The Church Year and Kalendar

by John Dowden

In the Prayer Book of 1559 ‘Barnabe Ap.’ reappears; the astronomical notes are somewhat fuller, and the hours of the rising and setting of the sun at certain dates are recorded.

As regards the black-letter days in the present Kalendar of the Church of England we have first to call attention to the Latin Prayer Book issued by the authority of Elizabeth in April 1560. It seems to have been ready for the press as early as Aug. 11, 1559. Its Kalendar is adorned with a great crowd of black-letter saints; and there are but few days blank. In 1561 appeared a new Kalendar in English, the work of Ecclesiastical Commissioners acting upon a royal letter. The Commissioners were directed to peruse the order of the lessons throughout the year, and to cause some new Kalendars to be imprinted, ‘whereby such chapters or parcels of less edification may be removed, and others more profitable may supply their rooms.’ As a matter of fact the Commissioners went beyond their instructions, and inserted in the Kalendar the names of black-letter saints almost as they were a century later approved by Convocation in 1661. These were inserted in the later issues of Elizabeth’s Prayer Book.

After the accession of James I the Birth-Day of Queen Elizabeth ceased to appear in the Kalendar at Sept. 7, and St Enurchus takes its place.

The only changes made in 1661 were the addition of Ven. Bede (May 27), St Alban (June 17), and the continuance of St Enurchus (Sept. 7), together with the shifting (probably through mistake) of St Mary Magdalene from July 22 to July 21.

With regard to the date of St Mary Magdalene a reference to the photo-zincographic facsimile of the Black-Letter Prayer Book, in which corrections were made at the last revision, will show at once how easily the scribe who copied from this book might make the mistake.

St Enurchus, who had appeared in this form of the name in the Prayer Book of 1604, and still earlier in the Kalendar of the Preces Privatae (which had been issued, as Regia authoritate approbatae, in 1564), is obviously a faulty form, arising from an error of transcription, for St Euurtius. The first letter u, after the initial E, was read as n (the confusion of u and n is one of the most frequent of the errors of copyists), and the ti (in a manner not surprising to those familiar with sixteenth century script) was apparently read as ch. It may be added that Bede and Alban had also appeared in the Kalendar of the Preces Privatae. We have stated that St Enurchus appears in the Kalendar of the Prayer Book of 1604, and it was introduced then as the only addition to the black-letter saints of the Kalendar of 1561. It is perhaps impossible to account for its introduction; but the conjecture has been offered that it was inserted to fill the gap caused by the omission of the Nativity of Queen Elizabeth which had formerly occupied Sept. 7[176].

The above are not the only errors of our present Kalendar. The revisers of 1661 added explanatory comments to the names of the saints, and in doing so have sometimes blundered. Thus they found ‘Cyprian’ at Sept. 26, and they added ‘Archbishop of Carthage and Martyr.’ If they had taken the trouble to look at the old Sarum or York Kalendars they would have seen that the Cyprian commemorated on this day was the converted magician of Antioch. This error is probably to be traced to Cosin’s Devotions (1627).

It must be confessed that the black-letter saints of the modern English Kalendar form by no means an ideal presentation of the worthies and heroes of the Church Catholic. The Bishop of Salisbury (J. Wordsworth) has some admirable remarks on the future reform of our English Kalendar in his Ministry of Grace (pp. 421-425).

Certain errors in the placing of the Golden Numbers in the Kalendar of the Prayer Book of 1662 for the month of January were soon discovered. They are noticed in Nicholl’s Commentary on the Book of Common Prayer (1712).

Among the red-letter days of 1662 were ‘King Charles. Martyr’ (Jan. 30), ‘King Charles II. Nativity and Restoration’ (May 29), ‘Papists’ Conspiracy’ (Nov. 5). These days have the authority of the Act of Uniformity of 1662, all of them appearing in the Book annexed to the Act. On the authority of a Royal Warrant (Jan. 17, 1859), the legal sufficiency of which has been questioned, these days have ceased to be entered in the Kalendars of modern Prayer Books.