4. Politics and religion

Until recently it was commonplace to assume that a prayer book in the English vernacular was an act of popularization and even democratization. Cranmer, in his preface, explicitly appeals to broadening the reach of liturgy, opening it out to a wider audience and a popular register. However, the Book of Common Prayer, as well as a radical reformation of devotion, was a political act of religion. ‘Politics and religion’ outlines the political changes that had an impact on the use and amendments to the Book of Common Prayer, with new editions appearing in 1552, 1559, and 1662 after Parliamentary Acts, making it the only permitted form of religious ritual and public prayer.

Introduction

Understanding the Book of Common Prayer requires many approaches: historical, linguistic, theological, ethical, political, literary. Apart from two brief interludes, it was England’s official book of Christian worship from 1549 to 2000. The British Empire imposed it use on peoples all over the globe, and it became translated into nearly 200 languages and dialects. The Introduction explains that one way of understanding the Book of Common Prayer is as an example of liturgy—a set form of words and gestures in a religious ritual. However, it is also a carrier of national identity, bringing politics and religion together. It also considers whether the Book of Common Prayer at heart is Catholic or Protestant.

3. Word, body, and gesture

‘Word, body, and gesture’ examines the Book of Common Prayer in detail, describing the nature and theology of the English services and prayers, and also their witness to gesture, faith, and worship. The Book of Common Prayer is a book of prayer, but also of ritual: a corpus of gestures, practices, and performances. While rejecting so many of the physical forms of the medieval rites, the Book of Common Prayer created its own grammar of social action. The services of Holy Communion, Morning and Evening Prayer, death, and the role of participation and mimesis are discussed. Special attention is paid to how the book’s rubrics changed from edition to edition, from 1549 to 1552 and afterwards.

2. The making of the Book of Common Prayer

Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury (1489–1556), authorized the passage of the Book of Common Prayer through Parliament and into law, and was also the prime ‘author’ in its formulation. However, it comprised compilation of existing material rather than new composition. ‘The making of the Book of Common Prayer’ explains the complexity of its structure and sources, describing Cranmer’s role in its creation and how policy on religion wavered back and forth during Henry VIII’s reign. The Book of Common Prayer was first published in 1549 after Edward VI came to the throne. It was short-lived; within a month of Edward’s death, his sister Mary I had banned the revised English liturgy.

6. Modernity and the Book of Common Prayer

‘Modernity and the Book of Common Prayer’ describes the revisions and changes to the Book of Common Prayer from the 17th century onwards. It outlines the plans to revise the book by the General Synod of the Church of England, a process that began in 1964 resulting in the 1980 Alternative Service Book. The biggest change came with the publication of Common Worship in 2000, which replaced the Book of Common Prayer outright. It abolished uniformity, providing alternative prayers for different services and encouraging experimentation and improvisation. The Book of Common Prayer always operated as an instrument of monolithic social order. This alone made it difficult for it to survive into the 21st century.

1. Ritual and the Reformation

‘Ritual and the Reformation’ describes how liturgy—with mass at its centre—lay at the heart of medieval religion. Mass was a social rite and a public occasion. The Office of the Dead is also outlined along with the different ritual books that contained rites, prayers, hymns, and scripture, including the Books of Hours. The challenge to tradition came in the form of Martin Luther’s Reformation and his theological creativity. The English Reformation began as a political revolution with Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn in 1533, and resulted in wholesale changes in religious and social organization. The Reformation tore up a millennium of sacred worship and brought new forms of life into being.

5. Empire and prayer book

The words ‘to propagate the worship of God in the English tongue’ became the motto of the British Empire in the 19th century. Their first appearance, however, came in a proclamation accompanying the first edition made outside of England—in Dublin, 1551. ‘Empire and prayer book’ describes the history of new editions of the Book of Common Prayer first in Ireland and in North America after English settlement in 1607. It also outlines the publication of the American Book of Common Prayer after independence. From the middle of the 19th century, the Book of Common Prayer took on the mantle of colonial acculturation. Versions were published in Chinese, Tamil, Urdu, Bengali, Malay, Maori, and Swahili.