BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER

The '''Book of Common Prayer''' is the common title of a number of prayer books used in the Anglican Communion. The first book, published in 1549, in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English Reformation following the breach with Rome. Prayer books, unlike books of prayers, contain the words of structured (or liturgical) services of worship. The work of 1549 was the first prayer book to contain the forms of service for daily and Sunday worship in English and to do so within a single volume; it included morning prayer, evening prayer, and Holy Communion. The book also included the other occasional services in full: the orders for baptism, confirmation, marriage, 'prayers to be said with the sick' and a funeral service. It set out in full the biblical readings for the Sunday Communion and the psalms. The latter are set out to be said daily over the course of a month. Set readings for daily prayer are provided by reference only and canticles, mostly biblical, are provided to be sung between the readings. A creed is said and there follow set prayers. Discovering the Book of Common Prayer: A hands-on approach (Volume 1:Daily Prayer), , Sue, Careless, Anglican Book Centre Publishing, ,
The 1549 book was rapidly succeeded by a further more reformed revision in 1552 under the same editorial hand, that of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. It never came into use because, on the death of Edward VI, his half-sister Mary I restored Catholic worship. On her death, a slightly modified version of the 1552 book was published in 1559. Following the tumultuous events leading to and including the English Civil War, the final major revision was published in 1662. That edition has remained the official prayer book of the Church of England, although in the 21st century it has largely been displaced by a new prayer book, styled ''Common Worship''.^[1]
The ''Book of Common Prayer'' appears in many variants across the Anglican Communion. It was adapted and revised in other countries where Anglican Churches were planted. Churches inside and outside of the Anglican Communion use versions of The ''Book of Common Prayer'' in over 50 different countries and in over 150 different languages.
Traditional Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian prayer books have borrowed from the ''Book of Common Prayer'', and the marriage and burial rites have found their way into those of other denominations and into the English language. Like the King James Bible, and the works of Shakespeare many words and phrases from the ''Book of Common Prayer'' have entered popular culture. The crime writer P.D. James has used phrases from the ''Book of Common Prayer'' and made them into bestselling titles - ''Devices and Desires'' and ''The Children of Men'' - while Alfonso Cuarón's 2006 film ''Children of men'' placed the phrase onto cinema marquees worldwide.

Full title

The full name of the 1662 ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is '''The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church according to the use of the Church of England together with the Psalter or Psalms of David pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches and the form and manner of making, ordaining, and consecrating of bishops, priests, and deacons'''

History

The Prayer Books of Edward VI

The work of producing English-language books for use in the liturgy was largely that of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury at first under the reign of Henry VIII, only more radically under his son Edward VI. Cranmer was, in his early days, somewhat conservative, an admirer, if a critical one, of John Fisher. It may have been his visit to Germany in 1532 (where he secretly married) which began the change in his outlook. Then in 1538, as Henry began diplomatic negotiations with Lutheran princes, Cranmer came face-to-face with a Lutheran embassy.^[2] The Exhortation and Litany, the earliest English-language service book of the Church of England, was the first overt manifestation of his changing views. It was thus no mere translation from the Latin: its Protestant character is made clear by the drastic reduction of the place of saints, compressing what had been the major part into three petitions.^[3] Published in 1544, it borrowed greatly from Martin Luther's Litany and Myles Coverdale's New Testament and was the only service that might be considered to be "Protestant" to be finished within the lifetime of King Henry VIII.

Cranmer's Prayer book of 1549.

It was not until Henry's death in 1547 and the accession of Edward VI that revision could proceed faster. Cranmer finished his work on an English Communion rite in 1548, obeying an order of Convocation of the previous year that Communion was to be given as both bread and wine.^[4] The service existed as an addition to the pre-existing Latin Mass.
It was included, one year later, in 1549, in a full prayer book, set out with a daily office, readings for Sundays and Holy Days, the Communion Service, Public Baptism, of Confirmation, of Matrimony, The Visitation of the Sick, At a Burial and the Ordinal (added in 1550).^[5] The Preface to this edition, which contained Cranmer's explanation as to why a new prayer book was necessary, began: "There was never any thing by the wit of man so well devised, or so sure established, which in continuance of time hath not been corrupted." Although the work is commonly attributed to Cranmer, its detailed origins are obscure^[6]. A group of bishops and divines met first at Chertsey and then at Windsor in 1548, drawn from both conservatives and reformers, agreed only that "the service of the church ought to be in the mother tongue".^[7] Cranmer was also a great plagiarist; even the opening of Preface (above) was borrowed.^[8] He borrowed much from German sources, particular from the work of Hermann von Wied, Archbishop of Cologne and from Osiander (to whom he was related by marriage)^[9] Many phrases are characteristic of the German reformers Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr (who was staying with Cranmer at the time of the finalising of drafts) and of his chaplain, Thomas Becon. However, to Cranmer is 'credited the overall job of editorship and the overarching structure of the book',^[10] including the systematic amendment of his materials to remove any idea that human merit made any contribution to their salvation.
Introduced on Whitsunday 1549, after considerable debate and revision in Parliament — but there is no evidence that it was ever submitted to either Convocation — it was said to have pleased neither reformers nor their opponents, indeed the most Bishop Gardiner could say of it was that it "was patient of a catholic interpretation". It was also widely unpopular in the parishes, especially in places such as Devon^[11] and Cornwall.^[12]. Particularly unpopular was the banning of processions and the sending out of commissioners to enforce the new requirements.

Cranmer's Prayer book of 1552.

The book was, from the outset, intended only as a temporary expedient, as Bucer was assured having met Cranmer for the first time in April 1549: 'concessions...made both as a respect for antiquity and to the infirmity of the present age' as he wrote.^[13] It kept the appearance of the Mass but abandoned its theology.^[14] Both Bucer and Peter Martyr wrote detailed proposals for modification; Bucer's ''Censura'' ran to 28 chapters^[15] which influenced Cranmer significantly though he did not follow them slavishly ^[16] and the new book was duly produced in 1552, making "fully perfect" what was already implicit. The policy of gradual change was now unveiled: Catholic practices were now excised, as doctrines had in 1549 been subtly changed, in order to realize more fully the Zwinglian theological project in England. Thus, in the Eucharist, gone were the words Mass and altar; the 'Lord have mercy' was inserted into a recitation of the Ten Commandments; removed to the end was the Gloria; gone was any reference to an offering of a 'Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving' in the Eucharistic prayer, which ended with the words of institution (This is my Body..This is my blood...in remembrance of me.) The elevation of the host had been forbidden in l549; all manual acts were now omitted. The part of the prayer which followed, the Prayer of Oblation, was transferred, much changed, to a position after the congregation had received communion. The words at the administration of communion which, in the prayer book of 1549 described the eucharistic species as 'The body of our Lorde Jesus Christe...', 'The blood of our Lorde Jesus Christe...' were replaced with the words 'Take, eat, in remembrance that Christ died for thee..' etc. The Peace, at which in earlier times the congregation had exchanged a greeting, was removed altogether. Vestments such as the stole, chasuble and cope were no longer to be worn, but only a surplice. It was the final stage of the reformers' work of removing all elements of sacrifice from the Latin Mass. In the Baptism service the signing with the cross was moved until after the baptism and the exorcism, the anointing, the putting on of the chrysom robe and the triple immersion were omitted. Most drastic of all was the removal of the Burial service from church: it was to take place at the graveside. In 1549, there had been provision for a Requiem (not so called) and prayers of commendation and committal, the first addressed to the deceased. All that remained was a single reference to the deceased, giving thanks for their delivery from 'the myseryes of this sinneful world'. This new Order for the Burial of the Dead was a drastically stripped-down memorial service designed to undermine definitively the whole complex of traditional beliefs about Purgatory and intercessory prayer.^[17]
Before the book was in general use, however, Edward VI died. In 1553, Mary, upon her succession to the throne, restored the old religion. The Mass was re-established, altars, roods and statues were re-instated; an attempt was made to restore the Church to its Roman affiliation. Cranmer was punished for his work in the English Reformation by being burned at the stake on 21 March 1556. Nevertheless, the 1552 book was to survive. After Mary's death in 1558, it became the primary source for the Elizabethan Book of Common Prayer, with subtle if significant changes only.

The 1559 Prayer Book

Thus, under Elizabeth, a more permanent enforcement of the Reformed religion was undertaken, and the 1552 book was republished in 1559, along with laws requiring conformity to the new standards. In its Elizabethan form, scarcely altered,^[18] it was used for nearly 100 years, thus being the official prayer book under the Stuarts as well as being the first Anglican service in the American colonies. This was the prayer book of Queen Elizabeth I, John Donne, and Richard Hooker. It was also at the core of English liturgical life throughout the lifetime of Shakespeare.

The Prayer book of 1559 was a product of the "Elizabethan settlement".

The alterations of the 1559 Prayer Book from its 1552 precursor, though minor, were to cast a long shadow. One related to what was worn. Instead of the banning of all vestments save the rochet (for bishops) and the surplice for parish clergy, it permitted 'such ornaments...as were in use...in the second year of K. Edward VI'. This allowed substantial leeway for more traditionalist clergy to retain at least some of the vestments which they felt were appropriate to liturgical celebration. It was also to be the basis of claims in the 19th. century that vestments such as chasubles, albs and stoles were legal. At the Communion the words 'the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ' etc. were combined with the words of Edward's second book, 'Take eat in remembrance..' etc. The prohibition on kneeling at the Communion was omitted. The conservative nature of these changes underlines the fact that Protestantism was by no means universally popular, a fact that the queen herself recognised; her revived Act of Supremacy, giving her the ambiguous title of Supreme Governor passed without difficulty, but the Act of Uniformity 1559 passed through Parliament by only three votes.^[19] It made constitutional history in being imposed by the laity alone, as all the bishops, except those imprisoned by the Queen and unable to attend, voted against it.^[20] Convocation had made its position clear by affirming the traditional doctrine of the Eucharist, the authority of the Pope, and the reservation by divine law to ecclesiastics 'of handling and defining concerning the things belonging to faith, sacraments, and discipline ecclesiastical'.^[21] However, on the queen's death in 1603, this book, substantially the book of 1552, having been regarded as offensive by the likes of Bishop Stephen Gardiner in the sixteenth century as being a break with the tradition of the Western church, as it was, by the seventeenth century had come to be regarded as unduly Catholic. On the accession of James I, following the so-called Millenary Petition, the Hampton Court conference of 1604, a meeting of bishops and Puritan divines, resisted the pressure for change (save to the catechism).^[22] By the reign of Charles I (1625-1649) the Puritan pressure, exercised through a much changed Parliament, had increased. Government-inspired petitions for the removal of the prayer book and episcopacy 'root and branch' resulted in local disquiet in many places and eventually the production of locally organised counter petitions. The government had its way but it became clear that the division was not between Catholics and Protestants, but between Puritans and those who valued the Elizabethan settlement.^[23] The 1559 book was finally outlawed by Parliament in 1645 to be replaced by the Directory of Public Worship which was more a set of instructions than a prayer book. How widely the Directory was used is not certain; there is some evidence of its having been purchased, in churchwardens' accounts, but not widely. The Prayer Book certainly was used clandestinely in some places, not least because the Directory made no provision at all for burial services. Following the execution of Charles I in 1649 and the establishment of the Commonwealth under Lord Protector Cromwell, it would not be reinstated until shortly after the restoration of the monarchy to England.

The Prayer Book in Scotland

Laud's abortive 1637 Prayer book.

Following the accession of King James VI of Scotland to the throne of England, his son King Charles I, with the assistance of Archbishop Laud,^[24] sought to impose the prayer book on Scotland. The book concerned was not, however, the 1559 book but very much that of 1549,the first book of Edward VI. First used in 1637, it was never accepted, having been violently rejected by the Scots. Following the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (including the English Civil War), the Church of Scotland was re-established on a presbyterian basis but by the Act of Comprehension 1690, the rump of Episcopalians were allowed to hold onto their benefices. For liturgy they looked to Laud's book and in 1724 the first of the 'Wee Bookies' was published, containing, for the sake of economy, the central part of the Communion beginning with the Offertory.^[25]
Between then and 1764, when a more formal revised version was published, a number of things happened which were to separate the Scottish liturgy more firmly from either the English books of 1549 or 1559. First, informal changes were made to the order of the various parts of the service and inserting words indicating a sacrificial intent to the eucharist; secondly, as a result of Bishop Rattray's researches into the liturgies of St. James and St. Clement, published in 1744, the form of the invocation was changed. These changes were incorporated into the 1764 book which was to be the liturgy of the Scottish Episcopal Church (until 1911 when it was revised) but it was also to influence the liturgy of the Episcopal Church in the United States^[26] (A completely new revision was finished in 1929, and several revisions to the communion service have been prepared since then.)

The 1662 Prayer Book

The Prayer book of 1662 angered the Presbyterians.

The 1662 prayer book was printed only two years after the restoration of the monarchy, following the Savoy Conference convened by Royal Warrant to review the book of 1559.^[27] Attempts by Presbyterians led by Richard Baxter to gain approval for an alternative service book failed. In reply to the Presbyterian Exceptions to the book only fifteen 'trivial' changes were made to the book of 1559, some of which were the opposite of what they wanted. Among them was the reference, in the prayer for the Church Militant, those 'departed this life in thy faith and fear' thus contradicting the statement at the beginning of the prayer that it was for the church 'militant here in earth'. Secondly, an attempt was made to restore the Offertory. This was achieved by the insertion of the words 'and oblations' into the prayer for the Church and the revision of the rubric so as to require the monetary offerings to be brought to the Table (instead of being put in the poor box) and the bread and wine placed upon the Table. Previously it had not been clear when and how bread and wine got onto the altar. The so-called manual acts, whereby the priest took the bread and the cup during the prayer of consecration, which had been deleted in 1552, were restored. After the communion the unused but consecrated bread and wine were to be reverently consumed in church rather than being taken away and used for any other occasion. By such subtle means were Cranmer's purposes further subverted, leaving it for generations to argue over the precise theology of the rite. One change was made that constituted somewhat of a reversion to Cranmerian theology was the re-insertion of the so-called Black Rubric,^[28] which had been removed in 1559. This declared that kneeling in order the receive the communion did not imply adoration of the species of the Eucharist nor 'to any Corporal Presence of Christ's natural Flesh and Blood' - which, said the rubric, were in heaven, not here.
Unable to accept the new book 2,000 Presbyterians were deprived of their livings.^[29] This revision survives today as the "standard" Parliament-approved ''Book of Common Prayer'' in England, with only minor revisions since its publication (mostly due the changes in the monarchy and in the dominions of the former Empire). Many parishes still use it, but usually only for an early morning Sunday communion, or evensong. Most services in the Church of England are from Common Worship, approved by General Synod in 2000, following nearly forty years of experiment.
The actual language of the 1662 revision was little changed from that of Cranmer, with the exception of the modernization of only the most archaic words and phrases. This book was the one which had existed as the official ''Book of Common Prayer'' during the most monumental periods of growth of the British empire, and, as a result, has been a great influence on the prayer books of Anglican churches worldwide, liturgies of other denominations in English, and of the English language as a whole.

Further developments

After the 1662 prayer book, development ceased in England until the twentieth century; that it did was, however, a bit of a close run thing. On the death of Charles II his brother, a Roman Catholic, became James II. James wished to achieve toleration for those of his own Roman Catholic faith, whose practices were still banned. This, however, drew the Presbyterians closer to the Church of England in their common desire to resist 'popery'; talk of reconciliation and liturgical compromise was thus in the air. But with the flight of James in 1688 and the arrival of the Calvinist William of Orange the position of the parties changed. The Presbyterians could achieve toleration of their practices without such a right being given to Roman Catholics and without, therefore, their having to submit to the Church of England, even with a liturgy more acceptable to them. They were now in a much stronger position to demand even more radical changes to the forms of worship. John Tillotson, Dean of Canterbury pressed the king to set up a Commission to produce such a revision.^[30] The so-called ''Liturgy of Comprehension'' of 1689, which was the result, conceded two thirds of the Presbyterian demands of 1661; but when it came to Convocation the members, now more fearful of William's perceived agenda, did not even discuss it^[31] and its contents were, for a long time, not even accessible. This work, however, did go on to influence the prayer books of many British colonies.

Edward Bouverie Pusey, a leader of the Oxford Movement.

By the 19th century other pressures upon the book of 1662 had arisen. Adherents of the Oxford Movement, begun in 1833, raised questions about the relationship of the Church of England to the apostolic church and thus about its forms of worship. Known as Tractarians after their production of 'Tracts for the Times' on theological issues, they advanced the case for the Church of England being essentially a part of the 'Western Church', of which the Roman Catholic Church was the chief representative. The illegal use of elements of the Roman rite, the use of candles, vestments and incense, practices known as Ritualism, had become widespread and led to the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 which established a new system of discipline, intending to bring the 'Romanisers' into conformity.^[32] The Act had no effect on illegal practices: five clergy were imprisoned for contempt of court and after the trial of the much loved Bishop Edward King of Lincoln,^[33] it became clear that some revision of the liturgy had to be embarked upon. Following a Royal Commission report in 1906, work began on a new prayer book, work that was to take twenty years.
In 1927, this proposed prayer book was finished. It was decided, during development, that the use of the services therein would be decided on by each given congregation, so as to avoid as much conflict as possible with traditionalists. With these open guidelines the book was granted approval by the Church of England Convocations and Church Assembly. Since the Church of England is a state church, a further step;sending the proposed revision to Parliament;was required, but the book was rejected in December of that year when the MPs William Joynson-Hicks and Rosslyn Mitchell "reached and inflamed all the latent Protestant prejudices in the House" and argued strongly against it on the grounds that the proposed book was "papistical" and was a restoration of the Roman Mass and implied the doctrine of Transubstantiation. The next year was spent revising the book to make it more suitable for Parliament, but it was rejected yet again in 1928. The attitude of Parliament however altered nothing except the attitude of the bishops to the law of the land. They authorised the book on their own authority and some clergy used it, including those baptising in the Crypt Chapel of the House of Commons.
The effect of the failure of the 1928 book was salutary: no further attempts were made to change the book, other than those required for the changes to the monarchy. Instead a different process, that of producing an alternative book, led to the publication of Series 1, 2 and 3 in the 1960s, the 1980 Alternative Service Book and subsequently to the 2000 ''Common Worship'' series of books. Both differ substantially from the ''Book of Common Prayer'', though the latter includes in the Order Two form of the Holy Communion a very slight revision of the prayer book service altering only one or two words and allowing the insertion of the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) before Communion. Order One follows the pattern of modern liturgical scholarship.
In 2003, a Roman Catholic adaptation of the BCP was published called the ''Book of Divine Worship''. It is a compromise of material drawn from the proposed 1928 book, the 1979 ECUSA book, and the Roman Missal. It was published primarily for use by Catholic converts from Anglicanism within the Anglican Use.

The Prayer Book in the Anglican Communion

With British colonial expansion from the seventeenth century onwards, the Anglican church was planted across the globe. These churches at first used and then revised the use of the Prayer Book, until they, like their parent, produced prayer books which took into account the developments in liturgical study and practice in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which come under the general heading of the Liturgical Movement.^[34]

United States of America

The American Prayer book of 1789.

The Episcopal Church separated itself from the Church of England in 1789, having been established in the United States in 1607. Its prayer book, published in 1790, had as its sources, the 1662 English book and the 1764 Scottish Liturgy (see above) which Bishop Seabury of Connecticut had brought over following his consecration in Aberdeen in 1784, containing elements of each.^[35]. The preface to the 1789 Book of Common Prayer says that "this Church is far from intending to depart from the Church of England in any essential point of doctrine, discipline, or worship...further than local circumstances require." There were some notable differences. For example, in the Communion service after the words of institution there follows a Prayer of Oblation from 1549, but into which were inserted the words 'which we now offer unto thee' (in small caps) with reference to the 'holy gifts' An epiclesis was included, as in the Scottish book, though modified to meet reformist objections. On the whole the book was modelled in the English Prayer Book, the Convention having resisted attempts at deletion and revision^[36] and modified the Scottish Liturgy to bring it substantially into line with the English.
Further revisions occurred in 1892 and 1928, in which minor changes were made, removing, for instance, some of Cranmer's Exhortations and introducing such innovations as prayers for the dead.
In 1979, a more substantial revision was made. There were now two rites for the most common services, the first which kept most of the language of 1928, and the second using only contemporary language (some of it newly composed, and some adapted from the older language). Many changes were made in the rubrics and the shapes of the services, which were generally made for both the traditional and contemporary language versions. However, there was arguably a greater degree of continuity than was the case in England, which may account for the fact that all the books of the series, from 1790 to 1979 retain the same title. The 1979 book owes a good deal to the Liturgical Movement and to the 19th century Catholic revival.
Even so the revision caused some controversy and in 2000 an apology was issued by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church to those "offended or alienated during the time of liturgical transition to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer".

Australia

The 'Anglican Church of Australia', until 1981 officially known as the ''Church of England in Australia and Tasmania'', became self-governing in 1961. Among other things the General Synod agreed that the Book of Common Prayer was to '... be regarded as the authorised standard of worship and doctrine in this Church ...'. In 1978 ''An Australian Prayer Book'' was produced which sought to adhere to this principle, so that where the Liturgical Committee could not agree on a formulation, the words or expressions of the BCP were to be used. The result was conservative revision.
In 1995 a similar process could be observed as elsewhere with the production of A Prayer Book for Australia which departed from both the structure and wording of the BCP. The process was accompanied by numerous objections, notably from the deeply conservatively Evangelical Diocese of Sydney which noted the loss of BCP wording and of an explicit 'biblical doctrine of substitutionary atonement'. On the other hand, the rest of the Australian church has not proved as difficult as prayer book revisers might have supposed. The Diocese of Sydney has developed its own small prayer book, called Sunday Services, to supplement the existing prayer book and preserve the original theology which the Sydney diocese asserts has been changed.

Canada

The 'Anglican Church of Canada' developed its first Book of Common Prayer separate from the English version in 1918. The revision of 1962 was much more substantial, bearing a family relationship to that of the abortive 1928 book in England: the language was conservatively modernised, and additional seasonal material was added but, as in England, whilst many prayers were retained the structure of Communion service was altered: a Prayer of Oblation was added to the Eucharistic prayer after the 'words of institution', thus reflecting the rejection of Cranmer's theology in liturgical developments across the Anglican Communion. A French translation, ''Le Recueil des Prières de la Communauté Chrétienne'', was published in 1967.
After a period of experimentation with the publication of various supplements, the ''Book of Alternative Services'' was published in 1985. This book (which owes much to Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and other sources) has widely supplanted the 1962 book, though the latter remains authorised. As in other places there has been a reaction and the Canadian version of the Book of Common Prayer has found supporters.

India

The 'Church of South India' was the first episcopal uniting church of our age, consisting as it did, from its foundation in 1947, at the time of Indian independence, of Anglicans, Methodists, Congregationists, Presbyterians and Reformed Christians. Its liturgy, from the first, combined the free use of Cranmer's language with an adherence to the principles of congregational participation and the centrality of the Eucharist, much in line with the Liturgical Movement. Because it was a minority church of widely differing traditions in a non-Christian culture (except in Kerala, where Christianity has a long history), practice varied wildly but the retention of Cranmerian language, and a sympathy with his theology, in the 2004 revision, is a reminder of both the richness of his language and the breadth of his influence.

Religious influence

The ''Book of Common Prayer'' has had a great influence on a number of other denominations. While theologically different, the language and flow of the service of many other churches owes a great debt to the prayer book.
John Wesley, an Anglican priest whose revivalist preaching led to the creation of Methodism wrote, "I believe there is no Liturgy in the world, either in ancient or modern language, which breathes more of a solid, scriptural, rational piety than the Common Prayer of the Church of England." Many Methodist churches in England continued to use a slightly revised version of the book for communion services well into the 20th century.
In the 1960s, when Roman Catholicism adopted a vernacular revised mass, many translations of the English prayers followed the form of Cranmer's translation.

Literary influence

Together with the King James Version of the Bible and the works of Shakespeare, the Book of Common Prayer has been one of the three fundamental underpinnings of modern English. As it has been in regular use for centuries, many phrases from its services have passed into the English language, either as deliberate quotations or as unconscious borrowings. They are used in non-liturgical ways. For example, many authors have used quotes from the prayer book as titles for their books.
Some examples of well-known phrases from the Book of Common Prayer are:

★ "Speak now or forever hold your peace" from the marriage liturgy.

★ "Till death us do part", from the marriage liturgy.

★ "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust" from the funeral service.

★ "From all the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil" from the litany.

★ "Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" from the collect.
The phrase "till death us do part" has been changed to "till death do us part" in some more recent prayer books, such as the 1962 Canadian Book of Common Prayer.

Copyright status

In most of the world the Book of Common Prayer can be freely reproduced as it is long out of copyright. This is not the case in the United Kingdom itself.
In the United Kingdom, the rights to the Book of Common Prayer are held by the British Crown. The rights fall outside the scope of copyright as defined in statute law. Instead they fall under the purview of the royal prerogative and as such they are perpetual in subsistence. Publishers are licensed to reproduce the Book of Common Prayer under letters patent. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the letters patent are held by the Queen's Printer, and in Scotland by the Scottish Bible Board. The office of Queen's Printer has been associated with the right to reproduce the Bible for many years, with the earliest known reference coming in 1577. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the Queen's Printer is Cambridge University Press. CUP inherited the right of being Queen's Printer when they took over the firm of Eyre & Spottiswoode in the late 20th century. Eyre & Spottiswoode had been Queen's Printer since 1901. Other letters patent of similar antiquity grant Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press the right to produce the Book of Common Prayer independently of the Queen's Printer.
The terms of the letters patent prohibit those other than the holders, or those authorised by the holders from printing, publishing or importing the Book of Common Prayer into the United Kingdom. The protection that the Book of Common Prayer, and also the Authorised Version, enjoy is the last remnant of the time when the Crown held a monopoly over all printing and publishing in the United Kingdom.
This protection should not be confused with Crown copyright, or copyright in works of the United Kingdom's government; that is part of modern UK copyright law. Like other copyrights, Crown copyright is time-limited and potentially enforceable worldwide. The non-copyright Royal Prerogative is perpetual, but applies only to the UK; though many other Royal Prerogatives also apply to the other Commonwealth realms, this one does not.
It is common misconception that the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office holds letters patent for being Queen's Printer. The Controller of HMSO holds a separate set of letters patent which cover the office Queen's Printer of Acts of Parliament. The Scotland Act 1998 defines the position of Queen's Printer for Scotland as also being held by the Queen's Printer of Acts of Parliament. The position of Government Printer for Northern Ireland is also held by the Controller of HMSO.
As mentioned above, the ECUSA book is always released into the public domain. Trial use and supplemental liturgies are however copyrighted by Church Publishing, the official publishing arm of the church.

References

1. Published in 2000, Common Worship'' is the result of forty years of liturgical experiment.
2. Diarmaid McCulloch, ''Cranmer'' (Yale 1992) p.215
3. A committee was set up at the King's will with a remit to abolish 'the names and memories of all saints, which be not mentioned in the Scripture' D.Wilkins ''Concilia'' (1737) in F Proctor & W.H. Frere, ''A New History of the book of Common Prayer'' (Macmillan 1905) p31. Cranmer was glad to oblige
4. A bill was, at the same time going through Parliament to the same effect
5. The First and Second Prayer Books of Edward VI (ibid)
6. Proctor & Frere (ibid) p.45; ''Cranmer'' (ibid) p.414: "...it remains difficult to know how much of 'Cranmer's Prayer Book' is actually Cranmer's personal composition."
7. Cranmer's letter to Queen Mary September 1555 in Proctor & Frere (ibid) p.47 n2. The discussions at Chertsey left intact the practice of adoration and the doctrine of oblation; these were jettisoned as a result of evangelical pressure by the time of the Windsor meeting.
8. It came from the 1536 Breviary of the Spanish Cardinal Francisco de Quiñones: ''Cranmer'' (ibid) p.225
9. ''Cranmer'' (ibid) p.414f. The Church Order of Brandenberg and Nuremburg was partly the work of the latter.
10. ''Cranmer'' (ibid) p.417
11. The Voices of Morebath, , Eamon, Duffy, Yale, 2001,
12. At the time many Cornish only spoke their native Cornish language and the forced introduction of the English Book of Common Prayer resulted in the 1549 Prayer Book Rebellion. Proposals to translate the Prayer Book into Cornish were suppressed and in total some 4,000 people lost their lives in the rebellion.
13. ''Cranmer'' (ibid) p.411
14. AH Couratin, unpublished Oxford University Lectures, 1958, described it as a "bogus Mass"
15. Proctor & Frere (ibid) p.71-7
16. ''Cranmer'' (ibid.) p. 505 but see Gregory Dix, ''Dixit Cranmer Et Non Timuit'' (Dacre Press 1948) pp.38–43
17. Proctor & Frere (ibid) p.81-2; Eamon Duffy ''The Stripping of the Altars (Yale 1992) pp.472-5
18. The process by which a compromise was reached between Puritans and Catholics is suggested in Proctor & Frere (ibid) pp.94-101, but see also D. MacCulloch in "Transactions of the Royal Historical Society"XV 2005 p 88, who regards talk of concessions to Catholics as "absurd" and sees them as aimed at conciliating Lutheran Protestants at home and abroad
19. (ibid) p. 101
20. John Guy "Tudor England" (OUP 1988) p.262
21. Strype, Annals, i 56 quoted in WK Lowther Clarke Liturgy and Worship, SPCK, 1954, p 182
22. Proctor & Frere (ibid) p.138
23. ''Prayer Book and People in Elizabethan and Early Stuart England'' by Judith Maltby (1998)
24. The work was primarily that of the two Scottish Bishops, Maxwell and Wedderburn: Perry ibid
25. W. Perry ''The Scottish Liturgy - Its Value and History''(Mowbrays 1922) Ch.4, II The Non-Jurors
26. ibid
27. Proctor & Frere (ibid) p. 169-195
28. It was so called because of the 19th century practice of printing it in black type (as distinct from red normally used for rubrics - though it was not actually a rubric at all, but a declaration).
29. Proctor & Frere (ibid.) p.201 n.1
30. Timothy J. Fawcett ''The Liturgy of Comprehension 1689'' (Mayhew McCrimmon 1973) p.26
31. (ibid) p.45f
32. S.C. Carpenter, ''Church and People'' (SPCK 1933) p.234f
33. ''Church and People'' (ibid) p.246
34. The ecumenical liturgy of the Church of South India (1950) was followed by the Liturgy for Africa (1958) which was taken up in East Africa (1966) and Nigeria (1966); others were to follow - see below.
35. The Scottish liturgy itself derived from Archbishop Laud's 1637 revision of Cranmer's first book of 1549: ''The Scottish Liturgy - Its Value and History'' W. Perry (Mowbrays 1922)
36. ''An Historical Account of the American Book of Common Prayer'' W.McGarvey D.D. The General Convention of 1785 proposed, inter alia, that the Psalms be freely revised into sixty centos, the Nicene Creed removed from the Holy Communion, and the Apostles Creed altered, and removed from the Baptism Service. Adherence to the liturgy of the Church of England was 'disgusting to many of our Communion who neither like the doctrines held by the Church of England, nor the liturgy as it now stands'- Revd. W. Parker of Boston in a letter to Dr. White, later bishop of Pennsylvania.

External links

★ Official links:

★
★ The Book of Common Prayer—Church of England site with the text of the liturgy

★
★ Cambridge University Press, publishers of the Book of Common Prayer.

★ Collection of BCP resources

★ 1662 Book of Common Prayer (HTML format)

★ 1662 Book of Common Prayer (PDF format)

★ 1928 Book of Common Prayer

★ 1979 Book of Common Prayer

★ 1662 Book of Common Prayer in Welsh

★ 1980 Alternative Service Book

★ 2000 Common Worship

★ Prayer Book Society of the USA

★ Studies in the Book of Common Prayer, by H M Luckock, 1882.

★ Everyman's History of the Book of Common Prayer

★ The Book of Common Prayer among the Nations of the World, by William Muss-Arnolt

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