THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Book ” of the American Church (1786), but three years later that communion took the step of expunging from the office any allusion to both confession and absolution, which have thus far been unrestored in the United States.
The declaratory absolution is followed by a prayer of absolution, derived from the York and Sarum Uses, and also found in the Gelasian Sacramentary, but the two following collects in the older uses were omitted in all English Books and their derivatives.
In the Sarum Use the visitation office Old Office here ends, and that of unction begins. for Unction, The opening Psalm of that office (Ixxi., and for which the American Book substi- Concluding tutes Ps. exxx.) is still retained, fol- Portions. lowed by another noteworthy survival —the sole instance of the Antiphon (q.v.) in the Anglican ritual: ‘‘O Saueour of the world saue us, which by thy crosse and precious bloud hast redemed us, helpe us we beseche the, O God” (used also in various unofficial special offices for the Passion Service on Good Friday). After another collect, expanded from one in the Gregorian Sacramentary for the visitation of the sick, the First Prayer Book has the rubric: “ If the sicke person desyre to be annoynted, then shal the priest annoynte him upon the forehead or breast only, makyng the signe of the crosse, saying thus ”’ (followed by a prayer of noteworthy beauty, omitted in all later books). This unction, which, despite the Scriptural warrant of James v. 14, was offensive to Puritanism, disappeared in the second Edwardine Book, and has never been restored. With the recitation of Ps. xiii. the first Edwardine office closes, the second Book ending abruptly just before unction; but in 1661 the Aaronic blessing was added, together with four occasional prayers (for a sick child, etc.), to which the American Book adds three more, one of which is also included in the Irish Book.
The office for the visitation of the sick is immediately followed in all Books by that for the Communion of the Sick (q.v.), with which are inseparably connected the various questions regarding the very ancient practise of Reservation of the Sacrament (q.v.), at least so far as communion of the sick is concerned, a use which even the Calvinistic Thirty-nine Articles did not forbid (ef. Art. xxv.).
As regards the practical use of this office, it is to be observed that it is a formal rite to be employed but once for a person in severe illness; it does not form part of ordinary visits to the sick-room. ‘“ It is a solemn recognition of the person over whom it is used as one who is in the fellowship of the Church, and for whom the Church, by its authorized Minister, offers prayer to God; and it is also a solemn recognition of the fact that the sicknesses
and infirmities incident to human na-
Practical ture are a consequence of sin, a part
Use of the of that heritage of death which came
Office. upon us through the Fall” (Blunt, p. 460). It is to be used, moreover, only
over those who have had the training of the church, particularly as its employment is prefatory to the reception of the Eucharist. To dissenters the visitation office would, in all probability, be unintelli-
gible and even terrifying, unless they were resolved to be reconciled with the church and to accept her last consolations. These latter remarks would apply with doubled force to those who have led irreligious or wicked lives, in which cases the office is applicable only after much instruction and much progress toward true penitence. Otherwise, the sick man might view “ the comforts of the Office more prominently than would\be advisable for those who do not fully appreciate the necessity of repentance toward the attainment of pardon and true peace ” (Blunt, ut sup.). Through a false and un-Christian fear of solemn preparation for death the use of the visitation office is well-nigh abandoned. ‘This is most regrettable. There is no implication of death in the office; indeed, the American Book has a ‘“ Thanksgiving for the beginning of a Recovery ”’ (similarly the Irish Book). And even if such implication of approaching death be seen, the true churchman will have no fear of death, though he may well dread it without the final blessing and absolution of the church and the last solemn rite of the Eucharist.
BistiocrapHy: J. H. Blunt, Annotated Book of Common Prayer, revised ed., pp. 460-471, London, 1903; F. Procter and W. H. Frere, New History of the Book of Common Prayer, 26th ed., pp. 622-626 (with abundant references to older literature and copious bibliography), London, 1910.