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Full text of "Edward VI and the Book of common prayer : an examination into its origin and early history with an appendix of unpublished documents"

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EDWARD VI 



AND THE 



BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 



J -^ C^^-< 0_^07, 




THE EASY CHAIR 



NOTES AND ASIDES. 

There was a prayer in the Prayer-book oi 
Edward VI., long since removed, that might 
well be re- inserted in these days of rapa 
cious landlords. It was to be found among 
" Sundry Godly Prayers for Divers Pur 
poses," under the title "A Prayer for 
Landlords." It was a* follows: 

We heartily ptray Thee to send Thy Holy 
Spirit into the hearts of them that possess 
the grounds aiiid (pastures of the earth, that 
they, remembering themselves to be Thy 
tenants, may not rack or stretch out the 
rents of their houses or lands, nor yet take 
niirea&ona'blo fines or moneys after the 
manner of >covetous worldlings, but so let 
them out, that the inhabitants thereof may 
be able to pay the rents and to live and 
nourish their families and remember the 
M-. Give them grace also to consider that 
they >are but strangers and pilgrims in this 
world, having here no dwelling-place, but 
king one to come; that they, remember 
ing the short continuance of this life, may 
be content with that which is sufficient, and 
not join -house to house and land to land, 
to the impoverishment of others, but so 
behave themselves in letting their tenements, 
lands, and pastures that after this life they 
may be received into everlasting habitations. 
A marvellously apt prevision. 




Facsimile 1. (frontispiece}. 
First page nf the Breviary scheme, showing corrections by Cnmmer. (MS. Reg. 7 P.. IV f. 133:1). 



EDWARD VI 



AND THE 



BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 



AN EXAMINATION INTO ITS ORIGIN AND EARLY 



HISTORY WITH AN APPENDIX OF 
UNPUBLISHED DOCUMENTS. 



BY 



FRANCIS AID AN GASQUET D.D. O.S.B., 

AUTHOR OF "HENRY viu. AND THE ENGLISH MONASTERIES' 

AND EDMUND BISHOP. 



Second Edition. 



JOHN HODGES, 

AGAR STREET, CHARING CROSS, LONDON. 
1891. 



PRINTED AT NIMEGL'EN (HOLLAND) B7 11. C. A. T11IEME OF NIMEGUEN (HOLLAND) 

AND 
14 B1LLITER SQUARE BUILDINGS. LONDON E. C. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

TO THE READER. VII 

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. IX 

Chapter I. CHURCH SERVICES AT THE DEATH or 

HENRY vni 1 16 

II. CRANMER'S PROJECTED BREVIARY . . . . 17 29 

III. CRAMMER'S SECOND PROJECT 30 39 

a IV. PREPARATION FOR CHANGE 40 62 

V. THE PARLIAMENT AND CONVOCATION 1547. 63 81 

VI. THE COMMUNION BOOK 82 96 

VII. PROCLAMATIONS AND PREACHINGS .... 97 117 

a VIII. THE PRESS ON THE MASS 118 133 

a IX. THE NEW LITURGY: TIME, PLACE, PERSONSETC. 134147 

X. CONVOCATION AND THE PRAYER BOOK . . 148 156 
XL THE DEBATE ON THE SACRAMENT IN PARLIA 
MENT 1548 157 181 

a XII. THE FIRST ENGLISH BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 182 215 
a XIII. THE PRAYER BOOK OF 1549 AND CONTEM 
PORARY LITURGIES 216 235 

XIV. THE RECEPTION OF THE NEW SERVICE . . 236 258 

a XV. FURTHER PROJECTS 259276 

XVI. THE REVISION OF THE PRAYER BOOK 1552 277 307 



APFJENDIX. 

PAGE. 
"I. ACCOUNT OF MS. REG. 7 B. IV 311 314 

II. CRANMER'S BREVIARY SCHEME 315352 

III. CRANMER'S SCHEME FOR MORNING ANDEVENING PRAYER 353 382 

IV. THE LECTIONARIES AND CALENDARS 383 394 

V. THE DEBATE ON THE SACRAMENT IN PARLIAMENT 1548. 395 443 

VI. THE WORDS OF INSTITUTION 444 448 

VII. NOTE ON THE ACTS OF CONVOCATION 1547 . . 449 451 



TO THE READER. 



The present work had its origin in the desire to 
edit Cranmer's hitherto unnoticed projects of litur 
gical reform printed in the appendix. In the researches 
necessary for this purpose, it was found that the 
history of the religious changes under Edward VI 
had in some points become involved in much and 
seemingly unnecessary obscurity. It therefore appeared 
desirable to present the story of the origin of the 
Book of Common Prayer as a whole. Other docu 
ments were found which had escaped the attention 
of previous writers and amongst these the notes of the 
discussion in Parliament preceding the introduction 
of the first Act of Uniformity. This document affords 
new details in the history of the Prayer Book, and 
gives the only reliable information about the views 
entertained by the english bishops on the subject. 
Apart from this, the "Notes" are of considerable 
interest as being the earliest report of a debate in 
Parliament. 



Though treating of liturgy the object of the work 
is strictly historical. Unless a clear and intelligible 
idea can be gained of the liturgical changes in the 
reign of Edward VI. it is impossible to understand 
a period which is the turning point in the religious 
history of England. 

The authors desire to record their thanks to the 
authorities of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, for 
permission to use the manuscripts in their library. 
To the Rev. S. S. Lewis M. A. the librarian, in par 
ticular, they are indebted for his special kindness 
to them. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



The first edition of this book was issued with only 
a few words of introduction. In putting forth a second 
some further prefatory remarks seem to be called for. 

Regret has been expressed in more than one 
quarter that the entire manuscript containing Cran- 
mer's projects for liturgical reform had not been 
printed. The reason is simple; the appendix contains 
everything of real historical interest. What remains 
still unprinted may afford some scope for minute 
antiquarian investigation or some subject for specula 
tion. The lessons of the second scheme in particular 
might invite remark: for instance the already advanced 
character of the proposed english liturgical reform 
may be further illustrated by the disuse of the 
Vulgate. Cranmer's erasure of St. Babilas from 
the calendar is doubtless explained by the story of 
this martyr, the proposed lesson, derived from 
St. Chrysostom's longer homily on the subject, scarcely 
according with the Tudor idea of the due relation 
between regality and the priesthood. The lesson for 
St. Gordias, although referred in the manuscript to 
St. Basil, shows that Cranmer did not disdain the 
help of a then recent hagiologist. But the result of 
such detailed enquiries, whatever it be, will have no 
effect whatever in varying, though it might here or 



there deepen, the historical lines already sufficiently 
clear. 

As regards the hymns, to the omission of which 
in the appendix special attention has been called, 
it seemed unnecessary to print them in full. For 
the most part they are well known, and are to be 
found in the breviaries in daily use. The only point 
of real interest, namely, that Cranmer, as appears 
from minute variants, took his text from the 
volume of Clichtoveus and not from the old breviaries, 
has been already indicated. 

In these circumstances it still seems best to leave 
the appendix as it stood in the first edition. Liturgi- 
cally, Cranmer's still-born projects are of no value ; 
and it is believed that their historical interest has 
been practically exhausted. 

The notices which this book has received have 
suggested a few observations on one or two points 
of detail. 

I. Convocation. 

Special interest has been manifested in the question 
as to the approval of the Book of Common Prayer 
of 1549 by Convocation. The object of the examin 
ation of this question in these pages was to elucidate 
an obscure and doubtful point of history and to 
enable the reader, so far as was possible, to come 
to a probable conclusion. In estimating the proba 
bilities due weight hardly seems to have been given 
to the evidence against such approval drawn from 
the discussion on the Sacrament in Parliament l . It 
is true that the argumentum e silentio is continually 
abused, but it does not follow that it has not its 

1 See p. 181 (5). 



XP 

due and proper use. In the present case it seems 
almost impossible to believe that had Convocation 
actually and formally approved the Prayer Book, 
Somerset, placed in the position into which Thirlby 
had forced him, could have maintained silence as to 
such approval. The authors must own that to them 
this argument seemed finally conclusive and it conse 
quently appeared unnecessary to burden their pages 
with further discussions. 

To those, however, who are particularly interested 
in the subject, it is proper to point out that the 
treament of Convocation by the governing powers 
in the reign of Edward VI. forms a consistent 
whole and has a history of its own. In dealing 
with any special part of that history the whole 
must be borne in mind. 

The matter is well illustrated by what took place 
in 1552. The relation of Convocation to the catechism 
and articles set forth under its name in 1553 is obscure, 
but a comparison of the scanty records which remain 
make the following results almost certain: 

(1) The articles and catechism were submitted to 
the bishops l . 

(2) They were never submitted to the lower house 
of Convocation. 

(3) But "sundry others of our clergy", a small select 
body, all or many of them members of Convocation, 
had a hand in the matter. 

(4) As a result they were printed by the king's autho 
rity as the work of Convocation " agreed upon by the 
bishops and other learned and godly men, in the 
last Convocation at London in the year of our Lord 
1552". 



1 Burnet's "brought into the upper house" is more precise 
than the evidence warrants. 



XII 

(5) When the matter was objected to Cranmer in 
his disputation at Oxford in 1554, he replied u I was 
ignorant of the setting to of that title and as soon 
as I had knowledge thereof I did not like it. Therefore 
when I complained thereof to the Council it was 
answered me by them that the book was so entitled 
because it was set forth in the time of the Convo 
cation " l . 

The various steps taken in regard to the articles 
and catechism thus bear a close resemblance to the 
course followed in regard to the Prayer Book in 1548. 
The answer of the Council to the archbishop's 
objection to the catechism and articles being issued 
as if with the approval of Convocation is perhaps 
sufficient evidence of the justice and moderation of 
the remark, that to examine closely into the terms 
of official documents is "a process not unnecessary 
in a period marked by so many doubtful dealings 
on the part of the rulers ". 

In fact it is clear that the abolition of Convocation 
was one of the items of general policy determined upon 
in the early days of this reign, and that in practice the 
aim of the rulers was to discredit its authority, 
impair its influence and supersede it generally by in 
formal committees wholly dependent on themselves. 
All this was only a preparation for its final destruc 
tion provided for in the archbishop's Reformatio 
legum ecclesiasticarum 2 . 



1 See Burnet III. 1. 210213. The original passages relating 
to the subject are: Foxe VI. 468; Ridley's Works, Parker Soc. 
2167; Philpot's Works, Parker Soc. p. 179181 (cf. p. XIII) 
See also Burnet, III. 2. 205 - 6. Brooke's sermon contains nothing 
more on the subject than the few lines extracted by Burnet. 

- This explains the profound resentment which animated 
members of Convocation against Cranmer on the accession of Mary. 



XIII 

II. The Mozarabic Missal. 

It seems unnecessary either to enlarge or to 
modify what has been already said on the subject 
(pp. 1856, 2067 and 444-8). It would be easy 
but hardly profitable to discuss more minutely the 
subsidiary questions that have been raised. 

The bearing of the possible intercourse between 
Spain and England consequent on the marriage of 
Katherine was obvious and had not escaped atten 
tion, but the difficulty was to discover satisfactory 
evidence of literary intercourse in Henry's reign l . 

Even on the supposition that Cranmer possessed, 
or had access to, a copy of this liturgy, the only 
conclusion that can be drawn is, that in a volume 
of nearly 1900 folio columns of print, a missal, he 
found as proper for his purpose in the compilation 
of his new Prayer Book only one column it may 
be a line or two more or less and that not relating 
to the mass, but to the blessing of the font. 

III. The Isidorean Theory. 

To the influence of the Spanish rites on the com 
pilation of the Book of Common Prayer as much 
space has been allotted in this book as the matter 
in its historical bearings could warrant. Indeed the 
whole subject would seem to have assumed a 
fictitious importance. Still, as it has been touched 
upon again, it is perhaps useful to deal with a 



1 For instance in the king's library in 1542 only three Spanish 
books appear. As they are interesting in themselves it may be 
as well to mention them : " Dantis works in the castilian tongue " 
" Triumphes of Petrarch in castilian"- " Salustius with songis 
in Spanyssh" (R. 0. Augt. Off. Misc. Bk. 160 ff. 109a, 114b, 



XIV 



kindred theory, which the authors had previously 
examiued, but which, on a review of the whole 
circumstances appeared to them devoid of any 
foundation in fact. 

This theory is the influence supposed to have been 
exercised by St. Isidore of Seville on the revision 
of the Anglican Prayer Book in 1552. The impression 
on this subject is most conveniently expressed in a 
document which from its character has naturally 
obtained the widest circulation. 

"In A. D. 1534" runs the passage "was printed at 
Leipsic and Antwerp, edited by Joannes Cochleus, 
the treatise and revision by Isidore of Seville of 
that form of Gallican liturgy called the Mozarabic, 
as used in the 6th and 7th centuries and long 
before (Isid. Hispal. De off. EccL, Lips. 4to., Antv. 
Svo., 1534). This work was dedicated to Dr. Robert 
Ridley, uncle of Bishop Ridley. In the dedication 
Craumer himself is named as 'vir eruditus et 
theologus insignis.' It naturally excited much atten 
tion ; it is quoted by several of the chief Reform 
ers. Scholars are now investigating the large use 
of it made in other parts of the books of both 
1549 and 1552. It was the more notable because 
Cardinal Ximenes had in 1500 refounded the use in 
Spain in such amplified form as was then possible, 
which is not so sure to have come under Cranmer's 
notice. Both forms give evidence which is to the 
point. A mixed cup was used, but in the ancient 
form there is no order and no prayer for mixing. 
In the later, the rubric and prayers are included in 
the prceparatio which had in the interval grown up 
before the Introit and Ante- Communion (Burbidge 
196, 202, etc.)" 1 



In the Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Bead and 



In the foregoing passage the two " forms 1 ' mentioned 
are : 

(1) the Mozarabic missal : and 

(2) St. Isidore's tract entitled de officiis ecclesiasticis. 
The theory to be examined is based on this latter 

and has nothing to do with the Mozarabic missal 
which has been dealt with. 

The character of this tract must be first clearly 
understood. It is not a liturgy in any sense, but 
an exposition and often a mystical interpretation 
of ecclesiastical life and practice. In order that the 
reader may be put in full possession of the reasons 
adduced for believing that St. Isidore was a guide 
to the reformers in the revision of the english 
liturgy of 1552, the entire chapter of the work in 
question is here translated and Mr. Burbidge's- 
arguments are given in the margin. 

ST. ISIDORE. REMARKS. 

Book I. chapter 15. Of the 
mass and Prayers. 

But the order of the 
mass and prayers by which 
the sacrifices offered to 
God are consecrated was 
first instituted by St. 
Peter; the celebration of 
which the whole world 
observes (peragit) in one 
and the same way. 

The first of these is a This " may be compared 
prayer of admonition with the english exhor- 
toward the people that tation ' dearly beloved 



others v. the Lord Bishop of Lincoln. Judgment. Nov. 21, 1890 
(London, 1890). 



XVI 



they may be stirred up 
to entreat God. 



in the Lord'; and the 
words fratres chanssimi 
are in it in almost every 
service ". (Liturgies and 
offices of the Church. By 
Edward Burbidge, M.A. 
p. 198. Note 1). 



The second is of invo 
cation to God that he 
would graciously receive 
the prayers of the faithful 
and their oblation. 

The third is poured 
forth for those who are 
offering or for the faith 
ful departed that they may 
obtain pardon through the 
same sacrifice. 



"The second and third 
prayers take the place of 
our prayer for the Church 
militant. Special notice 
should be paid to the fact 
that the prayer for the 
Church was thus separ 
ated from the consecra 
tion prayer" ibid, note 2). 



After these the fourth 
is introduced that all 
reconciled to each other 
in charity may be united 
together as worthy of the 
Sacrament of the body 
and blood of Christ. For 
the indivisible body of 
Christ does not permit in 
dividual discord. 

The fifth is brought in 
as an introduction to the 
sanctification of the obla 
tion, in which also all 



u The fourth prayer may 
be compared in respect of 
its position and intention 
with our invitation, con 
fession, absolution, and 
comfortable words'' 1 (ibid. 
note 3). 



" Thefifth prayer corres 
ponds with our preface, 



XVII 



earthly creatures and 
heavenly powers are sum 
moned to the praising of 
God; and Hosanna in 
excelftis is sung, because, 
by the birth of Our Sa 
viour from the race of 
David, salvation has come 
to the world, even to the 
highest. 

Moreover the sixth now 
follows, the confirmation 
of the Sacrament, in order 
that the oblation of 
the body and blood 
which is offered to God, 
being sanctified by the 
Holy spirit, may be con 
firmed. 

The last of these prayers 
is that which Our Lord 
taught his disciples to 
pray, saying: Our Father 
who art in heaven. 



[Here follows in the 
tract a short exposition 
of the Lord's prayer which 



Sanctus and prayer of 
consecration" ibid, note 4). 



a The sixth prayer may 
be compared in respect to 
the contents of many exam 
ples of it 1 with our prayer 
of humble access 11 (.p 199 
note I) 2 . 



1 These be it remarked can only be known in the Mozarabic 
missal itself and not by the tract of St. Isidore. 

2 At p. 201 the author calls attention to the difference 
between St. Isidore and the Anglican communion service ; namely 
that this sixth prayer is omitted. 



XVIII 

need not be translated 
as having no bearing on 
the present discussion. It 
ends:] Our Saviour there 
fore taught this prayer, 
in which is contained the 
hope of the faithful and 
the confession of sins, 
whereof the prophet fore 
telling says, Et erit etc. 
These then are the seven 
prayers of the sacrifice 
commended by apostolic 
and evangelical doctrine. 
The reason of instituting 
the particular number 
seems to be either because 
of the sevenfold univer 
sality of the holy Church, 
or on account of the seven 
fold graces of the Spirit, 
by whose gift those things 
which are offered are sanc 
tified." 



The foregoing presents to the reader the suggested 
guide of archbishop Cranmer in his reform of the 
Anglican liturgy of 1552 and the arguments by which 
that theory is supported. These invite some com 
ment. It will be observed that it is entirely founded 
on a question of order, not upon a comparison of 
formularies. The similarity even of order breaks 
down at the very beginning. St. Isidore places first 
a prayer of admonition toward the people and 
secondly a prayer of invocation that God may receive 



XIX 



the prayers of the faithful. The Communion service 
of 1552 reverses this order. 

In the next place the question is not whether the 
prayers mentioned by St. Isidore " may be compared 
with," or "correspond with", or "take the place of," 
certain portions of the Anglican communion service; 
but whether the revisers of 1552 took the order of 
prayers given in this tract of St. Isidore as their 
pattern. 

It may however be further asked, whether the 
general character of the tract is such as to recom 
mend it to the particular and favourable consider 
ation of Cranmer. Ample materials exist for forming 
a correct judgment as to his opinions at this period 
year after year. Moreover the whole tenour of his 
ecclesiastical acts are well-known. The question 
therefore is, how would the doctrine and tone of 
St. Isidore's work accord with the temper and bent 
of Cranmer's mind at this period. The first chapter 
deals with the component parts of the divine office, 
with its hymns and antiphons and reponsories, 
which Cranmer had just set aside. It treats of the 
canonical hours, matins and lauds, tierce, sext, none, 
vespers and compline, which Cranmer considered the 
church had now outgrown. St. Isidore also deals with 
those lesser orders of subdeacon, lector etc., all which 
were now abolished in the church of England. 

Turning to details the tract is found to be replete 
with doctrine condemned by Cranmer in no measured 
terms. The offertories, for example which, as St. 
Isidore says, under the old law were chaunted 
when the victims were immolated, we joyfully sing 
"in that true sacrifice by the blood of which the 
world has been saved". In his chapter on the sacrifice 
he begins : " The sacrifice that is offered by Christians 
to God our Lord and Master, Christ instituted when 



XX 

He gave to His apostles His body and blood before 
He was betrayed". 

Again. u We believe that it is a tradition from 
the very apostles themselves to offer sacrifice for 
the repose of the faithful departed and to pray for 
them, because this is observed throughout the whole 
world". Further, St. Isidore mentions the fires of 
purgatory, and he distinguishes clearly between the 
sacrifice of the altar and the sacrifice of our prayers, 
referring this latter to offices such as vespers. 

There can be no doubt therefore that the whole 
of St. Isidore's work runs directly counter to the line 
of ecclesiastical policy which Cranmer and his friends 
were forcing on the nation during Edward's reign ; 
and that he could not have looked to it as a guide 
in the revision of the Communion Service of 1552. 
The key to this the authors believe is to be found 
in Cranmer's own works. 

The study of liturgy can be pursued usefully and 
fruitfully only on those rational methods which 
should govern all historical investigation. In the case 
of a document like the Book of Common Prayer it is 
a dictate of common-sense that any examination 
of its origin and sources should be conducted with 
a primary regard to the circumstances in which, and 
the opinions of the persons by whom, it was produced. 
In a word it must be put in its proper historical 
setting and illustrated from the writings of those 
who composed it, or their friends, and not by the 
productions of those centuries the doctrine and prac 
tice of which it was the avowed aim and intention 
of its authors to destroy. 



CHAPTER I. 

CHURCH SERVICE AT THE CLOSE OF HENRY'S REIGN. 



The first Convocation of clergy in the reign of 
Edward VI. met at St. Paul's on November 5, 1547. 
The lower house immediately upon their assembling 
"agreed that the prolocutor in the name of the 
whole house should report to the most Reverend 1 ' 
the archbishop of Canterbury certain petitions, 
among which w r as the following: "that the labours 
of the bishops and others, who by command of Con 
vocation had been engaged in examining, reforming 
and setting forth (et edendo) the divine service should 
be produced and should be submitted to the exami 
nation of this house". 

Archbishop Cranmer's notes of this meeting show 
some important variations from the official record 
on this matter. According to his version, the clergy 
declared that "by command of king Henry VIII." 
certain prelates and learned men were "appointed.,., 
to devise a uniform order; who according to the 
same appointment did make certain books, as they 
be informed". And the object of their request was, 
according to Cranmer's statement, that these books 
should be submitted to them "for a better expedi 
tion of divine service to be set forth accordingly" 1 . 

1 This statement may perhaps in part have been drawn 
from, or suggested by, the address of the Prolocutor; the con- 

B 



2 Church Service at the close of Henry's reign. 

What the result of this application may have been 
does not appear; nor does mention of these books 
occur in any other record. It has been tacitly assumed 
that if they did indeed exist, they have disappeared. 
Convocation however, was in fact accurately inform 
ed when it spoke of their existence: and for the 
last three hundred years in all probability such a 
book has lain among the manuscripts of the Royal 
library. The identification of the volume removes 
one of the difficulties which has hitherto stood in 
the way of any satisfactory investigation into the 
origin and character of the first Prayer Book of 
Edward VI. 

Up to the present time there has been an entire 
want of material to illustrate the history and course 
of the composition of this book, and of the steps 
whereby it assumed its present form. There has been 
nothing but the book complete as it stands in print. 
The spirit which dictated and directed the compila 
tion has been a matter of conjecture, coloured not 
infrequently, as is natural in such a case, by the 
personal prepossessions of the writer. This is the more 
unfortunate, since a just estimate of the character of 
a document of such supreme importance is a first 
and necessary condition for a right understanding 
of the history of the religious changes in England 
during the sixteenth century. . 

The first Prayer Book of Edward VI. was in itself 
a revolution; and that on two grounds. Local and 
diocesan usage of every sort was swept away and 
an absolute uniformity was prescribed for the whole 
realm, - - a thing unheard of in the ancient Catholic 
church in England no less than in France and Ger- 

flict of statement as to the king's commandment and the com 
mand of Convocation certainly cannot be thus explained. 



Church Service at the dose of Henry s reign. 3 

many. This note of uniformity is struck emphatic 
ally in the Act itself, which also declares the peace 
and quiet to be engendered by the change. Secondly, 
a book was introduced, the form and disposition of 
which was unlike any hitherto in use for public 
worship in England. 

Whether a nearer examination would show that 
the divergence is rather one of outward seeming 
than of reality is a matter involving many conside 
rations. Amongst these must necessarily find a place 
the following: what position does the first Prayer 
Book hold in regard to the ancient service books in 
England, or other contemporary documents of the 
same kind"? Is it conservative 1 ? Is it innovating? 
And how far is it either? What was its inspiration? 
What were its sources? Unfortunately all these 
questions have become involved in extraneous and 
notably polemical considerations. These, as all will 
allow, are hardly favourable to the investigation or 
exposition of bare historic truth. But, in spite of 
these, it should not be impossible to fix, with a 
sufficient degree of accuracy and certainty, the position 
which the Prayer Books of Edward VI. really hold 
in the religious history of the time; especially when 
new documents can be produced to make the task 
more easy or the result more sure. 

No attempt will be made to enquire whether the 
change brought about was good or whether it was 
bad. The present investigation is concerned with 
facts, and where doctrinal questions must be touched 
upon to elucidate the mere course of events or 
change of individual opinion, the actors will be 
allowed to give their own statements of their own 
beliefs. Thus the enquiry whether this revolution, 
which swept away the old order and established 
in its place the liturgy now holding the affection 



4 Church Service at the close of Henry s reign. 

of the majority of Englishmen, was providential, or 
whether it was a revolt against established law, is- 
altogether foreign to the present purpose. 

As a prelude it is necessary to have a clear under 
standing of the condition of public worship at the 
end of the reign of Henry VIII. Looking back across 
the course which events actually took in the estab 
lishment of an exclusively vernacular service in 
England, there has been a tendency to attribute an 
undue importance to the Primers or other prayer books 
in English issued in the later years of that reign. 
Vernacular prayers for private use were common in 
the middle ages, and the contents of the primers, 
which were essentially designed for such private devo 
tion, fall almost entirely outside the ground covered 
by the first public english service book. 

Glancing at the state of affairs at the moment of 
Henry's death it may be said that the system of 
public worship, which existed throughout the middle 
ages in England, remained intact and in full force. 
The rites of Sarum, York and Hereford were in prac 
tical use as they had been an hundred years before, 
the same books, the same ceremonies 1 . 

The acts of Convocation in 1542 however show 
already a disposition to limit this diversity by pre 
scribing the observance of the Sarum rite for the whole 
province of Canterbury. There appears however no 
evidence to show that the use of Hereford was then 
abrogated. It is not impossible that this order was 
caused by the sudden secularization of so large a body 
of clergy who had, as members of regular orders, 

1 The purgation to which the service books had been subjected 
was confined to the omission of the word "Pope", to the sup 
pression of the office and name of St. Thomas of Canterbury and 
to a correction of typographical errors. 



Church Service at the close of Henry's reign. 5 

been accustomed to their own special rites and who, 
in the change of condition, must have been at a loss 
to tell what breviary to adopt in order to satisfy 
an obligation binding them in conscience to the daily 
recitation of the divine office. 

It has been suggested by some recent writers of 
repute that the suppression of the monastic houses 
necessitated a change in the method of public worship 
in order to render the daily homage of the creature 
compatible with secular duties. It is moreover 
implied that all offices, except a morning and eve 
ning prayer, were designed only for regular religious. 
These ideas seem due to a misapprehension. The 
disappearance of the monasteries in no way affected 
the worship in cathedral or parish churches. It 
is true that on the refoundation of the monastic 
cathedrals a body of clergy was instituted somewhat 
less numerous than it had been on the old footing, 
if for no other reason at least for this, that a given 
revenue would suffice for a larger number of men 
living in community than of men each in receipt of 
a separate income and keeping up a separate house 
hold. But even the cathedrals of the new foundation 
had a body of clergy fully able to maintain the divine 
office in becoming splendour *. 

Except in so far as personal obligations were con 
cerned, a cathedral or collegiate church of secular 
clergy was bound to a perpetual round of praise 
and service hardly less onerous than that of the most 
observant monastery. The obligation however lay 
upon them as members of their church and not, as 
they would strenuously have contended, by vow as 

1 The clergy who remained in the old monastic cathedrals 
upon the suppression of the monastery were not uncommonly 
recommended by the royal agents as "good choir men." 



6 Church Service at the close of Henrifs reign. 

religious. The public recitation of the canonical hours 
great and small, it is true, originated with persons 
inclined to what is technically called the religious 
life: monazontes, as they are named in the recently 
disco vexed Per egrinateo Silvice, which throws consider 
able light upon this as well as upon so many other 
ecclesiastical usages at the close of the fourth 
century l . 

Still, as early as the time of St. Gregory the Great, 
it was assumed that the office in a cathedral or even 
a considerable church was to be publicly sung. By the 
eighth century the clergy of such churches were 
regarded and regarded themselves as a real com 
munity, the provisions made for the conduct and 
observance of which differed but slightly from those 
of a community of monks. There was however this 
essential difference between them; though the canons 
around their bishop lived on common funds, they 
retained their rights to their own property and, 
subject of course to the obedience of all clergy to 
their bishop, were free to come and go. 

In the course of the tenth and eleventh centuries 
the canons, especially of episcopal churches, gradually 
emancipated themselves from ancient restrictions. 
The funds originally common, became allotted to 
individual members of the body. This practice received 
recognition and confirmation more or less early from 
the bishops, when the episcopal mensa and that of 
the canons became distinct and separate. 

The change produced in course of time a departure 
not less marked in the opposite direction. This latter 

1 See Duchesne, Origines du culte Chretien, Paris, 1889. 
pp. 433436, for an account of the way in which the public 
celebration of the divine office grew to be recognized as a duty 
of the ecclesiastical state. 



Church Service at the close of Henry's reign. 1 

tendency was to a renunciation of all private property 
and the assumption of religious vows, and thus by 
the beginning of the twelfth century the distinction 
of regular canons and secular canons was an accom 
plished fact. To the class of secular canons belonged 
all our non-monastic english cathedrals except Car 
lisle : and St. Osmund's title to the gratitude of his 
church will be probably found to lie, not in the 
liturgical reforms which legend has attributed to 
him, but in his legislation for the new pattern in his 
cathedral church at Sarum. Such canons throwing 
off perhaps gradually the old community restrictions 
came to differ in no wise, so far as their method of 
life was concerned, from the rest of the secular 
clergy. The others formed themselves into a religious 
order in the strictest sense of the word and became 
known as regular or Augustinian canons. The name 
" Canon" common to both, recalls the state of life from 
which both had sprung, but which both had abandoned. 
Henceforward whilst bearing this common name 
they are perfectly distinct in life and spirit. By a 
contradiction in terms one class came to be called 
secular canons, whilst the other by tautology received 
the name of regular canons '. 

In one point however churches of canons, whether 
secular or regular, kept to the old lines. Both were 
bound to and observed the solemn and public recit 
ation of the entire divine office although now on 

1 Trithemius long ago drew attention to this " a secular 
canon " it is as much as to say " a white black" he writes. See in 
Ducange s.v. canonicus. This article of Ducange is unfortunately 
misleading on the origin of secular canons, although a careful 
perusal of the passages cited therein is sufficient to detect the 
mistake which is corrected later s.v. Regulares. The question is 
accurately exposed in Amort Disc : Vet : Canonicorum, pp. 329333 . 



8 Church Service at the close of Henry's reign. 

different grounds. The regular canons observed this 
duty as members of a religious order ; the secular 
canons as incorporated into a church, whether cathe 
dral or collegiate, by the foundation and tradition 
of which its members voluntarily undertook the 
obligation so long as they held their prebend l . 

To come to detail : taken as the rule the life of 
a canon in our english cathedrals up to the close of 
Henry's days was one of no slight labour and mor 
tification. The church offices were long : they made 
up a day's work quite apart from all questions of 
time to be given to study, private devotion, or the 
ordinary claims of daily life. The choral work began 
early. Morwen, chaplain to bishop Bonner of Lon 
don, in commenting on a sermon preached by Pil- 
kington in June 1561, when lightning had struck 
the steeple of St. Paul's, and the roof and bells had 
been burnt, called attention to the change which 
had been made in the mode of worship. " Now," he 
says, " whether the people of this realm be declined 
from the steps of St. Augustine and other blessed 
fathers and saints which had mass and seven sacra 
ments in the church, and God was honoured night 
and day in the church with divine service, I think 
there is no man so simple but he may easily per 
ceive, except malice have blinded his heart. As in 



1 The universal tradition as to common life in cathedrals 
must be borne in mind in estimating the introduction of monks 
into english cathedral churches under king Edgar and later. 
Probably a practical compromise was come to, by allowing the 
clergy of the other english episcopal churches, where the common 
life had been abandoned, to go on as they were. This will explain 
William of Malmesbury's " contra morem Anglorum". In fact 
traces of the old common life survived more generally in France 
long after the cathedrals had been settled on the new model. 



Church Service at the close of Henry's reign. 9 

St. Paul's church in London, by the decrees of bless 
ed fathers, every night at midnight they had matins ; 
all the forenoon masses in the church with other 
divine service and continual prayer, and in the 
steeple anthems and prayers were had certain 
times". '. 

Pilkington in his reply writes: -- "further, where 
he charges us with declining from the steps of the 
blessed fathers which ordained in Paul's matins to 
be had at midnight, all forenoon masses, and in the 
steeple anthems ; these things we do not only not 
deny, for we do not count such superstitious idolaters 
to be our fathers in religion, but we rejoice and praise 
Grod for our deliverance from such superstitions. 
They crack much of blessed fathers and yet name 
not who they be, but much it shall not skill but 
their deeds shall prove their holiness. What great 
holiness was this, to have matins at midnight when 
folk were on sleep in their beds ! Is not common 
prayer to be had at such hours when the people 
might resort to it conveniently ? If midnight be 
such a time most convenient let the world judge.... 
In Paul's and abbeys at their midnight prayers 
were none commonly but a few bawling priests, 
young quiristers and novices which understood not 

what they said. The elder sort kept their beds 

A prayer not understanded in the heart but spok 
en with the lips is rather to be counted prating 
and bawling than praying with good devotion. 
The elder sort both in cathedral churches and 
abbeys almost never came at their midnight pray 
er. It was thought enough to knoll the bells and 
make men believe that they rose to prayer, therefore 



Printed in Pilkington's Works (ed Parker Soc :), p. 483. 



10 Church Service at the close of Henrys reign. 

they have not so much to crack of this their doing... 
But as all their religion is of their own devising 
so is their reward. God has made them no such 
promise and therefore they can claim nothing at 
his hands." * 

Whether Pilkington was carried away by his 
fervour in confutation or not may be left an open 
question. But the popular appreciation of these ser 
vices may be gauged by a letter which gives a glimpse 
of Catholic cathedral life in Mary's days. The writer 
was apparently one of the canons of Hereford. Its 
date is about 1583 or 1584 ; it is addressed to Scory 
the aged bishop of the see, and its object is to secure 
a stricter confinement for the catholic recusants who 
" are more increased this day in Hereford than ever 
were this twenty five years before." 

"Right Honorable and Reverend Father" it begins, 
" my bounden duty always remembered ; may it 
please your lordship to be advertised or to put in 
memory that in the dark days of queen Mary the 
dean then and the clergy of your cathedral church 
of Hereford did orderly observe their superstitious 
orders (i. e. services), and were present thereat con 
tinually, except certain days of licence which are 
called days of jubilee. 2 And did preach their su 
perstitious dregs not only, but also did in their 
outward living keep great hospitality. For every 
night at midnight they with the whole vicars choral 



1 Pilkington's Works, pp. 5278. 

2 This was evidently a term current in Hereford for leaves 
of absence, but does not appear to have been in use in other 
english cathedrals, as far as a cursory examination of the available 
Statutes has shown. 



Church Service at the close of Henry's reign. 11 

would rise to matins and especially the 'domydary', J 
for the week being, would be the first. 

"Then at five o'clock in the morning at St. Nicholas 
mass ; then at other masses at certain altars ; then 
at eight of the clock our Lady mass was solemnly 
said. Then at nine the prime and hours; then the 
high mass was in saying until it was eleven of the 
clock, besides every man must have said his own 
private mass at some one or other altar daily." 

"Then after dinner to even song till five o'clock, 
in which time of service a number of tapers were 
burning every day, and there was great censing at 
the high altar daily to their idols, and there was 
a lamp burning day and night continually before 
their gods. And every sabbath day and festival day 
St. Thomas' bell should ring to procession and the 
dean would send his somner 2 to warn the mayor 
to the procession. And then upon the somner's 
warning the mayor would send the sergeants to the 
parish churches, every man in his ward to the alder 
man. Then the alderman would cause the parish priest 
to command all the freemen to attend on the mayor to 
the procession 3 or lecture. For want of a sermon there 
should be a lecture in the chapter house every sabbath 
and holy day, notwithstanding they were at high 
mass in the choir. And then by the mayor and commons 
it was agreed at a general law-day that if the mayor 
did not come to procession and sermon he should 
pay 12d. for every default and every alderman 8d. 
and every man of the election 6d. and every freeman 
or gild merchant 4d., if it were known they were 

1 i. e. Hebdomadarian, or weekly officiant, whether in secular 
or regular churches. 

2 i. e. his verger. 

3 That is before the High Mass. 



12 Church Service at the close of Henry's reign. 

absent and within the hearing of the said bell and 
did not come, which ordinance was and is recorded 
in the custom book of the city: so zealous and 
diligent were the temporality then in observing those 
dregs of the clergy. Then the dean and clergy would 
come so orderly to church with such a godly show 
of humbleness and in keeping such hospitality that 
it did allure the people to what order they would 
request them." 

"This is true for I did see and know it; but then 
did I as a child and knew not the truth, and then 
such heavy burdens were but light ; but now in these 
joyful days of light how heavy is it among a number 
of us to come two hours of the day to serve the 
true God, the everlasting King of all glory. It is 
lamentable to think on it and much more grievous 
to him that did see the blind zeal in darkness so 
observed, and now the true light and pathway to 
salvation neglected. Then were there tapers, torch 
es and lamps great plenty, with censing to idols 
most costly in the clearest day of summer ; and now 
not scarce one little candle is allowed or maintained 
to read a chapter in the dark evenings in the choir. 
And as for resorting to hear the truth of the gospel, 
it is little regarded . . . notwithstanding the visitation" *. 

1 This letter is contained in Egerton Ms. 1693 p. 81 (B. Mus.) 
a volume of the papers of Walsinghara, Elizabeth's minister 
relating chiefly to ecclesiastical affairs. It is a copy, without name 
or date, evidently forwarded to Walsingham by Bp. Scory. The 
same volume contains many papers relating to the visitation 
named in the letter, which was attended with peculiar difficulties, 
as the cathedral chapter claimed to be exempt by their charters 
and privileges " as well from the Archbishop of Canterbury as... 
from their own bishop." (p. 95. cf. Parker's Corresp. Parker 
Soc. p. 165). The visit was eventually managed by Aubery, Vicar 
General of the archbishop, in virtue of a royal command, and was 



Church Service at the close of Henry's reign. 1 

That the writer's reminiscences were not incorrect 
will appear from the account bishop Scory himselt 
gives of" the state of feeling in Hereford in 1561, 
nearly three years after Mary's death. "The popish 
justices of the city" so runs Scory's plaint "command 
ed the observance of St. Laurence's day as a holi 
day. On the eve no butcher in the town ventured 
to sell meat; on the day itself no 'gospeller' durst 
work in his occupation or open his shop. A party 
of recusant priests from Devonshire were received 
in state by the magistrates, carried through the 
streets in procession and ' so feasted and magnified ' 
as Christ himself could not have been more rever 
ently entertained.'' 1 

If it is desired to realize what were the english 
cathedrals in days gone by, it is only necessary to 
inquire what the french churches were in the be 
ginning of the last century: a subject for which ma 
terials abound. These stately corporations were un 
doubtedly a prominent feature in the religious life 
of France up to the era of the great Revolution. 
Not merely in such small towns as Beauvais or Cha 
lons, where a cathedral establishment might natur 
ally be supposed to overpower all other interests, 
but in busy centres like Rouen, Amiens or Lyons, 
they were a real religious power in the life of the 
city. More than that : as may have been already 
gathered from the Hereford letter, they were the 
living manifestations in the country of the public 
recognition that the people formed a Christian and 
Catholic nation. On high-days and great days the re- 
held sometime between 5 Sept. 1582 and 19 April 1583. The 
whole story is shortly told in the Downside Review Vol. VI 
pp. 58-61. 

1 Froude. History, (ed. 1870) VII p. 19. 



14: Church Service at the close of Henry's reign. 

presentatives of every class and profession, np to the 
lieutenant of the sovereign, took part in the solemn 
offices along with the clergy as making up together 
one corporate whole, and thus publicly proclaimed 
religion an integral part of the national life. 

There were days moreover when the offices of 
the parish churches were discontinued and the clergy 
and their flocks assembled within the mother church 
for one united celebration. Thus the cathedral became 
essentially a popular institution, even apart from 
the exceptional splendour with which its services were 
invested. 

The parish churches of England according to their 
size and wealth followed the model set them by their 
cathedral 1 . The body of clergy attached to them by 
one title or another, along with choristers and the nu 
merous clerics in minor orders who lived the life of lay 
people in secular callings, was much larger than is now 
generally realized. This made the maintenance of the 
public office in the larger churches, at least on sun- 
days and feast-days practicable and even easy. 2 It 

1 This is the simple origin of a diocesan "use" and explains 
naturally and certainly the predominance of the rite of Sarum in 
southern England. Five of the episcopal sees of the Canterbury pro 
vince, not including Bath and Coventry, had a monastic cathedral, 
and as the monastic office and the solemnities entirely differed 
from those of the secular clergy, the rites of these cathedrals could 
not furnish the model for the parish and collegiate churches of these 
dioceses. They were thus perforce obliged to adopt the use of some 
other and secular cathedral. It is unnecessary to discuss here the 
reasons which may have led to the adoption of the Sarum rather 
than any other use. 

2 The chanting of the office (i. e. cum nota) was in the middle 
ages required even in cases where such practice might at the 
present day seem useless and impossible. Many such examples 
occur in the Eegistrum Visitationum of Eudes Rigaud, arch 
bishop of Rouen. 



Church Service at the close of Henry's reign. 15 

must be remembered also that what are now known 
as "devotions" were then essentially regarded as 
private and personal and, besides the mass, the 
office was the only church service. 

The measures of Henry VIII. had at most but slightly 
touched the parish churches and, so far as the ser 
vices are concerned they, as little as the cathedrals, 
had been affected by the suppression of the monas 
teries. Still, though no practical ctiange had taken 
place on the accession of Edward, there is evidence 
that Cranmer had already designed considerable 
alterations in public worship, the character of which 
will be considered in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER II. 

CRANMER'S PROJECTED BREVIARY. 



More than fifty years ago the late Sir William 
Palmer pointed out that the breviary of Cardinal 
Quignon had evidently exercised an influence in the 
compilation of the Book of Common Prayer. Whole 
passages in the preface were shown to be either 
translations or more or less close adaptations of 
parts of Quignon's own preface to the first edition 
of his office-book. Here, however, in fact the inves 
tigation rested, since it was not possible to attribute 
the origin of any part or form of the printed 
english book directly to Quignon's volume. The 
manuscript to which attention is now invited supplies 
what has hitherto been wanting to make clear the 
connection. 

It has been mentioned in the last chapter that 
this manuscript l is at least one of the books, if 
not all, which Convocation in 1547 asked to see. It 
comprises two schemes of Office 2 and three tables 
of lessons. An account of the manuscript and a print 

1 B. Mus. Royal MS. 7 B. IV. 

2 What is meant by Office must be clearly understood. It 
is not the Mass, which corresponds to the anglican Communion 
Service, but the canonical hours, which correspond to the matins 
and evensong of the Common Prayer Book. 




WiH* ivUi(HM UU.vrwi "SJC^ 




Facsimile 11. (to Face p. [6). 
Latin di-ul'i of the preface to the l'.<.u of Common Prayer. (MS. Reg. r l; - ' V '' 



Cranmer' s Projected Breviary. 17 

of its contents are given in the appendix: here it 
will suffice to state results. 

It is however well first to point out the grounds 
upon which this manuscript is attributed to arch 
bishop Cranmer. The schemes of office are, as is 
evident on the face of them and as will appear 
more and more clearly the more closely they are 
examined, of a date earlier than that of the Book 
of Common Prayer. The first of them, roughly 
speaking, follows the old order of breviary services, 
and may be described as Sarum material worked 
up under Quignon's influence. The second, although 
also in latin, comes nearer to the form of morning 
and evening prayer in the first printed Prayer Book 
of Edward VI. (1549). The preface of this latter 
scheme, also in latin, is manifestly an earlier draft 
of the euglish preface of the book of 154-9. 

Further, on confronting the Royal MS. with the 
Harleian MS. 426, (Cranmer's draft of the abortive 
Reformatio leyum ecdesiasticarum, which is recog 
nized as being partly in the archbishop's hand 
writing,) the identity of workmanship and style is 
unmistakable. The same secretary (Ralph Morrice) 
writes the body of the book in both cases; in both, 
after head lines had been written in, blanks are left, 
as the Reformatio leg-urn says "for Mr. Morres" to 
fill up '; in both corrections and annotations are 
made in the same characteristic manner and by the 
same hand, which is that of archbishop Cranmer -. 

To understand the nature of the earlier scheme 
it is necessary to give some idea of the mediaeval 
office and that compiled by cardinal Quiguon. The 
seven canonical hours of the church may first be 

1 B. Mus. Havl. MS. 426 f. 17. 

2 See facsimiles here reduced in size. 



18 Cranmer's Projected Breviary. 

divided into night and day office, of which the 
former making one service or "hour", included matins 
and lauds and was as long as the other six hours 
put together. 

The body of all the office, whether day or night, 
was the psalms, including certain scriptural canticles 
like those of Zachary, the Three Children, and the 
Blessed Virgin. And what specially characterized 
matins was the reading of numerous lessons taken 
from Holy Scripture, the works of the Fathers and 
the lives of the Saints. In the other "hours" the 
lessons of scripture were reduced to a few lines, 
commonly called the "little chapter". These then, 
the psalms and lessons, were the substance of the 
office and to them, at dates which naturally it is 
now impossible to fix exactly, other portions were 
added which served at once for piety and for con 
venience in public recitation. 

Thus in a body of clergy, as might be presumed, 
only the few would have either musical aptitude or 
knowledge. Moreover all could not be supplied with 
the music. This would naturally bring about the 
adoption of antiphons, which were taken generally 
from some verse of the psalm about to be sung. The 
practical use of these antiphons, which were sung 
by trained cantors in the middle of the choir, was 
to give the general body of the clergy the tone of 
the coming psalm. J This reason, which applied in 
the early ages, was not less cogent at the moment 
when the ancient offices were superseded in England. 

1 This is somewhat obscured by the present practice, which 
however counts a respectable antiquity, of saying the antiphon 
after the psalm as well as before, but the ancient roman practice 
gives it only before the psalm (cf. Grancolas, Brev. Eomain 
livre I. ch. 30). 



Crammer's Projected Breviary. 19 

The antiphon was not less necessary in our long english 
gothic choirs than in the spacious romau basilicas. l 

In the same .way the use of the responsonj which 
was sung at the end of each lesson at matins was 
dictated by a like practical need. To chant these 
lessons implies a great strain upon the voice. The 
response, therefore, drawn from some part of Holy 
Scripture appropriate to the occasion, and sung partly 
by the cantors and partly by the choir at large, 
afforded a welcome and necessary breathing space for 
the lector. 

These antiphous and respousories are so ancient 
an addition to the psalmody that they may almost 
be considered a part of the primitive office. The 
"hymns", although some seem to have been cer 
tainly composed by Saint Ambrose for the choral 
service, were a later element and admitted with the 
greatest reluctance by the more conservative churches, 
such as Rome and Lyons. 2 

The special feature of late mediaeval breviaries, 
that is to say, of what are called the uses, whether 
english, french, german, italian or monastic, is the 
lengthening out of the office by the addition of what 



1 Thus whilst the editions of the Sarum breviary were issued 
by the dozen, one only of the antiphonar appeared. One copy on 
the cantor's desk would be enough for even a church of the first 
class. It is probable moreover that the ancient Mss. antiphonars, 
enormous volumes, executed at great cost, were still used in spite 
of the printed edition, as they are to the present day at Monte 
CJassino and Einsiedeln. 

2 At Rome hymus do not appear to have been admitted into 
the office till after the twelfth century. Even in the eighteenth 
Lyons had adopted only the compline hymn. Their general adoption 
was probably due to the influence of the monastic order. St. Bene 
dict in the sixth century made them part of the office of his monks. 



20 Cranmers Projected Breviary. 

are known as preces J and by the accumulation of 
offices. That is; not content with the "hours" of the 
day, which were the hours of the church, out of 
excess of devotion, after each obligatory "hour" the 
corresponding portion of the merely devotional office 
of the Blessed Virgin was recited. These also were 
even at times followed by the office of the dead. 
And thus three offices were sometimes said in place 
of one 2 . Even as early as the twelfth century com 
plaints of this growing practice had made themselves 
heard, and by the sixteenth century recitation of the 
office had become a heavy burden upon the clergy. 
The sense of weariness which must have resulted 
could not but have a prejudicial effect upon the 
chanting of the obligatory part of the divine office. 
There was urgent need of reform, and that carried 
out by Pius V. in 1568, which swept away the bulk of 
these late accretions, restored the breviary to a 
rational and practicable form. 

More than thirty years previously however a much 
more radical change had been almost effected by 
cardinal Quignon, with the approval and recom 
mendation of the Pope. Quiguon was a Spaniard, a 
member of the Franciscan order, and a trusted friend 
and confidant of Pope Clement VII. and his successor 
Paul III. He was one of the leading spirits of the 
curia and on intimate terms with the small and able 



1 In the anglican Prayer Book the short versicles said after 
the creed in the Morning Prayer may be taken as a specimen 
of the ancient preces. 

- The practice of churches varied considerably in different 
localities : thus at Sarum only the Matins and Vespers of the 
Blessed Virgin were recited in choir, the other "hours" being 
said privately. 



Cronmers Projected Breviary. 21 

body of ecclesiastics who ardently at that time desired 
reform. 

He had been commissioned by Clement VII. to draw 
up a breviary but the work only appeared after that 
Pope's death. The volume was dedicated to Paul III. 
and was published in February 1535 under the title 
Breviarium Eomanum nuper information. Prefixed to 
it was a commendatory brief from the Pope. 

The changes proposed were so radical that notwith 
standing the Pope's favour the new breviary raised 
a storm of opposition. The Sorbouue distinguished 
itself especially by the vigour of its condemnation. 
Quignon felt it prudent to make concessions and 
issued a revised text intended in some measure to 
meet the objections taken to his first edition. During 
the short space, however, of the eighteen months 
in which the first text was current, no less than 
six editions appeared at Rome, Venice, Paris and 
Antwerp '. 

That this reformed roman breviary met a real 
need is evident from the number of editions published : 
those of the second text being " probably not far 
short of a hundred". This latter text need not be 
here considered, for it is certain from the preface of 
the Book of Common Prayer that Craumer made use 
of the earlier edition '. And, although the archbishop's 



1 K These are all the editions of the first text that I have met 
with" writes its recent editor; "no doubt there are others still 
undiscovered, although I have searched carefully in many libraries 
in Italy and also in France." Brev. Eomanum a Francisco Card. 
Quignonio ed: curante Jolianne Wickham Lcgg. Cambridge. 1888. 

' J The prefaces to the two texts of Cardinal Quignon's breviary 
differ very materially, and in the preface of the Prayer Book 
Cranmer uses passages of Quignon's first preface which do not 
appear in the second. 



22 Cranmers Projected Breviary. 

scheme includes antiphons, there is DO sufficient evi 
dence that he derived this feature from Quignon's 
revised text. The following remarks therefore apply 
only to the earlier edition. 

The first thing that strikes any one accustomed to 
the ancient breviaries, on glancing through Quignon's 
volume, is the absence of all antiphons, responses 
and little chapters, the reduction of the preces to 
very narrow limits, and the entire omission of every 
office but that of the day i . His main concern was 
to secure in practice the regular reading of the 
Scriptures. This of course was the original intention 
and practice of the church, which, however, traditions 
and the rubrics of the later breviaries had partially 
neutralized. 

The parts omitted obviously shortened the office, 
which was further curtailed by reducing the number 
of psalms at matins, lauds, vespers and compline 
to three. The frame- work however of the breviary, 
and the number and disposition of the hours, remained 
the same. 

Quignon's arrangement of the Holy Scripture was- 
dictated by his wish that the chief books of the Old 
Testament and all the New should be read through 
during the year. " Every day throughout the year 1 ', 
he writes in his preface, "the first (lesson at matins) 
is from the Old Testament, the second from the New, 
and the third from the life of a Saint if a feast be 
celebrated; but if there be no such feast, the Acts 
and Epistles are read in this third lesson in the 
order noted in the Calendar 1 '" 2 . 

1 i. e. he put aside such votive offices as those of the B. V. 
Mary and the ' Dead '. Quignon calls special attention to this in 
his preface: his object being to get rid of whatever "interfered 
with the reading of Holy Scripture". 

3 ed: J. W. Legg. p. XXI. 



Cranmer's Projected Breviary. 28 

One other important feature of this new breviary 
must be noticed. In the old office books there were 
numerous variations in the service according as 
the day was a suuday, feastday, or weekday. By 
Quignon's plan such variations were reduced to a 
minimum. "In my (book)" he writes "there is no 
difference, or very little, in the days of the entire 
year and so far as length is concerned Sunday and 
weekday are the same. The first and second lessons, 
moreover, are disposed in an unchangeable order 
throughout the year". 

The reader will now be in a position to estimate 
the general character of Cranmer's new scheme of 
office. In the appendix will be found an indication 
of the sources from which this was drawn, and it 
will be shown as far as possible in detail how far 
Cranmer was indebted to Quignon, how far to Sarum, 
and how far the work appears to be original. In this 
place again only general results can be given. 

In the disposition of the ecclesiastical year the 
archbishop appears not to have come to a definite 
conclusion when drafting his scheme. The body of 
the book shows the ancient Sarum arrangement, 
whilst the table of lessons drawn up by his own 
hand adopts the changes initiated by cardinal Quignon. 

Cranmer's proposed office consisted of the ancient 
hours of matins and lauds, prime, tierce, sext, none, 
vespers and compline. 

The latin language is retained even for the reading 
of Scripture throughout the year. 

The distribution of the psalter is unfortunately 
indicated only by the general direction in each hour 
"psalmi ex or dine designate. As, however, the num 
ber of lessons at matins was reduced ordinarily to 
three, and three psalms are expressly prescribed for 
each of the last three days of Holy Week, it may 



24: Cranmer s Projected Breviary. 

fairly be conjectured that Quignon was also to be 
followed in the reduction of the psalms at matins, 
lauds, vespers and compline to three. 

Differing from Quignon's first breviary, Cranmer 
allowed one antiphon at each hour ; but like his 
model he omitted the responses and little chapters. 

Another significant change from the old order 
is found both in Quignon and Cranmer. In the brev 
iaries formerly in use the portion called the tern- 
porale begins with vespers : the feast being then, as 
now, regarded as commencing with the vesper ser 
vice of the eve. Both the cardinal and the arch 
bishop begin their temporale with the office of matins. 

The table of lessons in Cranmer's scheme of office, 
following the old ecclesiastical tradition, begins with 
the first Sunday of Advent. Besides the three lessons 
directed to be said at matins, one is appointed to be 
read at lauds and another at vespers, which, al 
though longer, may be taken to represent the ancient 
little chapters, omitted by Quigaon altogether. 

In another most important matter Cranmer's first 
scheme adopts Quignon's plan of reducing the va 
riable parts of the service, and he even goes beyond 
his model in this direction. The office of one day 
was made exactly similar to every other through 
out the year, except in the Holy Week and on 
one or two feasts for which special directions were 
given. 

Those who are particularly interested in the mat 
ter will find on examination unmistakable and re 
peated instances of the way in which Cranmer's 
scheme of office, both in its general order and in 
detail, was inspired by Quignon's roman breviary. ' 

1 See the print of the scheme in the Appendix. It is remark 
able that in the catalogue of the library of Henry VIII., dated 



Craiimer's Projected Brevier//. 25 

The relation of the projected office to that of 
Sarum is raorey simple. The archbishop appears to 
have used this breviary as a quarry from which to 
take his materials, when not quite satisfied with the 
new roman office. It must be allowed that what he 
does take from the ancient english sources is used 
in a somewhat unscrupulous fashion. Thus, for 
example, a little chapter is turned into an autiphon, 
the old position of various parts is changed without 
apparent reason, and snipping and cutting indulged 
in, in what seems to have been an arbitrary way. 
Still it must be added that in places he enriches the 
modern baldness of Quignon from the ancient Catholic 
storehouse of Sarum. 

Two questions remain for consideration: when was 
this scheme drawn up, and under whose influence 1 ? 
It is always unsatisfactory to deal with a dateless 
document like this, the contents of which necessarily 
afford but the slightest indication of time. Under such 
circumstances all that can be done is to see where 
it best fits in with the events or the tendencies of 
particular minds. What follows therefore must be 
taken merely as conjecture, made however after care 
ful examination. 

The Convocation of 1542, as already noted, directed 
that the Sarum office should be generally adopted 
for the province of Canterbury. It gave also a second 
ritual direction : namely " that the curate of ever}' 
church after the Te Deum and Magnificat shall 

24 April 1542, which appears to contain all the books of the 
royal chapel except one or two missals, three breviaries only 
are mentioned, each of which is entered in full as " Breviarium 
Eomanum". It is hardly perhaps too much to suppose that these 
were copies of Quignon's volume. Another volume is described 
as "Ceremonie Ecclesie Romane" (R. 0. Augt. Office Alisc : Bk : 
160. f. 128*. 108 b ). 



26 Cranmer's Projected Breviary. 

openly read unto the people one chapter of the New 
Testament in english... and when the New Testa 
ment is read over, then to begin the Old". 

By this order a chapter of the Bible was to be 
read to the people in englisk twice on every day 
of public service: in the early morning after matins 
and in the afternoon at vespers. This measure was 
a distinct break from the traditional order of service 
although it certainly had a precedent in the arrange 
ment made by Luther and by this time (1542) com 
mon in german reformed churches. 

"Here then at this point" writes Canon Dixon 
" rested the revision of the public service. . . The old 
books were ordered to be called in and castigated. 
If the order was ever enforced the books after their 
expurgation must have been restored to the churches 
whence they were taken ; but it is more likely nothing 
was done" '. 

The document known as the Rationale, or exposition 
of the order of divine service in mass and office, is 
unfortunately also dateless and anonymous, but there 
is great probability in the theory put forward by 
Canon Dixon that it is really the outcome of the 
ritual commission appointed by Henry VIII. in 1540. 
In this document " the succession and connection of 
the "various parts of the great Catholic rites were 
exhibited with lucidity and even with brevity. All 
the dispute dceremonies were maintained. The litur- 
gic principles of the remarkable Rationale must have 
been highly obnoxious to Cranmer and it is prob 
able enough that it was he who prevented it from 
seeing the light" ". 

In the Convocation of 1543 Craumer made his own 



1 History of Church of England II, 316. 

2 Ibid. p. 313. 



Cranmers Projected Breviary. 27 

proposal for liturgical reform. "He declared it to be 
the royal will that all mass books, antiphoners, 
portasses in the church of England should be newly 
examined, reformed and castigated from all manner 
of mention of the bishop of Rome's name ; from all 
apocryphas, feigned legends, superstitious orations, 
collects, versicles and responses : that the names and 
memories of all saints which were not contained in 
the Scripture or authentic doctors should be abolished 
and put out of the same books and calendars, and 
that the service should be made out of the Scrip 
tures and other authentic doctors". The examination 
was committed to the bishops of Salisbury and Ely, 
Capon and Goodrich, and to six of the lower House; 
but this committee was not formed, the lower House 
declining to appoint" '. 

Whether Capon and Goodrich did anything does 
not appear, but, in the light now thrown on the 
question by the hitherto neglected Royal MS. it seems 
practically certain that some steps were taken to 
prepare for the proposed change. The scheme now 
brought under notice corresponds so closely to the 
programme proposed by Cranmer to the Convocation 
of 1543, that even if the MS. did not evidence his 
own hand, there could be little doubt that this pro 
jected order of service was his. 

As to the exact date then, it is possible that the 
archbishop may have had his material for the pro 
posed book already prepared to present to the com 
mission which convocation failed to appoint. But it 
is far more probable that seeing the failure of his 
attempt to induce the synod of the english Church 
to take up the matter, he turned his own attention 

1 Ibid p. 315. The original is somewhat obscure: "But this 
the lower House released" (Wilkins. III. 863). The gloss is Strype's. 



28 Cranmer s Projected Breviary. 

to it, and that consequently the document is to be 
assigned to some date between 1543 and Henry's 
death in January 1547 *. 

That it is certainly of a date prior to Edward's 
accession will be clear from a consideration of the 
doctrinal points of the book. In the office of the 
feast of Corpus Christi for instance the Catholic 
doctrine of the Blessed Sacrament as maintained by 
Henry is unmistakably expressed 2 . 

It may perhaps be considered unnecessary to raise 
the question as to the influence under which Cranmer 
probably drew up his scheme : but the enquiry leads to 
a consideration which might easily escape attention 
and which is of considerable importance. The choice 
of Quiguon's work for a model has an aspect almost 
eirenical. At the time it must have seemed more 
than probable that the Quiguon breviary would be 
fore very long become the recognized office book of 
the roman church. Its ready and general acceptance 
on this side of the Alps gave promise that it would 
become the common breviary of the West. To take 
the Quignon text therefore showed some disposition, 
so far from widening the breach caused in England 
by the separation from Rome, to keep to points of 
contact with the Western church as far as possible. 



1 In 1546 Cranmer strove to gain his end through the king. 
He went so far as to draw up a draft letter which he proposed 
that Henry should adopt as his own. In this bishops Day of Chi- 
chester and Heath of Worcester are represented as pressing 
with Cranmer for liturgical change. The King appears not to have 
entered into Cranmer's projects, for nothing more is heard of the 
matter (Burnet II. 2. pp. 2367). 

2 The Invitatory for this feast is : Christum salvatorem et 
panem vite celestis, Venite adoremtis. This is not the same as 
Sarum or Quignon, but original. 



Cranmer's Projected Breviary. 29 

This was hardly Cranmer's natural disposition. It 
was however much the temper of Tunstall of Durham, 
for whom during twenty years the archbishop had the 
deepest friendship. To these ties Cranmer was faithful 
to the last. His voice alone was raised in Parlia 
ment in Tunstall's favour, when that prelate's ruin 
had been resolved on by King and Council. 

Looking round then on all the most prominent eccle 
siastics of the day, the tone and temper of Tunstall's 
mind, his moderation, his wise conservatism, his open 
ness to new ideas and his acquaintance with men 
of the new era, seem to point to him as the most 
likely counsellor of Cranmer in this matter. 1 

1 It is necessary here to notice a suggestion of Canon Dixon 
in regard to the Rationale spoken of above. He says: "if it had 
come into Convocation it would have passed": again "I am sure 
it was never brought before Convocation, for I have no doubt that it 
was the document which Convocation in the first year of Edward VI. 
requested Cranmer to produce" (p. 313. see p. 16 ante). The words 
of Convocation itself and of Cranmer make this suggestion hardly 
probable. The Rationale is merely an account of the divine service 
and cannot in any sense be called a revision of the service books 
It still less suits Cranmer's version of the petition of Convocation, 
for he speaks of an appointment " to alter the service in the church 
and to devise other convenient and uniform order" and notes that 
the "said books'" were to be "for a better exposition of the divine 
service to be set forth accordingly". This is a good description 
of the purpose of the scheme contained in the Royal MS. Further, 
Cranmer stated to Convocation in 1543 that it was " the royal 
will" that the new books should be framed, and this accords 
with his note in 1547, "by the commandment of King Henry VIII." 
rather than with the other version " ex mandato Convocationis". 



CHAPTER III. 
CRAMER'S SECOND PROJECT. 



Archbishop Cranmer's second scheme for the public 
office may be briefly dismissed. It is however of 
considerable importance and interest, as marking the 
step whereby he passed from the ancient arrange 
ment of the divine office to the order for morning 
and evening prayer which was eventually put forth 
in the Prayer Book of 1549. 

The daily services were in this scheme reduced 
to two, namely matins and vespers. "We have 
thought good " it says " to omit compline altogether 
and also the accustomed hours, prime, tierce, sext 
and none, as well because in all these there is a 
continual repetition of the same things, which is 
idle and useless, as because it seems a mockery 
to retain the same divisions of the hours observed 
by the ancient fathers, when the custom of praying 
seven times a day has long since ceased and we now 
assemble only twice a day for prayers" 1 . 

In the second place, the matins and vespers were 
to be said as hitherto in latin, except the Lord's 
Prayer and the lessons of Holy Scripture, which were 
directed to be recited in english. These last were 
to be read from the pulpit or some other place out- 

* Ms. Reg. 7 B. IV, f. lib. 



Cranmers Second Project. 31 

side the choir. The psalter was to be gone through 
once in the month, and the general rubric regulating 
the recital is much the same as it now stands in 
the present Book of Common Prayer. 

The daily order of Matins was as follows: after 
the Our Father said aloud in english, there followed 
the Domine labia mea aperies &c. l The Venite was 
omitted altogether. "It has seemed sufficient" says 
the rubric "that this should be recited among the 
rest of the psalms in its ordinary course once a 
month" 2 . Next came a hymn varied according to 
the day of the week or the season of the year. Then 
followed in order three psalms, Our Father in eng 
lish, three lessons from the Holy Scriptures 3 , Te 
Deum and Benedictus , the salutation Dominus vobis- 
cum, and the prayer varying according to the time 
of the year. The service closed with the Benedicamus 
Domino to which a new response was given. 

On Sundays and feastdays a fourth lesson was to be 
said after the Te Deum, which was directed to be 
taken, either from some homily of the Fathers, or 
from the life of a saint. On Sundays also after the 
Benedicamus Domino there were added to the service, 
the Athanasian Creed, the preces, which still survive 
in the Book of Common Prayer, with the Collect, now 
called "for grace". 

The order of vespers was the same on all days of 
the year and followed that of the daily matins, 
except that two lessons were read in place of three, 



1 This is the arrangement of the present Prayer Book after 
the absolution. 

2 Ibid. f. lla. 

3 These were preceded in the traditional way by the Jube 
Domine with the blessing given by the officiant, and closed with 
the Tu autem. 



32 Cranmer's Second Project. 

and the Magnificat replaced the Te Deum. After the 
canticle the prayer was said, and the service closed 
in the usual way. 

It will be seen therefore that this project, though 
on the same lines as that which subsequently ap 
peared in the printed Book of 1549, is somewhat 
more simple. The vespers are drawn entirely from 
the old vespers service; the daily morning services 
comprise certain features of the ancient matins with 
the Benedictus drawn from lauds; and on Sundays 
the Athauasian creed, the preces and the collect 'for 
grace' taken from prime. 

Of the numerous hymns of the old breviaries 
twenty-six were retained ; fourteen being assigned to 
the days of the week and the other twelve to the 
ecclesiastical seasons of Christmas, Passiontide, Holy 
Week, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost. 

The variable collects were reduced in the same 
way. Of the five and thirty prayers retained, whilst 
one was assigned to each of the Sundays after Pente 
cost, only ten had to serve for the ecclesiastical 
seasons from Advent to Pentecost inclusively. 

Considerable difficulty seems to have been experi 
enced in settling the calendar which is the key to 
all office books on the traditional lines. The Royal 
MS., which contains these projects of archbishop 
Cranmer, comprises two schemes of a calendar for 
saints and three schemes of a table of lessons from 
Scripture, besides an imperfect draft of a festivale 
or series of fourth lessons for saints 1 days. Each 
of these elements of the entire project must be 
considered in turn. To take first the two calendars 
of saints' days. These are markedly distinct in char 
acter and there is little difficulty in placing them 
in their correct order of date. The earlier differs 
from the traditional calendar only by the paucity 




KucMinile III. (to face p. 33). 
The later calendar showing alterations in Cramner's hand. (MS. K<^ 7 P.. 1 \" f. -\\>). 



Cranmer's Second Project. 33 

of saints' names which are entered in it. Not a single 
english name is to be found in the entire list: that 
of St. Gregory the Great is in fact the only one 
connected with England. Of the festivals of the 
Blessed Virgin, the Purification, Annunciation, 
Assumption and Nativity are preserved as well as 
the feast of St. Anne. A special characteristic of 
this scheme appears to be the retention of the 
names of the great Fathers of the Church. There 
would seem to be one trace of the influence of 
Quignon in the insertion of the feast of SS. Phileas 
and Philoromus at the third of February, whilst the 
calendar gives already, in the insertion of the fes 
tival of St. Timothy on 22 January and St. Benjamin 
on 21 February, an indication of the spirit which 
presided at the compilation of the later calendar. 

Of this second proposal for a new calendar for 
the english church it is difficult to speak seriously, 
or to believe it could be meant in earnest were 
it not that the correcting hand of Crammer has 
attempted to reduce it to a more reasonable form, 
and that the projected festivals is actually drawn 
up on the lines which it lays down. It may be de 
scribed in one sentence as scripturalism without dis 
cretion. It commemorates Abel, Noe, the good Thief, 
Benjamin, Lydia and Deborah, Gideon and Samp 
son, Booz and the Centurion, king David and 
Nathan, Judith and Esther with others. At the same 
time it bears traces of having been a further develop 
ment of the former calendar. Two english saints 
are now admitted, St. Edward, king and martyr, 
and St. Edmund the king. 

The correcting hand introduced some measure of 
sense by adding old familiar feasts like those ot 
St. Agnes and St. Vincent, the Invention of the Holy 
Cross, St. Cuthbert, St. Augustine of Canterbury and 



34: Cranmer's Second Project. 

St. Alban. But saints Phileas and Philoromus 
maintain their ground, and Cranmer's annotations 
in the festivals refer to the Breviarium Romanum 
as a source from which lives of saints may be taken. 

On comparing these schemes with the calendar of 
feasts which actually appeared in the Prayer Book 
of 1549 it is not difficult to understand the situation. 
There were clearly contrary influences at work, the 
one advocating the ancient calendar somewhat purged 
of its objectionable elements, the other insisting 
upon Scripture being the primary basis. What was 
actually done in 1549 was to retain such feasts as 
could be distinctly referred to the New Testament. 
That is, putting aside those of Our Lord, the feasts 
were reduced to those of the Apostles, the Purifi 
cation and Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, 
St. John the Baptist, St. Mary Magdalen, St. Stephen 
and the Holy Innocents, with the addition of 
St. Michael as a commemoration of the angels, and 
of the one general celebration of All Saints. 

The kernel of the new office lay in the novel tables 
of lessons of which the manuscript gives three sche 
mes. These must be taken in connection with that 
which appeared in the print of the first Book of 
Common Prayer. It has been already pointed out 
that the earliest scheme of lessons is written in 
Cranmer's own hand and adopts the arrangement 
of the ecclesiastical year made in Quignon's breviary. 
In the distribution of the Bible throughout the year, 
however, like the later schemes it is original and 
cannot be referred to any earlier breviary, although, 
as might be expected in one who had long used the 
Sarum office, there are traces of the influence of the 
Salisbury use ! . This scheme of course belongs to 

1 For example: the lessons of Advent are taken from Isaias, 



4fs 




J-'acsiinilc IV. (to fare p. 34). 
Draft of a table of lessons in ( "raniucr's hand. (.MS. Re. ~ P>. IV f. 152:1) 



Cranmers Second Project. 35 

the projected breviary described in the last chapter. 

Passing to the next in order of date a significant 
change occurs in the arrangement. The first scheme 
was made to depend upon the ecclesiastical year, 
the portions of Holy Scripture being assigned to the 
various seasons of Advent, Epiphany, Lent, &c. The 
second was regulated entirely by the days of the 
month, and the commencement of the book of 
Genesis was transferred from Septuagesima, as in 
the traditional office, to January the third. In other 
words the ecclesiastical year was abandoned in 
favour of the calendar year, and this was main 
tained in the Prayer Book of 1549 and its successors. 
The steps by which the present arrangement of the 
lessons from Scripture was arrived at are interesting 
but the details must be sought in the appendix. 
Here it will be sufficient to note that in none of 
the schemes was the continuous reading of Scripture 
interrupted. Special lessons were first assigned for 
the ordinary Sunday office in 1559, and however the 
distribution of the lessons varied the actual amount 
of Scripture read from any book remained almost 
the same throughout; but the variations also show 
how closely linked together are these three schemes 
and that which was printed in the first Book of 
Common Prayer. 

The plan of morning and evening service adopted 
in this second project can have no pretence to ori 
ginality. For five and twenty years such services had 
been in use in the Lutheran parts of Germany where 
the ancient ritual books had, as in this case, been 
used as the quarry out of which the materials for the 
new forms of prayer were drawn. It must be re- 

t.hose after the Epiphany from Romans and Corinthians, whilst 
Genesis was commenced on Septuagesima Sunday. 



36 Cranmer^s Second Project. 

membered however that so far as these services were 
concerned their conception and their similarity were 
due less to acquaintance with the new books than, 
to intercourse with men who had used them. There 
are features however which distinguish the english 
services contemplated by Cranmer from those which 
owed their origin exclusively to Lutheran inspiration. 
The german reformer, however violent may have been 
his language always held firmly the principle of litur 
gical tolerance. Writing in 1545 to the Prince of 
Anhalt, Luther says: "I cannot recommend the plan 
of a uniformity of ceremonies in every place". l 

In reviewing the manuscript projects in connection 
with the Book of 1549, it is impossible not to see- 
how Cranmer s mind constantly tended to greater- 
rigidity in these matters. The projects not merely 
witness to a desire for a uniformity of observance 
throughout the country; but all churches alike, from 
the cathedral with its numerous clergy, singing men 
and boys, to that of the smallest village, were confined 
by the Book of Common Prayer to a single type of 
service, which was made as nearly as possible the 
same for every day throughout the year. 

It may be that the ancient office manifested a 
superabundant richness of varying devotional forms, 
but the new order certainly runs to the opposite 
extreme. Without doubt subsequent revisions of the 
Book of Common Prayer have introduced elements, 
which, although it may not be easy to justify them 
by the test of antiquity, have given to the daily 
service a breadth or even a certain dignity which is 
altogether wanting in the book of 1549. 

One further feature in the manuscript of the second 
project remains to be noticed. The whole scheme is 

1 Quoted in Jacoby's Liturgik der Eeformatoren, I, p. 237. 



Cranmers Second Project. 37 

introduced by a latin preface of which that of the 
present Prayer Book is little more than a translation. 
There are however variants which deserve attention. 
In the first place in the enumeration of the euglish 
Buses' 1 the latin omits the mention of that of Lincoln, 
but adds "those of the manifold orders of religious, 
each one of which had its own special use ". Further, 
passages from Quignon's preface to his breviary are 
given in the latin draft, which were subsequently 
left out in the english version. Quignon's measured 
and telling criticism of the lessons from saints 1 lives, 
in this preface to the second project takes another 
colour, and its author was doubtless well advised in 
omitting from the preface to the Prayer Book his 
remarks on "old wives 1 fables and the stupidity of 
those who had put them together 11 . The following 
passage which could not of course be made to suit 
the printed book is interesting. "We have left" the 
latin preface says "only a few hymns which appeared 
to be more ancient and more beautiful than the rest 
and the histories of certain saints as to whom no 
doubt can be raised. These we have caused to be 
gathered from fitting authorities greek and latin. 
Moreover, we have only rejected those saints whose 
solemnities we saw to be wrongly and superstitiously 
observed by the common people, or whose lives and 
conduct appeared to us open to exception, or whose 
history was not recorded by approved authors ". * 

It may be further remarked in regard to passages 
often quoted from the printed preface to the Prayer 
Book, that they were perfectly appropriate as used 
by Quignon from whom they were derived, but even 
in the first scheme were already out of place. Thus 
Quignon could say with justice that on a candid con- 

1 Royal Ms. 7B.IV. f. 8a. 



38 Cranmer s Second Project. 

sideration of the original intention of our forefathers 
in regard to the divine office, it would be acknow 
ledged that his book was not so much a novel inven 
tion as the restoration of the ancient breviary. Tn 
the latin draft of his preface, adapting this Cranmer 
says : " You have here a form of prayer not newly 
invented by us but rather the ancient one handed 
down by the fathers and restored to its primitive 
use and pristine beauty". In the printed english 
preface he makes a more modest, but less intellig 
ible, claim. " So here you have ", he says, "an order for 
prayer (as touching the reading of Holy Scripture) 
much agreeable to the mind and purpose of the old 
fathers ". A recent writer has remarked that Cranmer 
was in error in attributing the order of lessons from 
Scripture to the Fathers of the church, although his 
expressions are perfectly correct when applied to the 
mediaeval breviaries. The writer did not know that 
the passage to which he took exception was derived 
from Quignon, but had been applied by Cranmer 
to a book in which the distinctive features of the 
breviary had been abandoned. ' 

Finally the order for morning and evening prayer 
ends with the following advertisement: "we do not 
wish that any one be bound, as regards the recital 
of matins and vespers, to anything more than is 
here set down". This of course relates to the obli 
gation under which priests lay to recite the entire 



1 See the interesting tract by E. Ranke Der Fortbestand 
des herJcommlichen Pericopenkreises. Gotha, 1859, pp. 534. 
The writer's judgment of the Anglican calendar of lessons 
seems more equitable than that of Kliefoth, but |it is to be 
noticed that the two features he selects for commendation are 
not Cranmer's, whilst that which he specially criticises is of the 
archbishop's own devising. 



Crammer's Second Project. 39 

divine office either privately or in public, and thus 
contemplates the private recitation of the usual " Hours". 
The Prayer Book of 1549 relaxes the obligation of 
private recitation altogether, but this was reimposed 
in the second Book of 1552. 

The general rubrics of this project are closed by a 
"Canon" as to the shortening of ecclesiastical prayers 
for the sake of preaching. After noticing the advan 
tages which will ensue from this exercise, " therefore " 
(says the canon) " lest the length of the public prayers 
here established by us should in any way hinder 
the work of good pastors in teaching their flock, 
we will that as often as any sermon is preached to 
the people, the parish priest may omit the Te Deum, 
the fourth lesson and the Athanasian creed in the 
public prayers before the people ". 1 

It only remains to consider the probable date at 
which this scheme of morning and evening prayer 
was drawn up. The alteration of the calendar and 
the omission of all provision for a hymn and collect 
for the festival of Corpus Christi make it almost 
certain that the scheme does not belong to the reign 
of Henry VIII. On the other hand it certainly dates 
before the compilation of the printed Book of Common 
Prayer and clearly manifests traces of having been 
used for that work. It may safely therefore be assigned 
to an early period in the reign of Edward VI. 

1 Cf. in the Prayer Book of 1549 the last note on ceremonies. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PREPARATIONS FOR CHANGE. 



So long as Henry lived the English church, although 
deprived of some dignity and strength, in her outward 
appearance remained unchanged. Her system of 
worship was the same as it had been for many genera 
tions, but her chief prelate Cranmer was prepared to 
suggest innovations and had ready in hand a scheme 
that was revolutionary. To maintain the old order in the 
great churches of the realm one thing was absolutely 
necessary: ample revenues to support a large body 
of clergy with their attendant ministers. The old 
elaborate ritual must necessarily be curtailed or alto 
gether swept away if the ecclesiastical revenues were 
diminished or entirely alienated from their original 
purposes. A small establishment would quite suffice 
for the public service on the simple model now pro 
jected by Cranmer. Whether he had in mind the 
spoliation of the church or a redistribution of its 
wealth is very doubtful, but it is certain that the 
simplicity of his proposed ritual rendered confis 
cation possible, and would therefore highly commend 
it to the men who were now to come into supreme 
power. 

Henry VIII. died at Westminster on Friday, 
28 January 1547, at two o'clock in the morning. 



Preparations for change. -il 

Parliament was then sitting; but the king's death 
was kept secret for nearly three days. On Monday, 
31 January, the Commons were sent for to the 
House of Lords and the Lord Chancellor Wriothesley 
acquainted them with the event. 

Edward, at the moment of his father's death, was 
at Hertford. His uncle, the Earl of Hertford, after 
wards the Duke of Somerset, was in London but 
hastened at once to join his nephew. Before leaving 
the city, however, it is clear that he had made all 
the arrangements needful for seizing the supreme 
power. Scarcely twenty four hours after Henry's 
death he wrote to Paget from Hertford a letter dated 
29 January, between three and four o'clock in the 
morning, sent by a messenger, bidden to " haste, post 
haste, haste with all diligence for thy life, for thy 
life". The object of the letter was to intimate, "that 
for divers respects, I think it not convenient to 
satisfy the world " as to the contents of Henry's will, 
and saying that between this and Wednesday 
(February 2) * we to meet and agree therein as there 
may be no controversy hereafter". 1 

Even Edward himself, although in his uncle's 
keeping, was not informed of his father's death until 
they had made the journey from Hertford to En field. 
"We intend," writes Hertford in a second letter, 
"from Enfield, this Sunday night at eleven of the 
clock, " that the " King's Majesty shall be a-horse- 
back tomorrow by eleven so that by three we 
trust his Grace shall be at the Tower". 

The announcement in Parliament of the names of 
the executors of Henry's w r ill, who were to constitute 
the Privy Council and exercise all the authority of 



Tytler, Reigns of Edw. VI and Mary. I. pp. 15 1C. 



42 Preparations for change. 

the crown during Edward's minority, raised murmurs 
of surprise and distrust. How much of the contents 
of the will was made public is nob known; but it 
would seem that the Earl of Hertford's plan, sketched 
in his letter of 29 January, was followed. His direc 
tion to Paget was " to have the will presently with 
you and to show this is the will, naming unto them 
severally who the executors are that the king did 
specially trust, and who be counsellors ". 

The first proceedings of the Council within a week 
of the king's arrival in London, and before Henry 
was buried, indicated the spirit with which they 
were prepared to manage even the most weighty 
matters of ecclesiastical administration. Under Henry, 
however strong his will and masterful his mind even 
as supreme head, the old forms of ecclesiastical 
government retained an ecclesiastical aspect. Under 
Edward, year by year not merely was all ecclesias 
tical power wholly absorbed by the King, the Council 
and their lay agents; but all care to preserve even 
the outward forms was disregarded and the admi 
nistration of the Church appeared as a mere depart 
ment of the State. 

On Sunday, 6 February, in pursuance of this policy, 
the Council assembled at the Tower resolved ; "Item 
whereas all the bishops of the realm had authority 
of spiritual jurisdiction by force of instruments under 
the seal appointed ad res ecclesiastic as which was 
determined by the decease of our late Sovereign lord 
King Henry VIII . . . and for as much as for the better 
order of the affairs of the realm it is thought con 
venient the same authority be renewed unto them; 
it was therefore ordained . . . that they should cause 
new instruments to be drawn in form of the others 
they had before . . . and thereupon every of the said 
bishops to exercise their jurisdiction in such manner 



Preparations for change. 43 

as they did before by virtue of their former grants". 1 
At this Council both Cranmer and Tunstall were 
present, and in compliance with the order the arch 
bishop took out his new commission on the following 
day. 2 The whole tone of this document, professing 
as it does that u all ecclesiastical jurisdiction " pro 
ceeded from the king " as well as secular ", is sufficient 
to show that the taking out of these commissions 
was regarded as a necessary part of the programme, 
even if the Council Book had not recorded its positive 
order. In fact it was an immediate announcement 
of the cardinal point of the whole ecclesiastical 
policy of Edward's reign. The bishops were to be 
mere delegates of the King. 

Whether Cranmer found any imitators among 
the bishops in thus immediately complying with the 
order of the Council, of which he was one of the 
most important members, does not appear; but it is 
worthy of note that Tunstall's name disappears early 
from the documents issuing from the Council board 3 . 

1 Council Book Had MS. 2308 f. 25 d. 

-i This order of the Council appears to have been commonly 
overlooked and the proceeding has been attributed to the initia 
tive of Cranmer. The impression that has generally prevailed may 
be conveniently given in the words used by Canon Dixon. "Even 
before the prince was crowned " he writes " it came into the mind 
of Cranmer, so great was his loyalty, that it was desirable for 
himself and the other bishops to renew their commissions as 
functionaries of the new King. He therefore issued or caused to- 
be issued again without delay those curious instruments" &c. 
(Hist. II, p. 413). "Desirable" seems hardly the word to use in 
view of the proem of the commission itself printed in Burnet 
(II. 2. p. 90), who seems to have seen the Council order, since 
he says (H p, 6) " and the bishops were required to take out 
new commissions". 

3 After the first three weeks ot this reign his signature does not 



44: Preparations for change. 

One bishop certainly objected, and from his own words 
it may be taken that he spoke in the name of the 
rest. The full meaning of this novel order did not 
escape the keen sight of that " ignorant" or " ignorant 
and subtle lawyer" as Cranmer designates Gardiner, 
the great opponent of his innovating tendencies. For 
nearly a month the jurisdiction of the bishop of 
Winchester over his diocese must have been suspend 
ed pending the result of the correspondence he had 
on the matter with the Council. His objections are 
best stated in his own words. In a letter of 1 March 
to "Master Secretary Paget 11 he writes: "Being the 
matter of the expedition of our commissions com 
mitted to you, these (letters) shall be to require you 
to expedite them favourably as ye promised me you 
would. This day 1 have seen your addition which I 
like not; for we be called ordinaries of the realm, 
and there should be a request on our parts to make 
ourselves delegates. And I have been exercised on 
making of treaties, where words (as ye know) have 
been thrust in to signify somewhat at length and 
then have such an interpretation as may serve. And 
we poor bishops be not such a match as the parties 
be in treaties .. .It would be a marvellous matter if 
after my long service and the love of my master 
(Henry VIII), I should offend in going about to do 
well, to see things well by visitations and receiving 
of convicts to my charge as ordinary, and am but a 
delegate. Ye must grant archdeacons authority to 
visit or they cannot pay their tenths, for thereupon 
their profit doth arise, and then how shall it stand, 
the archdeacons to have more authority than the 
bishop, having in his name to be overseer and yet 

appear on the Privy Seals with those of the other councillors, 
except once in May and twice in June of this year. 



Preparations for change. 45 

may not go see. And now is the time when such as 
have office to order the people should rather have 
more committed to them than less. And there is no 
man I think so made as will adventure further than 
the evident speech of the commission will bear . . . 
I write generally unto you for all and specially for 
my lord of London. For like as the brethren have 
made a ballad and solace themselves in it, where 
Bonner lamenteth the fall of Winchester, so for 
recompense of his lamentation I speak in his cause, 
with whom I perceive ye be offended, justly or no I 
will not reason for I know not, nor have been, on 
my fidelity, ever spoken to by him of it" '. 

Gardiner had been, as he himself declares, in 
Paget's youth " his tutor and teacher ; afterwards 
his master, then his beneficial master" obtaining 
from Henry "one of the rooms of the clerkship of 
the signet for him" 2 . The tone of Paget's reply to 
his old master is extraordinary. It is dated March 
2, the day after Gardiner had written his request, 
and it must have shown the bishop that there was 
no room for appeal against a policy already decided 
upon. "1 malign not bishops 1 ' he writes u but would 
that both they and all other were in such order as 
might be most to the glory of God and the benefit 
of this realm. And if the estate of bishops is or shall 
be thought meet to be reformed, I wish either that 
you were no bishop, or that you could have such a 
pliable will as could well bear the reformation that 
should be thought meet for the quiet of the realm". 

"Your lordship shall have your commission in as 
ample manner as I have authority to make out the 
same, and in an ampler manner than you had it 

1 State Papers. Dora. Ed. VI. Vol I. No. 24. 

2 Foxe's Ads ed. Townsend, VI. p 259. 



46 Preparations for change, 

before. No man wisheth you better than I do, which 
is as well as to myself; if you wish me not like, 
you are in the wrong; and thus I take my leave of 
your lordship" l . 

Another matter affecting the interests of the church 
was as easily settled and the course entered on was 
as persistently pursued. The ecclesiastical revenues 
and the sacred buildings themselves were early 
marked out for spoliation. In a paper, dated 15 February 
1547 are seen " the names of those to be raised to 
dignity, and lands to be given to them". Amongst these 
are the following: "My lord of Hertford "with his 
dukedom " 800 lands a year, and I 200 of the 
next bishop's lands 1 ' 2 . 

Sir Thomas Darcy was to be made steward of 
the bishop of Norwich in Suffolk and Sir Richard 
Southwell in Norfol k. My lord Went worth was "to have 
the stewardship of all my lord of Ely, his lands and 
master of his game in Norfolk, in Suffolk and in 
Cambridgeshire": Sir William Petre was granted 
"the 100 a year of my lord, of Winchester" (bishop 
Gardiner) whilst " the stewardship of all my lord of 
Lincoln's lands " with other small perquisites was 
divided between Sir William Goring and Sir Ralph 
Vane. It is a mere common place of history how 
faithfully and generously the policy thus modestly 
initiated was pursued to the end. 

But the rulers were not content to lay down only 
the main lines of conduct in greater matters. The 
attack began at once and in detail upon almost every 
point of the ancient system. In 1547, Ash Wednesday 

1 Tytler. I p. 25. 

2 State Papers. Domestic. Vol. I No. 11. This appears to be 
a draft corrected by Hertford himself: the words "and & 200