INTRODUCTION.
In 1540 a Committee of Divines was appointed by K. Henry VIII. at the petition of the Convocation, to reform the Rituals and Offices of the Church in 1544, the King ordered the Prayers for Processions, and Litanies" to be put into English;" finally, in 1545, the King's Primer, set furth by the Kinges Majestie and his Clergie,& c. was published.
In the 1st year of Ed. VI. Anno 1547, upon the revision of the Missal after the use of Sarum,( the Mass- Book, at that time, in constant use in England) a complete Liturgy was arranged, under the title of the Book of the Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacrament,& c. after the use of the Church of England. This Book was revised 1551, by Cranmer and others, when, besides other alterations, the sentences, exhortation, confession, and absolution, were prefixed to the Lord's Prayer, and the Liturgy brought to the same form in which we now use it: on the 1st. Nov. 1552, it was first used in" Paule's Church, and the like through the whole Citie." But, this 2d. Book of Ed. VIth., or( the Book of the 5th. Year, as it is also called) and the Act of Uniformity, passed by K. Edward, were all repealed by Queen Mary, 1553, who determined to restore the Roman Catholic Religion.
Upon the accession of Queen Elizabeth, 1558, the jurisdiction of the Crown, over the estate Ecclesiastical and Spiritual, was restored, all Foreign interference abolished, and learned Divines appointed,( among these are the names of Parker and Grindal), to frame, from K. Edward's two Liturgies, a Book for the use of the Church of England; the result was, the establishment of K. Edward's 2d. Book, with some little variations. In the 1st. year of K. James,( 1603) there were some alterations and additions, made at a conference at Hampton Court, at which the King himself presided, and Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, took part. vi