The Book of Common Prayer: The Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662

by Brian Cummings (Editor)

'In the midst of life we are in death.'The words of the Book of Common Prayer have permeated deep into the English language all over the world. For nearly 500 years, and for countless people, it has provided a background fanfare for a marriage or a funeral march at a burial. Yet this familiarity also hides a violent and controversial history. When it was first produced the Book of Common Prayer provoked riots and rebellion, and it was banned before being translated into a host of global languages and adopted asthe basis for worship in the USA and elsewhere to the present day.This edition presents the work in three different the first edition of 1549, which brought the Reformation into people's homes; the Elizabethan prayer book of 1559, familiar to Shakespeare and Milton; and the edition of 1662, which embodies the religious temper of the nation down to modern times.'magnificent edition' Diarmaid MacCulloch,London Review of Books'superb edition...excellent notes and introduction' Rowan Williams, Times Literary SupplementABOUT THE For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Genres: Religion, Christianity, Theology, Nonfiction, History, Christian, Prayer

896 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 8, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

This is Brian^^Cummings, where ^=space.

About the Author:
Brian Cummings FBA is Anniversary Professor at the University of York in the Department of English and Related Literature. He was previously Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Professor of English at the University of Sussex, and has also held Visiting Fellowships in California, in Munich, and Toronto. In addition to his academic work he was guest curator at Lambeth Palace for the exhibition Royal Devotion: Monarchy & the Book of Common Prayer in 2012, which was opened by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Prince of Wales. His books include The Literary Culture of the Reformation: Grammar and Grace (2007); and an edition of The Book of Common Prayer, which appeared in Oxford World's Classics in 2013. With Alexandra Walsham (Cambridge) he is leading the three-year research project "Remembering the Reformation," funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council from 2016 to 2019.

Reviews

[John Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

A magisterial tome but a rewarding and fascinating one. Here we have all the sources, the politics and the history of the moment when the particular text was being written. Read on kindle. A very useful reference book especially in paper format.

[wyclif · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sensible edition of the texts of The Book of Common Prayer that were edited in 1549, 1559, and 1662. It's far better as a reference work than a commentary. More on that later.

The Good: The quality of this volume is what you would expect from Oxford, but at a more reasonable price— attractively bound and printed. The texts themselves are accurate and the editorial choices made by Cummings are considered. Cummings wisely refuses to fall into the trap of reproducing original spellings of the texts (there are numerous variants in early Modern English), but hews closely to the original punctuation.

The Bad: The Propers for the Day (the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels) are not included. This appears to have been a compromise to prevent the book from getting too unwieldy. A far worse gaffe is the Introduction. Cummings' theology presents several serious problems. One is that he is trapped in the modern conundrum of thinking that Protestant is the opposite of Catholic. Another is the notion that 'the Prayer Book was written in “the ordinary language of its time”', a rather severe error. The concept of the Reformation as a return to primitive Christianity, and the corresponding claim to the patristic *consensus fidelium*, is foreign to him.

I wanted badly to give this book five stars when I obtained a copy, but it was not to be. I feel that this would be especially valuable for non-Anglicans who probably do not have the three included BCP texts as separate volumes, and are better read on the Reformation sources. It is less valuable to serious Anglicans who may have the English Prayer Book Society's edition of 1549 and 1552 in one volume, and John Booty's scholarly edition of 1559. If you have those books, you won't need this. Otherwise, I recommend it.

[Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superbly written. A gem.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. Contains all three BCPs and a good introduction.

[Tyler Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for my "Introduction to Christian Liturgy and Its Development" course under Fr. Toby Karlowicz at Nashotah House Seminary. It was a very helpful resource on the 1549, 1559, and 1662 prayer books. The best part, in my opinion, is the excellent introduction that Cummings writes for the book. He gives a history of the prayer books and Anglican Church which is thorough and helpful. Highly recommend the introduction.

[Josh Head · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well edited with fantastic commentary.

[Deiniol Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting and helpful introduction to the BCP as it developed from 1549 onwards, and very useful notes on the texts of the 1549, 1559 and 1662 editions.

[Nathanael S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The introduction was well written and informative. This was the perfect reference for my personal research on religion in early modern England.

[Mike Horne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Anglican Prayer Book is excellent. But this version that has the original, the edited, and then the returned (after Cromwell), is fantastic. Good endnotes. Will have to begin it again.

[MR C J TYLER · Rating 2 out of 5]

One major flaw

This book's contents meet the promise of the title but sadly, as an ebook, it is a waste of money. There are no links between the texts and the explanatory notes, so 2 devices or a hard copy are required to make fully informed reading a possibility. I'm surprised there's also no effort to present original pages, apart from title pages, as this would have made an ebook worthwhile. In my view, very poor that the ebook is only a copy of the text. No refund available or a discount off the print version?

[John Engelman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Book of Common Prayer: The texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662 is a compilation of the three most important versions of the Book of Common Prayer for the Church of England. Each represents a period of English history.

King Henry VIII reigned from 1509 to 1547. During this time he established the Church of England. His Archbishop was Thomas Cranmer. Thomas Cranmer wrote most of the Book of Common Prayer of 1549.

Queen Mary I was one of his daughters. She reigned from 1553 to 1558. As part of her effort to restore Roman Catholicism she had over 280 members of the Church of England burned at the stake, including Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. For her cruelty she has been nicknamed “Bloody Mary.”

The effort was unsuccessful, and she was followed by her half sister and daughter of Henry VIII Queen Elizabeth I, who restored the Church of England. This was when the Book of Common Prayer 1559 was written as an evolution from the Book of Common Prayer 1549. This was the Book of Common Prayer used by Shakespeare, John Milton, and other literary luminaries of the English Renaissance.

Oliver Cromwell overthrew the English monarchy, introduced a more Protestant form of worship, and stopped the use of the Book of Common Prayer. The use of the Book of Common Prayer was restored in 1660 when King Charles II restored the English monarchy.

The next revision of the Book of Common Prayer was written in 1662. It is still in use, although other versions are also in use.

After the American Revolution the Book of Common Prayer 1662 could no longer be used, because it had prayers for the good fortune of the British monarch. The first American version of the Book of Common Prayer was basically the Book of Common Prayer of 1662, with prayers for the good fortune of the British monarch replaced with prayers for the good fortune of the President of the United States.

The American Book of Common Prayer had revisions in 1892, 1928, and 1979. In the United States the 1928 Book of Common Prayer is still used by the Anglican Church, of which I am a member, although I still consider myself to be an Episcopalian.

Bertrand Russell, who was one of my intellectual mentors during the War in Vietnam, considered the Book of Common Prayer 1662 and the King James Bible to have the best English.

Lord Russell was a master of English prose himself, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950.

[Dan Glover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good intro to the various iterations of the BCP, the history behind them, including personalities, politics, theological debates, and influences. This was required reading for a course I took at Regent College on Anglican History and Theology. The reader may not always agree with the conclusions drawn by the editor or share his perspectives on the parties or people involved, but his relatively brief historical orientation is still valuable (I recommend reading Alan Jacobs' biography of The Book of Common Prayer, in Princeton's Lives of Great Religious Books series along with this). The greatest benefit of this book, however, is examining the three main versions of the BCP. By comparing them one can see the evolving theological, liturgical and political convictions of the party in power in the Church of England throughout the BCP's life. This is the definitive scholarly version of these editions of the BCP (and it retains their original spelling although in a more readable font than facsimiles).

[John Hanscom · Rating 5 out of 5]

... for me; it could be one star for others. It all depends on how fascinating a person finds the development and changes in liturgy after the English Reformation, how each BCP tries to solve the political and religious tensions of the time, and how the early books came to effect the various BCPs of the worldwide Anglican Communion. I find this all immensely interesting; others might not.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating. So much history behind the words. The introduction and notes really help explain what was going on.

[Russeller · Rating 4 out of 5]

a textbook I enjoyed reading!