Work record

The Book of Common Prayer (1662): Selections

Thomas Cranmer and the Church of England

Also known as: BCP 1662 · Book of Common Prayer · Prayer Book

1662 · Renaissance Early Modern · Religious Scripture · English

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Abstract

Written: 1662 (from texts of 1549–1552)
Setting: Restoration England; London
Author: Thomas Cranmer and the Church of England
Country: England
Language: English
Genre: Liturgy
Form: Prose services, prayers and creeds
Recommended: Grades 10–12 (Original 1662 spelling (vnto, iudgement); read aloud for best effect.)

Origin. An archbishop under Henry VIII and Edward VI turned the church's Latin services into English. After a Catholic queen, a Puritan revolution and a restored king, bishops revised his work, and Parliament made the new version compulsory in 1662.

Selections. This library offers the opening Preface, two short essays on the services and on ceremonies, the daily morning and evening services, and a long ancient creed on the Trinity.

Prefaces. The revisers explain that they kept a middle course between refusing every change and accepting too many. Older material explains why Scripture is read straight through in the national language and why some ritual was dropped.

Daily prayer. Each service opens with Bible verses, a call to repent, a confession spoken together and a pardon, then psalms, readings, songs and short prayers.

Spelling. The text follows the manuscript attached to the law, with its seventeenth-century spelling.

Omissions. Communion, the Litany, weddings, funerals and the Psalter are not included, as no reliable transcription was available. What remains still shows the shape of daily worship and the steady, balanced cadence of the prose, with its paired words and long sentences.

Key figures

Thomas Cranmer: Archbishop who compiled the first prayer books
Charles II: King at the Restoration
John Cosin: Bishop of Durham, a leading reviser

Summary

The Book of Common Prayer is the service book of the Church of England, and the 1662 edition is the version that has remained its official standard. It gathers into one volume the services that earlier had required several Latin books: daily Morning and Evening Prayer, the Litany, Holy Communion, baptism, confirmation, marriage, the visitation of the sick, burial, the Psalter and the ordination services. Its first versions were issued in 1549 and 1552 under Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, and his English prose shaped much of the final text. The 1662 revision followed the Restoration of Charles II and the collapse of Puritan hopes for a more thoroughly reformed church. The Act of Uniformity required all ministers to use it; around two thousand who would not conform left their parishes in what became known as the Great Ejection. This library presents selections. The Preface explains the revision, aiming at a middle way between too much rigidity and too much readiness to change. Concerning the Service of the Church explains Cranmer's goal of reading the whole Bible in an orderly cycle in the common language. Of Ceremonies defends keeping some ceremonies and abolishing others. Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, the daily offices, begin with sentences of Scripture, an exhortation, a general confession said by all, and an absolution, then psalms, lessons, canticles such as the Te Deum and the Magnificat, the Creed and collects. The confession's phrase about having 'erred and strayed' like lost sheep, and the evening collect asking God to 'lighten our darkness', are among the best known lines in English prayer. The Athanasian Creed, appointed for certain feasts, closes the selection. The language of the Prayer Book, along with the King James Bible, deeply influenced English literature, and its marriage and burial services gave English many familiar phrases. It is still authorized in the Church of England and used, often in adapted forms, across the Anglican Communion.

Plot or Argument

The Preface
Why the book was revised in 1662 and how the revisers balanced continuity and change.
Concerning the Service of the Church
Cranmer's explanation of reading Scripture through in order in English.
Of Ceremonies
Why some ceremonies were abolished and some kept.
Morning and Evening Prayer
The daily offices with confession, psalms, lessons, canticles, Creed and collects.
The Athanasian Creed
A long creed on the Trinity and the incarnation, said on appointed days.

Lessons

Worship in a common language
The book insisted that prayer be in English so that all could understand and join.
- What does Concerning the Service of the Church criticize about earlier worship?
- Why might shared words matter for a community?
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Uniformity and conscience
The 1662 book was enforced by law, and clergy who refused were ejected.
- Should a state require one form of worship?
- How does the Preface try to justify the revisions to different critics?
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- The Histories, Book VI, Book VI, ch. 56
  a scrupulous fear of the gods, is the very thing which keeps the Roman commonwealth together. Polybius names Roman religious awe as the chief advantage of Rome over other states, and links it to the honesty of Roman magistrates.
- The Republic and The Laws, Republic, Book I
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Language that lasts
Many phrases from the Prayer Book entered everyday English.
- Find two phrases from the selections that are still used today.
- Why might set words spoken weekly for centuries shape a language?
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For the Christian reader
Thomas Cranmer's prayers, preserved in the 1662 book, have been prayed daily in English for more than three hundred years, and many phrases have passed into the common language. The Prayer Book weaves Scripture into worship, appointing the Psalms to be read through each month and the Bible through each year. Students can pray Morning or Evening Prayer as a class and notice how much of it is Scripture.
- Find three phrases in Morning Prayer drawn directly from Scripture.
- Why did Cranmer want worship in a language the people could understand?
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Context

Cranmer's English prayer books of 1549 and 1552 replaced Latin services. Mary I abolished them; Elizabeth I restored the book in 1559. During the Civil War and Commonwealth its public use was forbidden from 1645.

Composition

After the Restoration, the Savoy Conference of 1661 failed to reconcile bishops and Presbyterians. Convocation revised the book, and Parliament's Act of Uniformity (1662) annexed the manuscript and required its use from St Bartholomew's Day, 24 August 1662.

Reception

The 1662 book remains a legal standard of doctrine in the Church of England and was carried around the world with the British Empire, shaping Anglican churches in many languages. The selections here follow the manuscript annexed to the Act, reproduced in facsimile in 1891–1892.

Faith / Religion Guilt Sin Power / Politics Art / Creation

Comparisons

The Bible
The Prayer Book arranges the reading of Scripture and much of its prayer is biblical language.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism
The Puritan alternative compiled while the Prayer Book was banned.
Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (Preface and Book I)
Hooker's defence of the Elizabethan church justifies set forms of prayer.
Sermons and Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
Donne, a priest of the Church of England, preached within the Prayer Book's worship.
The Collar
Herbert's poems grew from a parish life shaped by the Prayer Book.
The Early Christian Creeds
The Athanasian Creed in this selection is one of the ancient creeds.
The Rule of St Benedict
The monastic daily offices that Morning and Evening Prayer simplified.

Quotes

Frequently cited

“We have erred and strayed from thy wayes like lost sheep”

— Thomas Cranmer and the Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer (1662): Selections, The Order for Morning Prayer (The Book of Common Prayer (1662), manuscript Annexed Book as reproduced in the 1891–1892 facsimile, Wikisource transcription; selections).Quote card

Elements, Book I, Book I, Axiom ix
The whole is greater than its part. The axiom behind many indirect proofs that end by showing 'a part equal to the whole, which is absurd.'
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, First Part, on sickness
Rousseau lists the diseases produced by inequalities of labour, diet and passion and argues that most of our ills are of our own making.
Snow Country, Part One, opening sentence
The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country. The famous opening, as the train carrying Shimamura emerges into the snowbound region.
Atlas Shrugged, Part One, Chapter I ("The Theme"), opening line
Who is John Galt? The novel's first words, a catchphrase of resignation that the book later turns into a question with an answer.
Twilight of the Idols, SKIRMISHES IN A WAR WITH THE AGE
strong faith one in which one does not lose one s own faith in spite of the fact that one has to make an outward show of holding another faith Nowadays a man gives it up or what is still more common he acquires a second faith in any case however he remains honest Without a doubt it is possible to have a much larger number of convictions at present than it was formerly possible that is to say allowable that is to say harmless From this there arises an attitude of toleration towards one s self Toleration towards o...

Frequently cited

“Lighten our darkness wee beseech thee, O Lord”

— Thomas Cranmer and the Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer (1662): Selections, The Order for Evening Prayer (The Book of Common Prayer (1662), manuscript Annexed Book as reproduced in the 1891–1892 facsimile, Wikisource transcription; selections).Quote card

Beyond Good and Evil, Preface
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Parva Naturalia (Short Treatises on Nature), Full Text
scale which gives them similar protection It is to state the matter generally an irrational notion that the eye should see in virtue of something issuing from it that the visual ray should extend itself all the way to the stars or else go out merely to a certain point and there coalesce as some say with rays which proceed from the object It would be better to suppose this coalescence to take place in the fundament of the eye itself But even this would be mere trifling For what is meant by the coalescence' of lig...
The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter VI: Of the Component Part of the Price of Commodities
least through the greater part of Europe in river fisheries A salmon fishery pays a rent and rent though it cannot well be called the rent of land makes a part of the price of a salmon as well as wares and profit In some parts of Scotland a few poor people make a trade of gathering along the sea-shore those little variegated stones commonly known by the name of Scotch pebbles The price which is paid to them by the stone-cutter is altogether the wages of their labour neither rent nor profit makes any part of it B...
Atlas Shrugged, Part One, Chapter I ("The Theme"), opening line
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On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History, Full Text
world All inmost things we may say are melodious naturally utter themselves in Song The meaning of Song goes deep Who is there that in logical words can express the effect music has on us A kind of inarticulate unfathomable speech which leads us to the edge of the Infinite and lets us for moments gaze into that Nay all speech even the commonest speech has something of song in it not a parish in the world but has its parish-accent the rhythm or tune to which the people there sing what they have to say Accent is a...

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

The Preface's 'mean between the two extremes'.
The structure of Morning Prayer.
The General Confession.
The collects at Evening Prayer.

Key terms and names

Collect: A short prayer with a set structure, collecting the prayers of the people.
Office: A daily service of prayer.
Canticle: A biblical song sung in worship, such as the Magnificat.
Act of Uniformity: The 1662 law requiring use of the book.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension What three parts open Morning Prayer before the psalms?
Comprehension What reasons does the Preface give for revising the book?
Interpretation Why do so many lines from the Prayer Book survive in everyday English?
Interpretation What does Of Ceremonies suggest about how the reformers viewed tradition?
Interpretation What does the Preface's 'mean between the two extremes' reveal about the revisers' goals?
Big Question Can set, repeated words express personal feeling, or do they weaken it?

Faith Connections

Isaiah 53:6 (Scripture)
'All we like sheep have gone astray', echoed in the General Confession.
Psalm 95 (Scripture)
The Venite, sung at Morning Prayer.
King James Bible (1611) (Great Conversation)
With the Prayer Book, the chief influence on English religious language.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Common prayer in English, ordered around Scripture, confession and praise, can unite a whole nation's worship, keeping what is ancient while reforming what is not.

Rhetorical device: parallelism and doublets. Cranmer's prose pairs near-synonyms ('erred and strayed', 'devices and desires') for rhythm and fullness.

Debate: Resolved: that the 1662 Act of Uniformity was justified to secure peace after the Civil War.

Memory Work

We have erred and strayed from thy wayes like lost sheep
The Order for Morning Prayer. Among the most familiar words of English prayer.

Lighten our darkness wee beseech thee, O Lord
The Order for Evening Prayer. A short evening prayer still widely used.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Analyse the General Confession in Morning Prayer. How do its structure and sound reinforce its meaning?

Comparison with The Westminster Shorter Catechism: Compare these two products of seventeenth-century English religion. What does each value most?

Creative Prompts

Classroom
Read the General Confession aloud and analyse its rhythm: where are the balanced pairs and repetitions?
Classroom
Modernize the spelling of a paragraph from the Preface and discuss what the 1662 spellings show about English at the time.
Poetry
Write a short collect in the traditional form: address, reason, request, purpose and ending.