ii

INTRODUCTION.

of various" Uses," when England became wholly Christianized. The chief of these was the" Use of Sarum," or Salisbury, drawn up by Osmond, Bishop of Salisbury, in 1085, and prevailing over the greater part of the Southern Province: There was also the " York Use," marking the independence of the old Northumbrian Christianity, the" Uses of Bangor and Hereford," probably indi­cating the influence of the old British Church of Wales, and others less known. With substantial identity, these Uses pre­sented, nevertheless, some not inconsiderable variations, and did not follow strictly the Roman Use.

Besides these Latin Service Books, there were issued from time to time what were called PRIMERS, vernacular Prayer Books for the people, containing nothing of the Service of the Missal or Manual; but Services for the Hours, taken from the Breviary, Selections of Psalms and Prayers, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments, the Ave Maria, a Litany,& c. Of these Primers there are various editions extant, from A.D. 1400 to King Henry's Primer of 1545, gradually increasing in fulness. They served as simple manuals of Prayer and instruction for the people, existing side by side with the Latin Offices, which were to the people as sealed books; and they were probably used largely during Service- time in the Churches, and also in private devotion at home. Now the Reformation in England, so far as it was a purely religious movement, had two great objects in view- the publication of an English Bible and of an English Service- book. The former was secured in the reign of Henry VIII., when, after the issue of Tyndale's Bible( 1525), Coverdale's Bible( 1535), and Matthew's Bible( 1537), the" Great Bible" was published by authority in 1539, set up for reading in Churches in 1541, and the Epistles and Gos­pels read from it in 1542. Towards the second, some steps were taken under much difficulty in the same reign. In 1540 a Psalter in Latin and English was published; in 1544 the English Litany was published; in 1547 a Communion Service, supplementary to the Mass, was prepared, but not put forth till early in 1548, after the accession of Edward vi.

Meanwhile some steps were taken, both in England and elsewhere, towards reformation of the Latin Service Books. In 1516, 1531, and 1541, reformed and simplified editions of the Sarum Breviary were issued; in 1533 appeared a reformed Sarum Missal; and a reformed Breviary was published on the Continent by Cardinal Quignonez, under Papal authority, which was evidently of great use to the compilers of our Prayer Book.

II. PRAYER BOOK OF 1549.- These steps were but tentative and pre­paratory. When the accession of Edward v1. gave a new impulse to the Reformation, it was resolved to supersede both Latin Service Books and Primers by an English Prayer Book, which should be the Prayer Book of both priests and people. This new Service Book was, speaking generally, a reformed Sarum Use, including Breviary, Missal, Manual, and Pontifical in one. But the compilers had before them the Consultatio of Archbishop Hermann, of Cologne, containing a vernacular Service, drawn up under Lutheran auspices, and accordingly in a Conservative spirit; and from this they bor­