The Book of Common Prayer

An Act of the first year of Edward VI ordered that communion be given to the people in both kinds, bread and wine (Statutes of the Realm, 1 Edw. VI c. 1, s. 8). The Act of Uniformity of 1549 recites that the realm had long had several “uses”, those of Sarum, York, Bangor and Lincoln, and of late a variety of new forms as well, and that the king had therefore appointed the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, with other bishops and learned men, to draw up one order of common prayer and of the sacraments, having regard to Scripture and to the usages of the primitive church. The result was The Book of the Common Prayer. From the following Pentecost every minister was to use it “and none other”; one who refused would lose a year’s income from a benefice and be imprisoned for six months (Statutes of the Realm, 2 & 3 Edw. VI c. 1). A London chronicler notes that St Paul’s and several parishes began to use it earlier, at the beginning of Lent (Wriothesley, Chronicle vol. 2, p. 9).

The book’s preface gives its reasons. The old services had broken up the reading of Scripture, they had been read to the people in Latin, which they did not understand, and the rules were so many that it was harder to find what to read than to read it. Now Scripture is to be read through in order and in English, the priest needs only this book and the Bible, and “all the whole realm shall have but one use” (Book of Common Prayer (1549) preface, pp. 17–19). The communion service is still headed “commonly called the Mass” (Book of Common Prayer (1549) p. 76). The priest gives the bread with the words “The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life” (Book of Common Prayer (1549) p. 92).

A second Act in 1552 says that doubts had arisen about the manner of the service and that the book has therefore been “explained, and made fully perfect”. It annexes the new book, adds a form for ordaining bishops, priests and deacons, and requires everyone to attend church on Sundays and holy days (Statutes of the Realm, 5 & 6 Edw. VI c. 1). In the new book the service is “the Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion”, and the priest stands at the north side of a table (Book of Common Prayer (1552) p. 265). The words at the giving of the bread become “Take and eat this, in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith, with thanksgiving” (Book of Common Prayer (1552) p. 279). A declaration added at the end says that kneeling to receive does not mean that any adoration is done to the bread and wine, or to “any real and essential presence there being of Christ’s natural flesh and blood” (Book of Common Prayer (1552) p. 283). The new service was first used at St Paul’s on 1 November 1552 (Wriothesley, Chronicle vol. 2, pp. 78–79).

What became of the book after Edward’s death is told in the Burning of Protestants under Mary I and the Elizabethan Settlement.