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The Reasons for the Abolition of the Book of Common Prayer in 1645

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Peter King
Peter King
Affiliation:
History Department, The Manchester Grammar School
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Extract

During the period of Laudian supremacy in the 1630's many of the bishops pursued a rigorous policy of enforcing the Book of Common Prayer ‘w[i]thout addition, alteration or diminution’. They found that ‘the Divine Service in ye forenoones is neither performed w[i]th that solemnity of time, manner, and ord[e]r, w[hi]ch of right it ought, nor frequented and attended by those that belong to the severall parishes’. Bishop Wren of Norwich, who was, perhaps, Laud's most forthright supporter deliberately went to stay in Ipswich, the main Puritan centre in his diocese, and in June 1636 celebrated divine service in full ‘which had never been there observed before’. Wren, in common with other Laudian bishops, maintained that the Preface to the Book of Common Prayer required him to decide the precise form which services should take in the diocese, because it stated that ‘for the resolution of all doubts, concerning the manner how to understand, do, and execute, the things contained in this Book; the parties…shall always resort to the bishop of the diocese, who by his discretion shall take order for the quieting and appeasing of the same’. Archbishop Laud expressed himself well satisfied with Wren's work in this matter, and told Charles I in his annual report to the king at the end of 1637 that ‘divine service…is diligently frequented; and that beyond what could suddenly be hoped for in such a diocese, and in the midst of the humourousness of this age’. Charles I told Wren ‘not to desist from enforcing all canonical observance’ in the diocese.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , October 1970 , pp. 327 - 339
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

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References

page 327 note 1 Bodleian Library, Oxford, Tanner MS. 68, fol. 26: bishop Wren to chancellor Clement Corbet of Norwich, 6 March 1635/36.

page 327 note 2 Ibid.

page 327 note 3 S(tate). P(apers). Dom(estic). Public Record Office, 16/337, fols. 36–37v, 7 December 1636. See also Hist. MSS. Comm., ix. pt. i, appendix 261.

page 327 note 4 Wren, C., Parentalia; or Memoirs of the Family of the Wrens (1750), 80Google Scholar. Preface to the Book of Common Prayer.

page 327 note 5 The Works of William Laud, ed. Scott, W. and Bliss, J., Oxford 1847–60, v. 350–2.Google Scholar

page 327 note 6 Tanner MS. 70, fols. 103–4, 8 October 1636.

page 328 note 1 Burton, H., For God and the King (1636), 4, 64.Google Scholar

page 328 note 2 Tatham, G. B., The Puritans in Power, Cambridge 1913, 12Google Scholar.

page 328 note 3 C. Wren, op. cit., 73.

page 328 note 4 Rushworth, W., Historical Collections of Private Passages of State (1721), iii. 184–5Google Scholar. In Falkland's opinion this was to introduce ‘an English, though not a Roman Popery’. For an example of the way in which popular prejudice could be excited see Cal(endar). S(tate). P(apers). Dom(estic)., 1641–3, 531 where a Prayer Book with a Cross on the front cover at St. Gregory's by St. Paul's aroused animosity.

page 328 note 5 Tanner MS. 70, fols. 103–4.

page 328 note 6 C. Wren, op. cit., 91.

page 328 note 7 Ibid., 99.

page 328 note 8 Ibid., 88.

page 328 note 9 S. P. Dom., 16/406, fols. 222–3v, undated. For the opposite point of view stated by one of Wren's colleagues, bishop Hall of Exeter, see S. P. Dom., 16/409, fol. 195, 14 January 1638/39. See also Prynne, W., Canterburies Doome (1646), 99–106Google Scholar, and Addleshaw, G. W. O. and Etchells, F., The Architectural Setting of Anglican Worship, London 1948, 123–9.Google Scholar

page 328 note 10 Walker, J., An Attempt towards recovering an account of the numbers and sufferings of the clergy of the Church of England (1714), 23Google Scholar.

page 329 note 1 C. Wren, op. cit., 75. For the carrying out of this policy see, for example, Bodleian Library, Oxford, Rawlinson MS. C. 368, fols. 2–18: 12 April 1636, bishop Wren to dean Hassall of Norwich. Wren's own reference to the example of the royal chapels was a reference to his own practices. He was dean of Windsor (1628–35), and dean of the Chapel Royal (1636–41), and his brother, Christopher, succeeded him at Windsor. For his attitude to ceremonial at Windsor see S. P. Dom., 16/117, fols. 102–3, 22 September, 1628.

page 329 note 2 J. Nalson, An Impartial Collection of the Great Affairs of State (1786 ed.), ii. 398–404: article xrv of bishop Wren's impeachment said his changes cost ‘£5000 and upwards’.

page 329 note 3 Tanner MS. 68, fol. 327, 29 March 1638, bishop Wren to Edmund Pierce (Commissary in the archdeaconry of Suffolk). For similar riots in the nineteenth century see Rev. MacColl, M., The Reformation Settlement examined in the Light of History and Law, London 1899, lxv–lxxiGoogle Scholar.

page 329 note 4 Tanner MS. 70, fols. 103–4.

page 329 note 5 The Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, ed. Halliwell, J. O., London 1845, ii. 141–3.Google Scholar

page 329 note 6 The Journal of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, ed. Notestein, W., Yale 1923, 171Google Scholar.

page 329 note 7 For example, see Prynne, W., Newes from Ipswich, Ipswich 1636, 6–8Google Scholar.

page 329 note 8 Gardiner, S. R., The Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, Oxford 1899, 141Google Scholar.

page 329 note 9 Ibid., 140.

page 329 note 10 Ibid., 141.

page 329 note 11 Beresford-Hope, A. J. B., a review of ‘Dean Howson's Before the Table’, Church Quarterly Review, i (1875–6), 459Google Scholar. Robert Baillie, Principal of Glasgow University, and one of the Scots Commissioners, wrote A Parallel or Briefs Comparison of the Liturgie with the Mass Book in 1641.

page 330 note 1 W. Prynne, op. cit., 4.

page 330 note 2 For the poor harvest, plague and depression of 1636 see French, A., Charles I and the Puritan Upheaval, London 1955, 105, 123Google Scholar. The economic difficulties arising from these events were one of the reasons for the laity's opposition to the additional cost incurred as a result of the ceremonial alterations required. It was, thus, to the Puritans’ advantage to attribute the events themselves to the Laudian bishops. For the effects see, for example, S. P. Dom., 16/378, fol. 199, 12 January 1637/38, and Cal. S. P. Dom., 1637–8. 92.

page 330 note 3 W. Prynne, op. cit., 2–4.

page 330 note 4 Jacobson, W., Fragmentary Illustrations of the History of the Book of Common Prayer, London 1874, 86–7.Google Scholar

page 330 note 5 F. Peck, Desiderata Curiosa; or a collection of divers scarce and curious pieces relating chiefly to matters of English history (1779), ii. 336; see Tanner MS. 71, fol. 142, 1 June 1636 for the service used.

page 330 note 6 W. Jacobson, op. cit., 45, 52, 65 for bishop Wren's acceptance of the defects and the unpopularity of the Book of Common Prayer.

page 330 note 7 S. R. Gardiner, op. cit., 141.

page 330 note 8 For the offence caused by the more extreme ceremonial adopted, see H. Burton, For God and the King, 35, 162, and Prynne, W., Canterburies Doome (1646), 123Google Scholar. For the use of incense see The Correspondence of John Cosin, ed. Ornsby, G., Surtees Society Publications lii (1868), 223Google Scholar, and Gibbon, R., ‘The Account Book of the Dean and Chapter of Ely, 1604–77’, C.Q.R., cxv (1933), 211Google Scholar; M. MacColl, op. cit., 431. Richard Baxter still wanted the Ornaments rubric removed as late as 1688.

page 331 note 1 For the choral service at Hereford see British Museum Lansdowne MS. 213 fol. 333; Hist. MSS. Comm., Portland MSS., iii. 71–2, 2 January 1641. For changes in other cathedrals see Hist. MSS. Comm., iv. appendix, 143, 154; Higham, F. M. G., Catholic and Reformed: a Study of the Anglican Church, 1559–1662, London 1962, 125–7Google Scholar. For the trouble which these caused see Hist. MSS. Comm., iv. appendix, 143; The Diary of John Toung, Dean of Winchester, 1616 to the Commonwealth, ed. Goodman, F. R., London 1928, 130–1Google Scholar; S. P. Dom., 16/316, fol. 11, 14 March 1635/36: Tanner MS. 68, fol. 189, 17 February 1636/37, and fol. 236, 7 May 1637.

page 331 note 2 Stoughton, J., History of Religion in England from the Opening of the Long Parliament to 1850, London 1901, i. 347.Google Scholar

page 331 note 3 Ibid., i. 100.

page 331 note 4 Maclear, J. F., ‘Popular Anti-Clericalism in the Puritan Revolution’, Journal of the History of Ideas, xvii (1956), 451Google Scholar. Cal. S. P. Dom., 1641–3, 186, 1 December 1641, referred to ‘riots crying down Bishops and the Book of Common Prayer’.

page 331 note 5 ‘A Speech made by Alderman Garroway at a Common-Hall Meeting on Tuesday the Seventeenth of January’, Harleian Miscellany, London 1808, v. 179–84Google Scholar. Cal. S. P. Dom., 1641–3, 438–9, 17 January 1642 refers to the same speech by Alderman Garr[a]way. For a parody of the Independents' opposition to a set Liturgy see ‘Some Small and Simple Reasons, delivered in a hollow tree in Waltham Forest, in a lecture on the Thirty-Third of March last; By Aminadab Blower, a devout Bellows-mender of Pimlico’, Harleian Miscellany, vii. 189–93.

page 331 note 6 Hist. MSS. Comm., Portland MSS., iii. 85, 5 March 1642.

page 331 note 7 S. R. Gardiner, op. cit., 229: ‘The Grand Remonstrance’, cap. 184 (1 December 1641).

page 332 note 1 J. Nalson, An Impartial Collection of the Great Affairs of State, ii. 395–8.

page 332 note 2 Hist. MSS. Comm., Portland MSS., iii. 76.

page 332 note 3 L(ord's). J(oumals)., iv. 107, 10 December 1640; iv. 133, 16 January 1641; iv. 138, 21 January 1641.

page 332 note 4 J. Walker, op. cit., 24; Perry, G. G., A History of the English Church from the Accession of Henry VIII to the silencing of Convocation in the eighteenth century, London 1878, 457Google Scholar.

page 332 note 5 Cal. S.P. Dom., 1641–43, 134, 7 October 1641. For examples see Hist. MSS. Comm., Portland MSS., iii. 81, 8 October 1641; iii. 85, 5 March 1642; J. Walker, op. cit., 24, J. Nalson, op. cit., ii. 764, J. Stoughton, op. cit., i. 141–2.

page 332 note 6 J. Nalson, op. cit., ii. 483, L.J., iv. 133–4.

page 332 note 7 W. Notestein, The Journal of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, 258.

page 332 note 8 J. Stoughton, op. cit., i. 121–2; Cardwell, E., A History of Conferences, Oxford 1840, 270Google Scholar; Procter, F. and Frere, W. H., A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, London 1902, 151Google Scholar.

page 333 note 1 J. Stoughton, op. cit., i. 168.

page 333 note 2 J. Nalson, op. cit., ii. 488–91. C(ommons'). J(ournals)., ii. 279.

page 333 note 3 Ibid., ii. 492, 609, 626; C.J., iv. 487; Matthews, A. G., Calamy Revised, Oxford 1934, 432Google Scholar.

page 333 note 4 Hist. MSS. Comm., Portland MSS., iii. 87, 8 May 1642.

page 333 note 5 Ibid., 88–9, 14 July 1642.

page 333 note 6 Ibid., iii. 103, 17 January 1643.

page 333 note 7 For example, Quarter Sessions Records: Commonwealth, ed. Bates-Harbin, E. H., Somerset Record Society, xxviii (1912), xxxix, xliiiGoogle Scholar for similar events at Wells and Wookey.

page 333 note 8 ‘A Speech made by Alderman Garroway …’: J. Stoughton, op. cit., i. 254.

page 333 note 9 Hall, Bishop John, Hard-Measure (1714), xviiiGoogle Scholar. For their introduction see Rawlinson MS. G 368, fols. 2–18, 12 April 1636, and for opposition to such services, The Wren's Nest Defiled, or Bishop Wren Anatomised, his life and Actions dissected and laid open (1641), Thomason Tract., British Museum, E 165 (14), and the contemporary poem ‘Lambeth Faire, wherein you have all the Bishops' Trinkets set to sale’ (1641) quoted in Ollard, S. L. and Cross, G., A Dictionary of English Church History, London 1948, s.v. ‘Wren’Google Scholar.

page 334 note 1 G. G. Perry, A History of the English Church from the Accession of Henry VIII, etc., 457; Walcott, M. E. C., Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals, London 1872, 34–5Google Scholar; A True Relation of the late expedition into Kent (1642), Thom. Tract., B.M., E 116 (22); and A Copy of a Letter sent by Dr. Paske (1642), Thom. Tract., B.M., E 115 (10).

page 334 note 2 Cal. S.P. Dom., 1641–3, 371–3, 16 August 1642; ‘This day the rails of Uxbridge, formerly removed, were, with the service-book, burned. This even Mr. Hardinge gave us a worthy sermon’.

page 334 note 3 Spence-Jones, H. D. M., The Church of England, London 1904, iv. 84Google Scholar. See also Ransom, R. A., ‘All Saints' Church, Odiham’, Hampshire Review, ii (1952), 44Google Scholar; J. Walker, op. cit., 26; Stephens, W. R. W., The South-Saxon Diocese, Selsey-Chichester, London 1881, 223–4.Google Scholar

page 334 note 4 Gibbon, R., ‘The Account Book of the Dean and Chapter of Ely, 1604–1677’, C.Q.R., cxv (1933), 224–5Google Scholar, H. D. M. Spence-Jones, op. cit., iv. 150.

page 334 note 5 J. Stoughton, op. cit., i. 393.

page 334 note 6 J. Nalson, op. cit., ii. 726–58; Two Petitions … the one presented to the Honourable House of Commons from the County of Hereford (1642), Thom. Tract., B.M., E 146 (16).

page 334 note 7 W. Rushworth, Historical Collections, iv. 452, S. R. Gardiner, op. cit., 232–3; Cal.S.P. Dom., 1641–3, 202, 207, 16 December 1641, 18 December 1641.

page 335 note 1 S. R. Gardiner, op. cit., 286, This proposal is incorrectly placed by J. Stoughton (op. cit., i. 262), after the negotiations of February 1643 instead of those of November-February 1644.

page 335 note 2 Steele, R., Tudor and Stuart Royal Proclamations, 1485–1714, Oxford 1910, i. 319.Google Scholar

page 335 note 3 Browne, J., History of Congregationalism and Memorials of the Churches in Norfolk and Suffolk, 1877, 103Google Scholar; A. G. Matthews, op. cit., i, 233, 271, 359, 397, 400; Jewson, C. B., ‘The English Church at Rotterdam, and its Norfolk Connections’, Norfolk Archaeology, xxx (1952), 324 ff.Google Scholar; Trevor-Roper, H. R., Religion, the Reformation and Social Change, 1967, 304–5, 311–12.Google Scholar

page 335 note 4 H. R. Trevor-Roper, op. cit., 257–78.

page 335 note 5 The Life and Journals of R. Baillie, ed. D. Laing, Edinburgh 1841–2, ii. 17.

page 335 note 6 J. Nalson, op. cit., i. 681.

page 336 note 1 S. R. Gardiner, op. cit., 229.

page 336 note 2 W. Rushworth, Historical Collections, v. 1661–9.

page 336 note 3 Ibid., v. 388.

page 336 note 4 Ibid., v. 399–406.

page 336 note 5 D. Laing, op. cit., ii. 99, 113–15.

page 336 note 6 J. Walker, op. cit., 13. For details of the Assembly see Hetherington, W. M., History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, Edinburgh 1843Google Scholar; and Shaw, W. A., A History of the English Church during the Civil Wars and under the Commonwealth, London 1900, ii. 98–135Google Scholar for the divisions between Presbyterians and Independents. Only 69 divines attended.

page 336 note 7 D. Laing, op. cit., ii. 265: ‘The most of the House of Commons are downright Erastians’.

page 336 note 8 S. R. Gardiner, op. cit., 268; H. D. M. Spence-Jones, op. cit., iv. 142–3.

page 336 note 9 G. G. Perry, op. cit., 455; Cox, J. C., Churchwardens' Accounts from the fourteenth century to the close of the seventeenth century, London 1913, 116Google Scholar; F. M. G. Higham, op. cit., 2O5n., 211.

page 336 note 10 W. A. Shaw, op. cit., i. 376.

page 337 note 1 H. D. M. Spence-Jones, op. cit., iv. 144.

page 337 note 2 L.J., vii. 125, 4 January 1645. Laud was buried with a full Prayer Book service at All Hallows', Barking on 10 August 1645: W. Rushworth, op. cit., iii. ii. 835–9.

page 337 note 3 J. Stoughton, op. cit., i. 397.

page 337 note 4 J. C. Cox, Churchwardens' Accounts, 116; F. M. G. Higham, op. cit., 218.

page 337 note 5 H. D. M. Spence-Jones, op. cit., iv. 144–6 for a discussion of the defects of the Directory.

page 337 note 6 For the abolition of Christmas see Kenyon, J. P., The Stuart Constitution, Cambridge 1966, 256Google Scholar; Quarter Sessions Records: Commonwealth, ed. E. H. Bates-Harbin, 324; Underdown, D., Royalist Conspiracy in England, Yale 1960, 329Google Scholar; J. C. Cox, op. cit., 247.

page 337 note 7 For Sabbath and other restrictive legislation see J. P. Keynon, op. cit., 330, Hibbert, C., The Roots of Evil, London 1966, 48–9Google Scholar; E. H. Bates-Harbin, op. cit., 102; Stoughton, J., Church and State Two Hundred Tears Ago, London 1862, 200Google Scholar.

page 337 note 8 For civil marriage see The Correspondence of Bishop Brian Duppa and Sir Justinian Isham, 1650–60, ed. SirIsham, Gyles, Northamptonshire Record Society, xvii (1950–1)Google Scholar, letter xxxii, undated.

page 337 note 9 D. Laing, op. cit., ii. 234.

page 338 note 1 B.M. Additional MS., 15,672, fol. 84. For the return of such ministers to cures at a later date see MS. Sancroft 78, fol. 13, December 1657.

page 338 note 2 Pigot, H., ‘Hadleigh’, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, iii (1863), 156Google Scholar; Calendar of Clarendon State Papers, ii. 234; The Works of Gerrard Winstanley, ed. Sabine, G. H., New York 1941, 504Google Scholar.

page 338 note 3 Staley, V., The Life and Times of Gilbert Sheldon, London 1913, 13–21Google Scholar; Whiteman, A., ‘The Restoration of the Church of England’, in From Uniformity to Unity, 1662–1962, ed. Nuttall, G. F. and Chadwick, O., London 1962.Google Scholar

page 338 note 4 J. Stoughton, i. 402, 5 February 1645.

page 338 note 5 Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1646–60, ed. Firth, C. H. and Rait, R. S., London 1911, i. 749–54, 789–97Google Scholar.

page 338 note 6 R. Steele, i. 319, 13 November 1645. A copy was included in H. Hammond's A View of the New Directory, and a vindication of the Liturgy of the Church of England published in 1645. Charles I told Bishop Wren in 1647 that ‘he is constant to his old principles; and notwithstanding any Difficulties of ye times is resolv'd … by ye Help of G[od] to keep a good Corse’: MS. Sancroft 78, fol. 16.

page 338 note 7 S. R. Gardiner, op. cit., 391–4; J. Walker, op. cit., 28.

page 338 note 8 Tanner MS. 60, fol. 148, 26 May 1645.

page 338 note 9 G. G. Perry, op. cit., 458.

page 339 note 1 W. A. Shaw, op. cit., ii. 365–7, 13 December 1645.

page 339 note 2 Ibid.: ‘Wee humbly conceive ye whole county can make up noe more yn one classis’, and mention of ‘ye poore allowance for ministers in many of the sayd parishes’.

page 339 note 3 Tanner MS. 59, fol. 77, 12 April 1646.

page 339 note 4 ‘Family Chronicle of Richard Fogge of Danes Court, in Tilmanstone’, no editor given, Archaeologia Cantiana, v (1862–3, 112–13. There is an incorrect reference to this work in F. M. G. Higham, op. cit., 264.

page 339 note 5 The Whole Works of … Jeremy Taylor, ed. Heber, R., London 1822, v. 235.Google Scholar

page 339 note 6 Tanner MS. 52, fol. 5, 17 January 1652/53. For Presbyterian agreement that such was the effect see R. Wodrow, The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, ed. R. Burns, Glasgow 1858, i. 21, 44. People were ‘doting after prelacy and the Service Book’.