1661.
The second portion or main substance of the Morning Service, from the Lord's Prayer to the three collects, is derived obviously from different sources. The Versicles are taken from the Sarum Use, and other old offices. The version of the Psalter is that of Cranmer's Bible, 1539. The Lessons were substituted for the numerous, but brief Scripture sections of the Breviary, the Apocrypha being occasionally used. The Te Deum is an old canticle of Gallic origin;[284] the Benedicite is the Song of the Three Children, a Greek addition to the third chapter of Daniel; the Apostles' Creed is taken from the Anglo-Saxon office of Prime; and, as to the other creeds, we may add, that the Nicene was sung at Mass, after the Gallican Use; the Athanasian was sung in the Matin offices.[285]
The Litany may be regarded as a distinct service. It is a very old form of devotion, differing somewhat in different countries. The Invocation of Saints was removed by the Reformers; and in the compilation of its numerous sentences, along with the Sarum ritual, the Consultation of Hermann, the reforming Archbishop of Cologne (1543), was extensively employed.[286] The collects and short prayers come from various sources; many of them from the Sacramentary of Gregory, and some from that of Gelasius; others were drawn from ancient models, but much altered; several were new. The few Occasional Prayers in the books of 1552 and 1559 were, like those added in the revision of 1661–2, new compositions arising out of existing circumstances.
CONVOCATION.
The Communion Service, or Liturgy proper, was derived from the Missal, expurgated of course. The second Prayer Book of Edward, in that respect, was a decided improvement on the first. It omits even an implied oblation of the consecrated elements, and simply expresses the oblation of the worshippers—the difference of oblation being one grand difference between the Romish and Protestant Eucharist. The second Book also omits the commemoration of "the most blessed Virgin Mary," with the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs, contained in the first. Other alterations were made of a decidedly Protestant character in the time of Edward. The Prayer Book of 1559 indicates certain retrograde changes. The omission of the thoroughly Protestant declaration respecting the Lord's Supper in the Book of 1552, is very significant. It may be added, however, that Bishops Grindal and Horn, when writing to Bullinger and Gaulter, assured them that the declaration "continued to be most diligently declared, published and impressed upon the people."[287]
The Baptismal Service was founded upon formularies, priestly and pontificial, in the Sarum offices. Certain idle ceremonies were omitted, but the order of making catechumens, the blessing of the font, and the form of baptizing, as constituted in the mediæval Church, were adopted by the Reformers. There are also in the service plain traces of the influence of Bucer and Melancthon, through Hermann's Consultation. The first prayer was originally composed by Luther. The thanksgiving after the rite is a much stronger expression of the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, than the ancient Gallic form of words from which it seems to be derived.[288]
1661.
These imperfect notices show how carefully the Reformers retained what they considered most precious in the ancient records of Christian devotion; how reverently they looked on words which had been vehicles for ages, of the service of song and the offering of prayer. This conservative element—connected with a prudential policy lest offence should be given to semi-Protestants, when it could by any means be avoided—appears to many an admirer of the Liturgy in the present day to have been a snare, betraying the compilers into the retention of some things which marred the beauty of their work, and really caused it to narrow "the Communion of Saints" in the kingdom of England. Others think far otherwise. For my own part I would say that as the sources whence the Book was compiled are so numerous and so ancient, belonging to Christendom in the remotest times—as there is in it so little that is really original, so little that belongs to the Reformed Episcopal Church in England, any more than to other Churches constrained by conscience to separate from Rome—the bulk of what the Book contains, including all that is most beautiful and noble, like hymns which, by whomsoever written, are sung in Churches of every name, ought to be regarded as the rightful inheritance of any who believe in the essential unity of Christ's Catholic Church, and can sympathize in the devotions of a Chrysostom, a Hilary, and an Ambrose.
CONVOCATION.
Such was the Book which Convocation had now to examine and revise, in connection with necessities which had been felt ever since the Reformation, and which had greatly increased during the seventeenth century.