OF THE VARIATIONS IN THE Communion and Baptismal Offices OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, FROM THE YEAR 1549 TO 1662. TO WHICH ARE ADDED THOSE IN THE SCOTCH PRAYER BOOK OF 1637. WITH AN APPENDIX ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE VARIATIONS. BY FREDERIC BULLEY, B.D., FELLOW OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE COLLEGE, OXFORD. OXFORD, JOHN HENRY PARKER: RIVINGTONS, LONDON. MDCCCXLII. THE PREFACE. THE Services and Rubrics of the Prayer Book generally are become an object of so much interest both to the Clergy and Laity of the Church, that this circumstance alone will, it is hoped, be a sufficient apology for the following pages, the design of which is to exhibit the variations which from time to time have taken place in its two principal Offices, those namely which relate to the administration of the Holy Sacraments. The original intention of the Editor was to have collated the entire Book, but on further consideration it appeared to him that the variations of the other portions were either too well known, or not sufficiently important, to warrant so extensive a plan, and also that being frequently confined to the Books of K. Edward, they are already to be found in an important work entitled, "The two Books of Common Prayer set forth by authority of Parliament, in the reign of King Edward the Sixth, compared with each other." So far then as relates to these Books exclusively no additional information is required. But the plan, it is conceived, requires to be carried out in regard to the Editions which followed after, and particularly in reference to the Offices selected in the present collation. The state of the Liturgy during the reign of Elizabeth is still but imperfectly understood. The copies of that period are extremely scarce; and at the same time it must be interesting to learn to what extent they differ from the preceding Books or from each other. Again, the Books of James the First contain important Rubrical variations in the Office for Private Baptism, and the Scottish Liturgy, although of a later date, possesses independently of its relation to the English Books, an interest on several accounts peculiar to itself. |