RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Common Life Common Prayer
young candidates for orders; they seldom supplied teachers to the public schools except in special cases. Nor did they possess a particular educational method of their own, outside of 17. Their In- the general principles followed in their fluence on houses. Their influence, in fact, was Education, mainly that of their sincere Christian Literature, piety, which had its effect on all who and Art. came within their sphere. In this way, beginning with Groote himself and his relation with Petrarch, as well as his own humanistic studies, a friendship sprang up between them and the leading German humanists which had notable results. Men like Cela, Hegius, Sinthis, and Arsenius at Rostock imbibed from the Brethren a sunple Christian piety which was one of the great causes of the difference between the tendency of German and Italian humanism. In this sense both the Reformation and the liberation of the sciences which proceeded from it were indebted to the Brethren. They were not hostile to art; their churches were adorned to the best of their power, and in miniature-painting they have left some creditable results. From the literary standpoint, their own productions, whether original or compiled, are mainly in the department of ascetics. Poetry occasionally found a home among them; and Heinrich of Alkmar, the author of Reineke Vos, came from the Zwolle house. Of special importance to popular culture is the fact that they showed a strong tendency to write in the vernacular or to make translations into it. Besides the Scriptures and other spiritual works (e.g., a German verse translation of the " Imitation " made at Cologne), they circulated numerous books in the vernacular of a historical or otherwise educational nature; in the earlier period they engaged not only in the copying of manuscripts, but also in the work of adorning them with miniatures and illustrations, and even of preparing the parchment for them, and of arranging libraries; and with the invention of typography, not a few houses set up presses and sold printed books, thus contributing in a new way to the general spread of learning.
L. SCHULZE.
Biblioghaphy: For the founders the sources are in the
Life " by Thomas ^ Kempis in his Chronicon monasterii S. Agmtis, ed. Rosweyde, Antwerp, 1615, 1622, Eng. transl. by J. C. Arthur, London, 1905. Consult: G. Bonet-Maury, Gerard de Groote d'apres des documents rnerftts, Paris, 1878; K. Grube, Gerard Groot und seine Stiftungen, Cologne, 1883; KL, v. 1286.
For the brotherhood the sources, besides Thomas k liempis, are Scriptum Rudolphi Dier de Muden de Magistro G. Grote, in G. Dumbar, Analecta, pp. 88-244, Deven- J. Buschius, Chronicon Windeshemense, ed. li. Grube, pp. 1-375, Halle, 1886. Consult: C. H. M. is^r''''i' Broederschap van Geert Groot, Arnhem,
1m6; J. G. R. Acquoy, Het Klooster te Windesheim en mn invloed, 3 vols., Leyden, 1875-80; S. Kettlewell, iHorrMs a Kempis and the Brothers of the Common Life, p!™^-' London, 1882-84; E. Mobius, Characteristik der ^"■Mcr des gemeinsamen Lebens, 1887; G. Bonet-Maury, opero scholastica fratrum communis vita;, Paris, 1889;
. Honing, Die Briider des gemeinsamen Lebens und ihre o^amung fur ihre Zeit, Gtitersloh, 1894; Dbhner, Bruder ^'gemeinsamsn Lebens in Hildesheim, Leipsic, 1903; S.
• ^^em Hidden Saints, a Study of the Brothers of the Common u/e, New York, 1907; Heimbucher, Orden und Kon- Oregationen, 1. 396, 403, 409-410, ii. 326 sqq., 335; Pas- "if. Popes, 1. 147-148, 150; KL. iv. 1924 eqq.
III.-12
COMMON PRAYER, BOOK OF.
Early Forms (§1).
First Prayer-book of Edward VI. (§ 2).
Second Prayer-book of Edward VI. (| 3).
Liturgy of Elizabeth (§4).
Last Revision (§5).
Irish and Scotch Prayer-books (§ 6).
American Prayer-book (§ 7).
The Book of Common Prayer is the only official service-book used in the Church of England and its affihated bodies. Although the service-books of the English Church before the Reformation were mostly in Latin, English primers, originating, probably, in still simpler manuals of great antiquity, were in use at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The Portiforium secundum usum Sarum, or " Primer of the Salisbury Use " (c. 1400), is clearly the basis of the Book of Common Prayer, and contains in English: (1) Matins and Hours of our Lady; (2) Evensong and Compline; (3) The seven penitential psalms; (4) The fifteen gradual psalms; (5) The Litany; (6) Placebo; (7) Dirige; (8) The psalms of commendation; (9) Pater noster; (10) Ave Maria; (11) Creed; (12) The ten commandments; (13) The seven deadlysins. Marshall's Prymer (ante 1530 and 1535) and Hilsey's Prymer (1539), set forth at the command of I. Early Cromwell, led the way, with others. Forms. for The Prymer Set Forth by the King's Majesty (1545), which omits Nos. 4, 6, 10, and 13 of the aforesaid contents, but makes several additions as of the Calendar and "certain godly prayers." The Litany contains petitions requesting the prayers of angels, saints, and martyrs, and to be delivered from the tyranny of the Church of Rome; and the Dirige has prayers for the dead. The former was compiled by Cranmer from the old litanies and the litany prepared by Melanchthon and Butzer in 1543 for Herman (q.v.) of Wied, archbishop of Cologne. Before the Prymer of 1545, convocation had authorized, in 1537, The Godly and Pious Institution of a Chrysten Man, containing the Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary, Creed, decalogue, the seven sacraments, etc., and in 1543 the same, corrected and altered, entitled A Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Chrysten Man. The former was called " The Bishops' Book "; the latter, "The King's Book"; and both, with the Articles of 1536, contain the authoritative opinions of the Church of England during Henry VIII.'s reign, and exhibit, on the whole, a retrogression in matters of doctrine. A commission, appointed in 1547 to revise the church-service, published March 8, 1548, as a first instalment. The Order of the Communion, framed in its new portions on Herman's Consultation, from which the Exhortation, the Confession, and the Comfortable Words are derived. It was a tremendous step in the direction of reform; for it ordered the communion to be solemnized in English, and restored the cup to the laity.
Th3 First Prayer-book of Edward VI., published June 9, 1549, differed from the Prayer-book now in use as follows: Matins and Evensong began with the Lord's Prayer, and omitted all prayers after the third collect. The Litany contained a petition for deliverance from the tyranny of the
Common Prayer Communicatio Idiomatum