulty, the decision of which is hardly
worth the time involved in stating it ; and it is not
possible that any matter of doctrine could depend on
its solution. The matter is settled for us, so far as
it is settled, by custom ; probably most of our clergy
now stand facing east in the place where the Gospel
is to be read, and thus at what may be called the
'right side' as one faces the people; while those
who follow the old Anglican use stand at the 'right
side' as one faces the Lord's Table itself, in the place
where the Epistle is to be read, moving to the other
position for the reading of the Gospel. It seems to

THE HOLY COMMUNION— II. 171
the present writer that those who follow the former
use comply more closely with the rubric as it is
read historically.
The words, "or where Morning and Evening Prayer
are appointed to be said" have stood in the English
Book since 1552 in the preceding sentence, and serve
to define the word 'chancel' as including the place in
which the clergy ordinarily minister. In our Book
they give permission for saying the opening part of
the Communnion service in the reading-desk or stall,
as far as to (or through) the Sermon; the Offertory
must always be begun at the Lord's Table. This
permission was intended, we are told, to cover the
case of St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia, where the
Lord's Table is still at the east end of the building
while the reading-desk and pulpit are at the other
end ; and Bishop White, who was rector there as well
as at Christ Church, did not wish to walk the length
of the central 'aisle' to read the ante-Communion ser
vice and then walk back to preach the Sermon. Very
probably the same conditions led to the use elsewhere
of the permission given in the rubric.
The word 'Minister' is used in the early part of
the service, because it may lawfully be read by a
deacon; as has been noted before, the American
Prayer Book almost invariably uses the word 'Priest'
only in places where none but a priest may officiate.
By Canon 22 § III, lay-readers are not permitted
to read any part of the Communion service.
The direction to the minister to stand for the

172 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Lord's Prayer and for the Collect while the people
kneel, calls our attention here to the postures to be
observed in this service, a matter as to which the
rubrics do not give full instructions. At the General
Convention of 1832, the House of Deputies asked
the Bishops "to express their opinion as to the proper
postures to be used in the Communion Office, with
a view to effecting uniformity in that respect during
its celebration." The Bishops replied that —
"First, with regard to the officiating priest, they
are of the opinion that, as the Holy Communion is
of a spiritually sacrificial character, the standing
posture should be observed by him whenever that of
kneeling is not expressly prescribed, to wit: in all
parts, including the ante-Communion and post-Com
munion, except the Confession and the prayer im
mediately preceding the Prayer of Consecration."
Then, after speaking of the principles involved in
their ruling, they added : —
"The positions, therefore, proper to be observed
by the people during the Communion Office, the
Bishops believe to be as follows: Kneeling during
the whole of the ante-Communion, except the Epistle,
which is to be heard in the usual posture for hearing
the Scriptures, and the Gospel, which is ordered to
be heard standing ; the sentences of the Offertory to
be heard sitting, as the most favorable posture for
handing alms, etc., to the person collecting; kneel
ing to be observed during the Prayer for the Church
Militant ; standing, during the exhortations ; kneeling

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— II 1 73
to be then resumed, and continued until after the
Prayer of Consecration ; standing, at the singing of
the Hymn; kneeling, when receiving the elements,
and during the post-Communion, or that part of the
service which succeeds the delivery and receiving of
the elements, except the Gloria in excelsis, which is
to be said or sung standing; after which the Congre
gation should again kneel to receive the blessing."
These rules, given by way of counsel and not of
authority, are still generally observed in the Church.
Sometimes in a small congregation it is more con
venient to stand during the receiving of the alms;
when the long Exhortation is omitted, as is allowed
if it has been read on one Lord's Day in the month, it
is better to kneel through the short Exhortation or
Invitation ; and the Hymn after the Prayer of Consecra
tion may be treated as a prayer, and thus the posture
of kneeling continued through it.
One question remains, which is not easy to answer,
before we pass from this third rubric, really the first
which has to do with the service : Should the Lord's
Prayer in this place be said by the minister alone or
by the minister and the people together? The
rubric before the Lord's Prayer in Morning Prayer
instructs the people to say it with the minister "both
here and wheresoever else it is said inDivine Service' ' ;
and it was shown there that 'Divine Service' cer
tainly includes the Communion Office. Is the prayer,
then, in this place to be considered a part of the public
office, or is it part of the priest's preparation, the peo-

174 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
pie beginning to join in the service at the 'Amen'
after the Collect for Purity or at the rehearsal of the
Commandments? The Collect for Purity, both in
the Roman service and in the Sarum Use, stands in
the priest's office of preparation before the Introit
and the approach to the altar. It would hardly seem
that when in 1549 the two prayers were ordered to be
said 'afore the midst of the Altar',5 although they
still preceded the Introit, they were meant to con
tinue as private prayers ; but the service will permit
that interpretation. Some good authorities, among
them Mr. Scudamore, are of the opinion that the
people should here say the Lord's Prayer with the
minister. On the other hand, the almost universal
custom in England, and the prevailing custom in this
country, is that the people do not join audibly in
the Lord's Prayer in this place or make a response to
it ; and the writer was told by Bishop Williams of
Connecticut, on the authority of Dr. Samuel F.
Jarvis and Bishop Smith of Kentucky, that both
Bishop Seabury and Bishop White held that the peo
ple ought not to say it. It seems clearly a case where
original and continued usage has ruled against a
literal interpretation of a rubric, and where it may be
well to yield to usage. There is no question that the
people are to say 'Amen' to the Collect for Purity.
The Introit or 'Entrance' Psalm or Verse was so

5 Perhaps, as has been suggested to me, this meant ' at the foot
of the altar-steps,' where the ' Confiteor', etc., had been said.

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— II. 175
called from its use at the time when the priest was
entering the sanctuary to begin the service. It was
called in the Sarum Use 'Officium', a word which
really belonged to all the former part of the service.
In the first Book of Edward VI an Introit Psalm
was printed in full before the Collect for each Sunday
or Holy-day. A list of these Introits follows, inas
much as they may well be used, either chanted in the
Prayer Book version or sung in some metrical ver
sion; for instance: Hymns 412 and 413 are versi
fications of Psalm xxiii, the Introit for Septuagesima;
Hymn 334 is a versification of Psalm cxxx, the
Introit for the Second Sunday in Lent; etc.
TABLE OF INTROITS
First Sunday in Advent  Psalm 1
Second Sunday in Advent  Psalm 120
Third Sunday in Advent  Psalm 4
Fourth Sunday in Advent  Psalm 5
Christmas, first Communion  Psalm 98
Christmas, second Communion  Psalm 8
St. Stephen's Day  Psalm 52
St. John Evangelist's Day  Psalm 1 1
Innocents' Day  Psalm 79
Sunday after Christmas  Psalm 121
Circumcision  Psalm 122
Epiphany  _  Psalm 96
First Sunday after Epiphany  Psalm 13
Second Sunday after Epiphany  Psalm 14
Third Sunday after Epiphany  Psalm 15
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany  Psalm 2
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany \ Psalm 20
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany /
Septuagesima  Psalm 23
Sexagesima  Psalm 24

176 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Qiiinquagesima  Psalm 26
Ash- Wednesday  Psalm 6
First Sunday in Lent  Psalm 32
Second Sunday in Lent  Psalm 130
Third Sunday in Lent  Psalm 43
Fourth Sunday in Lent  Psalm 46
Fifth Sunday in Lent  Psalm 54
Sunday before Easter  Psalm 61
Good Friday  Psalm 22
Easter-even  Psalm 88
Easter-day, first Communion  Psalm 16
Easter-day, second Communion  Psalm 3
Easter-Monday  Psalm 62
Easter-Tuesday  Psalm 113
First Sunday after Easter  Psalm 112
Second Sunday after Easter  Psalm 70
Third Sunday after Easter  Psalm 75
Fourth Sunday after Easter  Psalm 83
Fifth Sunday after Easter  Psalm 84
Ascension-day  Psalm 47
Sunday after Ascension  Psalm 93
Whitsunday  Psalm 33
Whit-Monday  Psalm 100
Whit-Tuesday  Psalm ioi
Trinity-Sunday  Psalm 67
First Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 1 19, part 1
Second Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 119, part 2
Third Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 1 19, part 3
Fourth Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 1 19, part 4
Fifth Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 1 19, part 5
Sixth Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 1 19, part 8
Seventh Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 119, part 7
Eighth Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 1 19, part 8
Ninth Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 119, part 9
Tenth Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 119, part 10
Eleventh Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 1 19, part 1 1
Twelfth Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 1 19, part 12
Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 119, part 13
Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 1 19, part 14

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— II. 1 77
Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 1 19, part 1 5
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 1 19, part 16
Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 1 19, part 1 7
Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 119, part 18
Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 1 19, part 19
Twentieth Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 1 19, part 20
Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 1 19, part 21
Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 1 19, part 22
Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 124
Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity  Psalm 125
Sunday next before Advent  Psalm 127
St. Andrew's Day  Psalm 129
St. Thomas's Day  Psalm 128
Conversion of St. Paul  Psalm 138
Purification  Psalm 134
St. Matthias's Day  Psalm 140
Annunciation  ._  Psalm 131
St. Mark's Day  Psalm 141
St. Philip and St. James's Day  Psalm 133
St. Barnabas's Day  Psalm 142
Nativity of St. John Baptist  Psalm 143
St. Peter's Day  Psalm 144
St. James's Day  Psalm 148
[Transfiguration  Psalm 146]
St. Bartholomew's Day  Psalm 115
St. Matthew's Day  Psalm 117
Michaelmas  Psalm 113
St. Luke's Day  Psalm 137
St. Simon and St. Jude's Day  Psalm 150
All Saints  Psalm 149
The Ten Commandments, as has been noted al
ready, were introduced into the Communion Service
in 1552; but that was not the first time that they
were publicly read in the English Church. As far
back as the year r28i, in the Province of Canter
bury, each parish priest was ordered to read and
13

178 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
explain the Ten Commandments four times a year;
and the same order was given in the Province of
York in 1460. In 1542 the English Bishops directed
their clergy to read the Commandments twice each
quarter; and in 1547, it was ordered that on every
Holy-day when there was not a sermon the Creed, the
Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments should
be recited in English after the Gospel. As they
stand, they are now an Old Testament Lesson ; and
followed as they are by nine Kyries of uniform
wording and one of somewhat different form, they
have a special value.6 Our Book in 1790 introduced
from the Scottish Office, as a discretionary addition
to the Commandments, our Lord's Summary of them;
since the last revision, it may be said either after
or in place of the Decalogue, provided that the Deca
logue be read once on each Sunday. The Summary,
it may be noted, is quoted by our Lord from the
Pentateuch; so that in either case we have a read
ing from the Old Testament Scriptures. The Com
mandments were not taken from any version of the
Bible ; but, as was also the case of the Comfortable
Words, they were directly translated for use in the
service. The Three Kyries (or Lesser Litany) follow
the Summary when the Decalogue is not read, that
the cry for mercy may not be omitted from the place

6 It is said that the Duke of Wellington declared his judg
ment, that it would be worth while to keep the Church of Eng
land established, if only to make sure that the Ten Command
ments should be read once a week in every parish in the land.

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— II. 1 79
where it had stood of old. The ancient Collect for
Grace to keep the Commandments was brought into
this place for discretionary use from the Scottish
service; it stands in the English Book at the close of
the Communion Office, and also, as with us, in the
Confirmation service.
Something has already been said (Chapter V) as
to the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels. The announce
ment of the precise place at which the Epistles and
Gospels begin may have been meant for a time when
people could look for their places in the Bible, as
many used to do when the text of a sermon was
announced. The permission to say, "The portion of
Scripture appointed for the Epistle" was granted
in 1662, to relieve the conscience of those who would
not call a passage from the Old Testament or the
Acts or the Revelation by the name of an 'Epistle';
but having been appointed and read as an Epistle, it
becomes such, and the concluding formula is always
"Here endeth the Epistle". It is a very old custom
that all in the congregation should rise to greet the
Liturgical Gospel, technically called the 'Holy
Gospel', and stand while it is reading; where the
people stood during the whole service, resting at
times on staves, they laid aside the staves, and those
who had their heads covered removed their caps or
mitres or crowns; a Greek Bishop lays aside his
pall, as showing his submission to the Chief Bishop
whose words are to be read ; and all in the church,
should, if necessaary, turn so as to face the reader of

180 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
the Gospel. The salutation, 'Gloria tibi, Domine', is
also of ancient use ; though constantly sung in Eng
land, it has not been in their Prayer Book since
1552. The doxology at the end of the Gospel,
•Thanks be to thee, O Lord', 'Praise be to thee, O
Christ', or other like words, has never been in any
English Book except that prepared for Scotland in
1637, which also, alone of English Books, directed
the priest to say, "So endeth the Holy Gospel".
Ritual purists tell us that this is never to be
said, because the Gospel never comes \to an end,
and because our response to the Gospel is the
Creed. It is an English use which we should not willingly
change, to require the recitation of the Creed at
every public service at which the Holy Communion
is celebrated: in England, the Nicene Creed is
always said after the Gospel; with us, either the
Apostles' or the Nicene is said either after the
Gospel or in Morning Prayer immediately before the
Communion, or one is said in each service; only
since 1892, our Book has prescribed that the Nicene
Creed shall be said on the five great festivals of the
year. It needs not to be noted that the Nicene
Creed is distinctly the Eucharistic Creed of the
Church, and is normally said in this place.
Between the Creed and the Sermon the minister is
to notify the people of the Holy-days or Fasting-
days to be observed in the week following — this seems
therefore a rubric for Sundays — to give notice of the

THE HOLY COMMUNION— II. 181
Communion, for whieh purpose forms of 'warning'
are provided at the end of the service, and to make
publication of other matters. (Banns of Matrimony
are no longer required by the laws of the land, and
their publication has become obsolete.) It may be
suggested that mention might well be made of days
which are appointed for observance, even if for any
reason there is to be no special service in that
church on the particular days; the notice 'Friday in
this week is a fasting day' might be very instructive
and helpful though there were no other notices to
give. The English Prayer Book directs that Briefs,
Citations, and Excommunications are to be read in
this place. Briefs are Royal Letters asking for
special contributions, as a few years ago for the
sufferers from famine in India;7 Citations are sum
monses to appear in court, practically limited now to
the announcement that some member of the parish is
a candidate for ordination and that objectors are to
present their objections; and Excommunications are
obsolete. Their rubric goes on to say that no one
but the minister shall make any proclamation or pub
lication in time of Divine Service (note the words
applied to the Communion), and that he shall not
proclaim or publish anything except what is pre
scribed by the rubrics or enjoined by the King or the
Bishop. The spirit of this rule should regulate the
giving of 'notices' from the chancel and in the Com-

' Briefs are not unknown in American history.

1 82 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
munion Office; those of a semi-secular character
would be better announced from the reading-stall or
the pulpit, or posted in the porch.
The Sermon, as an exposition of the Church's
teaching from the Scriptures, it needs not be said
again, is very ancient; and it is certainly a valuable
part of public service. It is expressly ordered by
our Church only in this place and in the opening
rubric of each of the Ordination services and in the
Institution Office.
After the Sermon, the priest returns to the Lord's
Table and begins the Offertory, saying one or more
of the prescribed sentences. The 'Offertory' is not
the receiving of the alms, nor the alms themselves,
but the sentence or sentences read at the time of
receiving the offerings.8 Of these sentences, the
first and the last four were added at our revision of
1892; the rest are in the English Book. They may
be divided into four classes: the first six are
general; then five (beginning with 'Who goeth a
warfare?') have to do with gifts for the support of
the clergy; then ten (beginning with 'While we
have time') are more appropriate when alms are
received for the poor; the last four may be called
oblationary or doxological. A little study will show
that all the sentences may be read at one time or an-

9 The word may perhaps also be used to include the oblation
in the following prayer; 'begin the offertory' might then
mean that a new part of the service begins here ; compare be
fore Sursum corda the words ' the Priest shall proceed '.

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— II. 183
other for the instruction and encouragement of the
congregation ; and the two excellent sentences from
Tobit may help to vindicate our teaching as to the use
of the Apocrypha.
Only two of the Offertory Sentences — the second
and the fifth — besides those peculiar to our Book,
agree exactly in reading with the Authorized Ver
sion ; some are taken from Coverdale, some from the
Great Bible, and some must have been specially
translated for use in this place.
Both these Sentences and the rubrics which
follow, together with the first clause of the Prayer
for the Church, remind us of the importance of the
ancient custom, dating back to apostolic times, that
at the celebration of the Eucharist, when bread and
wine were offered for the Sacrament, alms were also
offered for the poor. This presentation of alms had
long been nearly extinct in the West, when it was
revived in the English Church in the reign of
Edward VI. The 'other devotions of the people'
evidently mean gifts for other purposes than the
relief of the poor, such as the support of missions,
the maintaining of divine worship, and in fact what
may be called, in the language of the English rubric,
'pious' as distinguished from 'charitable' uses. Our
Canons (Canon 16 § II [iv]) specially provide that
"the Alms and Contributions, not otherwise specific
ally designated, at the Administration of the Holy
Communion on one Sunday in each calendar month,
and other offerings for the poor, shall be deposited

184 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
with the minister of the parish, or with such church
officer as shall be appointed by him, to be applied by
the minister, or under his superintendence, to such
pious and charitable uses as shall by him be thought
fit." They also (Canon 16 § II [i]) declare it to be
the duty of ministers to give suitable opportunities
for offerings to maintain the missionary work of the
Church at home and abroad.9 The basin with the
alms is to be 'humbly presented and placed upon the
Holy Table', where it should remain at least until
after the prayer has been offered for the acceptance
of the alms. At the Offertory, as indicated by the
wording, the distinctive service of the priest begins.
The bread and wine for the Communion are next
"to be placed upon the Table. This is the First
Oblation or the Offerings of the First Fruits, 'Ob-
latio Primitiarum' , originally taken out of the gifts
brought by the people in kind ; later the parishioners
in England provided the bread and wine in turn;
now they are provided at the charges of the parish.
At the consecration of the English Sovereign, he him
self offers to the Archbishop the elements for the
Communion, and that before he makes his offerings
of cloth of gold and a gold ingot. Our Book says
nothing as to the kind of bread which is to be pro-

9 The Liturgy for Scotland, 1637, provided that of the offer
ings at the Communion, " one half shall be to the use of the
Presbyter, to provide him books of holy divinity ; the other
half shall be faithfully kept and employed on some pious and
charitable use, for the decent furnishing of that Church, or the
public relief of their poor."

THE HOLY COMMUNION— II. 185
vided. No one could doubt that, as the English
rubric says, it should be "the best and purest wheat
bread that conveniently may be gotten"; and it
would seem that the priest is at liberty to follow the
custom of the Western Church in the use of un
leavened bread10 or that of the Eastern Church in
using leavened. It is a very ancient custom, dating
back to Justin Martyr, and doubtless derived from
the Passover use, that a little water should be mixed
with the wine; it has sometimes been done in the
sacristy before the elements were brought into the
church, and sometimes at this point of the service.
The latest decision in England, that of the Arch
bishop of Canterbury in the case of the Bishop of
Lincoln (see Bibliography), has been that the mix
ture when practised should be at the earlier time; in
this country Bishop Seabury's rubric after the pre
sentation of the alms is often followed: "The Priest
shall then offer up and place the bread and wine pre
pared for the sacrament upon the Lord's Table, put
ting a little pure water into the cup." " The actual

10 Mr. Fortescue tells us that it was not until the eighth cen
tury that unleavened bread gradually came into use in the West.
11 The Bishop of Vermont, to whom I am also indebted for
other suggestions and corrections, reminds me that the follow
ing declaration was made by the House of Bishops in 1886:
" That the mixture of water with the eucharistic wine is lawful,
and in conformity with the usages of the Catholic Church, and
that there is no objection to the use of the mixed cup, pro
viding the mingling be not ritually introduced until it be author
ized by the rubric."

186 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
presentation of the bread and wine should, by the
rubric, follow that of the alms.
An interesting question arises here: Does the
word 'oblations' in the Prayer for the Church, and
also in the preceding rubric (which dates only from
our last revision), refer to the elements of bread and
wine now presented on the altar for the purpose of
consecration, or does it mean the 'other devotions' of
the people or perhaps merely duplicate the word
'alms' ? The words 'and oblations' in the prayer and
'or oblations' in the side-note were first inserted in
1662, at which time also the sentence as to the pre
sentation of the bread and wine was inserted as a ru
bric ; and this seems to show that the presented ele
ments were meant by the 'oblations'. But a careful
historical study," as Bishop Dowden and others have
shown, makes it evident that the word 'oblations'
was constantly used of offerings of money; and
probably Scudamore is right in saying that "by 'alms
and oblations' are meant the offerings of the people of
whatever kind, and therefore including the bread and
wine which the priest has now placed upon the Holy
Table. ' ' Still, the phraseology of the new American
rubric and such American custom as can be quoted
seem to justify us in omitting the words 'alms and'
and saying simply 'to accept our oblations' in the
Prayer for the Church when there has been no collec
tion of alms but the elements for the Communion have

u Further Studies, pp. 176 ff.

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— II. 187
been presented. Even if the alms are not received,
one of the sentences is to be read for the 'Offer
tory'. The presentation of the bread and wine at this
time, unless indeed they are now brought from the
sacristy, assumes the use of a credence or prepara
tion table or stand or shelf on which they may be
placed before or at the beginning of the service and
from which they may be brought when the alms have
been presented. The word 'credentia' in late Latin,
'credenza' in Italian, seems first used as a side
'board' or table at which food was prepared and
tasted, to give trust or confidence to those to whom it
was to be served. For a long time credences were not
common in churches; Archbishop Laud was blamed
for having one in his chapel. Until the compara
tively recent revival of ecclesiastical architecture,
few churches had credences fixed to the walls, but
there were some in which movable stands were used
on Communion Sundays.
A Hymn or an Offertory Anthem may be sung
'when the alms and oblations are presented'. Is the
verb present, as if it were 'are in process of presen
tation', 'are presenting' ? or is it perfect, as meaning
that the singing may find place when the alms and
oblations 'have been presented' ? In either case, it
will not cover what is popularly known as an 'Anthem'
sung while the deacons, wardens, or others are receiv
ing the alms. Such an Anthem is evidently extra-
rubrical, as might be a 'voluntary' on the organ while

188 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
the clergyman was passing from the pulpit to the
chancel or withdrawing to the robing-room.
The English Book since 1552 has bidden to the
Great Intercession with the words, "Let us pray for
the whole state of Christ's Church militant here in
earth"; whereas the Book of 1549 and the Scottish
Offices had "Let us pray for the whole state of
Christ's Church". Our Book retains the word 'mili
tant' ; the words 'here in earth' had become not quite
accurate after the present memorial of the departed
was added in 1662.
The Exhortation is one — and as coming from the
Order of the Communion of 1548 the first — of the
brief homilies introduced . into the English Prayer
Book by way of instruction ; the suggestion for them,
if indeed any was needed, came from the 'Consulta
tion' of Archbishop Hermann of Cologne and from
like publications. The beginning of the introduc
tory rubric, 'At the time of the Celebration of the
Communion', is explained by the fact that for a long
time the Warnings stood in this place, following the
part of the service which by the English rubric was
to be used on every Sunday or Holy-day even if there
was to be no celebration of the Sacrament. In our
Book the Exhortation has been shortened, largely by
the omission of minatory clauses liable to be mis
understood; it is an admirable statement of the
proper moral and spiritual preparation for receiving
the Sacrament, an encouragement to those who can
humbly trust that they come in a worthy manner, with

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— II. 1 89
a statement of the relations of the Sacrament to the
great truths of the Incarnation and the Atonement,
and of the purpose of the Lord's ordinance. The
rubric evidently intends that it shall be read on the
Sunday at the beginning of each month, when there
is generally the largest body of communicants present,
even if it is omitted on all other occasions ; and the
brief space of time which it requires will not be
grudged to it by any devout and thoughtful priest.
Still following the Order of Communion, the priest
in the brief and earnest Invitation bids the communi
cants to the Confession, gives them the Absolution,
and adds the Comfortable Words of Christ and His
Apostles. Note has been made already of the use of
capital letters in the Confession, to mark the begin
ning of each pause or suspension of the voice in the
recital of the words, which certainly ought not to be
said hurriedly; and of the special solemnity which the
Church has always believed to be attached to the use
of the 'precatory' form of Absolution. (See pages
75, 76.) The Comfortable Words — and 'comfort
able' in 1548 meant 'strengthening' more than 'con
soling' — were especially translated for the service.
Their separate meaning should be noted: the first is
Christ's call to all who need Him, and His promise
to them; the second has to do with His coming into
the world and the meaning of the Incarnation; the
third is St. Paul's witness to the Atonement; and
the fourth, St. John's witness to the Intercession in
the heavens. With this the preparation of the

190 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
communicants ends, and now they may well be
bidden to thanksgiving and praise.
The part of the service which follows is called the
'Anaphora', as the special act of worship 'offered' to
God; or the 'Canon', as remaining at all times un
changed in accordance with a fixed 'rule', except for
the Proper Prefaces.13 The Sursum corda, 'Upwards
hearts', introduces the constant Preface, in Anglican
use very brief, and this leads to the great Triumphal
Hymn. The words, "Hosanna in the highest;
Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord",
were brought over from the Sarum Use to the Book
of 1549, but were omitted in 1552, very probably
because they are not recorded as a part of the song
of the angelic host."
Of the Proper Prefaces, those for Easter and As
cension and the first for Trinity-Sunday are ancient,
those for Christmas and Whitsunday were composed
in 1549, and the alternative for Trinity-Sunday was
inserted in the American Book in 1790. The East
ern Liturgies have no Proper Prefaces; the Roman
use provides them for the Epiphany, the Sundays in
Lent to Passion Sunday, Passion and Palm Sundays
with Maundy-Thursday, and certain connected days,

13 In the Roman use of the word, the Canon does not begin
until after the Tersanctus, but certainly that Hymn with tiie
Sursum corda should be reckoned in it.
14 Perhaps also because Hosanna is not a word of praise ; it
means "Help, we pray," " Help me now " (Psalm cxviii. 25).

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— II. 191
besides those days for which they are appointed in
our Book, and uses the Trinity-Sunday Preface on all
Sundays not otherwise provided for; it also has
Prefaces for other special days and seasons, most of
them very brief; but the Mozarabic Liturgy pro
vided a full and distinct Preface for the service of
each Sunday and Holy-day.
The Prayer of Humble Access, as we have come
to call it, corresponding to the 'Prayer of Bowing-
down' of the Greeks, is said in all Liturgies, except
the English and our own, immediately before the
reception of the Sacrament; as it stands in our
Book, it breaks the. connection between the 'Glory
be to Thee' of the Triumphal Hymn sung by the
priest and the people, and the same words as the
priest repeats then at the beginning of the Prayer
of Consecration ; but it may be well considered as a
sort of parenthesis, the sense of our unworthiness
bidding us crave God's mercy once more before
we venture into His nearer presence for our great
act of worship.
So much has been said on the history of the Prayer
of Consecration, the meaning of its parts, and their
primitive order maintained in our service, that little
remains to be added here. The words of the rubric,
'standing before the Table', seem to belong not only
with 'hath ordered' but also with 'shall say'. It may
not be amiss to note that the Words of Institution
are recited and the manual acts performed primarily
before God, but also in the presence and in behalf of

192 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
the Church assembled before Him. The version of
these words in the Anglican Books follows St. Paul
more nearly than the Evangelists; it seems to have
come most directly from a German source.
The Oblation is the memorial of the death and
passion of Christ made to the Father, but it passes
on to commemorate the resurrection and ascension,
by means of which His death avails for the life of
His people; and the Invocation which follows is a
prayer for the blessing of the Holy Spirit whom the
ascended Lord sent to bring His life to the Church.
The rubric which provides for a second consecration,
and the rubric in the Order for the Communion of
the Sick which gives permission for a shortened ser
vice, both show that in the judgment of this Church
the Oblation and the Invocation are necessary for
consecration. Those who follow the teaching main
tained in these pages look upon the parts of the Con
secrating Prayer as consecutive ; those who attribute
the consecration to the Words of Institution with
prayer, consider that the parts, though consecutive
in expression, are in reality simultaneous ; but as in
our Book there is no word of prayer until the Invoca
tion is reached, they would agree with the others
that all its parts are essential.
What, or Who, is the 'Word' through which as
well as through the Holy Spirit it is asked that the
blessing and sanctification may come ? The phrase,
though with the terms in reverse order, is in the
Book of 1549: "With thy Holy Spirit and Word

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— II. 193
vouchsafe to bless and sanctify these thy gifts. ' ' "
The writer has not found this phrase in any office,
Eastern or Western, of earlier date. It may be that
there is a reference to our Lord's first word of bene
diction at the institution of the Eucharist, with a
possible allusion to i Timothy iv. 5, where 'crea
tures of God' used for food are said to be "sanctified
by the Word of God and prayer", as if it meant by
God's original benediction at the creation and by
specific prayer at this time. But this is hardly satis
factory. It seems more probable that 'Word' is here
used as a synonym for 'Holy Spirit'. Justin Martyr
tells us in a passage, which follows after a description
of Christian worship already quoted, that "as Jesus
Christ our Saviour was incarnate by the Word of
God, and assumed flesh and blood for our salvation,
so we have been taught that the food from which our
flesh and blood derive nourishment, having been
blessed [Mr. Ffoulkes translates, 'having been made
the Eucharist'] by invocation [literally, 'prayer'] of
the Word which is from Him, is both the flesh and
blood of that same Jesus Who was made flesh."
Now Justin Martyr held that the Son was the
Jehovah ('Lord') of the Old Testament, and that
it was the Holy Spirit who spake by the prophets;

15 In the recently discovered office-book of Sarapion, Bishop
of Thmuis in Egypt (about 350), the Invocation reads: "O God
of truth, let thy holy Word come upon this bread, that the bread
may become body of the Word, and upon the cup, that the cup
may become blood of the Truth." 14

194 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
and for this reason, as it would seem, he called the
Spirit the 'Word', using a title which later through
the influence of St. John's Gospel was restricted to
the Son. We do not know that Cranmer had a
copy of Justin's Apology, but he may well have
owned or used one ; and it would not be at all strange
if from this first account and explanation of the
eucharistic service, he took for the Prayer of Conse
cration which he was framing for the first English
Prayer Book the title of 'Word' for the Holy Spirit
in the act of Invocation. "With thy Word and Holy
Spirit" seems then to mean "With thy Holy Spirit,
by whom thou didst speak and didst effect the Incar
nation of thy Son."
The concluding parts of the prayer, in their simple
vigor and far-reaching application, call for no further
exposition than has been already given. The an
tiquity and importance of the 'Amen' of the people
have already been noted.
The Hymn which may be sung after the Prayer of
Consecration may be non-metrical, such as the
'Agnus Dei' (which however recurs in the Gloria in
excelsis), or metrical, such as those which are con
tained in the Hymnal. If the latter, it may be a
hymn of praise, carrying on the doxology just
spoken, or a hymn of penitence, in the ancient place
of the prayer of humble access.
The rubric as to the administration provides that
all shall receive in both kinds, for this is evidently
the meaning of 'in like manner' ; and that the ele-

THE HOLY COMMUNION— II. 195
ments shall be given 'into their hands', that is evi
dently that they shall themselves put the consecrated
bread into their mouths and move the cup to their
lips; 'in order' cannot refer to any order of sex or
age or dignity in approaching the altar, but must
simply mean 'in an orderly way' (as in i Corinthians
xiv. 40). All are to receive kneeling, that having
been for a long time the custom in the West, and to
our thoughts most reverent and practically necessary,
although in early times it would seem that all stood,
as all stand in the Church of the East to this day.
Nobody sat, as the Puritans wished to make every
one do, unless it were the Pope. The officiating
priest is not expressly bidden to kneel, and may
stand to receive the Communion which he has con
secrated, as was and is the Roman rule. Bishop
Cosin thought that the celebrant should kneel at
receiving, taking the same posture as the people;
and for this there is very good authority.
Our rubric has omitted the words 'to any one'
after 'delivereth the Bread' and 'delivereth the Cup',
making it entirely lawful to place the bread in the
hands of two or more persons, or to present the cup
to two, or to use two cups, for two persons, with one
repitition of the formula. In administering, at least
from the paten, it is more convenient to move from
left to right (that is to say, from east to west, if
facing south), following the path of the sun in the sky.
Our provision for a second consecration, although
it uses the words 'Bread or Wine', really supposes

1% THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
that there is to be a consecration of both elements ;
otherwise part of the prescribed words became mean
ingless. The priest, therefore, when the wine has
failed, should consecrate a bit of bread with the
wine required for the remaining communicants and
vice versa; where the possible need of this can be
foreseen, some of each element should be kept un-
consecrated. That, in case of a small deficiency,
water or unconsecrated wine may be added as a
'medium' for the administration of that which has
been consecrated, can hardly be doubted, however
undesirable this may be as a custom, for each com
municant is sure to receive a portion of the conse
crated element. The English provision for a second
consecration of either element, by the bare repetition
of the Words of Institution for that element, without
a syllable of prayer, can hardly be justified by anyone.
The rubric as to placing upon the Lord's Table
what remains of the consecrated elements and cover
ing them with a fair linen cloth or veil, dates from
the Scottish Book of 1637 and the English Book of
1662; it is a distinctly Anglican provision, to keep
part of the consecrated gifts on the altar until after
the Blessing. In the Roman use, the priest receives
all of the consecrated wine, and all of the conse
crated bread which is not administered or espec
ially reserved, and cleanses the vessels at this point,
before he proceeds with the service. The word
'Minister' here and in the following rubric is evi
dently used for 'Priest'.

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— II. 197
The Lord's Prayer follows, in its Anglican posi
tion; and then is said the Thanksgiving, composed
in 1549, containing an acknowledgment of the spirit
ual benefits of the Sacrament and a prayer for grace
to continue in the fellowship of the Church and to do
the good works appointed for God's people.
Gloria in excelsis is then said or sung in the place
to which it was assigned in 1552. Its first strain,
the Hymn of the Angels at the Lord's Nativity, is
found in the Liturgy of St. James ; the enlarged text
is found in one form in the Apostolic Constitutions
(about 350), and in another form nearer our own at
the end of the Psalter in the Greek Bible known as
the Codex Alexandrinus written about the year 450.
The oldest Latin text is some three centuries later,
and it is from this that the 'Angelic Hymn', as it is
called, passed into the English Book and our own.
The Scottish Communion Office has the Hymn
translated from the Greek text. In the East, where
it bears the name of the 'Great Doxology', it is and
long has been a daily morning hymn. In the West
it was introduced into the eucharistic service for use
on the Lord's Day and festivals if a Bishop was
present, or on Easter-day without the presence of a
Bishop ; later any priest was allowed to say it on the
days for which it was appointed. The English
Church has said it at every Eucharist since her ser
vice was translated, at first in the Roman position at
the beginning of the service, but since 1552 after the
Thanksgiving at the end. Our Church has allowed

198 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
the substitution of a 'Hymn from the Selection' (or,
in modern phraseology, from the Hymnal) for the
Gloria, probably on account of the great difficulty felt
in this country for a long time as to chanting ; the
substitution is sometimes made, by way of flexibility,
'for the purpose of discriminating days and seasons'.
The Hymn, which was at first, as already noted, a
commemoration of the Nativity, has grown to be of
threefold structure, its parts in an interesting way
parallel to the three Comfortable Words in which the
thought of the first of those Words finds application.
For its second part, addressed to God the Son, is
based on the 'Agnus Dei', the "Lamb of God, that
taketh away the sin of the world" (St. John i. 29),
and confesses His atoning and redemptive work;
and its third, introducing the name of the Holy
Ghost, finds its inspiration in the declaration made
by St. Paul (Philippians ii. 11) that the ascended
Christ "is Lord, to the glory of God the Father".
Thus it well stands at the close of our service, help
ing to make it in this element of thanksgiving, as
presently in that of blessing, superior to any other
Communion Office used on earth.
For the Blessing which we use is, as Mr. Scuda-
more says, "at once the grandest and the most
calmly solemn extant." The first clause (from
Philippians iv. 7) was placed at the end of the Order
of the Communion in 1548; the second clause, the
final blessing, was added in 1549. It, as the Abso
lution in an earlier part of the service, is to be said

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— II. 199
by the Bishop (of the diocese) if he be present,
though another may celebrate the service. In the
hearing of these solemn words our faith is quickened,
and our courage renewed, both to bear and to do for
the Lord's sake.
Five Collects follow : the first, an ancient Collect
in the Mass for travellers starting on their 'way' ; the
third, also old, where 'Direct' takes the place of the
obsolete 'Prevent' (which, by the way, means rather
'start* than 'guide'); and the second, fourth, and
fifth, composed in 1549. They may be said 'after
the Collects of Morning or Evening Prayer or Com
munion*. Now the only Collects in the daily offices
are the three which follow the Creed ; and the only
Collects in the Communion service are the Collect
for Purity at the beginning, and the liturgical Collect
of the Day with the discretionary Collect preceding
it. It seems evident that these five were intended
for special use at the end of the daily offices before
the intercessions (which had not been inserted in
1549), and before the Epistle in the eucharistic
office. An undisputed custom has ruled that after
the closing hymn or a sermon the minister may read
any Collect in the Prayer Book before dismissing the
people ; and these are oftentimes well suited for that
purpose. As to the first rubric after these Collects, enough
has already been said (see pages 38, 167).
The second rubric in this place dates from Scot-

200 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
land in 1637 and from England in 1662, and as the
dates show was directed rather against profanation,
of which there was then a real danger, than against
superstition. There is no question that from very
early times it had been the custom to carry the ele
ments consecrated in church to those who were pre
vented from attending the public service; and there
is no question that for a long time there was no cus
tom in any place of reserving the consecrated ele
ments in church that they might be made an object
of worship.
The Prayer Book of 1 549 provided for the continu
ance of the ancient practice of ministration to the
sick from the altar in the church in these words,
after speaking of the notice to be given by a sick
man to the priest that he was 'desirous to receive
the Communion in his house' : "And if the same day
there be a celebration of the Holy Communion in the
church, then shall the priest reserve at the open
communion so much of the Sacrament of the Body
and Blood as shall serve the sick person and so many
as shall communicate with him (if there be any); and
as soon as he conveniently may, after the open com
munion ended in the church, then go and minister
the same, first to those that are appointed to com
municate with the sick (if there be any), and last of
all to the sick person himself." A direction was
added as to the part of the service to be used. This
rubric was omitted in 1552; but it was not until
more than a century later that the order was inserted

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— II. 201
here that none of the conscerated bread and wine
remaining at the end of the service should be carried
out of the church. Whether the words 'if any
remain' were meant to exclude the setting apart of
what was necessary for immediate administration to
the sick — in no accurate sense of the word 'reserva
tion' — may be and has been doubted, in view of well-
known facts, both as to rubrics like-worded in pre-
Reformation Books and to the usage allowed by the
Latin Prayer Book of Queen Elizabeth's reign.
On the other hand, there has been no provision in
the English Book since 1552 and there is no provision
in our own Book for the administration of the Holy
Communion to the sick except after a consecration of
the elements in the sick person's house; moreover,
both Books have a clear statement as to spiritual
communion in cases when, for any just impediment,
a sick person cannot receive the Sacrament ; and at
our last Revision a rubric was inserted providing for
a very brief form of service, yet including consecra
tion, which can be used when necessary or expedient.
Our House of Bishops, in their Pastoral Letter of
1895, said: "The practice of reserving the Sacra
ment is not sanctioned by the law of this Church,
though the Ordinary (that is, the Bishop of the
Diocese) may, in cases of extreme necessity, author
ize the reserved Sacrament to be carried to the
sick." With this statement, which does not declare
that so-called 'reservation' for immediate communion
is unlawful, but suggests that it needs the authoriza-

202 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
tion of the Ordinary, we may leave further discus
sion of a vexed question to the authorities on Pas
toral Theology. It may be added, however, that the
usage and the law of the Scottish Church in this
matter are practically, if not exactly, the same as in
the English Book of 1549. In its last version (191 1)
there is this rubrical provision: "According to long
existing custom in the Scottish Church, the Presbyter
may reserve so much of the consecrated Gifts as may
be required for the Communion of the sick and others
who could not be present at the Celebration in
Church. All that remaineth of the Holy Sacrament
and is not so required, the Presbyter and such other
of the Communicants as he shall then call unto him
shall, after the Blessing, reverently eat and drink."
The Warnings, or formal notices of intention to
celebrate the Holy Communion, are now printed at
the end of the service. The first dates from the
Order of 1548, the second from the Book of 1552.
They are full of instruction ; and however the rubric
is interpreted as to the necessity of reading them
before each celebration of the Sacrament, they
should not be neglected.
The Communion of the Sick
It seems well to bring in here, though out of
Prayer Book order, a few notes on the directions for
administering the Holy Communion to the sick, to
which, indeed, preceding paragraphs refer.

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— II. 203
The long rubric at the beginning should be care
fully read, and also the rubrics which follow the
Gospel. It will appear that the service as ordinarily
provided begins with the special Collect, Epistle,
and Gospel; and that after the Gospel the priest
(called here inadvertently the 'minister') is to pass
to the Invitation and then to proceed with the service
without change from the ordinary form ; and at the
administration the sick person is to be the last to
receive, probably to remove fear of infection. But
(see last rubric) when persons are kept at home by
age or infirmity, which is not of the nature of acute
sickness, the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for the
day may be used; and (see third rubric after the
Gospel) when it is necessary to make the service as
brief as possible, only its absolutely necessary parts
need be used. What is considered necessary should
be carefully noted : the preparation by confession and
absolution; the eucharistic act of praise; the conse
cration of the elements completed by the Invocation ;
then the administration, followed by the Lord's
Prayer and the Blessing. Without doubt, in any of
these cases other parts of the service may be re
tained, as the Creed after the Gospel, or the Prayer
for the Church, or (in the case last mentioned) the
Gloria in excelsis. The opening rubric requires that
there shall be two at least to communicate with the
sick person; and this may be interpreted to mean
one beside the priest; but the next to the last rubric
allows the priest alone to comunicate with the sick

204 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
person under extreme circumstances. The intention
doubtless is to have a real representation of the
Church and to avoid all semblance of the 'solitary
masses' which were an abuse of the Sacrament.
Certainly no one could blame a priest for acting
on the principle of the next to the last rubric,
even in a case which did not fall under the latter;
yet, as Bishop Hall says, "the Church assumes
the responsibility of allowing various hindrances
to stand in the way of an actual Sacramental Com
munion." Where such hindrances do exist, the Church tells
the minister — who may for this purpose be a dea
con or a layman — to call upon the sick_ person to
make an act of spiritual communion, or in the old
phrase to seek the benefit of the Sacrament in voto.
This is in no sense a modern teaching; it was in the
present form in the Book of 1549, and was taken
from the ancient Sarum Use, in which under these
circumstances the priest was bidden to say to the
sick man, "Brother, in this case a true faith sufficeth
thee, and a good will; believe only, and thou hast
eaten"; and the last clause was borrowed from St.
Augustine in his comment on St. John vi. 29.
It remains only to note that the provision that the
Visitation Office is to be 'cut off at the Psalm' when
Holy Communion is to follow, means that the Visi
tation Service is to be said through the prayer of
reconciliation ('0 most merciful God') and up to the
Psalm ; but in practice this will rarely occur.

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— II. 205
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THE COMMUNION SERVICE
Editions of the Prayer Book, and works on the whole
Prayer Book already noted.
Editions of the Greek, Roman, Sarum, and Mozarabic Litur
gies. The following are among the most accessible and helpful :
Hammond (C. E.), Liturgies Eastern and Western, with In
troduction, etc. All in Greek or Latin except the Armenian
Liturgy. Later editions have the Ancient Liturgy of Antioch,
from the writings of St. Chrysostom. This handy volume has
been displaced for the Greek Liturgies by —
Brightman (F. E.), on the basis of the former work by Ham
mond (C. E.), Liturgies Eastern and Western, with Introduction
and Appendices. Vol. I, Eastern Liturgies. The Greek Lit
urgies are given in the original ; the others are translated into
English. Very learned and helpful ; the standard book on the
subject. Vol. II has not been published.
Brett (Thomas). A Collection of Liturgies, translated into
English, with a Dissertation upon them. An old book ( 1 720) , re
printed at least once (1838), with all the important Eastern Lit
urgies, the Roman, the English of 1549, and the Non-jurors' of
1718. Well worth purchasing when it appears in a catalogue.
Neale (J. M.), The Liturgies of S. Mark, S. James, S. Clem
ent, S. Chrysostom, S. Basil, and the formula of the Apostolic
Constitutions, in the original Greek.
Neale (J. M.) and Littledale (R. F.), The Liturgies of SS.
Mark, James, Clement, Chrysostom, and Basil, and the Church
of Malabar, translated into English. In an appendix are the
formulas of Institution in eighty-two different Liturgies, trans
lated. Very convenient and useful.
Neale (J. M.), A History of the Holy Eastern Church. Part
I, General Introduction (in two volumes). A mine of litur
gical information, and a monument of liturgical learning.
Rattray (Bishop Thomas), The Ancient Liturgy of the
Church of Jerusalemjjeing the Liturgy of St. James, with an
English translation and notes. Not easily found, but worthy of
special note for its indirect influence on our American Book.

206 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Neale (J. M.), Tetralogia Liturgica: sive S. Chrysostomi, S.
Jacobi, S. Marci, Divina; Missa; ; quibus accedit Ordo Mo-
zarabicus. In the original, in parallel columns. Very valuable.
Swainson (C. A.), The Greek Liturgies, chiefly from the
original authorities. Valuable as furnishing material for a
critical text and showing the approximate date of interpolations.
Robertson (J. N. W. B.), The Divine and Sacred Liturgies
of our Fathers among the Saints, John Chrysostom and Basil
the Great. In Greek and English, with all the rubrics, on op
posite pages of small size. This book, published in 1886, ap
pears to be displaced by the much larger —
Robertson (J. N. W. B.), The Divine Liturgies of our Fath
ers among the Saints, John Chrysostom and Basil the Great,
with that of the Pre-sanctified, preceded by the Hesperinos and
the Orthros (Vigil and Matin services). In Greek and Eng
lish, with all the rubrics, on opposite pages. Beautifully printed,
well translated, a thick but handy volume, and altogether the
most useful book for those who can have but one at hand.
(Published by David Nutt, London.)
The Leonine Sacramentary, edited by Feltoe, was published
at Cambridge in 1896 ; the Gelasian Sacramentary, edited by
Wilson, at Oxford in 1894 ; the Sarum Missal, at Burntisland,
in 1861.
The Henry Bradshaw Society has reprinted the Roman
Missal as it stands in the first known printed edition of 1474.
The Missal as now used can be readily obtained ; and a trans
lation of practically the whole work is in Lewis (George), The
Bible, the Missal, and the Breviary (1833). The Sarum Missal
has been translated by Dr. Harford Pearson (1884).
Maskell (William), The Ancient Liturgy of the Church of
England, according to the uses of Sarum, Bangor, York, and
Hereford, and the Modern Roman Liturgy, arranged in parallel
columns. In the original, with full notes. The second edition
(1846) is better than the first.
Scudamore (W. E.), Notitia Eucharistica. A very full and
learned commentary on the Communion Office, unfortunately out
of print. The second edition is more valuable than the first.

THE HOL Y COMMUNION— II. ZW
Bulley (Frederic), A Tabular View of the Variations in the
Communion and Baptismal Offices of the Church of England,
1549-1662, with the Scotch Prayer Book of 1637.
Skinner (John), The Office for the Sacrament of the Lord's
Supper, according to the use of the Episcopal Church in
Scotland. With dissertation, notes, and a collation of offices
drawn up by Bishop Horsley.
Dowden (Bishop John), An Historical Account of the
Scottish Communion Office and of the Communion Office of the
Church in the United States ; with liturgical notes and reprints.
A book of great learning, interesting and valuable.
Benson (Archbishop E. W.), Judgment in the case of Read
and others vs. the Lord Bishop of Lincoln, 1890. A learned in
vestigation of rubrics and usages in disputed matters.
Sprott (George W., Scottish Presbyterian), Scottish Liturgies
of the reign of James VI. Reference may be made also to the
same author's The Worship and Offices of the Church of
Scotland. Ffoulkes (E. S.), Primitive Consecration of the Eucharistic
Oblation. Also, the same author's article on the Eucharist in
the Dictionary of Christian Biography, etc. Of great learning.
Gummey (H. R.), The Consecration of the Eucharist. From
the point of view of the American Office.
Pullan (Leighton), The Christian Tradition (in Oxford
Library of Practical Theology). Chapter V, The Genius of
Western Liturgies. Valuable to the student.
Gore (Bishop Charles), The Body of Christ. Primarily
doctrinal, but with helpful liturgical application.
Stone (Darwell), The Holy Communion (in Oxford Library
of Practical Theology) . Chiefly doctrinal. See also the same
author's large work on the History of the Doctrine of the Holy
Eucharist, and his Outlines of Christian Dogma, Chapter XII.
Hedley (Bishop John C), The Holy Eucharist. A modern
Roman work, well worth reading, with special chapters on the
Liturgy and the Mass at the present day.

208 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Fortescue (Adrian), The Mass (1912). In the same series as
the last named work, called the Westminster Library ; it is a
great store of historical information.
Milligan (William, Scottish Presbyterian), The Ascension
and Heavenly Priesthood of our Lord. A work of great value
and interest. Lectures V and VI deal in part with the Eu
charist. Dale (R. W., English Congregationalist) , Essays and
Addresses. Lecture VII is on the Doctrine of the Real
Presence and of the Lord's Supper.
There are many other works, doctrinal, devotional, and con
troversial, which deal with the great subject of the Eucharist,
from a standpoint in part liturgical. It must suffice to have
pointed out those which seem to be of special value to a student
of our Prayer Book service.

IX.
THE MINISTRATION OF BAPTISM
Public Baptism of Infants
MUCH is said, and much implied, in the New
Testament as to the importance of Baptism
and as to its benefits and its obligations. But we
are told little as to the manner of its ministration,
except that it was with water, as was the Jewish
baptism of proselytes; and we read that our Lord
commanded that it be "into [or "in"] the Name of
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit";
making as He spoke a new revelation of the God
head. We learn also that its symbolism was that of
a burial with Christ by baptism into His death and
a resurrection with Him unto newness of life
(Romans vi. 3, 4); that it was looked upon as an act
of the Holy Spirit admitting to the Christian body
or Church (1 Cor. xii. 13), and that it was called a
'regeneration', that is a 'new birth', or (more accu
rately) a 'new begetting' (Titus iii. 5). We do not
find the Lord's baptismal formula repeated in the
Acts or the Epistles; the phrases in the Acts are "in
[eVj the Name of Jesus Christ" (ii. 3, x. 48), and
"into [ew] the Name of Jesus Christ" (viii. 16, xix. 3).
But in the last case, at Ephesus, we find St. Paul
expressing his surprise that persons could have
been baptized without hearing the name of the Holy
15

210 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Spirit ; and the fact that in the Didache (before the
year ioo) and in Justin Martyr (about the year 157)
we find the Lord's words as the form of minis
tration, and that they have continued to be used
throughout the Church, assures us that the ex
pressions in the Acts imply all that the Lord Jesus
Christ commanded.
There can be no doubt that baptism was ordinarily
either by immersion in water after the manner of a
bath or by pouring water over the body after the
manner of a burial ; ' the evidence of pictures in the
catacombs and elsewhere leads us to think that the
latter was more common. It would seem quite cer
tain that some confession of faith was required
from those who were baptized ; though the words in
Acts viii. 37, in which Philip requires of the Ethiopian
chamberlain that he declare his belief and he replies
by acknowledging his belief that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God, are not in the most ancient manuscripts,
yet they are an interpolation of an early date, being
quoted by Irenseus about the year 200, and testify to
a custom or requirement which has been and is uni
versal. 'Sealing' and 'anointing' are mentioned in
apparent connection with baptism — both terms in 2
Corinthians i. 21, 22, the former in Ephesians i. 13,
iv. 3, and the latter in 1 John ii. 20, 27; if the words
are not used quite figuratively, 'sealing' may refer to

1 Compare Horace, Odes, I. xxviii. 35, 36, where three casts of
earth make a formal burial, as is still the case with us.

THE MINISTRA TION OF BAPTISM 21 1
the use of the sign or seal of the Cross, and 'anoint
ing' to the use of oil or chrism, which we certainly
find in early times. The only person of whom we
expressly read as ministering baptism is Philip the
Deacon and Evangelist (Acts viii), on whom hands
had been laid by the Apostles for special service;
the laying-on of hands which followed baptism was
always the work of Apostles, as will be noted later.
As we pass from the New Testament to the
records of the early Church, we find that great care
was taken for the admission and preparation of
'catechumens' (that is, those who were receiving
instruction) as candidates for the Sacrament; but
that the administration of the Sacrament itself was
with very simple ceremonial, including little if any
thing more than was mentioned in the New Testa
ment. Into the details of the preparation this is not
the place to enter. It included renunciation of the
wicked one and his works, 'exorcism' or prayer for the
expulsion of evil spirits, examination in knowledge of
Christian truth, and finally the teaching of the Creed
and the Lord's Prayer, with the 'Effeta' or 'Ephpha-
tha' (St. Mark vii. 34), a ceremony which betokened
the opening of the ears and the lips to hear and to
confess the truth. This preparation was formally
ended, at Rome and doubtless elsewhere, on Easter-
even ; the Bishop then with great solemnity blessed
the water in the baptistery; the candidates were pre
sented and declared their faith by replying 'I believe'
to the three parts of an interrogative Creed; the

212 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Bishop and his attendant clergy immersed them, or
poured water over them as they stood in the font ;
they were anointed with chrism, and the Bishop laid
his hands on them with prayer for Confirmation and
signed them with the sign of the Cross. The Bishop
then passed to the service of the first Eucharist of
Easter-day. All this had to do with the baptism of adults, and
in fact most of those baptized in the earliest times
were adults; but the number of infants brought to
baptism must have soon exceeded the number of
older persons prepared as catechumens. The service,
however, continued in most respects as before; the
prayers and the questionings were not greatly modi
fied, except that, there being no real catechumenate,
the services of preparation and of administration
were condensed into one, and sponsors made the
replies on behalf of the children ; and presently the
ministration of the Sacrament, in the case of adults
restricted practically to the eve of Easter or Whit
sunday, was allowed on any Sunday or day of special
service, the water which had been blessed being
always ready for use in the font, but covered except
at the time of ministration. Further, in West
ern use, the Bishop being rarely present at a baptism,
confirmation was deferred, and that usually until
the infants had 'reached years of discretion' or be
came 'children'. There were some exceptions; the
Princess Elizabeth, afterward Queen, was both bap
tized and confirmed by Archbishop Cranmer when

THE MINISTRA TION OF BAPTISM 213
she was three days old. In the East, where Con
firmation is administered by priests, using chrism
blessed by the Bishop, infants are still confirmed and
comunicated immediately after their baptism.
By the time of the framing of the Sarum office,
which was in use in England until the Prayer Book
of 1549 was set forth, adult baptism had quite passed
out of use, and all the rubrics in the baptismal ser
vice spoke of infants. The priest met the child to
be baptized at the church door, asking whether it
had been baptized, and demanded its name. Then
followed the prayers and ceremonies for making
and instructing a catechumen, with the sign of
the Cross, prayers, exorcism, the Gospel from St.
Matthew (xix. 13 ff.) followed by 'Effeta', and the
Creed. The child was then brought into the church,
the questions as to renunciation and desire of bap
tism were put, and the child was thrice immersed,
anointed, clad in a white robe called a 'chrisom', "-
and given a lighted taper. The service was ended
with an exhortation to the sponsors.
For the Prayer Book of 1549, some of the minor
ceremonies were omitted, and an exhortation and
prayer from Archbishop Hermann were prefixed to
the part of the service said at the door. The Gospel
was taken from St. Mark (x. 13 ff.) instead of St.

'See the New Dictionary for the use of this word. A
1 chrisom child ' was a child who died soon after baptism, while
still wearing its baptismal robe ; but by a strange perversion,
the words came to mean a child who died unbaptized.

214 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Matthew — an excellent change — and followed by an
exhortation, the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, and
another prayer. The child was then brought into
the church, an address was made to the sponsors, and
the questions of renunciation, faith, and desire of
baptism were put. Then (at least once in a month)
newly-brought water was blessed, the child was bap
tized either by triple immersion or (if it were weak)
by 'affusion' (pouring), clad in a chrisom, and
anointed; and the service ended as before. In
1552, the service was brought into nearly its present
form. It was then ordered that all should be said at
the font, and the order of making a catechumen
become an introduction to the baptismal service.
The Lord's Prayer was deferred until after the bap
tism, and the Creed was not said except in the ques
tion as to belief. The four short Mozarabic peti
tions, beginning 'O merciful God', and a following
prayer were inserted from the Benediction of the
Font, and a short exhortation and the prayer after
the baptism with explicit declaration of the regener
ation of the child were also added. In place of the
giving of the chrisom and the unction, the ceremony
of signing with the Cross, omitted at the beginning
of the service, was put in its present most suitable
place. In 1662, besides some changes in the rubrics,
a question as to obedience was added, and provision
was made for the benediction of the water on every
occasion of baptism.
The Baptismal Service in our Prayer Book is prac-

THE MINISTRATION OF BAPTISM 215
tically the same as that which has stood in the Eng
lish Book since 1662. A few rubrical changes were
made for our Book of 1790, one of which allows
parents to be admitted as sponsors ; the two prayers
at the beginning were made alternative; instead of
the Creed in an interrogative form was placed the
question, "Dost thou believe all the Articles of the
Christian Faith, as contained in the Apostles'
Creed?"; 'by God's help' was added to the reply to
the last question ; and the permission to pour water
on the child instead of dipping it in the water was
left absolute, without any limitation to the case of
weakness. Permission was also given to omit the
Gospel and all that follows to the Questions, provided
that all be read once in a month if there be a bap
tism, and also to omit, at the desire of those who
bring the child, the signing with the Cross and the
form of words accompanying it, with the statement,
however, that "the Church knoweth no worthy cause
of scruple touching the same."
Thus our service contains a 'survival' of the old
office for the admission of a catechumen, a form for
the Benediction of the Font (or, to speak more
accurately, of the Water), and a Baptismal Office
proper, with two exhortations addressed to the con
gregation and two addressed to the sponsors. Its
outline is ancient : part of the prayers, as the second
at the beginning, 'Almighty and immortal God', and
(in part at least) the prayer of benediction, with the

216 , THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER
suggestion of the exhortation at the end, are from the
Sarum use; the four short prayers preceding that last
mentioned, 'O merciful God', are from the ancient
Spanish use, known as 'Mozarabic' ; and the two be
ginning 'Almighty and everlasting God' are from
Hermann's project of reform, called the 'Consulta
tion', to which also are due in great part the exhor
tations before the baptism. It is full of meaning and
deserves careful study, and might well serve the pur
poses of extended instruction.
A few words may be added as to some of the
rubrics and as to certain phases in the service.
Attention should be called to the provision, in the
next to the last rubric at the end of the service for
Adult Baptism, for changing the word 'Infant' to
'Child' or 'Person' when the candidate is no longer
an 'infant' and yet has not come to such age as to
answer for himself. The lawyers call a person an
'infant' until he is 'of age' ; the ecclesiastical writers
call those between seven and fourteen years of age
'children', and consider them of the right age for Con
firmation; probably in the service the word 'infant'
may be best kept for 'babes in arms'. If the child can
not well be taken into the minister's hands (as the
rubric says), he should stand or kneel at the side of
the font, the minister with his left hand holding the
child by the hand or touching him on the shoulder,
both for the reassurance of the child and as a symbol
of admission into the brotherhood of the Church.

THE MINISTRA TION OF BAPTISM 217
It is greatly to be desired that baptism should be
administered, when it is any way possible, in the
face of -the Church and during Divine Service, as the
rubric directs, that the congregation may unite in
the admission of a new member and bear witness to
it and say the Creed with him or his representatives
after the service is ended, and that at the same time,
as the English Book says, "every man present may be
put in remembrance of his own profession made to
God in his Baptism."
The water, as has been noted, is to be placed in
the font expressly for each ministration, and may
well be poured in by the minister as he is about
to begin the service.
In the opening question, as in the questions ad
dressed to the sponsors, the nouns and pronouns are
not to be put in the plural, however many there are
to be baptized ; the question is asked as for each one,
or is put to each one, severally: 'Hath this child—?'
'Dost thou, in the name of this child — ?'
In the first prayer, there seems to be little doubt
that 'by water' is to be connected with 'perishing'
and not with 'didst save', though the latter might
seem to be required by I Peter iii. 21 ; the water
which saved those in the ark saved them from the
danger itself brought. The second and more ancient
prayer is valuable for its sound theological teaching,
'may receive remission of sin by spiritual regenera
tion', 'may enjoy the everlasting benediction of thy
heavenly washing', and has a special appropriateness

218 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
at Easter- tide, speaking as it does of God as 'the
resurrection of the dead'.
The word 'allow' in the exhortation after the
Gospel is used in its old sense of 'commend',
'approve'; it is the French 'allouer', the Latin
'allaudare'. The word has this meaning in the
authorized version of St. Luke xi. 48, where it trans
lates o-vvevSoKelre, and in other passages.
The prayer after "give thanks unto him and say' is
to be repeated by the congregation with the minis
ter, as is shown by the capital letters at the begin
ning of the several clauses.
The minister's holding the child or holding the
hand of the adult (as we shall see in the later service)
is not a matter of small importance; it signifies an
actual reception of the candidate by Christ's author
ized representative, and is especially significant in
the case of children who are thus received from the
parents and given back to them to be cared for and
brought up as children of God.
When more children than one are to be baptized,
the oldest should be taken first, yet so that the chil
dren of one family should be taken together. There
was an old idea, with some superstitious notion, that
boys should be baptized before girls.
If the Baptismal Office is said as a separate service,
the minister may well add at the end the Thanks
giving from the Churching Office (if the mother con
sents), the Collect for Easter-even, and a blessing.
Care should be taken that the water which remains

THE MINISTRA TION OF BAPTISM 219
in the font be reverently removed and poured out in
a clean place. Private Baptism of Children
The circumstances and manners of these times
make it impossible for us to assume that the normal
time for the baptism of children is within the ten
days or two weeks after the birth, as is implied in
the first rubric. But the principle of early baptism
emphasized in the rubric, and that of the desirability
of baptism in church on which the second rubric lays
stress, are both of great importance.
The form of service required, namely the Lord's
Prayer with one or more Collects from the service of
Public Baptism, the naming of the child, the actual
ministration of the Sacrament, and the Thanksgiving
with the prayer which it contains, shows what the
Church considers absolutely necessary for the bap
tism of a child." The prayer for the blessing of the
water should certainly be said before the baptism ; and
at the end the prayer for a sick child may be added.
Apparently by some misunderstanding, the Thanks
giving is not shortened in our Book as it is in the
English by omitting the words, 'he, being dead unto
sin ... . and that', so that it seems to assume
that the child is healthy and well and likely to live to
mature years.

3 It is interesting to note that the Lord's Prayer here, as
below in the service for the reception of a child privately bap
tized into the Church, stands in its ancient place.

220 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
The service for receiving into the Church a child
baptized in private calls for no special note. Its pur
pose is twofold : first, to certify the assembled con
gregation of the baptism, and withal to make public
declaration of the child's place in the Church; and
secondly, to secure the promises of sponsors in its
behalf, and therewith to give them a solemn exhor
tation to their duty.
We need, however, to ask what is meant by the
words 'lawful minister' in two of the rubrics. The
Prayer Books of 1549, 1552, and 1559 said nothing as
to the presence of a minister; their rubric before the
words of administration read thus: "First, let them
that be present call upon God for his grace, and say
the Lord's Prayer, if the time will suffer; and then
one of them shall name the child, and dip him in the
water, or pour water upon him, saying these words,
N. I baptize thee", .... etc.; and after the form
of words the rubric went on, as at present: "And
let them not doubt but that the child so baptized is
lawfully and sufficiently baptized, and ought not to
be baptized again in the church." And later on
there was no question as to whether the person bap
tizing was a minister or not. But in 1604 the
requirement of a 'lawful minister' was twice in
serted, and it still remains in the English Book and
from it has passed over to our own. An attempt to
require all private baptism "to be ministered by a
lawful minister or deacon" had been made in Con-

THE MINISTRA TION OF BA P TISM 22 1
vocation in 1575, but Queen Elizabeth would not
sanction it. But at the Hampton Court Conference
(1604), King James expressed his decided opinion on
the other side of the question: "That any but a law
ful minister might baptize anywhere, he utterly dis
liked; and in this point his Highness grew some
what earnest against the baptizing by women and
laics." The Bishops agreed with the King; and the
Puritan party, rather strangely, was also very strong
on the necessity of an ordained minister for baptism;
so that the new form of the rubric was adopted, as it
would seem, by general consent. The statement
that "from this time Lay Baptism was distinctly
discountenanced by the Church of England" is indis
putably true, as far as the Prayer Book and official
formularies are concerned; yet it must in fairness
be noted that in the next to the last rubric at the end
of this service, dating in this part from 1662,
Water and the Lord's Words are declared to be 'es
sential' — though not 'the essential' — 'parts of bap
tism' ; which may possibly imply that though lay-
baptism had not the sanction of the Church, yet it is
to be reckoned as sufficient, according to the legal
maxim, 'fieri non debuit, factum valet.' The theo
logical question as to Lay Baptism is beyond the
limits of this book. It may be well to note that Bap
tism with the form beginning 'If thou art not already
baptized' is called. hypothetical.
In carrying out the instructions in the last rubric
as to a combination of services, it would appear that

222 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
the certification as to the child already baptized
should be first made; that then the question: "Hath
this child been already baptized, or no?" should be
asked as to the others ; that the service should then
proceed as in public Baptism ; that the sponsors for
the baptized child should remember that the ques
tion "Wilt thou be baptized in this faith?" is not ad
dressed to them ; and that the baptized child should
be publicly received into the Church with the sign of
the Cross before the others are baptized.
Baptism of Those of Riper Years
We have seen that in the early Church the baptism
of adults gave way to the baptism of infants, the ser
vice being but gradually changed. Then for centuries,
all the nations of the civilized world having become
Christians and all Christians recognizing it a duty
to bring their children to baptism in their infancy,
there was no need of any service for the baptism of
such as were able to answer for themselves. The
English Prayer Book had no office for adult baptism
until its last revision, which it will be remembered
went into use two years after the close of the Com
monwealth and the restoration of the Monarchy.
Two very different things united to make it neces
sary to provide this new service. In the first place,
during the fifteen years in which the use of the
Prayer Book had been forbidden by law and other
years in which it had been largely neglected, the
influence of the Anabaptists and such like sects had

THE MINISTRATION OF BAPTISM 223,
been so great that a considerable part of a whole
generation had grown up unbaptized ; in the second
place, the discovery of America and the beginning of
colonization on the American coast (Jamestown had
been settled fifty-five years) had led to the conversion
of some of the natives and to the hope that many
more would be converted and brought to baptism.
And thus the Preface to the English Book of 1662
speaks of this office as one "which, although not so
necessary when the former book was compiled, yet
by the growth of Anabaptism, through the licen
tiousness of the late times crept in amongst us, is
now become necessary, and may be always useful for
the baptizing of natives in our plantations, and
others converted to the Faith."
The service follows closely the lines, and for the
most part of the words, of that for the Baptism of In
fants. A different passage is of necessity chosen
for the Gospel, the exhortation following being largely
made up of passages from the New Testament bear
ing on the same subject. The opening rubric lays
stress on the proper preparation of the candidates,
and solemn exhortations are addressed to them. At
the time of administration the minister is to "take
the candidate by the right hand and place him con
veniently by the Font according to his discretion."
He should transfer the person's hand to his own left
hand, thus holding it while with his own right hand
he pours the water; and the candidate should kneel
for both the baptism and the signing with the

224 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Cross In case of baptism by immersion, either in
a baptistery or in living (that is, running) water, the
candidate should kneel in the water and the minister
should bow the head forward at the recital of the
words of administration, until the body is quite cov
ered ; it is best to lay one hand upon the forehead
and one upon the upper part of the back, and thus to
be able to bend the body forward and to lift it up
without discomfort or inconvenience.
The student will note that the pronouns and nouns
referring to the candidates are in this office in the
plural, as normally adults are baptized at stated
times and in comparatively large numbers; while in
fants are normally baptized separately, and therefore
the pronouns and nouns relating to them are in the
singular. The second, third, and fifth rubrics at the end of
the service are peculiar to our American Book ; the
last sentence of the second and the whole of the fifth
were added at the revision of 1892. The provision
for shortening the service shows that the Church
considers it necessary to require in the case of an
adult the profession of repentance and faith and
obedience and the desire for baptism, with prayer
including the petition for the blessing of the water,
before the administration, and the Lord's Prayer
with thanksgiving after it.
The combination of Infant and Adult Baptism, as
provided for in the third rubric, is very awkward,
even when, as in most clergymen's handbooks or

THE MINISTRA TION OF BAPTISM 225
Books of Offices, the parts are printed in the order
in which they are to be used; it is far better, if
possible, to use the two separately.
The permission of hypothetical baptism extends
to adults what has been already provided in the case
of infants. The minister must decide as to the
reasonableness of the doubt; but it would seem
that serious doubt as to whether the former min
ister had been lawfully ordained and had thus
authority to baptize, could hardly be called un
reasonable. The question may be asked whether in our Church
it is lawful for a deacon to administer baptism to
adults, inasmuch as in the Ordering of Deacons it is
said to be a part of a deacon's office "in the absence
of the Priest to baptize infants, and to preach, if he
be admitted thereto by the Bishop." Until 1662, it
read "to baptize and to preach if he be admitted
thereto by the Bishop." It is certainly noticeable
that the limiting word 'infants' was inserted at the
time when a form for the baptism of adults was pro
vided. But at the same time the words 'in the
absence of the Priest' were inserted; and it would
appear that the case in mind — probably the only case
in England — was that of a deacon serving under a
priest ; if the priest were absent, he might baptize
infants, but for the baptism of adults they must
wait until the priest returned. If a deacon is in
"quasi sole charge", it would seem that the Bishop's
licence practically covers full right to baptize.
16

226 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Doubtless adult baptism, as a great act of remitting
sins, is a priestly act, and if possible a priest should
be responsible for every adult baptism ; but the act
ual administration may be demitted to one in Holy
Orders of a lower rank. And we know from the
example of St. Philip that it is not contrary to God's
Word or to the practice of apostolic times for a
deacon to baptize adults.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Works on the whole Prayer Book, already noted.
Marriott (W. B.), Article on Baptism, in Dictionary of Chris
tian Antiquities. A full study, coming down to the year 800.
Other articles in Dictionaries and Encyclopaedias.
Fallow (T. M.), The Order of Baptism, illustrated from
Hermann's Consultation, etc.
Rogers (C. F.), Baptism and Christian Archaeology. Illus
trated from ancient pictures.
Stone (Darwell), Holy Baptism (in Oxford Library of Prac
tical Theology) .
Maskell (William), Holy Baptism.
Mozley (J. B.), The Primitive Doctrine of Baptismal Re
generation ; also, A Review of the Baptismal Controversy.

X.
THE CATECHISM
THE Catechism is the form of Instruction which
the Church provides "to be learned by every
person before he be brought to be confirmed by
the Bishop." The word has a Greek form, as
tcarrixurfios from the verb Karv^im, in Roman letters
'kat-echeo', to 'echo-down', to 're-sound', almost 'to
din in one's ears by repeating', and then 'to instruct
orally'. The verb occurs in the New Testament in
the Prologue to St. Luke's Gospel (i. 4) of the in
struction which a convert, Theophilus, had received
in the fundamentals of the Christian faith ; in Acts
xviii. 25, of like instruction which Apollos had re
ceived; in Acts xix. 21, 24, of an oft-repeated charge
made against St. Paul; in Galatians vi. 6, of instruc
tion in the faith; in Romans ii. 18, of like instruc
tion in the Jewish law ; and in 1 Corinthians xiv. 19,
of the instruction given by a Christian teacher.
There were Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of
Jerusalem, as we have already seen, about the year
350, and St. Augustine wrote a treatise on Catechis
ing about 400; the fame of the Catechetical School
at Alexandria is world-wide. And there was doubt
less catechizing in England before the verb came
into use about 1450 and the noun 'catechism' a little
after 1500. In Henry VIII's reign, the curates

228 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
(that is, clergymen having cure of souls) were
charged, "that ye shall, every Sunday and Holy-day
throughout the year, openly and plainly recite to
your parishoners, twice or thrice together, if need
require, one particle or sentence of the Paternoster
or Creed in English, to the intent that they may
learn the same by heart ; and so from day to day to
give to them one little lesson or sentence of the
same, till they have learned the whole Paternoster
and Creed in English by rote. . . And that done, ye
shall declare unto them the Ten Commandments,
one by one, every Sunday and Holy-day till they be
likewise perfect in the same." When Edward VI
came to the throne, one of the first things that de
manded the attention of his advisers was the diligent
instruction of the people, and especially the young,
in the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Command
ments, and expounding and declaring the understand
ing of the same. And when the Prayer Book was
set forth in English, a brief catechism was prefixed
to, or rather incorporated in, the Order of Confirma
tion, that the Bishop, or such as he should appoint,
might at his discretion 'appose' the candidates in
it. It differed but in few words, except that some
of the Commandments were abbreviated, from that
which stands in our Prayer Book, as far as to the
end of the long answer explanatory of the meaning of
the Lord's Prayer.
It was in reality a 'short catechism', shorter than
others prepared about the same time, and much

THE CA TECHISM 229
shorter than the 'Shorter Catechism' of the West
minster Assembly set forth in 1647. And it is the
only part of the Prayer Book which had not a Latin
original. It is one of the most remarkable produc
tions of a remarkable time; good Izaak Walton calls
it "that good, plain, unperplext Catechism, that is
printed with the old Service Book"; and the late
Archbishop Benson said, "I believe that there has
never been in the hands of any Church any manual
representing the doctrines, the true spirit, of the
Bible, to compare with the Catechism of the
Church of England."
We cannot absolutely determine who was its
author; but tradition points to Alexander Nowell,
who was in 1549 a master in Westminster School, a
man of mature years and good learning. Two years
later he was made a prebendary of St. Paul's, and in
1560 he was advanced to be Dean of that Cathedral.
He wrote in Queen Elizabeth's day a long catechism,
in both Latin and English; and some parts of the
addition to the Prayer Book Catechism on the sub
ject of the Sacraments, made in 1604, can be traced
back to this. But the author of this addition is be
lieved to have been John Overall, at that time Dean
of St. Paul's, and afterwards Bishop of Coventry
and Lichfield and of Norwich.
Some few years ago the Lower House of the Con
vocation of Canterbury, after a good deal of discus
sion, prepared an addition to the Catechism of twelve
questions and answers on the Church (see note

230 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
below) ; it was not adopted by the Upper House, the
Bishops holding that action relating to the definition
of doctrine should have originated with themselves,
but it is worthy of being better known and might
well be used in some places.
Few changes were made in the Catechism when
the American Prayer Book was set forth; the only
one deserving note is the substitution of 'spiritually'
for 'verily and indeed' in the answer as to the inward
part or thing signified in the Lord's Supper.
The rubrics of 1549 required that the curate of
every parish, 'once in six weeks at least, upon warn
ing by him given', should 'upon some Sunday or
Holy-day, half an hour before evensong, openly in the
church instruct and examine' the children sent unto
him in some part of the Catechism. In 1552 it was
ordered to be done 'diligently upon Sundays and
Holy-days, half an hour before evensong' ; in 1662 the
time was changed and the catechising was appointed
to be openly in the 'church' 'upon Sundays and Holy-
days, after the Second Lesson at Evening Prayer'.
Our rubric still directs that the minister's instruc
tion and examination of children of his parish in the
Catechism shall be 'openly in the church' ; it is evi
dently something additional to what is ordinarily
understood by the work of the Sunday School.
The second rubric lays a duty on fathers and
mothers. There are no longer 'servants and appren
tices' whom their "masters and mistresses' can send
to church 'to hear and be ordered by the minister'.

THE CATECHISM 231
The third and fourth rubric have to do with the
Confirmation Service which follows.'
It is not at all easy to say what is the meaning of
'M.' in the 'N. or M.' which is given as the answer
to the first question in the Catechism. The usual
explanation is that 'M.' is for 'NN.' and that 'N. or
M.' means 'Name or Names'. But when the Cate
chism was written very few persons, if any, had
more than one baptismal name; and in fact the use
of 'middle names' was very infrequent until well into
the nineteenth century, as will be evident if one will
think of the names of the signers of the Declaration
of Independence or of men prominent in the early
history of the Republic. Bishop Charles Words
worth thought that 'N.' was meant for boys and 'M.'
for girls, and that the letters stand for the typical
names of Nicholas and Mary. The fact that in tht
Marriage Service 'M.' is used for the bridegroom
and 'N.' for the bride is no objection to this; for
in the old Books 'N.' is used for both, and it is still
the correct reading for both in the English Book.
Our Book has 'M.' for the bridegroom by "corrupt
following" of a false reading.

4 It may be noted as a matter of curiosity, that our Catechism
was printed in a Latin version, with the quantity of vowels
marked and the rules of prosody prefixed, in Philadelphia, by
Lydia R. Bailey ; what seems to be the second edition bears the
date of 1820.

232 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON THE CHURCH
An Addition to the Catechism,
as Agreed to by the Lower House of the
Convocation of Canterbury
Q. What meanest thou by the Church ?
A. I mean the Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head, and
of which I was made a member in my Baptism.
Q. How is the Church described in the Creeds ?
A. It is described-as One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.
Q. What meanest thou by each of these words ?
A. I mean that the Church is One, as being One Body under
the One Head ; Holy, because the Holy Spirit dwells in it, and
sanctifies its members ; Catholic, because it is for all nations
and for all times; and Apostolic, because it continues sted-
fastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship.
Q. We learn from the Holy Scripture that in the Church the
evil are mingled with the good. Will it always be so ?
A. No ; when our Lord comes again He will cast the evil
out of His Kingdom; will make His faithful servants perfect
both in body and soul ; and will present His whole Church to
Himself without spot and blameless.
Q. What is the office and work of the Church on earth ?
A. The office and work of the Church on earth is to main
tain and teach everywhere the true faith of Christ, and to be
His instrument for conveying grace to men, by the power of
the Holy Ghost.
Q. How did our Lord provide for the government and con
tinuance of the Church?
A. He gave authority to His Apostles to rule the Church, to
minister His Word and Sacraments, and to ordain faithful men
for the continuance of this ministry until His coming again.

THE CA TECH ISM 233
Q. What orders of ministers have there been in the Church
from the Apostles' time ?
A. Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.
Q. What is the office of a Bishop ?
A. The office of a Bishop is to be a chief pastor and
ruler of the Church ; to confer Holy Orders ; to administer
Confirmation ; and to take chief part in the ministry of the
Word and Sacraments.
Q. What is the office of a Priest ?
A. The office of a Priest is to preach the Word of God ; to
baptize ; to celebrate the Holy Communion ; to pronounce
Absolution and Blessing in God's Name ; and to feed the flock
committed by the Bishop to his charge.
Q. What is the office of a Deacon ?
A. The office of a Deacon is to assist the Priest in divine
service, and especially at the Holy Communion ; to baptize in
fants in the absence of the Priest ; to catechise ; to preach, if
authorized by the Bishop ; and to search for the sick and the
poor. Q. What is required of members of the Church ?
A. To endeavour, by God's help, to fulfil their baptismal
vows ; to make full use of the means of grace ; to remain sted
fast in the communion of the Church ; and to forward the work
of the Church at home and abroad.
Q. Why is it our duty to belong to the Church of England ?
A. Because the Church of England has inherited and re
tains the doctrine and ministry of the One Catholic and Apos
tolic Church, and is that part of the Church which has been
settled from early times in our country.

234 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER

NOTE ON THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
IN ENGLISH
The version of the Ten Commandmen'ts in the Catechism,
since 1552 the same as that at the beginning of the Commun
ion Service (except in the Preface), is not taken from any
translation of the Bible, but was made for the Prayer Book.
In 1549 there was no Preface ('I am the Lord thy God', etc.),
and all the longer Commandments were given in an abbre
viated form, the fourth, for instance, being only 'Remember
that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.' In 1552, the words 'The
same which God spake in the xx. chapter of Exodus saying ',
with the full Preface, were prefixed, and ' I.' was placed before
the first Commandment; while in the Communion Service an
abbreviated form of the introductory words was given as a
part of the first Commandment, and thus it stands to this day ;
' God spake these words, and said : I am the Lord thy God ;
thou shalt have none other gods but me.' The Catechism's
division of the Commandments was also, it is believed, some
thing new in English. The Roman Catholics and the Luther
ans, following St. Augustine, place the Preface apart, make the
prohibition of other gods and of idols the first Commandment,
that of taking the Lord's name in vain the second, and so on,
dividing at last what we call the tenth Commandment into two ;
only the Roman Catholics make the prohibition of coveting
one's neighbour's wife, and the Lutherans that of coveting
his house, the ninth Commandment. The present Hebrew
Bibles make the Preface with our first and second Command
ments the first 'Word' — for in the original they are literally
God's 'Words ', not ' Commandments ' — and then follow the
scheme just mentioned, Deuteronomy placing the wife apart
and Exodus the house. The Jewish Talmud makes the Preface
the first ' Word ', puts our first and second Commandments to
gether for the second, and then has the numbering which we
follow. The order of the Catechism, which places the Preface
by itself, and makes the prohibition of other gods the first
Commandment, is that of the Greek Church and of the Swiss
Reformers, and is believed to be that of the ancient Jewish au-

THE CATECHISM 236
thorities. It is well to note how here, as elsewhere, our re
formers passed over the traditional Latin form or use in which
they had been instructed and reverted to the Greek as signify
ing the older learning. BIBLIOGRAPHY
White (Bishop William), Lectures on the Catechism of the
Protestant Episcopal Church.
Wordsworth (Bishop Charles), Catechesis.
Robinson (Arthur W.), The Church Catechism Explained.
An excellent handbook.
Newbolt (W. C. E.), The Church Catechism^ the Christian's
Manual (in Oxford Library of Practical Theology). A full
devotional and practical exposition.
Ken (Bishop Thomas), The Practice of Divine Love, being
an Exposition of the Church Catechism. Devotional, in the
form of prayers.
In Marshall's (C. and W. W.) volume on the Latin Prayer
Book of Charles II, is a reprint and translation of the Catechism
therein contained, with full notes.

XI.
THE ORDER OF CONFIRMATION
CONFIRMATION, or the laying-on of the
hands of Apostles or Bishops (or in some cases
of men authorized by them) upon those who have
been baptized, with the prayer that they may
receive the Holy Spirit, has been observed in the
Church from the very earliest times, although it has
been, as one has said, with "almost every possible
variety of practice, belief, and even terminology."
Very soon after the Church had begun its work, St.
Peter and St. John were sent from Jerusalem to lay
hands on those whom Philip the Deacon had baptized
at Samaria; and those on whom they laid hands
received the Holy Spirit (irvevpa ay tov, Acts viii. 14-
19). Some years later, St. Paul laid hands on some
who had just been baptized at Ephesus, and the
Holy Spirit {to irvevfia to ayiov, Acts xix. 1-6) came
upon them. It does not seem unreasonable, in the
light of these passages, in which there is no sugges
tion of anything unusual, but rather the reverse, to
suggest that when St. Paul went through Syria and
Cilicia (Acts xv. 41) or through the Galatian country
and Phrygia (xviii. 23) 'strengthening' the churches
and all the disciples, one purpose was that he might
lay hands on those who had 'only been baptized' ;
although to translate o-rnpitfov in these passages by

THE ORDER OF CONFIRMATION 237
'confirming' in our sense of the word would not be
justified. And again, when he writes to the Romans
(i. 1 1) that he is longing to come to them that he may
impart to them 'some spiritual gift' that they may be
'strengthened' (iva n p,eTaSa> j(dpiap,a vp.lv irvevpaTt-
kov ew to arr)pij(9rivai vpai), it is not unreason
able to think that he had in mind that at Rome,
where no Apostle had been as yet, the baptized con
verts had not received the benefit of laying-on of
hands. At a considerably later day, the author of
the Epistle to the Hebrews names as a part of the
'foundation' or 'the word of the beginning', and in
close connection wirh 'baptisms', 'laying-on of
hands', as something which belongs to all Christian
men at the beginning of their discipleship.
Something has been said (see page 210) as to the
use of the words 'unction' and 'seal' in possible con
nection with baptism ; it may well be that they refer
rather to the laying-on of hands than to the pouring
of water, to the latter rather than to the earlier part
of what was then considered as normally one rite.
Thus we can well read 2 Corinthians i. 21, 22: "He
who is making us firm (o fUefiaiGiv) .... and did
anoint us is God, who also did set a seal on us and
give us the earnest of the Spirit" ; and Ephesians i.
13: "When ye also became believers in him, ye were
sealed by the Holy Spirit of his promise, who is an
earnest of our inheritance." In fact, when we see
how strongly the post-apostolic Christian writers
spoke of the gift of the Spirit through the laying-on

238 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
of hands, and feel sure that they learned of its im
portance more or less directly from the Apostles, we
are justified in applying many such passages to the
gifts bestowed by the sacramental ordinance which
we call Confirmation. From the time of Tertullian
(about 200) there is no lack of evidence as to the
Church's belief and practice in the matter.
The Latin confirmatio translates the Greek
fiefiaUoavi, and in the Apostolic Constitutions of
the fourth century the laying-on of hands is called
/Se/Satowt? t?}? 6p,oXoyla<s, 'the confirming of the con
fession', meaning God's confirming of our confes
sion; and confirmatio has long been the name
which this ordinance has borne in the West. The
English word 'confirmation' (in this sense) is traced
back to the beginning of the fourteenth century ; an
old formula of that time reads: "The bisschop
these wordes seth, Ich signi thee with signe of crosse,
And with the creme of hele [the chrism of health, that
is salvation] confermi." If we remember that 'com
fort' is literally almost the same word as 'confirm',
we shall see that to our forefathers 'the Holy Ghost
the Comforter' would often suggest 'the Holy Ghost
the Confirmer', and the reverse.
As was the case with Baptism, so also in Con
firmation, the service was originally very simple,
having in it little if anything more than prayer and
the laying-on of hands; and in contrast with Bap
tism, the ceremonies attendant on Confirmation have
remained few and simple. The service in the Prayer

THE ORDER OF CONFIRMATION 239
Book of 1549 closely followed the lines of the Latin
form then in use, with the important exception that
the laying-on of the Bishop's hand was expressly
provided for and that he was not instructed to use
chrism in making the sign of the Cross. The service
began with "Our help is in the name of the Lord",
along with the other versicles which we retain ; then
followed the ancient prayer for the seven-fold gifts of
the Spirit (it dates back at least to the beginning of
the eighth century), followed by this, with allusion
to 'sealing' and 'anointing': "Sign them, O Lord,
and mark them to be thine for ever, by the virtue of
thy holy cross and passion. Confirm and strengthen
them with the inward unction of thy Holy Ghost,
mercifully unto everlasting life. ' ' The Bishop then
made a Cross on the child's forehead and laid his
hand on the head, giving the child's name and say
ing, "I sign thee with the sign of the Cross and lay
my hand upon thee; in the Name", — etc. Then
followed the prayer for the confirmed still in use,
taken from a long prayer of Archbishop Hermann,
and the blessing. It is quite evident that in this
case, as in others, Archbishop Cranmer and the
others were looking back to the New Testament and
providing carefully that there should be no doubt
that the essential act of the service should be that on
which the inspired writers laid stress. Probably the
Roman Bishops in making with their thumbs the
sign of the Cross with chrism on the foreheads of
the candidates kneeling before them, did lay on the

240 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
hand, as it is said that some if not most of them do
to-day, though the rubric in most places does not
require it; but it was unscriptural to frame a service
for Confirmation with no mention of the laying-on of
the Bishop's hand. It was left for the American
Church in the Book of 1790 to make another change
for complete conformity to the Scripture, and direct
the Bishop to lay his 'hands' upon every candidate
severally. The plural is always used in the New
Testament. In 1552, the sign of the Cross and all reference to
it was omitted, and the present prayer at the laying-
on of the hand or of hands, 'Defend, O Lord', was
provided. 'Defender' comes near to a translation
from trapdnknTcn, in English 'Paraclete', a title of
the Holy Spirit, which following Wycliffe we gen
erally translate by 'Comforter' in the sense of
'Strengthener', but the word 'defend' is not ordina
rily used in that sense; and few of us remember
that God's 'heavenly grace' means His Holy Spirit.
In 1662, the Preface, which had been before that
time a rubric, was made part of the service, and the
ratification of the baptismal vows was introduced.
The use of 'confirm' in both the Preface and the
question has led many to think that this 'confirma
tion' is that which gives name to the service — a
mistake which needs to be carefully corrected in the
minds of candidates who are brought, or are coming,
"to the Bishop to be confirmed by him." The Lord's
Prayer and the Collect before the Blessing were also

THE ORDER OF CONFIRMATION 241
inserted at that time. The American Church, in the
Book of 1892, made the reading of the Preface dis
cretionary, introduced a presentation of the candi
dates, and also provided, but for discretionary use, a
Lesson from Acts viii.
The venerable Prayer of Confirmation, in its refer
ence to the regeneration and forgiveness of the can
didates — words which must refer to the time of their
baptism — shows that it was composed when confirma
tion followed close upon the sacrament of baptism.
Of the seven gifts of the Spirit, six are mentioned
in the Hebrew and the English of Isaiah xi. 2, and
all seven in the ancient Greek translation known as
the Septuagint; there is good reason for believing
that all were originally in the Hebrew text. The
first two are intellectual gifts, the second two are
moral, the third two are devotional; the last is the
key-stone which binds all together in the life.
In the Roman use, in which confirmation is ad
ministered by Bishops and sometimes by abbots or
priests with special licence, the officiant says the
ancient prayer while he holds his arms outstretched
over the candidates ; he then signs each on the fore
head with chrism, generally at the same time (as has
been said above) laying his hand upon the head ; and
then gives each a light touch or blow on the cheek,
reminding him to bear patiently the reproach of
Christ; the confirmation of infants is not practised.
In the Eastern use, the priest who baptizes an infant
immediately anoints him with chrism blessed by the
17

242 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Bishop, and this is considered a sufficient laying-on
of hands; here the confirmation of adults is un
known. A form of confirmation is also retained by
the Lutherans and others.
One of the rubrics at the end of the service
reminds us that those confirmed should be urgently
moved to avail themselves without delay of their
privilege of receiving the Lord's Supper. In this
connection it may be well to refer to the strange
custom in the Church of Rome that children should
receive their first communion before confirmation;
and to call attention to a letter of the late Pope
addressed to the Bishop of Marseilles in 1897,
declaring that this custom is "not in accordance,
either with the ancient and constant institution
of the Church or with the good of the faithful", and
commending the Bishop for changing it.1
The form of the other rubric in 1549 was, "And
there shall none be admitted to the Holy Communion,
until such time as he be confirmed"; from 1552 to
1662 it read, "And there shall none be admitted to
the Holy Communion, until such time as he can
say the Catechism and be confirmed." In 1662, it
was put into the form which it has now in both the
English Book and our own: "And there shall none be
admitted to the Holy Communion until such time as
he be confirmed, or be ready and desirous to be con
firmed." These last words were inserted, without

1 Quoted by Bishop Hall, ' Confirmation', pp. 94, 95.

THE ORDER OF CONFIRM A TION 243
doubt, at the time of the Restoration, in conse
quence of the suspension of the use of the Prayer
Book for fifteen years, to allow the reception of the
Holy Communion by those whd~*coud not be con
firmed until a general visitation by the Bishops for
that purpose should be held ; they also served for the
case of Churchmen in these colonies, who were left
by the Church of England for a hundred and seventy
years without the ministration of Bishops. The
general meaning of the rubric is clear. It is not so
clear whether it was intended to apply to the case of
what was called in England 'occasional conformity',
that is to say, the case of habitual non-conformists
communicating occasionally in the established
Church ; historically, it is certain that it has not been
always so applied. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hall (Bishop A. C. A.), Confirmation (in Oxford Library of
Practical Theology).
Mason (A. J.), The Relation of Confirmation to Baptism. A
book of great learning.
Wirgman (A. T.),The Doctrine of Confirmation considered
in relation to Holy Baptism. Written in reply to Dr. Mason's
book. Chase (Bishop F. H.), Confirmation in the Apostolic Age.

XII.
THE SOLEMNIZATION OF MATRIMONY
WE learn nothing from the New Testament as
to any distinctively Christian form or cere
mony in Marriage. The ordinance was not of Chris
tian origin, and its essence was recognized as con
sisting in the consent of the parties, under such
restrictions as were placed by the law of nature or
by laws and customs of the place in which they
lived. It appears that Christians in different parts
of the world were married as others were, only being
careful to use no idolatrous or unworthy ceremonies,
and to ask for the blessing of the Bishop or priest.
As far back as we are able to trace marriage cus
toms, we find that those of the Greeks and Romans
differed in principle from those of the Hebrews,
with which latter those of the Germans were partly
in accord. The theory of the former — the fact in
early days — was that the man stole the woman from
her father's house and took with her what else he
could get; in classic times the bride was carried
veiled from her father's to the husband's home, lifted
over the threshold, and acknowledged by the hus
band in some such words as ' Ubi ego Gaius, tu Gaia' ;
and she brought from her father her dowry, as is
still the custom in Latin countries. Among the
Semitic races, as also among the Teutonic, the ancient

THE SOLEMNIZA TION OF MA TRIMONY 245
practice must have been that the man bought his
wife from her father, as may be seen from the story
of the betrothal of Rebekah or the marriage of Leah
and Rachel, or may be read in the 'Germania' of
Tacitus, who tells of the gifts which the husband
brought to the wife, and of the assembling of the
parents and relatives to inspect the presents — a cus
tom which remans with us to this day. 'Dower'
('endowment'), the wife's right in her husband's
property, is matter of Teutonic law; 'dowry', the
wife's contribution to the husband's estate, is matter
of Roman law.
We read in early Christian times of the white
dress of the bride, of the veil or canopy held over
the parties, of the joining of hands, the kiss of peace,
and the gift of a ring. Also — after it ceased to be
considered pagan — the custom of crowning both
bride and bridegroom with crowns of precious metal
or flowers or leaves was permitted ; and this remains
in the East to-day as an important part of the mar
riage rite. There were two ceremonies at a greater
or less interval of time, in each of which words of
pledge were spoken by both parties in the presence
of witnesses — the betrothals and the nuptials. The
ring given and received, if we follow Tacitus, was
a symbol of subjection, as if it were a link of a
chain ; in his day the German 'braves' wore iron rings,
as a badge of inferiority, until they had killed their
man. But Clement of Alexandria makes it a symbol
of equality and trust ; the bridegroom gives the bride

246 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
a gold ring, says he, "not for ornament, but that she
may with it seal up what has to be kept safe, as the
care of keeping the house belongs to her. ' ' Perhaps
there were different origins of the custom among
different nations.
Part, at least, of the formula for betrothal and
marriage must have been, as they are, in the ver
nacular, while in Western Europe the whole of other
services was and is in Latin. As a consequence,
the marriage service of the Prayer Book has kept
antique forms of words, though some have been
dropped and some modernized. The English Book
has omitted 'spousage', 'for fairer for fouler' (or like
words), and has changed 'till death us depart' to 'till
death us do part' ; and our Book has omitted 'with my
body I thee worship", which was the man's acknowl
edgment of the honor due to the wife, as correlative
to her promise to obey him; but we still have 'I
plight thee, I give thee, my troth', 'allege' meaning
'plead' in court, 'endow' in its sense of granting
legal rights in property, 'pronounce' in the sense of
•proclaim'. The English service follows the Sarum
Use pretty closely, enlarging the opening exhortation
with an 'excursus' on the purposes of the ordinance,
prescribing the joining of hands with the proclama
tion of marriage, and after Introit and Collect pro
viding an address to be read 'if there be no sermon'.
Until 1662, the last rubric ordered that "The new-
married persons, the same day of their marriage,, must
receive the Holy Communion"; it has been changed

THE SOLEMNIZA TION OF MA TRIMONY 247
to read that "It is convenient [that is, seemly] that
the new-married persons should receive the Holy
Communion at the time of their marriage or the first
opportunity after their marriage. ' '
In our American Book, the service has been much
shortened from the English. A part of what was
left out of the opening exhortation was restored in
1892, but it is still shorter and better than the Eng
lish; and everything after the first blessing — in
troit, prayers, and sermon (which makes the service,
as Captain Cuttle said, end with 'amazement') —
was not taken into our Book. But the service still
remains a combination of that for the espousals and
that for the nuptials. The dividing-point is at the
question, 'Who giveth this woman ?' when the father
puts his daughter into the hands of the Church, re
linquishing his 'patria potestas' , that she may be
given to her husband. This 'first service' was of old
said at the entrance of the church, as Chaucer tells
us of the Wife of Bath: "Housbondes at chirche-
dore she hadde fyve' ' ; and it is now often said at the
entrance to the choir or at the foot of the chancel-
steps, which place indeed may be meant in the
rubric by 'the body of the Church'.1 In that case,
after the betrothal, the brdegroom leads the bride to
the rail of the sanctuary for the 'second service'.
The minister should be quite sure that he under-

•See note as to the place of the Lord's Table, page 167. It
may be argued that our Book expects the whole service to be in
' the body of the Church '.

248 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
stands the law of the State in which he lives, or in
which he officiates, in regard to marriage, and
should conform strictly to it, as well as to the
Canon of the Church (Canon 39) which deals with the
subject; and he should also be careful to return to
the State or town authorities the evidence that he
has solemnized the marriage, and to make full entry
of it in the proper Parish Register. It is well to
remember that the publication of banns is no longer
required with us ; and that no clergyman is obliged
by civil or ecclesiastical law to perform any mar
riage, so that it is sometimes his duty to ask ques
tions which are not answered in the licence that is
brought to him. The English Book requires all
marriages to be in a church ; our Book permits them
in 'some proper house' ; both Books provide for
witnesses by the requirement that the parties come
'with their friends and neighbours'. Untold trouble
would be prevented if the clergy, following at least
the spirit of this requirement, would make sure that
the parties presenting themselves are not attempting
to escape from the presence of those who ought
naturally to be asked to signify their assent.
The man stands on the right of the woman during
the service, but when the service is ended he 'wor
ships' her by giving her the place at his right (see
Psalm xiv. 10 ). The exhortation refers to the insti
tution of marriage in Eden, and to its mystical
meaning, to Christ's blessing of marriage at Cana,
and to the commendation of it in the Epistle to the

THE SOLEMNIZA TION OF MA TRIMONY 249
Hebrews (here, as was long the belief, attributed to
St. Paul), and calls for objections from the congre
gation. The parties are then solemnly charged not
to proceed in the service, making as it does a life
long change in their positions before God and man,
if they know of any impediment. 'Lawfully' must
apply to the law of God as well as that of the State ;
'lawful', at the end, under present circumstances,
seems to refer only to the law of God. 'Allow', as in
the baptismal service (see page 218), means 'approve'.
Probably no clergyman with us would be ready to
proceed with a service as to the legality of which he
had doubts, on the surety of anyone that if he was
acting illegally he should be 'indemnified', that is
that his surety would bear the amount of fine and
costs to which he might be subjected in case of con
viction ; but the rubric frees him from ecclesiastical
censure if he wishes to do so. An impediment
"alleged' is an impediment formally pleaded, as in
court. If an objection is made, which the clergy
man knows to be groundless or as to the ground
lessness of which he is reasonably satisfied, he is to
proceed. 'M.' in this service, as was noted a few
pages back, is a printer's change for the 'N.' which
should designate both the man and the woman. The
statement that 'M.' and 'N.' stand for maritus and
nympha, husband and bride, is absurd. The letter
stands for the baptismal name ; but the best author
ity is for using only so much of the baptismal name
as is commonly employed; t e late Queen of Eng-

250 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
land and her consort were married as Victoria and
Albert. The parties having, in answer to questions, ex
pressed their desire to marry each other, and the
father (or friend representing him or his authority)
having through the priest relinquished to the bride
groom his authority over the bride, they now proceed
to marry each other by the giving of 'troth' (that is
'truth'), the minister causing each to take the
other's hand and dictating the proper form of words.'
The manner of giving the ring is confused in our
Book by the omission of an obsolete requirement
from the rubric.' In the English Book it reads : "The
man shall give unto the woman a ring, laying the
same upon the book, with the accustomed duty to
the priest and clerk. And the minister taking the
ring shall deliver it unto the man", etc. That is to
say, the man gives the ring to the woman by first
laying it on the clergyman's book that it may have

'Some of the ancient forms, with quaint phraseology, are
given in Blunt ; in one of them the bride promises to be
'honour [or 'bonere'] and buxum'; where 'honour' is for
'bon' or 'bonny', meaning 'good', 'gentle', and 'buxom' is
'bow-som', that is, 'obedient', ' complaisant ', from which it
came to mean 'good-natured' and then 'healthy'. An old
writer says that " God took upon him humble buxomnesse " ;
and the Golden Litany prays Christ to have mercy on us by His
' infinite buxomnes '.
'We read occasionally of a service with two rings, which
seems abnormal. But Archbishop Hermann provided for the
use of two rings, if the parties could afford them ; and the
(modem) Old Catholics use two rings.

THE SOLEMNIZA TION OF MA TRIMONY 251
his blessing, or at least that the act may have his
sanction, and then receiving it from the clergyman
to be put upon the woman's hand. To 'pass the ring
around', as the saying is, is not rubrical, nor has it
any meaning.* The rubric of 1549 read: "The man
shall give unto the woman a ring, and other tokens
of spousage, as gold and silver, laying the same upon
the book", etc., and the form at giving the ring was:
"With this ring I thee wed; this gold and silver I
thee give;" with my body I thee worship; and with
all my worldly goods I thee endow. ' '
The parties having thus, strictly speaking, mar
ried themselves under the protection of the Church,
the minister bids the congregation to prayer. The
faithful living together of Isaac and Rebecca must
refer to marital faithfulness ; Isaac was almost, if not
quite, the only one of the eminent men of the Old
Testament of whom we know that had but one
wife. The formal recognition of the marriage is

*Mr. Pullan gives us an interesting note (pp. 222, 223) on
the wedding ring. The mediaeval English custom, he says,
was to put it on the fourth finger of the right hand, and the
English Roman Catholics followed this custom till the middle
of the eighteenth century. There is in a Sarum rubric an ex
planation that the fourth finger is the ring-finger because a vein
runs from it to the heart.
6 This was probably the pledge of ' endowment ' or of ' dower ',
into the actual use of which the wife did not come until her
husband's death. Some older forms had ' all my worldly cathel '
or 'cattle', that is, 'chattels.' Compare the Latin pecunia
from pecus, a sheep.

252 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
made by joining the hands of the parties, and the
formal proclamation (from Hermann's 'Consultation')
follows, with a closing benediction. As has been
suggested more than once, the clergyman pronounces
or publishes that the parties have been duly married,
and the service which the Church performs is the
"Solemnization of Matrimony."4 The minister's
kissing the bride at the close of the ceremony was
probably the last survival of the kiss of peace at the
beginning of the Communion Office; formerly, he
kissed the bridegroom, and the bridegroom then
kissed the bride.
The bridegroom and the bride should kneel for the
final blessing; all others, including their immediate
attendants, should stand during the whole service.
The question is asked, whether a deacon may read
the marriage service. The law of the land recog
nizes the deacons of our Church as 'Ministers of the
Gospel', and permits them to marry; and our service
uses the word 'Minister' throughout, and that inten
tionally, as the English Book has confusedly 'Priest',
'Curate', and 'Minister'. But the Benediction is
priestly, and evidently ought not to be said by a
deacon. It would seem, therefore, that a deacon
may use the marriage service, without the Bene
diction, in any place where he has the Bishop's or
priest's authority to minister.

' Shakespeare makes the priest say : '¦ And all the ceremony
of this compact, Seal'd in my function, by my testimony.'

THE SOLEMNIZA TION OF MA TRIMONY 253
It is sometimes said that 'man and wife' in the
service should be 'husband and wife'. But 'man' in
old English often meant 'husband', as the Latin
vir and the Greek avtfp; and 'wife' often meant a
woman, whether married or not, as still in 'fishwife',
'housewife', 'midwife'. In fact the word 'woman'
is 'wiman', 'wifman', wifeman' (the sound of 'i' is
still preserved in the plural, though spelled 'women').
'Man and wife' is the old monosyllabic way of put
ting what might be 'husband and woman', 'husband
and wife', or 'man and woman' ; and it is the more
common legal form of words.
During the late revision of our Prayer Book the following was
proposed but not adopted for use if the Holy Communion were
celebrated at the time of a marriage : —
Introit; Psalm cxxviii. [The English Book gives as an
alternative Psalm lxvii.]
The Collect : Almighty and merciful God, who by thy power
didst create our first parents and by thy consecration didst knit
them together in holy wedlock ; Vouchsafe to send thy blessing
upon all who are joined together in thy holy Name, and so fill
them with thy grace, that obeying thy will, and continuing
always in safety under thy protection, they may abide in .thy
love-unto their lives' end ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle : Ephesians v. 22-33.
The Gospel: St. John ii. 1-11.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bingham (J. F.), Christian Marriage; The Ceremony, His
tory and Significance.
Evans (Hugh Davey), The Christian Doctrine of Marriage.
Fulton (John) , The Laws of Marriage.
Howard (G. E.), The History of Matrimonial Institutions;
3 vols.

XIII.
THE VISITATION OF THE SICK
s~ ¦
THE Visiting of the Sick is a duty of natural
piety; but, like other such duties, it is made a
Christian duty by the example and the words of our
Lord, and it becomes a special duty of the Christian
minister. The only Scriptural suggestion of a cere
mony in connection with such visitation is the
anointing and laying-on of hands in the case of the
Apostles (St. Mark vi. 13, xvi. 18) and the prayer
and anointing by the leaders ('presbyters') of which
St. James writes (St. James v. 14, 15). At a com
paratively early date we find provision for prayers
for a sick man, and in mediaeval times the Sarum
Manual provided an elaborate office for a formal visi
tation of the sick on which our office is based, and
from which, indeed, it is in considerable part taken.
Thus the 'salutation' of the house, commanded by
the Lord Himself (St. Luke x. 5 ; St. Matthew x. 12),
was said at the entrance, the antiphon 'Remember
not, Lord', was said with the Penitential Psalms
which the priest repeated on his way to the house;
in the sick man's room were said the Kyrie, Lord's
Prayer, and versicles, with nine prayers, two of
which we retain; then followed an exhortation to
patience and faith, with an examination of the faith
of the sick man based on the Creed, to charity and

THE VISITA TION OF THE SICK 255
hope, to contrition and repentance, and to the giving
of alms. After his confession of sin, the priest gave
him absolution with the ancient words of the prayer
for reconciliation beginning in our Book 'O most
merciful God'. If Extreme Unction was adminis
tered, Psalm lxxi was said, with the antiphon 'O
Saviour of the world', and the anointing was per
formed with prayers ; and then the Holy Communion
was administered to the sick man, if it was possible.
It is evident from this outline of the ancient ser
vice, as indeed from the study of the form which it
has taken in our own, that the former part was in
tended for a case of serious sickness, and the latter
part for a case of impending death. Indeed it would
almost seem to assume that this would be the only
time in which the minister could be with the sick
person in order to prepare him for the end of his
earthly life. Yet the second prayer and the exhorta
tion express a hope of recovery and of a benefit to be
derived in this life from God's fatherly visitation.
It must have been in the earlier times, as it is
to-day, that the Church meant this office to be in
ordinary cases rather a 'directory' than a prescribed
office (as indeed appears in the case of the exhorta
tion from the words 'or other like'); and it does give
admirable instruction as to the preparation which
any man should be called upon to take for death,
and an admirable example of the serious though
really hopeful way in which the Church bids her
members look on faith and duty and our responsi-

256 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
bility for both, as we pass through life as well as in
the day of judgment. The faithful and devout
clergyman will read other passages of Scripture,
speak of divers matters in different strains, and use
prayers from other parts of the Prayer Book or from
j>ther sources ; but he will find that he rarely passes
far from the suggestions of this service. And both
the visitor and the visited will do well to read it
from time to time, and to meditate upon it ; in fact,
it has many wholesome lessons for the well.
The interrogative Creed, which in our Book
stands only here, differs in its wording in several
places (as already noted) from that in Morning and
Evening Prayer. Ordinarily, the clergyman will ask
the sick man to say the Creed with him in some
service. The long rubric after the Creed contains many
useful suggestions. The laws of our States as to the
inheritance of property are such that there is not
always the same reason as formerly for urging all
persons to make their wills, and there are many cases
in which it would be an impertinence to do this.1
But, on the other hand, there are many cases in
which a clergyman, in confidential conversation with
persons, may well speak with them of the matter and
urge its importance. While it is the duty of the
minister not to interfere with the lawyer in a matter

*It should be remembered that, until quite modern times,
matters testamentary came under the jurisdiction of the ecclesi
astical courts.

THE VISITATION OF THE SICK 257
which belongs distinctly and professionally to the
latter — as indeed he must not interfere with the
physician in the physician's sphere of duty — it is well
for him to know how to draw a simple will and to
see that it is legally attested; but he should not,
except under extraordinary circumstances, write for
another person a will which contains a legacy to the
Church. The meaning of the rubric beginning 'The Exhor
tation before rehearsed' is that the minister may, as
we say, 'have his talk' with the sick man, before he
beigns the service of prayer with 'Remember not,
Lord'; it seems to suggest that the exhortation
and what goes with it may be confidential, while
the family and others may be present at the
prayers. The prayer 'O most merciful God', though called
a 'Collect', is (as has been said) the ancient form of
Reconciliation of a Penitent, and therefore really a
solemn Absolution of the precatory kind.' It dates
back to the Gelasian Sacramentary, and has been
used for at least twelve centuries, though in
mediaeval times an indicative form came to be used
with it, or sometimes to displace it. It should be
said only by a priest and by him standing. An
absolution in the indicative form is placed before it
in the English Book, with a rubric to the effect that

a As to the three forms or kinds of absolution, see on pages
75. 76. 18

258 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER
it shall be used, if the sick person humbly and
heartily desire it, after he has made a special con
fession of some weighty matter with which he feels
his conscience troubled ; and it is made the duty of
the priest to move him to such confession if he is
thus troubled. Our Prayer Book has lost nothing by
omitting this mediaeval form and falling back upon
what was for so long "the principal form of absolu
tion in the Western Churcri" (Frere's Procter), "used
long before the other was introduced" (Blunt); and
it must be remembered, besides, that it leads up to
the final absolution in the Communion of the Sick.
The Unction of the Sick, enjoined by St. James,
was for recovery ; Extreme Unction (that is, the last
or final unction) came in mediaeval times to be an
anointing of the dying with a view of imparting
spiritual grace. There is no allusion to any anoint
ing of the sick in ante-Nicene writers,8 but the
office-book of Bishop Serapion of Thmuis in Egypt
(about the year 350) contains a 'prayer in regard to
oil of the sick', which asks for healing and recovery.
And after anointing came into use again, or at least
became more common, there is no trace before the
eighth century of sick people being anointed for the
remission of their sins, or for the removal of the
reliquia of sin, or to impart to them grace en
abling them to die happily or courageously ; 4 but in

5 Warren, Liturgy of Ante-Nicene Church, pp. 161, 162.
* Puller, Anointing of the Sick, p. 191.

THE VISITATION OF THE SICK 259
the ninth and tenth centuries unction came to be
chiefly regarded as a preparation for death.
In the Sarum Use, which was followed in the Book
of 1549, it was not yet provided that the anointing
should be given to none but the dying or that it
should not be repeated, though no doubt it was often
used as unction in extremis. The service in the
first English Book (as already noted) was simple;
the prayer did look forward with great hope to recov
ery, but it also seemed to teach that the use of this
ordinance was for spiritual blessings, forgiveness and
strength against temptation ; the anointing was to be
on the forehead and breast only, and not on all organs
of sense as in the Roman Use. In 1552 all provision
for unction was omitted, doubtless from the feeling
that as practised it was a "corrupt following of the
Apostles", and not the act of which St. James wrote.
Whether the anointing of the sick with prayer for
recovery may be used with the sanction of the
Bishop as an extra-Prayer-Book service, is a question
beyond the scope of this volume. In the Eastern
Church, it may be added, the rite is practised in its
primitive form, seven priests attending for its nor
mal ministration.
Our Book has substituted Psalm cxxx, 'De pro-
fundis', for the Psalm lxxi of the old Unction and
the present English Book ; but we retain the beauti
ful antiphon, a benedictory prayer composed in 1549,
and the Aaronic blessing (Numbers vi. 24), which
was first placed here in 1662.

260 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Of the additional prayers, the first four are in the
English Book, where they were added in 1662; the
Commendatory Prayer, which has for almost every
one some tender associations, was shortened at the
last American revision. The other three are pecu
liar to our Book; the first of these, 'O God, whose
days are without end', is from Bishop Jeremy Taylor
(who died in 1667), and is a fine example of his com
position. None of the others are in the best litur
gical style, though the next to the last is based on a
prayer of Bishop Taylor's.
For notes on the Communion of the Sick, see
at the end of the Chapter on the Holy Communion,
page 202. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cope (W. H.) and Stretton (Henry), Visitatio Infirmorum.
Puller (F. W.), The Anointing of the Sick in Scripture and
Tradition.

XIV.
THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD
THE Burial of the Dead has always been con
sidered an act of natural religion, a 'corporal
deed of mercy'. From the quiet and dignified bur
ial of Sarah (Genesis xxiii) to the ceremonious en
tombment of some of the kings (2 Chronicles xvi.
14), and high priests (2 Chronicles xxiv. 15, 16),
and from the dirge over Saul and Jonathan (2
Samuel i. 17) to the lament for good King Josiah
(2 Chronicles xxxv. 25), we read of funeral rites
among the Jews of the older time. In the Gospels
we read of but one funeral procession, that of the
son of the widow of Nain, led by the mother, as was
the custom in Galilee ; and of but two burials, that
of St. John Baptist and that of Lazarus (St. Mark
vi. 29; St. John xi. 38), besides the burial of our
Lord Himself, which has found mention in both our
Creeds. The Jews made great wailing over their
dead; and so did the Christians when they carried
Stephen to his burial (Acts viii. 2); but soon we
read of a quieter mourning by the bedside of
Tabitha (Acts ix. 39). The Epistles and the Book
of Revelation have many passages which tell of the
blessedness of those who are sleeping in Christ.
We know little of the ceremonies practised in the
early Church at burials, other than those which were

262 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
local customs, except that from an early time the
Eucharist was celebrated with prayers, among which
was the commendation of the departed soul to rest
and peace. The body being carried to the church
soon after death, and the burial, except in special
cases, not being long deferred, it became a custom
to say the night services with special psalms, anti-
phons, and lessons, — as Vespers, Compline, and
Matins (or Vigils) of the Dead. One of the psalms
at Vespers was the 116th, the antiphon for which
was the ninth verse, in our version 'I will walk
before the Lord in the land of the living', but in
Latin 'Placebo Domino in regione vivorum ' ; from
which the Vespers of the dead were known as
Placebo. And one of the psalms at Matins was
the 5th, with an antiphon taken from the eighth
verse, where we read, 'Make thy way plain before
,my face', in Latin ' Dirige in conspectu tuo viam
meam ' ; and this gave to the Matins the name of
Dirige, from which we get the word 'dirge'.
Also, from the Officium or Introit in the service,
'Requiem aternam dona eis, Domine, et lux per-
petua luceat eis ', Mass for the Dead was called
Requiem. No serivce was in the first English Book changed
as much from the corresponding Latin service as was
that for burial. The old services had become very
long and complicated, and the ancient prayers,
which assumed that the faithful departed were in
peace and asked that they might have rest in the

THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD 263
land of the living and at the last the joys of the
resurrection, had become prayers that they might be
delivered from the pains of purgatory, which were
described as identical with the pains of hell except
in duration ; so that the reformers not only desired a
briefer service, yet with longer reading of Scripture,
but also felt the necessity of removing some of the
prayers and also of modifying the phraseology of
others which in themselves would not formerly have
been thought objectionable. In 1549, there was a
double service, as now, one to be said at the grave
and one to be said either before or after the other in
the church. They contained all that is in our
present service, except that the psalms were differ
ent, with other prayers which were omitted in 1552
from a fear of mediaeval petitions for the departed.
Also in 1549 there was provision for the celebration
of the Holy Communion, the Introit being Psalm
xiii, the Collect being the prayer which now stands
at the end of the service, 'O merciful God, the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ', with a somewhat
different ending,1 the Epistle, 1 Thessalonians iv.
13-18, and the Gospel, St. John vi. 35-41. Our ser
vice differs little from the English, except that the
psalms have been abbreviated and the closing
phrases of the committal and of the first prayer have
been changed, the new wording being both in ex
cellent form and with good rhythm.
1 It still has in the English Book as a heading the words
' The Collect '.

264 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
The rubric at the beginning, excluding three
classes of people from burial by this service, dates
from 1662. Unbaptized adults have by their own
decision never been admitted to membership in the
Church, whereas of unbaptized infants it may be
said that it has been the Church's wish to baptize
them and that they have never refused it; excom
munication is not practised now, for suspension
from the Holy Communion is not excommunication,
and at the last revision of the Canons all provision
for a possible "deprivation of all privileges of church
membership" was removed from our legislation; and
suicides die in the commission of an extreme crime
against themselves. In this last case, the decision
as to whether a person who has taken his own life
has really and intentionally 'laid violent hands' upon
himself, must (except in very extraordinary circum
stances) be left to the officials of the law, whose duty
it is to make investigation and to publish what they
find to be the facts of the case.
But though a clergyman of the Church may not
bury unbaptized adults or suicides with the Church's
office, and may sometimes find it his duty to decline
to use that office for others (as, for instance, for one
who has died or been killed while committing some
grievous crime), he is not debarred from reading
passages of Scripture and prayers with the family of
such an one in their home and at the grave. A suit
able psalm at such a time is the 5 ist or 143rd ; and
a suitable lesson may be taken from Jeremiah xxxi,

THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD 265
or from some of the Lord's words of comfort in the
Gospels. The second rubric implies, as is ordinarily the
case in England except in cities and large town9,
that the church stands in the churchyard, and that,
as was explicitly stated in the first Book, the ser
vice in the church may either precede or follow that
at the grave. The latter may have been sometimes
convenient or necessary in days when few but the
rich were buried in coffins, and the bodies of the
dead were ordinarily wrapped and tied in shrouds, per
haps covered with the parochial pall, which made all
funerals externally alike, and thus carried on a bier.
In either case the 'Sentences' — really anthems or
antiphons — are normally to be begun at the church
yard gate and repeated by the minister as he goes
'either into the church or towards the grave'. The
exigencies of our cemeteries and of our funeral ar
rangements often require that the words be post
poned until the funeral company is ready to enter
the church or is close to the grave. When the part
of the service assigned to the church is said in the
house, as must often be the case with us, these open
ing anthems should be reserved and read at the
grave; when they have been said at entering the
church, they should not be repeated in the burying-
ground.' ' A note may be made here as to prayers with the family at the
home before the body is carried to the church. The service
should be short, with one or two Psalms such as xxiii and cxxi,

266 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
The three opening anthems are words respectively
of faith, of hope, and of resignation. The first was
in the old services the 'antiphon' to Benedictus, and
the second a 'respond' at Matins; the third, really a
double verse, was first provided in 1549. It is to be
regretted that the first passage from Job is not
abbreviated, as in the Latin; partly because the
exact meaning of the middle phrase is very doubtful,
and partly because the word 'worms' is not in the
Hebrew at all; 'they destroy this body' is a way of
saying 'this body be destroyed'.
The portions of Psalms in our Book are not so long
but that both may ordinarily be said, and that to the
profit and comfort of those who are present at the ser
vice. If a distinction is made, Psalm xxxix is in
some part suitable for a younger person, and Psalm
xc for one of mature years ; but the latter, 'a Prayer
of Moses the man of God', hardly ought ever to be
omitted. The Lesson deserves careful study, and
reading which shows that it has been carefully
studied. The service in church will ordinarily be
ended (after a hymn, if it is convenient to have one)
by the Creed — and that preferably the Apostles'
Creed — and prayers, which should not be too many.
..The prayer for persons in affliction will certainly be
used; at the funeral of a communicant, that at the
end of the Visitation of the Sick, beginning 'O God,
a short lesson such as Wisdom iii. 1-9 or 1 Thessalonians iv.
13-18 or Revelation vii. 9-17, and two or three prayers either
from the Prayer Book or from some good manual of devotion.

THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD 267
whose days are without end' ; the first and second of
the additional prayers at the end of this service may
be added; and a judicious selection can be made
from the Collects for Easter (at the earlier Commun
ion), the fourth Sunday after Easter, the fourth
Sunday after Trinity, All Saints' Day, the first
Sunday in Advent, 'We humbly beseech thee', at the
end of the Litany, and others ; also, the Collect for
the Day, unless it is manifestly inappropriate, may
well be used.
The verses from Job (xiv. i, 2) 'Man that is born
of a woman', taken from the Vigils of the Dead, and
the wonderful Sequence in three paragraphs, begin
ning Media vita ('In the midst of life we are in
death'), were meant to be repeated while the attend
ants were making ready to lower the body (often
coffinless) into the grave. If possible, they should
be so repeated now, as the rubric directs, that the
minds of the mourners may be drawn away from that
on which their eyes cannot but be fixed to the great
and eternal, though most solemn and awe-inspiring,
truths which are declared in these words. Media
vita, written as a 'Prose' or 'Sequence' to be said
after the Epistle (see page 154), had been taken into
the Sarum Breviary as an antiphon to Nunc Dimittis
during part of Lent; it is only in the Anglican use
that its words are read in the Burial Office. They are
wonderfully appropriate, having, as Blunt says, "a
solemn magnificence, and at the same time a wailing
prayerfulness, which make them unsurpassable by

268 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
any analogous portion of any ritual whatever." And
including, as they do, the words of the Greek Trisa-
gion, 'Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Undying
One, have mercy on us' (see page 153), they carry our
thoughts through all the range of worship and godly
fear in the Christian Church. The composition of
this Sequence is traditionally ascribed to Notker, a
monk of St. Gall in Switzerland, who died in the year
912, and in whom its thought is said to have been
inspired as he watched men building a bridge over a
deep gorge." This tradition cannot be sustained;'
but the words are none the less impressive, whatever
were the circumstances under which they were
moulded into their present form. In the Middle Ages
this Sequence was constantly used; it became a
battle-hymn, and its use was believed to give super
natural powers ; so that in 1316 a synod at Cologne
forbade its use except on occasions especially ap
proved by the Bishop.
The committal follows, in which the threefold
casting of the earth, as is customary with the words
'earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust', is to be
considered the formal burial.' The rubric in the
first Book instructed the priest to cast earth upon
the body with the words of committal; in 1552 the

8 The commentators refer us to the verses of Shakespeare in
spired by the sight of samphire-gatherers on the cliff at Dover,
in King Lear, iv. 6.
4 See Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology, sub voce.
8 See the reference on page zio.

THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD 269
present words 'by some standing by' were substi
tuted. It is probable that the priest began the
burial as directed, and that others filled the grave
while the following anthem was sung. That anthem,
'I heard a voice', formerly the antiphon to Magnificat
in the service for the dead, carries on the thoughts
in the direction of the grand words of hope and
assured victory with which the committal had ended.*
The service closes with the Kyrie, the Lord's
Prayer and one or both of two prayers, somewhat
modified from their English form ; the former may
well be kept for the burial of communicants.
The three additional prayers were placed in our
Book at the revision of 1892; the first and the second
are modern; the third is taken from the commemora
tion of the faithful departed in the Communion
Office of the first Book of Edward VI and the
Scottish Office. The closing rubric explains itself;
sometimes by reason of distance or of stress of
weather all of the service, or all except the com
mittal, must be said in the church or in the house
which serves as the church. The form of the com
mittal at sea is made very touching by the use of the
words, 'The sea shall give up her dead'.
In the process of our last revision, it was proposed
to provide a special service for the burial of children,
in the general form of the other service but with

6 In the Eastern Church Psalm xxiv. 1 is sung at the burial :
" The earth is the Lord's, and all that therein is : the compass
of the world, and they that dwell therein."

270 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
different psalms and lessons and at least modified
prayers. But the service prepared did not commend
itself, and it was felt that all members of the Church,
whatever their age, should have the same form of
burial at the Church's hands, and that there is
sufficient room for needed variations in the service
with the family and in the prayers used after the
Lesson.' The careful reader will see that the form
of several phrases in the English Book was changed
for our Book of 1790, in order that they might be
suitable for as many persons as possible; and in this
our Church was carrying out a principle adopted
long before in England. At the time of death, the
Church casts the mantle of her faith and hope and
charity over all her members who have not utterly
repudiated their membership, and leaves them in the
hands of God against the day of His just and merci
ful judgment.

'See Bp. Coxe's Christian Ballads, "Churchyards", fourth
stanza. ,

XV.
OTHER OFFICES
The Churching of Women
THIS service of Thanksgiving — not of Puri
fication, in any strict sense, though it was so
called in the Sarum Manual and the Book of 1 549 —
follows closely the simple service of former days.
It was meant to lead up to the Holy Communion,
and for that reason has no benedictory prayer at the
end. 'Decently apparelled' meant that, in accord
ance with English custom, she should wear a veil.1
The 'convenient place' was defined in 1549 to be
'nigh unto the quire door', and in 1552, 'nigh unto
the place where the Table standeth' ; either the fald
stool or the chancel rail would seem suitable, in cases
where the Ordinary has given no direction. The
'hymn' or 'cento' from Psalm cxvi is, according to
our rubric, to be said by the minister and the
woman together, he leading her in the words of
thanksgiving. It was an old custom that with her
offerings the woman brought back to the church the
chrisom put upon her child in baptism, so that after
this it was no longer a 'chrisom child' (see page 213).

1 Wheatiy, in loco, cites a case in the reign of James I, in
which a woman was excommunicated for contempt in refusing
to wear a veil at her churching.

272 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
The verb 'to church,' in the sense of bringing or
conducting to a church, that one may receive its
rites or enter (anew) into its worship, is of early use.
It is applied in Scotland to a newly married couple on
their first attendance in church after the wedding, and
in England the formal attendance of judges at church
on the first Sunday in term is called 'Churching the
Judges'. It might have been noted before that Con
firmation was sometimes called 'bishoping'.
Forms of Prayer to be Used at Sea
These forms of supplemental devotion were com
posed for the Prayer Book of 1662, and are attributed
to Dr. Robert Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln, the
author of a once famous volume of lectures on Con
science, who died in 1663. They displaced a Pres
byterian form of prayer for the Navy, set forth under
the Long Parliament (1640-53). There are prayers
for use in storm and before battle, and thanksgivings
after the quieting of a tempest or the gaining of a
victory ; but the compiler does not seem to have had
in mind the possibilities of a defeat. During our
Civil War, when there was need of special prayers
for the Nation and for the army and navy serving in
its defence, the phrases of these forms of prayer
were largely used, and for this reason they are fixed
in the minds of the older people in our congrega
tions. At the last revision of our Book, the order of
the Psalms and Prayers was much improved.
It may be noted as a liturgical curiosity, that

OTHER OFFICES 273
when copies of the Prayer Book were printed in
England for use in the Confederate States of
America, they were to be printed from plates pre
pared for the Prayer Book of the Church in the United
States of America, with the omission of the Ratifica
tion and the substitution of 'Confederate' for 'United'
before the words 'States of America'. This substi
tution was made on the title-page and in the Prayer
for the President and that for Congress; but either
the editors or the printers forgot to make the change
in the prayer for use on ships of war, so that this re
tained a petition that the men in service there might
be a "safeguard unto the United States of America" !
The Visitation of Prisoners
This office is not in the English Prayer Book, but
was taken into ours from the Irish Book. It was
agreed upon in the Synod of Ireland in 171 1, and
ordered by the Council in 1714 to be printed and
annexed to the Book of Common Prayer. It is
framed on the model of the Visitation of the Sick,
and calls for no special notes, except that the rubrics
are wisely suggestive as to the duties of a priest in
dealing with the conscience of a man who has been
guilty of grievous sin. The Collect, Epistle, and
Gospel are to be used in the case of ministration to
a man under sentence of death.
Thanksgiving-day
A note on the history of Thanksgiving-day, now
by custom appointed annually on the last Thursday
19

274 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
of November, will be found on page 60 of this
volume. The service is taken from the Proposed
Book of 1786, and is the only matter for which we
are indebted to that Book, except the plan of the
Table of Proper Lessons. The last three of the
opening sentences are from the Fourth of July ser
vice in the Proposed Book; and the lessons were
originally the Fourth of July Lessons. The anthem,
or rather 'cento', in place of Venite is from Psalm
cxlvii ; it was formerly from the Bible Version, but
was made to conform to the Prayer Book Version at
the last revision, at which time also the special
Thanksgiving was enlarged to include other na
tional blessings than those pertaining to the fruits of
the earth. The minister may take one of the Selec
tion of Psalms, 'or some other Portion' at his dis
cretion ; if the latter clause implies any restriction,
it may be taken to mean the part of the Psalter
appointed for Morning or Evening Prayer on any
day of the month. Permission is given here to sing
the Selection or portion of the Psalms, as it was
(curiously enough) in the Proposed Book.
Family Prayers
The Family Prayers, wisely placed in our Prayer
Book of 1790, were composed by Edmund Gibson,
Bishop of London (1720- 1748), and had been much
used in the Colonies, over which indeed he held
ecclesiastical jurisdiction by royal patent. They are
said to have been based on prayers which Arch
bishop Tillotson drew up for the private use of King
William III.

XVI.
THE PSALTER
ENOUGH has been said already, for the pur
poses of this book, as to the history of the use
of the Psalms in the Christian Church and their
place in our Morning and Evening Prayer. Their
division into sixty portions for daily use and full
reading once each month is the same in our Book as
it has been in England since 1549, except that at
our last revision Psalm cxli, an evening Psalm, was
transferred from Morning to Evening Prayer on the
twenty-ninth day of the month.
The Psalter remains in our Prayer Book in the
version from which not only the Psalms but also the
Epistle and Gospels were read from 1549 to 1662 —
that, namely, of Coverdale, printed in 1535, edited
and republished in the 'Great Bible', of which the
first edition was printed in 1539, other editions follow
ing rapidly, and showing traces of Cranmer's work.
Our Psalter is thus "in substance the work of that
consummate master of rhythmical prose, Bishop
Miles Coverdale. ' ' When the Lessons began to be
read from the Authorized Version of 161 1 cannot
now be determined; it was 'appointed to be read in
churches', but it is not known on what authority.
The 'Great Bible' followed pretty closely Cover-
dale's version, which had been printed but four

276 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
years before it, with reference, however, to the
original Hebrew and Greek; but it was also in
fluenced by Munster's new Latin Version of the Old
Testament. That it does not closely follow the
Vulgate will be seen from comparing the opening
words of some of the Psalms in this version with
their opening words in Latin as they are given in
the headings. (See for instance, Psalms cix, Ixv,
Ixxxiii, cxix part J.) The Psalter in the English
Books does not follow exactly any edition of the Great
Bible, and the printers have in the course of time
made changes in it. In our first Prayer Book of
1790 a few modifications were intentionally made,
as of 'leasing' to 'falsehood' in iv. 2 and to 'lies' in
v. 6, and of 'Sittings' to 'wanderings' in lvi. 8.
In the preparation of the present Standard of 1892,
the text of the Psalter was carefully studied and cor
rected where verrors had crept in, so that it is now
far more accurate than that in the English Book
and almost ideally perfect. The report on the
Standard in an appendix to the Journal of the Gen
eral Convention of 1892 gives many notes of impor
tant and unimportant corrections. At this time the
so-called musical colon in each verse (corresponding
to the Hebrew athnach), which had been omitted
in earlier American Books from Psalms and Canti
cles, was restored.

THE PSALTER 277

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Reference may be made to a few books which will help to a
fuller knowledge and enjoyment of the Psalter.
The translation of the Psalms in the American Revised Ver.
sion gives accurately the meaning of the received Hebrew text.
Dr. S. R. Driver's " Parallel Psalter " is the Prayer Book Ver
sion of the Psalms and a new version by a good scholar in
both Hebrew and English, arranged on opposite pages. It is
very interesting and helpful, and it has two admirable glossa
ries : one of characteristic or otherwise noteworthy expressions
in the Psalms, and the other of archaisms in the Prayer Book
Version. In this connection, it will be well to call attention, as does
Dr. Driver, to W. Aldis Wright's invaluable "Bible Word-
Book " and also to the articles on words so plentifully given in
Hastings's " Dictionary of the Bible." The Concordance to the
Prayer Book Psalter in the S. P. C. K. Prayer-Book Commen
tary has been already noted.
The finest literary version of the Psalms into English is that
by Dr. Horace Howard Furness in the so-called ' Polychrome
Bible'. There are brief notes on each Psalm in Bishop Barry's
" Teacher's Prayer Book." Kirkpatrick's Commentary on the
Psalms (in English) in The Cambridge Bible for Schools is
excellent and readily available ; the Introduction is helpful,
though brief.
One who would like to know a little of the English of earlier
versions will find in a small volume published by the Clarendon
Press at Oxford the Books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesi
astes, and the Song of Solomon, from a Wycliffite version of
about the year 1381.
G. P. Huntington and H. A. Metcalf's " The Treasury of the
Psalter " is a valuable aid to the better understanding of the
Psalms and a work of much learning and careful labor.
Archbishop William Alexander's " Witness of the Psalms to
Christ and Christianity" is pleasantly written and interesting.

XVII.
THE ORDINAL
THE services which follow the Psalter are not,
strictly speaking, a part of the Book of Com
mon Prayer; but their titles are placed with the
Table of Contents of the Prayer Book, and the con
ditions of making changes in them are the same as
those of altering or amending the Prayer Book.
They correspond, in fact, to the Pontifical, contain
ing the forms for conferring Holy Orders, for Conse
crating a Church, and for the Institution of a Rector;
and the due administration of Orders is certainly
necessary for the continuance of the Church.
Many of the questions, both interesting and
important, which arise in the study of the Or
dination Services of the Church of England and
our own are fully discussed in works on the Ministry
and on Church Polity. Such are : the interpretation
which the Church in different ages has given to the
terms by which she had designated her ministers;
the stress which she has laid on a succession of her
clergy from the Apostles and on the maintenance of
that succession at the hands of Bishops; the proof of
the assertion in Article XXXVI, that her present
"Book of Consecration of Bishops and Ordering of
Priests and Deacons" "doth contain all things neces
sary to such Consecration and Ordering, neither

THE ORDINAL 279

hath it anything that of itself is superstitious and
ungodly1"' ; and in particular the maintenance of the
historic validity of her Orders against the latest
form of the attack made upon them from Rome. To
such books, therefore, the student is referred for a
full study of the Ordinal; it must suffice here to give
a brief historical and liturgical commentary on the
services. As in ancient times, all ordinations are minis
tered within the Eucharistic Office, and at such place
in the office that the newly ordained may enter at
once on the duties to which he has been called and
for which authority has been given him. Thus, the
candidates for the diaconate are examined and or
dained after the Epistle, and after ordination one of
them reads the Gospel; in like manner, the candi
dates for the priesthood are examined and ordained
after the Gospel, and after ordination they say the
Nicene Creed with the congregation; the bishop-
elect is questioned and ordained after the Creed and
Sermon, and then takes his place with his consecra
tes for the offering and intercession which lead to
the more solemn part of the Communion Office.
And, again in accordance with ancient custom, the
Litany is said at every ordination, with a special
petition for those who are at the time to be admitted
to any of the sacred Orders. Those to be ordained
are presented to the Bishop by some one already in
Orders, who vouches for their learning and their
character (in the case of a bishop-elect by two of the

280 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Episcopal order); in the case of candidates for the
diaconate and the priesthood, the people are called
upon to show cause, if cause there be, why they
should not be ordained ; in the case of a bishop-elect,
testimonials are demanded and read and a promise
of conformity, with the solemnity of an oath, is
required. An 'impediment' to ordination, as distin
guished from a 'crime', is the failure to fulfil some
canonical requirement, as that the candidate has not
attained the requisite age, or has not satisfied his
examinations, or has failed to produce the necessary
testimonials. The English Ordinal was framed in 1550 — it was
still 1549 in Old Style — less than a year after the
first Prayer Book was published; our own was set
forth in 1792, and the first service for which it was
used was the consecration of Bishop Claggett of
Maryland (see page 23).
The changes made in the Ordination services from
1550 to the present day, with their Preface, have
been very few. Until 1662, the 'Veni, Creator
Spiritus' in the Ordering of Priests was sung after
the Gospel; in that year it was removed to the
place which it now has, corresponding to its position
in the Consecration of Bishops. And from 1550 to
1662, at the laying-on of hands upon a candidate for
the priesthood or upon a bishop-elect, there was no
mention of the Order conferred ; the form in the one
case was 'Receive the Holy Ghost; whose sins
thou dost forgive', etc., and in the other, 'Take the

THE ORDINAL 281

Holy Ghost; and remember that thou stir up', etc.
In our Book the only change of any importance from
the English was the provision of an alternative form
at the laying-on of hands for the priesthood, of the
same tenor as that provided for the diaconate.
Nothing has been or is put into the hands of the
newly ordained, by the rubrics of these services,
except the New Testament in the case of deacons
and the Bible in the case of priests and bishops;
save that from 1550 to 1552 the priest received the
chalice or cup with the bread, and the bishop the
pastoral staff as well as the Bible.
A comparison of the services with those which
had been used in early times and in the mediaeval
Church shows that there was little or nothing new in
the Ordinal of 1550, but that it was marked by a
simplicity and directness which were in decided con
trast to the offices as they had come to be used before
that time. It is evident that Archbishop Cranmer
and those who were associated with him, while they
affirmed solemnly that it was their intention that
the historic Orders should be 'continued and
reverently used and esteemed' in the Church of
England, wished to render the services more simple,
to make their essential act, prayer with the laying-on
of hands, in accordance with the New Testament
(Acts vi. 6, xiii. 3, xiv. 23), and to free them from
accretions which had disturbed the balance of the
truths expressed in them, and again — perhaps more
than anything else — to vindicate for the ministry of

282 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
the Word its rightful place in the work of the priest
hood and the episcopate.
The old Roman service was very simple, with
little more than the Scriptural requirements, the
priests from an early day laying-on hands with the
Bishop upon those who were advanced to the priest
hood (see i Timothy iv. i), while the Bishop
uttered words of prayer. From the Gallican use
there came the ceremony of anointing the hands;
and also, introduced by analogy from the service for
the admission of sub-deacons (their office not being a
'holy order'), the presentation of the vessels of min
istry, porrectio instrumentorum, which Pope Eu-
genius IV in 1439 was so far left to himself as to
declare the outward and visible sign in the 'sacra
ment' of Orders ; and with the chalice and wafer put
into the hands of the priest words were said as to a
power conferred of offering sacrifice to God and cele
brating masses on behalf of the quick and the dead.
Still later, probably from a fear that the primitive
laying-on of hands might be neglected, or from the
knowledge that it was actually omitted, there was
inserted at the very end of the service a provision
that the Bishop should lay his hands on the priests,
who had already had a sort of ordination in three
ways — by prayer (originally with the laying-on of
the hands of bishop and priests), by unction, and by
the delivery of the vessels — and say 'Receive the
Holy Ghost', with the Lord's words as to remitting
and retaining sins.

THE ORDINAL 283

The present Roman Pontifical, at least as used in
this country, is in the same confused condition in
regard to the ordination of priests. Almost at the
beginning of the service, after exhortations and a
brief indirect prayer, the Bishop "without saying any
prayer whatsoever", lays both hands upon the head of
each one. After this all the priests who are present
do the same. Next, the Bishop and all the priests
raise their right hands, and hold them extended over
the candidates while the Bishop says another indirect
prayer which does not imply that any gift or office
is conferred. The unction of the hands and the pre
sentation of a chalice with wine and water and a
paten with a wafer, with the words "Receive power
to offer sacrifice to God and to celebrate mass, as well
for the living as for the dead", both take place before
the Gospel ; and after this those who have been called
'candidates' are now called 'priests', 'priests who
have been ordained'. They all say the service with
the Bishop, after the presentation of offerings, in
cluding the Words of Consecration. After the
Communion and the ablutions, the "newly ordained
priests' rehearse the Apostles' Creed; and then as
they kneel before the Bishop he places both hands on
the head of each saying, "Receive the Holy Ghost;
whose sins thou shalt forgive, they are forgiven
them ; and whose sins thou shalt retain, they are re
tained." This last ceremony cannot possibly be an
ordination ; for those on whom hands were laid have
already celebrated mass with the Bishop. Evidently

284 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
the traditio instrumentorum is the central point of
the service, even to-day. From the confusion of the
service and the great uncertainty as to what really
was the act of ordination, Cranmer and the other
revisers freed the English Ordinal.
There is no question as to the precise act in it by
which the deacons are ordained priests; and while
until 1662 there was no mention of the order con
ferred at the time of laying-on of hands, neither was
there such mention in the Roman use. If it be said
that in the latter the Bishop did confer power to offer
sacrifice and celebrate mass, so also in the English
Office did the Bishop in giving the Bible give "au
thority to preach the Word of God and to minister
the holy Sacraments" — a grant which includes all
that is in the other and much besides. The
mediaeval use of 'Receive the Holy Ghost' was
retained, as seemly and instructive; but that these
words are not necessary is shown by the fact that for
centuries they were nowhere used; and the Ameri
can Church was faithful to primitive custom and
quite within her rights when she gave permission to
substitute another form of words for them, whatever
one may think as to the desirability of employing it.
Thus it may be seen from the purely liturgical
standpoint that it would be more reasonable to con
tend that, in following the teaching of Eugenius IV,
the Church of Rome has lost the succession of the
priesthood, than that in the years from 1550 to 1662
the Church of England failed to continue it.

THE ORDINAL 285

The reason for the insertion of the words in 1662,
"for the office and work of a Priest [or of a Bishop]
in the Church of God", was certainly not that the
revisers at that time felt that there was any doubt as
to the validity of the orders conferred since the first
adoption of the Ordinal. It is much more probable
that they thought it necessary, in the face of the
Presbyterianism which was prevalent and indeed had
had supremacy for a while, to affirm the distinction
in order between a priest (or presbyter) and a
bishop. On that distinction, indeed, we need to lay
stress, and that not only against the advocates of
parity, who would exalt all presbyters to the episco
pate, but also against the papal claim that bishops
are of the same order as priests, only endowed with
certain special authority or 'faculties'.
The carefulness of Bishops Seabury and White as
they prepared the Ordinal for our Church is seen in
the change of a sentence in the form of words in
which, at the consecration of a bishop, the congrega
tion is bidden to the Litany. In the English Book
it reads, "It is written also in the Acts of the
Apostles that the disciples who were at Antioch did
fast and pray, before they laid hands on Paul and
Barnabas and sent them forth." Now, in the light
of what St. Paul says at the beginning of the Epistle
to the Galatians, it is very doubtful whether the
transaction described in the thirteenth chapter of the
Acts can be called an ordination or designation of
Sts. Paul and Barnabas to the apostolate. For this

286 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
example, therefore, another was substituted in our
Book: "It is written also that the Holy Apostles
prayed before they ordained Matthias to be of the
number of the Twelve"; though even here there
might be some question as to the word 'ordain'.
The 'Veni, Creator Spiritus' is the only one of
many metrical hymns of the early and mediaeval
Church which was brought over into the offices of
the English Church.1 It consists in the original of
six four-line stanzas (without the doxology) of what
we call long metre; and its composition has been
ascribed to St. Ambrose of Milan (died 397), to
Pope Gregory the Great (604), to the Emperor
Charles the Great (Charlemagne, 814), and to
Rhabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mainz (856).
Julian in his 'Dictionary of Hymnology' says that
"the hymn is clearly not the work of St. Ambrose
nor of Charles the Great, nor is there sufficient evi
dence to allow us to ascribe it to Gregory or to
Rhabanus Maurus" ; so that this, "which has taken
deeper hold of the Western Church than any other
mediaeval hymn, the 'Te Deum' alone excepted",
must remain anonymous. The first form of the com
mon metre version or paraphrase in sixteen stanzas,
including the doxology, was prepared by Cranmer
(as it is thought) for the Ordinal of 1550; it has
some good phrases, but is diffuse and in places un-

Mt should not be confounded with the 'Veni, Sancte Spir
itus'. (See Dictionary of Hymnology.)

THE ORDINAL 287

rhythmical and lacks the tone of the original. It
was modified into its present form for the revision of
1662, at which time also the brief version in long
metre, even more condensed than the Latin itself,
was inserted as an alternative. This latter was the
work of John Cosin, Bishop of Durham, who
took a prominent part in preparing the new edition
of the Prayer Book and from whose pen came the
Collects written for that Book. Strangely enough,
neither version retains the word 'Creator', which is
so striking a title of the Holy Spirit; it is found in
Hymns 380 and 381 of our Hymnal.
The Litany and the Communion Office are
reprinted here, that the Ordinal may be complete;
in these the word 'Bishop' is used throughout for
'Priest' or 'Minister'. What is meant by the addi
tion 'and Suffrages' to the title of the Litany,
does not appear. In the preceding services the
special petition for those to be ordained is called a
'Suffrage', but it would certainly seem that it must
be regarded as part of the Litany.
Consecration of a Church; Institution
of Ministers
The two offices which follow are not in the Eng
lish Prayer Book. The Form of Consecration of a
Church or Chapel was taken in 1799 from one
framed by the English Convocation in 1712 (which,
however, lacked full authorization); and this in tum
was based on an office prepared by Dr. Lancelot

288 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, for the consecra
tion of a Chapel near Southampton in the year 1620.
The form of 1712 has now been for a long time cus
tomarily used in Enlgand. The place of the 'instru
ments of Donation and Endowment' is commonly
taken by a formal request to the Bishop, from the
corporation or authorities of the parish, that he will
consecrate the building and take it under his
spiritual jurisdiction and that of his successors in
office, including also a certificate, in the words of
Canon 46, "that the building and the ground on
which it is erected have been fully paid for, and are
free from lien or other incumbrance, and also that
such building and ground are secured from the
danger of alienation, either in whole or in part,
from those who profess and practise the doctrine,
discipline, and worship, of this Church", except
under conditions allowed by the Canon. The read
ing of the Sentence of Consecration is the formal
consecration of the building, and after it the regular
service for the day begins.
The Office of Institution, which from its terms can
only be used for a rector, was drawn up in 1799 at
the request of the Convention of the Diocese of Con
necticut by the Rev. Dr. William Smith of Nor-
walk.1 It was formally accepted by the Diocesan

1This Dr. William Smith, a native of Scotlaud, once minis
ter of Stepney Parish, Maryland, and later principal of the
Episcopal Academy at Cheshire, who died in 1821, must not be
confounded with Dr. William Smith, Provost of the University

THE ORDINAL 289

Convention of Connecticut in 1804, but two years
before that time had been adopted by the Conven
tion of the Diocese of New York. In 1804 it was
also adopted by the General Convention, which four
years later changed its title to the present form,
made its use discretionary, and altered the phrase
ology that it might not seem to be in conflict with the
law of the land. It provides three well-worded pray
ers, to the three Persons of the Trinity, before the
Benediction from Hebrews xiii. 20, 21, and an ex
cellent 'cento' of petitions in the prayer at the end.
It has also some peculiarities. The Holy Commu
nion is here called 'the Holy Eucharist', a name not
applied to it in the Prayer Book, though (as we have
seen) very ancient. The word 'Altar' is also used
many times ; but a careful reading will show that it
probably does not mean the Lord's Table, but the
space enclosed by chancel-rails, as is the Methodist
use of the word to-day. Also the term 'Senior War
den' is used, though Senior and Junior Wardens are
unknown to canonical legislation both in this country
and in England; the titles seem to have been bor
rowed from the Masonic order. This office of Insti
tution has really no legal value, either civil or
ecclesiastical; but it has an educational and moral

of Pennsylvania and President of the House of Deputies in
General Convention when the Prayer Book was revised, who
died in 1803. Dr. William Smith of Connecticut was a strong
advocate of chanting at a time when chanting was little
practised.

290 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER
value; and for that reason might well be often
used. It does not fall within the scope of this book to
treat of the Articles of Religion.
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THE ORDINAL
Pullan (Leighton), The History of the Book of Common
Prayer (in Oxford Library of Practical Theology). Chapter
XVIII on the Ordinal is valuable.
Dictionary of Christian Antiquities. The article on Ordina
tion, by Dr. Edwin Hatch, is very full and learned.
See also other dictionaries and encyclopedias.
The Rite of Ordination [of Deacons and Priests] according
to the Roman Pontifical, in Latin and English on opposite
pages, edited by J. S. M. Lynch, is published by the Cathedral
Library Association, New York.
On the recent Roman Controversy, there is nothing better
than the former part of Chapter VII and Appendix in Mober-
ly's " Ministerial Priesthood."
The numerous works on the validity of Anglican Orders need
not be mentioned here.

SOLI DEO GLORIA

INDEX

Absolution, forms of, 75, 189 ;
in Visitation of Sick, 257 ff.
Administration of Holy Com
munion, forms for, 12, 155,
161 ff.
Advent, 125; Advent-Sun
day, 57.
Agnus Dei, 106, 194, 198.
Alexandria, Catechetical
School at, 227 ; Pope of,
his Festal Letters, 53.
Alexandrian (Eutychian)
Liturgies, 146.
'Allege'= plead, 246, 249.
Alleluia, 77, 154.
'Allow'= approve, 218, 249.
All Saints' tfay, 132.
Alms, 183 ff. ; alms and obla
tions, 186 ff.
Altar, 168; in Institution
Office, 289.
Ambrose, St. (t397), 80, 286.
Ambrosian Liturgy, 146.
Amen, 74 ff., 107, 194.
American Prayer Book, 17
ff. ; changes from English,
21 ff., 70 ff,. etc. ; adopted
(1780), 22 ff. ; changes in,
24 ff. ; revision of (1880-
1892), 25 ff . ; standard of
1892, 26.
Anabaptism, 223.
Anaphora, 190.
Andrewes, Bp. of Winchester
(ti626),23, 287 s.
Angel, the Holy, 158.
Angelic Hymn, 197.
Anglican Orders, 278 ff.
Anointing ; see Unction.
Ante-Communion, 167.
Anthem, 47, 77, 92> l87-

Anthems ; see Hymns and
Anthems.
Antiphon, 107 and «., 254
ff., 262, 265 ff.
Antiphonal, 3.
'Apparent'=s evident, 114 «.
Army and Navy, prayers for,
272.
Articles of Religion, 3, 24,
290.
Athanasian Creed, 95 ff. ;
declaration de, 98, 99.
Ash-Wednesday, 58, 116, 126.
Augustine, St., of Canter
bury (t6o4), 6, 101.
Augustine, St., of Hippo
(t43°), 80, 227.

Baptism, Ministration of,
(Chap. IX) 209 ff. ; an
cient services, 210 ; private,
219; adult, 222; adult by
immersion, 223 ; hypothet
ical, 221, 225; deacon as
ministrant, 225 ; times for,
128, 130.
Bede, Venerable (t73S),i28.
Benedicite, 83.
Benedictine Rule, 65.
Benson, Abp. (ti8g6), 229.
Betrothal, 245 ; see Matri
mony.
Bible, Great, 4, 183, 275 ;
Authorized Version, 121 «.,
275 ; see Lessons, Epistles
and Gospels.
Bible, in Ordination, 281.
Bibliography, General, 29-34 ;
the Daily Offices, 94 ff . ;
the Christian Year, 137 ff. ;
the Communion Service

292

THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER

205-208 ; Baptism, 226 ; the
Catechism, 235 ^Confirma
tion, 243 ; Matrimony, 253 ;
Visitation of the Sick, 260 ;
the Psalter, 277 ff. ; the
Ordinal, 290.
'Bidding the bedes', 90.
Bishops, House of, advice as
to services, 74, 172 ff., 201.
'Bishoping', 272.
Black-letter days, 50.
Black Rubric, 16.
Body of the Church, 168, 247.
Book of Offices, proposed,
26, 27.
Bowing in the Creed, 89.
Bread for the Communion,
184 ff.
Breviary, 2 ; see Chap. Ill;
revision of, 67 ff.
Breviary use, 41- n.
Briefs, 181.
Burial of the Dead, (Chap.
XIV) 261 ff. ; service in
house, 265 ff. n., office for
infants, 269 ff.
Byzantine Liturgies, 145.

Calendar, 48 ff.
Candlemas, 126.
Canon, in office of Holy
Communion, 190.
Canonical hours, 64.
Catechism, 13, (Chap. X)
227 ff. ; proposed addition
to, 232 ff. ; Shorter, of
Westminster, 229.
Catechumens, 211 ff., 215,
227 ; admission of, 211 ff.
Chancel, 168.
Charles the Great (Charle
magne) (t8i4), 286.
Charles I, King (11649), '3 i
Prayer Book for Scotland,
Charles II, King (ti68s),
13 ; Prayer Book of, 13.

Child, age of, 216.
Childermas, 126.
Chrism, use of, in Baptism,
2ii, 213; in Confirmation,
238 ff . ; see Unction.
Chrisom, 213 ff ., 271 ; chrisom
child, 213 n.
Christmas, 124 ff. ; Sundays
after, 135.
Chrysostom, St. (1407),
Prayer of, 93, 108 ff.
Church (verb), 271 ff.
Church, Prayer for, 167 ; see
Intercession, the Great.
'Churches', for 'dioceses', 88.
Churching of Women, (in
Chap. XV) 271 ff.
Citations, 181.
Claggett, T. J., Bp. of Mary
land (ti8i6), 23,280.
Clement of Alexandria
(t2i7),245.
Clementine Liturgy, 144.
Coincidence of Holy-days,
133 £f-
Collect, the word, 117 ff.
Collects, in daily offices, 90,
91 ; for eves, 136 ; at end of
Communion service, 199
ff. ; sources of, 119 ff.
Collects, Epistles, and Gos
pels, (Chap. VI) 117 ff . ;
proposed, for Marriage,
253 ; former, for Burial,
263.
Comes, 121 ff.
' Comfortable ', ' Comforter ',
189, 240.
Comfortable Words, 189.
Commandments, the Ten,
161, 177 ff. ; in Catechism,
234-
Commination, 115.
Committal, at Burial, 268 ff.
Communion, Holy, 139; see
Holy Communion.
Communion, Order of the
(1548), 8.

INDEX

293

Communion of the Sick,
202 ff.
Communion service, postures
in, 173 ff.
Compline, 65, 66.
Concordate, Bp. Seabury 's,
164.
Confederate Prayer Book,
272 ff.
Confirmation, (Chap. XI)
236 ff. ; names in New
Testament, 236 ff. ; mean
ing of 'confirm', 238, 240;
' hands ' laid on, 237 ff. ;
Eastern use, 241 ; Roman
use, 239, 241 ; before first
Communion, 242 ; rubrics
at end of office, 242 ff.
Congress, Prayer for, 112.
Consecration, Prayer of, 23,
154 ff., 191 ff. ; see Holy
Communion ; second Con
secration, 195 ff.
Consecration of a Church,
23, (in Chap. XVII) 287 ff.
Continental Reformers, 1 1 .
Convention, Prayer for, 113.
Convention, General, 1785,
19; 1786, 20; 1789, 20, 21 ;
1880-1892, 25 ff.
Cosin, John, Bp. of Durham
(ti672), 113, 287.
Cotton, Bp. of Calcutta
(ti866), 113.
Coverdale, Miles, Bp.
(ti568),4, 183,275-
Coxe, Bp. of W. New York
(ti8g6), 124, 167 «., 270 n.
Cranmer, Abp. (ti556), 8,
14,67,68, 102, 108, 155 ff.,
160, 212, 281, 286 ; as trans
lator, 10, 121, 157 ; et saepe.
Creed, Apostles' and Nicene,
20, 85 ff. : rubric before for
mer, 87 ft. ; Athanasian, 20,
95 ff. ; interrogative, 211,
256 ; in Holy Communion,
180 ; at Burial, 266 ; in Bap

tism, 211, 217; at Ordina
tion, 279.
Cross, sign of, in Baptism,
213 ff . ; in Confirmation,
239 ff.
Credence, 187 ff.
Crowns, in Marriage, 245.
Curates, in cure of souls,
227 ff.
Cyprian, St. (t258), 152.
Cyril, Bp. of Jerusalem
(+386), M4. 227.

Daily offices, 65, 68 ff.
Deacon, as ministrant .of
Baptism, 225 ; of Matri
mony, 252 ff.
Deacon's Litany, 101, 108.
Departed, Commemoration
of, 14, 156, 188, 259.
Deprecations, in Litany, 105.
De Profundis, in Prisons, 78 ;
in Visitation of Sick, 259.
Directorium, 3.
Dirige, 262.
Divine Liturgy, 141 ; see Holy
Communion.
Divine Office, 64, 93.
Divine Service, 77.
Dominical Letters ; see Sun
day Letters.
Dowden, John, Bp. of Edin
burgh (tigio), 186.
Dower and dowry, 245.
Drake, Sir Francis (11596),
17- E
Easter-day, rule for deter-
termining, 53 ; dates of, 62 ;
name, 128.
Easter-even, 128; for bap
tisms, 211 ff.
Eastern Church, 'Greek
Easter', 62, 63.
East Syrian (Nestorian)
Liturgies, 145.

294

THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER

Eastward Position, for
Creeds, 89 ; in Communion
Service, 170, 171.
Edward VI, King (ti553), 8,
12 ; Prayer Books of, 8 ff.
Effeta (Ephphatha), 211,
213.
Elizabeth, Queen (1:603),
12, 104, 212, 221 ; Prayer
Book of, 12 ; Latin Prayer
Book of, 201.
Ember-days, 58.
Ember Prayers, 113.
English Prayer Book, 5 ff.,
et saepe ; editions of, 9-14.
Entrances, Little and Great,
'52-
Epiphany, 124.
Epistles and Gospels, 122
ff. ; see Collects ; announce
ment of, 179 ff.
Eucharist, 139, 289 ; see Holy
Communion.
Eutychians, 146.
Evening Prayer, (Chap. Ill)
64 ff. ; rubrics as to use,
71 ff.
Excommunication, 181, 264.
Exhortation, in daily offices,
73 ; in Holy Communion,
188; in baptism, 213; in
visitation of sick, 255.
Extreme Unction, 235 ; Ro
man and Eastern, 259 ; see
Unction.

Fair linen cloth, 168, 196.
Fald-stool, no, 271.
Family Prayers, 274.
Font, Benediction of, 214 ff.
Fourth of July, 274.
Full moon, ecclesiastical and
astronomical, 54 ff.

Gallican Liturgies, 146 ; see
Mozarabic.

Gelasius, Bp. of Rome
(t490), 119,257.
'General' Confession, 74;
Thanksgiving, 93.
Gibson, Edmund, Bp. of
London (11748), 274.
Gloria in excelsis, 79, 153,
161, 197 ff.
Gloria Patri, 79.
God's Board, 168.
Golden Numbers, 50 ff., 54.
Good Friday, and its Col
lects, 127 ff.
Gospel, see Epistles and Gos
pels ; at Baptism, 213, 223 ;
at Ordination, 279.
Gradual (Grail), 4, 154.
Great Bible, 4, 180, 275. ,
Great Doxology, 197.
Gregory, Bp. of Rome
(f6o4), 101, 119, 286.
Gunning, Bp. Peter (ti684),
93- H
Hampton Court Conference,
13, 221.
Harison, Dr. Francis (+1885),
61.
Henry VIII, King (ti547),
8, 102.
Hermann, Abp. of Cologne
(11552), 10, 104, 188, 213,
216, 239, 250 n.
Hippolytus of Rome (tc.240),
125.
Holy Communion, History
of the Office, (Chap. VII)
138 ff . ; Commentary on
the Office, (Chap. VIII)
166 ff . ; names, 138 ff . ;
earliest account, 142 ; earli
est liturgy, 144; families
of liturgies, 145; English
offices, 154 ff. ; American
office, 162 ff. ; Scottish
offices, 163 ff. ; see Adminis
tration, Communion of the

INDEX

295

Sick,"Oblation and Invoca
tion, Order of the Com
munion.
Holy-days (in Chap. VI); see
Coincidence.
Holy Table, 167; see Lord's
Table.
Holy Week, 127.
Hooker, Richard (ti6oo),
141.
Hosanna, 190.
Hours, Canonical, 65.
Humbie Access, Prayer of,
155, 191.
Huntington, Dr. William R.
(tigog), 25.
Hymns, 194, 197 ; Hymns and
Anthems, 47, 187.

Impediment to marriage,
249 ; to ordination, 280.
Indemnification, 249.
Intercession, the Great, 145,
155 ff.
Intercession, in Litany, 106.
Introits, 174 ff.
Institution of Ministers, 23,
(in Chap. XVID 287 ff.
Invocation ; see Oblation.
Invocations, 102 ff.; in Litany,
105.
Irish Prayer Book, 273.

James, St., Liturgy of, 145.
James I, King (ti625), 13,
163, 221 ; Prayer Book of,
13-
Jamestown, 17.
Jerome (Hieronymus), St.
(1420), 122.
Jewish Synagogue Worship,
64.
Justin Martyr (tc.160), 142,
193 ff., 210.

K
'Kindly', 104 and «.
Kiss of peace, 143, 252.
Kneeling in Hoiy Commun
ion, 16, 195.
Kyrie eleison, 101, 153 ff., 254,
269 ; see Lesser Litany.

Lady-day, 126.
Latin Prayer Book of Queen
Elizabeth, 201.
Laud, Abp. (11645), '3> II2
ff., 187.
Lauds, 65, 66, 68.
Lawful Minister, 220 ff.
Lay, Henry C, Bp. (ti88s),
45-
Lay Baptism; see Lawful
Minister.
Legenda, 3.
Lent, 126.
Leo, Bp. of Rome (t46i), 119.
Lesser Litany, 100, 178; see
Kyrie eleison.
Lesson in Confirmation, 237.
Lessons, Tables of, 43 ff .
Litany, 8, (Chap. IV) 100 ff. ;
of Mamertus, 100, 101 ; of
1544, 102 ; analysis of, 105
ff. ; at Ordination, 279.
Litany, Lesser, 100, 178.
Litany-days, 109.
Liturgies, families of, 145 ff . ;
comparative tables, 148 ff. ;
notes on, 152 ff.
Liturgy, 140 ff.; see Holy
Communion.
Lord's Prayer, 76; in Com
munion Office, 173 ff.
Lord's Supper, 138; see Holy
Communion.
Lord's Table, 167 ff.
M
M. and N., 249.
Mamertus, Bp. of Vienne,
(T477), 100.

2%

THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER

Man and wife, 253.
Manual, 2.
Mark, St., Liturgy of, 146.
Marriage, see Matrimony ;
Laws and Canon, 247 ff.
Mary, Queen (+1559), abol
ishes Prayer Book, 12.
Mass, 7, 139 ff.
Matins (Nocturns), 65, 66,
68, 69, 76 ; see Nocturns.
Matrimony, Solemnization
of, (Chap. XII) 244 ff.;
ancient ceremonies, 245 ;
words in service, 246, 250
ff . ; at church door, 247 ;
deacon as ministrant, 252 ff .
Maundy Thursday, 127.
Media vita, 267.
'Minister' and 'Priest', 75,
171, 196, 203.
Missa fidelium and Missa
catechumenorum, 166.
Missal, 2 ; see Liturgies.
Mixture of cup, 185.
Morning and Evening Pray
er, (Chap. Ill) 64 ff.; ru
brics as to use, 71 ff.
Mothering Sunday, 127.
MovableHoly-days,45,53,58.
Mozarabic Baptismal Office,
213, 214, 216.
Mozarabic Liturgy, 146, 154,
158, 191.
Muhlenberg, Dr. William A.
(ti877),24-
Mysteries, 139. N
N. or M., 231.
Nativity ; see Christmas.
Navy and Army, prayers for,
272.
Nestorians, 146.
Nicasa (Nice), Council of,
$3. 129-
Niceta, Bp. (tf.415), 80.
Nocturns (Matins), 65, 66,
68, 69.

Nones (noon), 65, 69.
Non-jurors' Liturgy, 162 ff.
Notices and warnings, 180 ff.
Notker of St. Gall (1912), 268.
Nowell, Alexander (fi6o2),
229. O
Oblation, First (Oblatio
Primitiarum), 184; includ
ing Alms, 187.
Oblation and Invocation, 23,
147 ff., 156 ff., 192 ff.
Obsecrations, in Litany, 106.
Offertory, 182.
Old Style and New Style,
61, 62.
Order of the Communion
(1548), 8, iiff.;i54ff.
Ordinal (Directorium) , 3.
Ordinal, 23, (Chap. XVII)
278 ff. ; changes in offices,
281 ff . ; modern Roman,
282 ff. ; reason for changes
in 1662, 285.
Ordinary, 38, 115.
Ornaments Rubric, 15.
Osmund, Bp. of Salisbury
(tioog), 147.
Overall, Bp. (+1619), 229.

Palm Sunday, 127.,
Pascha, 128.
Passion Sunday, Passion
Week, 127.
Patria potestas, 247.
Penitential Office, 115.
Pentecost (Whitsunday) , 59,
129.
Philadelphia, St. Peter's
Church, 171.
Pica (Pie), 3.
Placebo, 262.
Polycarp, St. (ti5S). "9-
Pontifical, 3 ; see Ordinal.
Porrectio instrumentorum,
282.

INDEX

297

Postures, in Communion-ser
vice, 172 ff.
Prayer Book, American, his
tory of, 17 ff. ; see American
Prayer Book.
Prayer Book, English, his
tory of, 5 ff. ; see English
Prayer Book.
Prayer Book, Irish ; see Irish
Prayer Book.
Prayer Book, Scottish ; see
Scotland, Scottish Liturgy.
Prayer of Consecration, 191
ff. ; at second Consecra
tion, 196 ; in Communion of
the Sick, 204.
Prayers to be used at Sea,
(in Chap. XV) 272 ff.
Prefaces, in Holy Commun
ion, 190 ; Preface, in Con
firmation, 240 ; to Ordinal,
280.
Presbyterianism, abolishes
Prayer Book, 13 ; see 285.
Priest, see Minister.
Prime, 65, 66, 69.
Primer, 7, 67.
Processional, 2; see Chap. IV.
' Pronounce '= proclaim, 246.
Proper Lessons ;see Lessons ;
for Lent, etc., 46.
Proper Prefaces, 190.
Proper Psalms, 39.
Prophecies, in the Liturgy,
122, 154.
Proposed Book (American) ,
20, 60, 87, 164, 274.
Proposed Revisions (Eng
lish), 14, 114.
Prose, 154, 267.
Prothesis, 152.
Provoost, Samuel, Bp. of
New York (ti8is),23.
Psalms, Psalter, (Chap.
XVI) 275 ff. ; use of, 40,
41 «., 67, 78 ; see Selections.
Puritans, 13, 14.
Puritans and lay-baptism, 221.

auartodecimans, 53, 56 n.
uatuor Tempora (Ember -
days), 59.
Quifiones, Quignon (11540),
and his Breviary, 10, 67.

Ratification, 35.
'Receive the Holy Ghost,'
282, 284.
Reconciliation of dying Peni
tent, 255.
Refection (Refreshment)
Sunday, 127.
Requiem, 262.
Reservation of elements for
Communion, 201 ff.
Reynolds, Bp. Edward
(I-1676), 93.
Right side of Lord's Table,
169 ff.
Ring in Matrimony, 245,
250 and n.
Rogation-days, 58, 101.
Rogation prayers, 113.
Roman Liturgy, 146 ff., 157
ff.
Rubric, Black, 16.
Rubrics, 36 n. ; as to use of
daily offices, 71 ff . ; see un
der each office.
Rubrics, disciplinary, 167,
284.
Rubrics, general, 36, 45.
S
Sacramentaries, 3; of Leo,
Gelasius, Gregory, 1 19.
Sacrament in voto, 204.
Saints' Days, 49, 57, "31. '33
ff. ; see Concurrence.
Salutation of house, 254.
Sanderson, Bp. of Lincoln
(1-1663), 272.
Sarum Use, g, 147, 2'3. «'*•
Savoy Conference, 13.

298

THE BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER

Scotland, Episcopacy in, 162
ff.; Prayer Book for, 13, 163.
Scottish Liturgy, 21, 22, 148,
162 ff., 178 ffT, 202.
Scripture Lessons ; see Les
sons.
Seabury, Bp. Samuel (ti7g6),
consecration, 18 ; Com
munion-office, 18, 164 ; re
vision of Prayer Book, 21
ff., 105 n., 148, 285 ff., et
saepe.
Sealing, in Baptism and Con
firmation, 210, 237.
Selections of Psalms, sug
gested use, 40.
Sequence, 154, 267.
Serapion, Bp. tfc.yjo), 258.
Sermon or Homily, 154, 182.
Sexts, 65, 6g.
Shrove-Tuesday, 126.
Sick, Communion of, 202 ff. ;
Visitation of, (Chap. XIII)
254 ff.
Smith, Dr. William, of Con
necticut (fl82l), 288.
Smith, Dr. William, of Phil
adelphia (ti8o3), 19, 55,
288 n.
Spirit, Gifts of the, 241.
Stationary days, no.
Special Prayers and Thanks
givings, (Chap. V) in ff.
Suffrages after the Creed,
89, 90 ; in Litany, 287.
Suicides, burial of, 264.
Sunday Letters, 49.
Sunday Services, 36.
Sursum corda, 152 ff., 190
and n.
Suspension from the Com
munion, 167.
Syrian Liturgies, 145 ff.

Table ; see Lord's Table.
Taylor, Bp. Jeremy (ti667),
114, 260.

Te Deum, 79 ff.
Ten Commandments, 177 ff. ;
see Commandments.
Tersanctus, 153, igo n.
Thanksgiving-day, 60, 78, 136;-
service for, 273 ff.
Third Services, 38.
Thomas k Becket, Abp.
(tii7o),4, 131.
Tierce, 65, 69.
Tillotson, Abp. (j-1694), 274.
Title-page, etc., 35.
Tract, 154.
Transfiguration, 28 n., 132.
Trinity-Sunday, 131.
Trisagion, 153, 268; see Ter
sanctus.
Triumphal Hymn, 153, 190.
Troper, 4.
'Troth', 250. U
Unction of the Sick, 255,
258 ff. ; in Baptism and
Confirmation, 210, 237 ; see
Chrism.

Veni, Creator Spiritus, 280,
286.
Versions of Coverdale and
Great Bible, 183 ; see Bible.
Vespers, 65, 66, 69.
Vestments, 15, 16.
Victoria, Queen (tiopi), 249.
Visitation of Prisoners, (in
Chap. XV) 273.
Visitation of the Sick, (Chap.

XIII) 254 ff . ; absolution
in, 257 fL ;
258 ff. ; Creed in, 256.

. ; unction in, 255,

W

Walton, Izaak (ti683), 229.
Warden, Senior, 289.
Warnings, 202.
Washington, President
(t 1 799). 92-

INDEX

299

'Wealth'=prosperity, 105.
'Wee bookies', 163,
West Syrian Liturgies, 145.
White, Bp. William (11836),
consecration, 21 ; revision
of Prayer Book, 20 ff., 174,
285 ff., et saepe.
Whitsunday, 129 ff.
Whitsun-eve, for baptisms,
212.
William and Mary (King and
Queen (ti702), (ti694), 14,
274 ; proposed version of
Prayer Book, 14, 114.
Wills, 256 ff.

Wine, for the Communion,
mixture with water, 185.
'Word and Holy Spirit', 102 ff.
'Worship', in English Mar
riage service, 246.
Wren, Bp. Matthew (ti667),
114. X
Ximenes, Cardinal (T1597),
146 ; see Mozarabic.

Zante, 145.

• NE QUID PEREA T "