The Private Prayers of Lancelot Andrewes

by Lancelot Andrewes, Hugh Martin (Introduction)

This intimately personal but basically Scriptural book has already enriched the prayers of thousands. It shows why Andrewes is remembered as one of the founders of Anglicanism. Lancelot Andrewes preached the funeral sermon of Elizabeth I and was chairman of the group responsible for the Authorized Version to the end of II Kings. He was Dean of Westminster and Bishop of Winchester, and is buried in Southwark Cathedral. He is best known for his Preces Privatae, here introduced with an essay by Dr Hugh Martin. These prayers were originally written in Greek, Hebrew and Latin, and the English of this edition recalls another piece of religious history, for most of it appeared as one of the Tracts for the Times in 1840, the translator being J. H. Newman. Another part is translated by the Victorian hymnologist, J. M. Neale.

128 pages, Paperback

First published March 5, 2012

About the author

English bishop and scholar who held high positions in the Church of England during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. During the latter's reign, Andrewes served successively as Bishop of Chichester, of Ely, and of Winchester and oversaw the translation of the King James Version of the Bible (or Authorized Version). In the Church of England he is commemorated on 25 September with a Lesser Festival.

Reviews

[Jaden Weatherly]

Many Anglicans are aware of our “three categories” of spirituality.

The first, the pillar and foundation, is the Holy Eucharist, our sacramental joining with Christ and the basis of our nourishment in this life, just as the Israelites were fed with bread of Heaven. The second is the daily offices in our Book of Common Prayer. Although it’s less common (unfortunately) today, these were always a communal time for those of a parish to come together, morning and evening, to pray as One Body. Even today, although we often have to pray the office “alone,” we are not doing it alone. For we pray with the chorus of the Churches Militant and Triumphant together.

The third category is that of private devotion. This is where the freedom of conscious and the Christian come to play. We must have our own private prayer life with God. I believe this often should be “extemporaneous,” however, I have truly come to enjoy written prayer very much. This is where the Private Devotions of Lancelot Andrewes have shone brightly in my life! I’ll let Richard Drake speak to them:

“Had you seen the original manuscript, happy in the glorious deformity thereof, being slubbered with its author’s pious hands and watered with his penitential tears, you would have been forced to confess, that book belonged to no other than to pure and primitive devotion.”

[Tynan Brooks]

Some nice prayers from early Anglicanism.