Part 4 (1/2)

Each part of the Church has its own Liturgy, differing in detail, language, form; but all teaching the same faith, all based upon the same rule laid down by Gregory for Augustine's guidance.[1] Thus, there is the Liturgy of St. James, the Liturgy of St. John,[2] the Liturgy of St. Mark, and others. A National Church is within her rights when she compiles a Liturgy for National Use, provided that it is in harmony with the basic Liturgies of the Undivided Church. She has {41} as much right to her local ”Use,” with its rules and ritual, as a local post office has to its own local regulations, provided it does not infringe any universal rule of the General Post Office. For example, a National Church has a perfect right to say in what language her Liturgy shall be used. When the English Prayer Book orders her Liturgy to be said in ”the vulgar,”[3] or common, ”tongue” of the people, she is not infringing, but exercising a local right which belongs to her as part of the Church Universal. This is what the English Church has done in the English Prayer Book.

It is this Prayer Book that we are now to consider.

We will try to review, or get a bird's-eye view of it as a whole, rather than attempt to go into detail. And, as the best reviewer is the one who lets a book tell its own story, and reads the author's meaning out of it rather than his own theories into it, we will let the book, as far as possible, speak for itself.

Now, in reviewing a book, the reviewer will probably look at three things: the t.i.tle, the preface, the contents.

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(I) THE t.i.tLE.

”_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._”

Here are three clear statements: (1) it is ”The Book of Common Prayer ”; (2) it is the local ”directory” for the ”_Administration_ of the Sacraments of the Church,” i.e. of the Universal Church; (3) this directory is called the ”Use of the Church of England”. Think of each statement in turn.

(1) _It is ”The Book of Common Prayer”_.--”Common Prayer”[4] was the name given to public wors.h.i.+p in the middle of the sixteenth century.

The Book of Common Prayer is the volume in which the various services were gathered together for common use. It is many books in one book.

As the Bible is one book made up of sixty-six books, so the Prayer Book is one book made up of six books. These books, revised and abbreviated for English ”Use,” were:--

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(1) The Pontifical.

(2) The Missal.

(3) The Gospels.

(4) The Gradual.

(5) The Breviary.

(6) The Manual.

Before the invention of printing, these books were written in ma.n.u.script, and were too heavy to carry about bound together in one volume. Each, therefore, was carried by the user separately. Thus, when the Bishop, or _Pontifex_, was ordaining or confirming, he carried with him a separate book containing the offices for Ordination and Confirmation; and, because it contained the offices used by the Bishop, or _Pontiff_, it was called the _Pontifical_. When a priest wished to celebrate the Holy Eucharist, he used a separate book called ”The Missal” (from the Latin _Missa_, a Ma.s.s[5]). When, in the Eucharist, the deacon read the Gospel for the day, he read it from a separate book called ”The Gospels”. When he {44} went in procession to read it, the choir sang scriptural phrases out of a separate book called ”The Gradual” (from the Latin _gradus_, a step), because they were sung in _gradibus_, i.e. upon the steps of the pulpit, or rood-loft, from which the Gospel was read. When the clergy said their offices at certain fixed ”Hours,” they used a separate book called ”The Breviary” (from the Latin _brevis_, short), because it contained the brief, or short, writings which const.i.tuted the office, out of which our English Matins and Evensong were practically formed. When services for such as needed Baptism, Matrimony, Unction, Burial, were required, some light book that could easily be carried _in the hand_ was used, and this was called ”The Manual” (from the Latin _ma.n.u.s_, a hand).

These six books, written in Latin, were, in 1549, shortened, and, with various alterations, translated into English, bound in one volume, which is called ”The Book of Common Prayer”.

Alterations, some good and some bad, have from time to time been adopted, and revisions made; but the Prayer Book is now the same in substance as it always has been--a faithful reproduction, in all essentials, of the wors.h.i.+p and {45} teaching of the Undivided Church.

As we all know, a further revision is now contemplated. All agree that it is needed; all would like to amend the Prayer Book in one direction or another; but there is a sharp contention as to whether this is the time for revision, and what line the revision should take. The nature of the last attempted revision, in the reign of William III,[6] will make the liturgical student profoundly grateful that that proposed revision was rejected, and will suggest infinite caution before entrusting a new revision to any but proved experts, and liturgical specialists.[7]

Whatever changes are made, they should, at least, be based on two principles--permanence and progress. The essence of progress is loyalty to the past. Nothing should be touched that is a permanent part of the Ancient Office Books; nothing should be omitted, or added, that is outside the teaching of the Universal Church. For the immediate present, we would ask that the {46} Prayer Book should be left untouched, but that an Appendix, consisting of many unauthorized services now in use, should be ”put forth by authority,” i.e. by the sanction of the Bishops.

(2) _The Administration of the Sacraments of the Church_.--The Sacraments are the treasures of the whole Church; the way in which they may be ”administered” is left to the decision of that part of the Church in which they are administered. Take, once again, the question of language. One part of the Church has as much right to administer the Sacraments in English as another part has to administer them in Latin, or another part in Greek. For instance, the words, ”This is My Body” in the English Liturgy are quite as near to the original as ”_Hoc est Corpus Meum_” is in the Latin Liturgy. Each Church has a right to make its own regulations for its own people.

So with ”rites and ceremonies”. Provided the essence of the Sacrament is not touched, the addition or omission of particular rites and ceremonies does not affect the validity of the Sacrament. For, the t.i.tle of the Prayer Book carefully distinguishes between ”The Church”

and ”The Church of England,” ”the _Sacraments_” and the ”_administration_ of the Sacraments”. It is for {47} _administrative purposes_ that there is an English ”Use,” i.e. an English method of administering the Sacraments of the Universal Church. It is this use which the t.i.tle-page calls:--

(3) _The Use of the Church of England_.--This ”Use” may vary at different times, and even in different dioceses. We read of one ”Use”