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The Liturgical Work of archbishop Cranmer1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

E. C. Ratcliff
Affiliation:
Ely Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge

Extract

In the introduction to what was for long the standard work upon the Prayer Book, Charles Wheatly's Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer, the learned and industrious author refers to archbishop Cranmer as ‘the chief promoter of our excellent Reformation’, who ‘had a principal hand, not only in compiling the Liturgy, but in all the steps made towards it’. A commemoration of Cranmer which omitted to recall his liturgical projects and achievements, and to notice the more striking of their features, would be incomplete. Of itself, the liturgical work ascribed to him is significant enough to vindicate his right to be remembered, and to insure respect for his name.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1956

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References

page 189 note 2 3rd ed., 1720, 26.

page 189 note 3 Ibid.

page 189 note 4 The Church History of Britain, 1656, Bk. vii, 386.

page 189 note 5 The bishops were Goodrich (Ely), Holbeach (Lincoln), Day (Chichester), Skip (Hereford), Thirlby (Westminster) and Ridley (Rochester). The others were May (dean of St. Paul's), Taylor (dean of Lincoln), Heynes (dean of Exeter), Redmayne (master of Trinity Coll., Cambridge), Cox (dean of Christchurch, Oxford), and Robinson (archdeacon of Leicester).

page 189 note 6 MS. Royal, 7. B. iv.

page 190 note 1 For the full text of the letter, see Works of Abp. Cranmer. Remains and Letters, Parker Society, 1846, 412Google Scholar: for the date of the letter, see Brightman, F. E., article ‘The Litany under Henry VIII’, English Historical Review, XXIX (1909), 101104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 190 note 2 If Cranmer were responsible for the longer version of Veni, Creator Spiritus (beginning ‘Come, Holy Ghost, eternal God’) in the Ordinal, his lack of confidence in his power of versifying was fully justified. With the exception, perhaps, of the Compline hymn, ‘O Lord, the Maker of all thing’, in the Primer of 1545, Tudor liturgical verse is singularly wanting in poetic quality.

page 191 note 1 In 1549, however, Cranmer still had in mind the issue of a reduced Processional, consisting only of Scriptural passages, for the five principal festival-days, Christmas, Easter, Ascension, Whitsunday, and Trinity Sunday: see the last but one of ‘Certayne Notes’ at the end of the First Prayer Book.

page 191 note 2 A Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ, 1550. The most convenient edition of the text is that by C. H. H. Wright (Protestant Reformation Society, 1907).

page 191 note 3 An Explication and Assertion of the True Catholic Faith, touching the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, with Confutation of a Book written against the same, 1551. The text is printed in Cranmer, On the Lord's Supper, Parker Society 1844; see p. 55.Google Scholar

page 191 note 4 The letter is printed in Original Letters, ed. by Sir Henry Ellis, Third series, ii, 1846, 191 f. The signature of the writer is wanting; but the attribution is beyond doubt. The writer states that he was instructed to apprehend William Tyndale. To do this was a private charge appended to Elyot's official duties as ambassador.

page 192 note 1 He also married Osiander's niece, Margaret, before leaving Nuremberg.

page 192 note 2 The First Edwardine Act of Uniformity (1549).

page 193 note 1 Von ordenung gottis diensts ynn der gemeyne, Wittenberg 1523. For a reprint see Kleine Texte für Theologische und Philologische Vorlesungen und übungen, herausgegeben Lietzmann, von Hans, Bonn, No. 36, 1909.Google Scholar

page 193 note 2 Reprinted in Kleine Texte, No. 36.

page 193 note 3 Reprinted in Kleine Texte, No. 37, 1909.

page 193 note 4 See Sehling, E., Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des XVI Jahrhunderts, 5 vols., Leipzig, 1902, etc.Google Scholar

page 193 note 5 Breviarium Romanum Quignonianum, ed. Legg, J. Wickham, Cambridge, 1888.Google Scholar

page 193 note 6 See The Second Recension of the Quignon Breviary, Legg, J. Wickham, Henry Bradshaw Society, XXXV (1908) and XLII (1912).Google Scholar

page 194 note 1 See above, 189. The best edition of the Schemes is that of Legg, J. Wickham, Cranmer's Liturgical Projects, Henry Bradshaw Society, I, 1915.Google Scholar

page 194 note 2 Edward VI and the Book of Common Prayer, 3rd. ed., 17, 30.

page 194 note 3 Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, 1932, 34.

page 194 note 4 The English Rite, 1915, i, lxxv.

page 194 note 5 Cranmer and the Reformation under Edward VI, 1926, 34 f., 74–7.

page 194 note 6 Ordinatio Ecclesiastica Regnorum Daniae et Norwegiae et Ducatuum, Sleswicensis, Holtstatiae etcet., Copenhagen, 1537.

page 194 note 7 See Works of Abp. Cranmer. Remains and Letters, 151; and Gasquet and Bishop, op. cit., 81–9.

page 195 note 1 Cranmer's Register, quoted in Liturgy and Worship, 1932, 662 f.

page 195 note 2 The Order of the Communion, 8 March 1548.

page 196 note 1 For a description of English behaviour in church, as observed by a Venetian ambassador circa 1500, see A Relation of the Island of England, etc., Camden Society, 1847, 23. The ambassador writes, ‘… se alcuno sà punto leggere portino seco 1' offitio di Nra Donna, et dichinlo sotto voce in chiesa con qualche compagno à verso à verso della maniera che fanno i religiosi.’Google Scholar

page 196 note 2 The bulk of the Prymer was made up of the liturgical accretions to the Canonical Office: see Bishop, E., ‘On the Origin of the Prymer’ in Liturgica Historica, Oxford, 1918, 211237.Google Scholar

page 197 note 1 In a letter to Heinrich Bullinger, dated 4 June 1549: see Original Letters, Parker Society, 1846, 266.Google Scholar

page 197 note 2 Medieval Missals introduce a mention of the Sovereign.

page 198 note 1 Gasquet and Bishop, op. cit., 405.

page 198 note 2 E.g. ‘rogamus ac petimus uti accepta habeas … haec dona, haec munera, haec sancta sacrificia illibata’ in Te igitur, and ‘offerimus praeclarae majestati tuae … hostiam puram, hostiam sanctam, hostiam immaculatam, Panem sanctum vitae aeternae et Calicem salutis perpetuae’ in Unde et memores.

page 198 note 3 English Rite, ii, 690.

page 198 note 4 Processionale ad Usum Sarum, ed. Henderson, W. G., Leeds, 1882, 31.Google Scholar

page 199 note 1 See Breviarium ad Usum Sarum, ed. Procter, F. and Wordsworth, C., Fasc. III, Cambridge, 1886, col. 968.Google Scholar

page 199 note 2 See Cranmer's Article ‘De Veneratione Sanctorum’ in Remains and Letters, 482 ff. The passage containing the quotations begins, ‘Porro in sanctorum memoriis gratiae Deo agendae sunt, quod sanctis varia dona contulit’, 483. The Article appears to belong to the period of the Lutheran ‘Conversations’.

page 199 note 3 Op. cit., ii, 692.

page 199 note 4 See his article, ‘The New Prayer Book Examined’ in Church Quarterly Review, July 1927.

page 199 note 5 Brev. ad Usum Sarum, ed. Procter, F. and Wordsworth, C., Fasc. I, 1881, col. mlxxxvii. The passage and its context ultimately derive from Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore et sanguine Domini, xii, 1, having been incorporated by Gratian into his Decretum (P. III. De Consecratione, Dist. 2, cap. lxxii), whence it was introduced into the Corpus Christi Office of several Breviaries.Google Scholar

page 199 note 6 See, e.g., the Benedictio carnium in die Paschae in the Sarum Manual, ‘… benedic et sanctifica hanc creaturam carnis, ut nobis dona tua sumentibus animae et corporis sanitatem concedas.’

page 200 note 1 See A Brief Discourse of the Troubles begun at Frankfort in the year 1354. Reprinted from the Black-Letter Edition of 1575, London 1846, 1.

page 201 note 1 In the ordination of deacons, however, it should be noticed that the laying-on of hands is not preceded by a substantive prayer as in the case of bishops and priests.

page 201 note 2 In the form of the medieval rite known to Cranmer, the Book of the Gospels was delivered to deacons.

page 201 note 3 There is no serious doubt that Bucer's De Ordinations Legitima was written in order to influence Cranmer in the composition of his ordination rites. How considerable Bucer's influence was may be seen from Brightman, English Rite, ii, 932–1017: but Cranmer's differences from Bucer are important.