CHAPTER III.

KING HENRY VIII.

Progress of reformed opinions-English Version of the BibleEnglish Bibles set up in the churches-The Ritual Books ordered to be revised-Holy Scripture read in English in the Public Service-Origin of the Litany-Cranmer's revision of the English Litany.

IN

N the latter years of Henry VIII. reformed opinions were making steady progress. The effect of the change passing upon men's minds was seen not only in the continual changes of books intended for the devotion of the lay people. The old Church-books were brought under examination. So early as 1516 the Sarum Breviary was revised; and in 1533 a carefully edited Missal of the use of Sarum was printed, with increased clearness of reference of all passages taken from Holy Scripture. At this time too began the grand movement of the age, which resulted in our English Bible, and the entire use of English in the Services of the Church. Tindal's New Testament had been printed about 1526, and 1530. In 1534, the second year of Cranmer's archbishopric, the Convocation petitioned the King to authorize an English version of the Bible. No edition of any Ritual-book is known to have been issued for a few years subsequently to 1535; a fact which indicates a design on the part of Convocation to adapt the books to congregational use,

at least to the extent of having the portions of Scripture read in English. In 1535, Miles Coverdale's translation of the whole Bible appeared, dedicated to the King: and in the following year, 1536, Cromwell's Injunctions order one book of the whole Bible in English to be set up in some convenient place of every church, where the parishioners may most commodiously resort to the same, and read it. In 1537, the 'Bishops' Book' was put forth by authority of Convocation, entitled 'The godly and pious Institution of a Christian man.' In the same year the Bible, called Matthews' Bible, was printed under the care of John Rogers. In 1538 appeared, either separately, or attached to the Primers, 'the Epistles and Gospels' in English. In 1539, Bishop Hilsey published his Primer; and Coverdale an edition of the New Testament under the name of Hollybushe. Also in April the whole Bible was issued, with an able Preface by Cranmer himself, and is therefore called 'Cranmer's,' or 'The Great Bible.' And in the same year Taverner's Bible was published, being another revision of Matthews' Bible.

Now arose some confusion by reason of the diversity of translations; so a proclamation was issued, Nov. 14, 1539, forbidding all printers to print an English Bible, for five years, without special permission. May 6, 1541, a proclamation ordered that every parish, which had not yet provided a Bible, should not fail, before the feast of All Saints, to 'buy and provide Bibles of the largest and greatest volume, and cause the same to be set and fixed' in the parish church. The price of the Bible was also fixed at 10s. unbound, or 12s. 'well and sufficiently bound, trimmed and clasped.' the subject of diversity of translations was taken up by Convocation, and it was agreed that the Great Bible (Coverdale's of 1535, or Matthews' of 1537) should be

Feb. 3, 1542,

examined and amended 'according to that Bible which is commonly read in the English Church' (Cranmer's Great Bible, of 1539): and, Feb. 14, 1542, it was proposed that the Church books (Portfories, Missals, and others) should be corrected, and reformed, and that the names of Popes, and of Thomas Becket, should be carefully erased. A new edition of the Sarum Breviary was printed this year; and it was determined that it should be used throughout the province of Canterbury. In the following year, on the assembling of Convocation, the Archbishop was able to announce that it was the King's pleasure that all mass-books, antiphoners, portuises in the church of England should be newly examined, corrected, reformed, and castigated from all manner of mention of the bishop of Rome's name, from all apocryphas, feigned legends, superstitious oraisons, collects, versicles and responses; that the names and memories of all saints, which be not mentioned in the Scripture or authentical doctors, should be abolished and put out of the same books and calendars; and that the Services should be made out of the Scriptures, and other authentic doctors.' Hereupon it was ordered that the examination and correction of the said books of Service should be committed to the bishops of Sarum and Ely, taking to each of them three of the lower house, such as should be appointed for that purpose: but this 'the lower house released,' 'a gentle refusal to have anything to do therein,' as Strype observes upon this passive resistance of the clergy to the proposed reformation. It was ordered also, that every Sunday and holy day throughout the year, the curate of every parish Church, after the Te Deum and Magnificat, should openly read unto the people one chapter of the New Testament in English, without exposition; and when the New Testament was read over, then to begin the Old.

By this order of Convocation a first and most important step was taken towards a reformation of the Ritual by introducing the reading of Holy Scripture in English into the Public Service of the Church. The way was thus prepared for the further substitution of English for Latin in the prayers.

The first change in this respect was made in the Litany.

This peculiar form of supplication is traced to very early times. In the Apostolical Constitutions, the Deacon bids the prayer, or names the subjects of petition, and the people answer to each, Lord, have mercy. About the fourth century, the word Litany came to be especially applied to solemn processions of the clergy and people; the service, however, consisting chiefly, if not entirely, of singing hymns. At Constantinople, in the time of Chrysostome (398), the Arians, not being allowed to use the churches within the city, assembled in the porticoes, and sung their heretical hymns through great part of the night, and at dawn of Saturday and Sunday went through the city and out of the gates to their place of worship, singing antiphonally all the way. Chrysostome, fearing that his people might be induced by these processions to join the Arians, established them on a more splendid scale; and by the help of the Empress Eudoxia silver crosses were provided bearing wax-lights, which were carried in the processions of the orthodox. Afterwards the procession was joined with fasting and prayers, and was used for special supplications in any time of peculiar distress.

There is, however, no trace of such forms of prayer in the Western Churches before the fifth century. It is probable that the word Litany, the Kyrie eleison, and Processions-the form and great part of the substance of these Oriental prayers-were received in the West

early in that century; and at first, the place at the beginning of the Litany, afterwards occupied by the invocations of numerous saints, was filled up with a frequent repetition of the form Kyrie eleison. We find this custom in the time of Gregory the Great. An ancient Ritual of the Roman Church ordered Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, and Kyrie eleison, to be each repeated one hundred times in a processional Litany. From this circumstance the Kyrie eleison was called the Litany,— a name which we still retain, calling the same form of words, Lord, have mercy upon us; Christ, have mercy upon us; Lord, have mercy upon us, the Lesser Litany. Besides these invocations, the Service during the procession, in the time of Gregory, consisted in chanting a number of Anthems. And it was thus, as Bede relates, that Augustine and his company of missionaries entered Canterbury, chanting a Litany, which was one of the anthems appointed by Gregory to be sung in the procession of the Greater Litany.

The appointment of Litanies on fixed days in every year is due to Mamertus, Bishop of Vienne in Gaul (circ. 460). They had been used chiefly as special supplications for rain or for fair weather: but on the occasion of some calamities in his diocese, Mamertus appointed solemn Litanies, or Rogations, to be yearly observed on the three days preceding the feast of the Ascension. These were soon called 'the Rogation-days,' being the only days which were yearly set apart for such a service. Their observance was soon received throughout Gaul, and from thence passed into England. The Great Litany of St Mark's day, instituted by Gregory the Great (590) on the occasion of a pestilence in Rome, was also received in this country by the Council of Cloveshoo (747).

The Service used during the procession at Rogations