1662 Book of Common Prayer

The 1662 Book of Common Prayer is the fourth and definitive edition of the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, authorized by the Act of Uniformity of 1662 and brought into use on St Bartholomew's Day, 24 August 1662. It stands at the end of the line of English prayer books that began with the books of 1549 and 1552, the work of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, and continued with the book of 1559 issued under Elizabeth I. It remained the statutory prayer book of the Church of England into the twentieth century, and it is still regarded as a doctrinal standard of Anglicanism and as the fountainhead of the worldwide family of Books of Common Prayer.

Revision after the Restoration

When the monarchy was restored in 1660, the question of the prayer book had to be settled afresh after the years in which its use had been suppressed. An attempt was made to reconcile the episcopalian and Presbyterian parties at the Savoy Conference of 1661, but the conference failed to reach agreement, and the work of revision fell instead to the Convocations of the Church. Among the bishops who took a leading hand in the revision were Matthew Wren and John Cosin; Cosin's annotated copy of the earlier book, known as the "Durham Book", survives as a record of the work. The revised book was annexed to the Act of Uniformity of 1662 in a sealed copy, so that the text authorized by Parliament was fixed beyond dispute.

The book came into use on St Bartholomew's Day, 24 August 1662, the date appointed by the Act. Because the Act required the unqualified assent of the clergy to everything contained in the book, the day is also remembered as the date of the Great Ejection, when ministers who could not give that assent left their livings.

Contents and changes

Although the revisers worked conservatively, the book of 1662 contained roughly six hundred alterations from the book of 1604, the form in which the prayer book had last been authorized. The lectionary was revised, and the lessons appointed to be read were taken from the King James Bible. The Ordinal — the forms for making, ordaining, and consecrating bishops, priests, and deacons — was retained, together with its preface setting out the intention of continuing the historic orders of ministry. Among the additions were prayers that have since become among the best known in the book, including the Prayer for All Conditions of Men and the General Thanksgiving. In the tradition of the book there were also added forms of prayer for state occasions, among them the service for the Fifth of November.

Like its predecessors, the book ordered the whole round of the Church's worship: the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer, the Litany, Holy Communion, baptism, Confirmation, marriage, the visitation of the sick, burial, and the Psalter.

Influence and continuing use

The 1662 book remained the statutory prayer book of the Church of England into the twentieth century, and no subsequent revision displaced its legal position. Together with the Thirty-nine Articles, it continues to be treated as a doctrinal standard of Anglicanism, the measure against which later Anglican worship and teaching are compared. Its influence extended far beyond England: the prayer books of the worldwide Anglican family descend from the same tradition, through the Scottish and American books, which carried the pattern of the English book — its orders of service, its prayers, and its lectionary — into churches across the world.

See also

• Forms of Prayer to be Used at Sea in the Book of Common Prayer
• Preface to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
• Prayer for Parliament in the Book of Common Prayer
• State Prayers in the Book of Common Prayer
• The 1559 Book of Common Prayer

References

• Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer (1901).
• Brian Cummings (ed.), The Book of Common Prayer: The Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662 (Oxford World's Classics, 2011).