Devotional Books for the Marshall's Primer. Hilsey's Primer 18. Use was made of this well-known name in the time of Henry VIII. to attempt the circulation of a similar book, but with alterations showing a great advance in reformed doctrines. Thus Marshall published a Prymer before 1530, in which he omitted the Litany, because of the invocations of saints which it contained, and a second edition in 1535,2 in which he inserts the Litany with its invocations, but with a warning against their very possible abuse. This book contains the offices for the hours of prayer: but a considerable portion of the volume is occupied with an exposition of Psalm li., and a harmony of the Gospel narrative of our Saviour's Passion. It has also a doctrinal instruction in the form of a dialogue between a father and his child. It contains the Dirge and Commendations: but with an admonition and warning prefixed against prayer for the dead, and showing the true meaning of the Psalms and Lessons read in that service. This book was strictly suppressed.3 19. In 1539, Hilsey, Bishop of Rochester, published a book more nearly resembling the Primer, and with some authority." This was intended to introduce as much doctrinal improvement as the King's Vicegerent in ecclesiastical matters could venture upon. It has 'the form of bidding of the beads, by the King's commandment,' and 'the Abrogation of the Holydays.' Many of the psalms, anthems, lessons, and hymns, are changed for others of more plain sentence: also a great number of the saints invoked in the Litany are omitted, according to the Injunctions of 1536. Prayer for the dead is retained in the bidding of the beads and 1 Burton, Three Primers put forth in the Reign of Henry VIII. (Oxf. 1834), Pref. p. vii. 2 Reprinted by Dr. Burton, pp. 1-300. It is entitled 'A goodly Primer in English, newly corrected and printed, with certain godly Meditations and Prayers added to the same, very necessary and profitable for all them that right assuredly understand not the Latin and Greek Tongues. Cum privilegio regali! 4 This was entitled 'The Manual of Prayers, or the Primer in English, set out at length, whose contents the Reader by the Prologue next after the Kalendar shall soon perceive, and therein shall see briefly the order of the whole Book. Set forth by John, late Bishop of Rochester, at the commandment of the. right honourable lord Thomas Crumwell, lord Privy Seal, Vicegerent to the King's Highness.' Burton, Three Primers, pp. 305-436. 3 Maskell, II. p. xxxviii.; Wilkins, III. 769. The book, however, was This was carefully ordered by extensively circulated (1534-1539), Henry, to omit all mention of the and was known to Cranmer, who Pope, and to teach the people that transferred whole sentences from it the king was the supreme head iminto The Institution of a Christian mediately under God of the spirituMan (1537). Lathbury, Hist. of alty and temporalty of the Church of Prayer-Book, p. 4. England. Devotional Books for the Laity. in the 'Dirige;' but the Lessons of this service are changed for others, declaring the miserable state of man's life, the condition of the dead, and the general resurrection. It contains an instruction of the manner of hearing of the mass,' opposing the doctrine of the sacramentaries. The book follows three main divisions, faith, prayer (the Hours, with the xv. Oes,1 the vii. and the xv. Psalms, and the Litany, &c.), and works, concluding after passages of Scripture upon the relative duties, with an extract from 2 Pet. ii., headed, 'The bishop of Rome with his adherences, destroyers of all estates.' This with all preceding Primers was superseded in 1545 by 'The Primer set forth by the King's Ma- K. Henry's jesty, and his Clergy, to be taught, learned, and read; and none other to be used throughout all his dominions.'2 1 These were fifteen meditations in divers Latin primers, with goodly printed prefaces, promising to the 2 Burton, Three Primers, PP. 437 -526. Primer, с Changes in the Service under Henry VIII. CHAPTER II. THE PRAYER-BOOK IN THE REIGN OF EDWARD VI. [A.D. 1547-1553.] IN the latter years of the reign of Henry VIII., as the Bible was made more accessible, the desire for some reformation of the public Services was widely felt. Archbishop Hermann of Cologne was, in 1536, urging a revision of the Breviary, by purging out false or doubtful legends ;1 and in the same year, or perhaps in 1535, Cardinal Quignon published a reformed Breviary,2 the chief feature of which was the introduction of Scripture in longer and continuous portions. This work was sanctioned by Pope Clement VII.; was recommended, though not formally enjoined, by Pope Paul III., and was extensively used for forty years. In England also revised editions of the Sarum Breviary (1516 and 1531) and of the Missal (1533) appeared. In 1534 the Convocation petitioned Henry to authorize an English version of the Bible; and in 1536, in a Proclamation for Uniformity in Religion, the King, though maintaining 5 1 Synod of Cologne (1536), Art. 2. 2 Breviarium Romana Curia, ex sacra et canonica Scriptura, necnon Sanctorum historiis summa vigilantia decerptis, accurate digestum.' A second edition was printed in 1537. This reformer's name was Fernandez de Quiñones, of a noble family in Leon, a Franciscan, and Cardinal Presbyter of the title of Holy Cross. 3 Reprinted, Cambridge, 1879. 4 Wilkins, Concil. III. 776. that he is not compelled by God's Word to set forth the Scripture in English, yet of his own goodness is pleased to allow his lay subjects to have and read the same in convenient places and times.' In this year Cromwell, the King's Vicar-General, issued Injunctions,1 which direct a Bible of the largest volume in English to be set up in some convenient place in every church, where it might be read, only without noise, or disturbance of any public Service, and without any disputation, or exposition.2 In 1542, a proposal was laid before the Convocation by Cranmer, to amend the Service-books, and to discontinue the dressing of images and setting up lighted candles. before them. A new edition of the Sarum Breviary* was issued at this time, and it was further determined that no other Breviary should be used in the province of Canterbury. At the meeting of Convocation in 1543, the Archbishop signified that it was the King's will that there should be a further reformation of the Servicebooks; and it was ordered also that 'every Sunday 1 Wilkins, Concil. III. 815. The order is repeated in a Proclamation (6 May, 1541), which fixes the price of the unbound Bible at ten shillings, or twelve shillings if well and sufficiently bound, trimmed, and clasped (Wilkins, III. 856; Strype, Cranmer, I. 21). See an account of early English translations of the Bible in Joyce, England's Sacred Synods, pp. 404 sqq.; Hardwick, Reformation, p. 196. minica, Symbolo Apostolorum, et 4 Portiforium secundum usum Sarum noviter impressum, et a plu rimis purgatum mendis. In quo nomen Romano pontifici falso adscriptum omittitur, una cum aliis quæ Christianissimo__nostri Regis statuto repugnant. Excusum Londini per Edvardum Whytchurch, 3 Reverendissimus egit cum pa- 1541' (= 1542). Joyce, p. 409. tribus de candelis et candelabris The Pars Estivalis is in the library coram imaginibus fixis abolendis, of Queen's College, Cambridge: necnon de portiferiis, missalibus, et cf. Hardwick, Reformation, p. 206. aliis libris corrigendis et reformandis, 5 Wilkins, III. 861, 862. ac nominibus Romanorum pontificum et Thomæ Becket diligentius ab omnibus presbyteris radendis et abolendis; atque de quibusdam vestimentis sericis et aliis ornamentis ipsis statuis appositis; egitque de Oratione Do 6 Ibid. III. 863: That all massbooks, antiphoners, and portuises should be corrected, reformed, and castigated from all manner of mention of the Bishop of Rome's name, and from all apocryphas, feigned Changes in the Service under Changes in the Service and holiday throughout the year, the curate of every He parish church, after the Te Deum and Magnificat, should under The Bible read in English. English Litany. openly read to the people one chapter of the New Testament in English, without exposition; and when the New Testament was read over, then to begin the Old.' Thus the first step was taken towards liturgical reformation by introducing the reading of Scripture in English into the Public Service of the Church and this was done by the authority of the House of Bishops in Convocation, who had also received the proposal to correct the Service-Books. The way was thus prepared for the further substitution of English for Latin in the prayers. The first change in this respect was made in the Litany. This form of petition, used in solemn processions, had been in the hands of the people in their own tongue in the Primer, certainly for a hundred and fifty years; but in 1544 it was revised by Cranmer, who, besides the old Litanies of the English Church, had also before him the Litany, formed from the same ancient model, which had been issued (1543) by Hermann, the Archbishop of Cologne. The chief alteration consisted in the omission of the long string of invocations of saints, which had gradually been inserted in the Western Litanies; although Cranmer still retained three clauses, in which the prayers of the Virgin Mary, the angels, and the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, were desired. With this exception our English Litany was set forth for public use by command of Henry |