RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Common Prayer Communicatio Idiomatum
Parliament, in January, 1560, passed an Act of Uniformity, authorizing the Prayer-book set forth in England, and the Latin version
6. Irish and (made by Haddon) for the benefit of ' Scotch ministers unable to use English, and
Prayer- because there was no Irish printingbooks, press, and few could read Irish. The use of the Book of 1662, approved by the Irish Convocation (August-November, 1562), was enjoined by the Irish Parliament in 1666. Since the disestablishment of the Irish Church in 1870, a revision of the Prayer-book has been made, strongly " evangelical " in tendency. In Scotland the Prayer-book had been in general use in the time of EUzabeth (between 1557 and 1564); but the Scottish bishops being averse to the adoption of the English Book, urged by James I., in the next reign framed a book of their own on the English model, with certain variations, which, though sanctioned by royal authority and printed, never came into general use. The English Book, except the Communion Office (framed upon the Book of 1549), is now used by most of the ministers of the Episcopal Church in Scotland; but the Scottish Communion Office is still preferred in many places.
The American Prayer-book is framed closely upon the model of the English book, and was the work of three successive General Conventions (1785, 1786, 1789). It was adopted substantially in its present form by the General Convention of 1789, with many variations from the English book, of which the following are the most
7. American important: it entirely omits the Atha- Prayer- nasian Creed, the Absolution in the book. Visitation Office, the Magnificat and
the Nunc dimittis, the Commination, and the versicles after the Creed; it leaves optional the use of the cross in baptism, of the words " He descended into hell " in the Creed, of the Gloria Patri between the Psalms, and altogether considerably enlarges the discretionary power of the mmister. It adds to the number of the Occasional Prayers also a form of prayers for the Visitation of Prisoners, a form of prayer, etc., for the Fruits of the Earth, a form of Family Prayers. A form for Consecrating Churches (resembling that published by Bishop Andrewes) was provided in 1795, and an Office of Institution in 1804. The change of "Absolution" into "Declaration of Absolution," of " verily and indeed taken " into " spiritually taken" (Catechism), and the permission of using an alternative formula instead of " Receive the Holy Ghost," etc. (Ordinal), are as significant as the introduction of the prayers of invocation and oblation in the Communion Office, which was insisted on, as rendering the liturgy more in accordance with primitive models, by the Scottish bishops in the Concordat drawn up prior to their consecration of Bishop Seabury. The changes rendered necessary by political and local causes need not be mentioned: in the Thirty-nine Articles, the eighth does not mention the Athanasian Creed, the twentyfirst is omitted, and the thirty-fifth printed with a proviso.
A strong desire arose in the latter part of the
nineteenth century for a revision in the direction of liturgical enrichment and increased flexibility, which resulted, after careful consideration at three General Conventions, in the final adoption in 1892 of a considerable number of changes, many of which, as the restoration of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, brought the book into closer harmony both with the English and with the earlier models. See LiTURGics; Liturgical, Formulas; and Thirtynine Articles.
j. i. mombert. Bibliography: Reprints or facsimile reproductions which are noteworthy are: Book of Common Prayer from the original MS. attached to the Act of Uniformity of 1662, London, 1892; Book of Common Prayer of 1549, facsimile, ib. 1896; Prayer Book of Queen Elizabeth, . from Originals, ib. 1898; First Prayer Book of Edward VI., ib. 1903, 1905; Second Prayer Book of King Edward VI., ib. 1905. Consult: J. H. Blunt, Annotated Book of Common Prayer, ib. 1890; E. Cardwell, The Two Books of Common Prayer set forth in the Reign of Edward
VI., ib. 1852; C. E. Hammond, Liturgies Eastern and Western, ib. 1878; W M. Campion and W. J. Beaumont, Prayer Book Interleaved, ib. 1880; W. Maskell, Ancient Liturgy of the Church of England, ib. 1882; A. T. Wirgmann. The English Reformation and the Book of Common Prayer, 1631-1662, Milwaukee, 1887; F. A. Gasquet, Eward VI. and the Book of Common Prayer, London, 1891; J. Cornford, Book of Common Prayer with Explanatory Notes, ib. 1897; J. C. Jones, Concordance to the Book of Common Prayer, Philadelphia, 1898; J. Dowden, Workmanship of the Prayer Book, London, 1899; L. PuUan, Hist, of the Book of Common Prayer, ib. 1900; E. Daniel, Prayer-Book; its History, Language and Contents, ib. 1901; H. Gee, Elizabethan Prayer Book and Ornaments, ib. 1902; F. Procter and W. H. Frere, New Hist, of the Book of Common Prayer, ib. 1905; A. R. Fausset, Guide to the Study of the Book of Common Prayer, ib. 1904; M. McCoU, The Royal Commission and the Ornaments Rubric, ib. 1906.
On the American Prayer-book consult: C. M. Butler, Hist, of Book of Common Prayer, New York, 1880; J. H. Garrison, The American Prayer Book, its Principles and the Law of its Use, Philadelphia, 1887; C. E. Stevens, Genesis of the American Prayer Book, New York, 1893; W. R. Huntington, Short History of the Book of Common Prayer, ib. 1898.