thomas cranmer liturgical agenda

7/27/2019 Thomas Cranmer Liturgical Agenda

1/5

Fr. Diego Galanzino

Cranmers liturgical agenda

1

What was Thomas Cranmers

liturgical agenda?

The Church of England and several other Churches in the Anglican Communion owemuch of their liturgical language, structures, and general inheritance to ThomasCranmer and to the reforms he made in the Sixteenth Century at the courts of HenryVIII and his immediate successors. The chief example of Cranmers work is the Bookof Common Prayerwith its three consecutive editionsi.e. AD 1549, 1552 and 1662.Indeed, the Stuarts edition of the Prayer Book preserved most of Cranmers originalwork, enshrining it as the backbone of Church of Englands liturgy until the liturgical

movements of the twentieth century.

Cranmers liturgical agenda was carried out through a series of dramatic reforms of themedieval and post-medieval English rites. However, because of the gradualintroductions of these reforms it is difficult to understand whether or not Cranmersprogramme was a premeditated act, or whether it was part of a continuing processcharacterised by a series improvements and tweaking which would better suit his

developing theological ideas. Even to this day different scholars have differentopinions on the matter.

According to Diarmaid MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmerdied at the stake for his hatredfor the Mass

1 and arguably this hatred could be considered as the driving force

behind reforming agenda of the archbishop. This interpretation would depict the 1549

Prayer Book just an interim edition preceded by the distribution of English Bibles inevery parish from 1538 and succeeded by the final 1552 more protestant edition.

However, it is difficult to envisage Cranmer as a calculating opportunist whodistributed his reforms over decades in order to achieve a better result especially given

that some documents point towards a gradual change of heart2

which took place inCranmers own theology and understanding of the sacraments. This latter interpretationof Cranmers work highlights the gradual shift from an essentially Catholic way ofworship to an Anglicised model of Calvinist spirituality and thus it should not betotally overlooked.

Liturgical developments

Cranmers concerns about the liturgy were largely inspired by the protestant thought heencountered on the continent. Particularly, his first concern was to promote a type ofworship which could be understood by the people. This essentially meant breakingwith the Churchs traditional use of Latin and cutting back the more complex ritualismwhich was deemed unscriptural and the source of popular superstitions. Nevertheless,this type of reforms neither implied a complete change in sacramental theology nor inthe understanding of ecclesiology.

1 Diarmaid MACCULLOCH (2003) 3832 cf. D.E.W. HARRISON and Michael C. SAMSON (1982) 40


2/5

Fr. Diego Galanzino


2

The Litany and the English Bible

Cranmer first attempt to reform the liturgy in this way came as the religious responseto a political crisis under the reign of Henry VIII, when the King was engaged in

conflicts with both France and Scotland3. Thus, in 1544, Cranmer convinced the King

to allow for the publication of the Litany in English, in order to encourage popular

devotion and prayer to support Henry. The Litany which closely matches theLitanyof the Saints in the use ofSarumwas published in 1544 in a version which notablyshortened the invocation of saints4, without wiping them out completely. As a result of

this, the first official liturgical text in English was introduced. It followed just a fewyears after the introduction of the English Bible in every parish; an innovation forwhich Cranmer was largely responsible

5together with Thomas Cromwell.

The 1549Book of Common Prayer

Nevertheless, a full-scale reformation had to wait until the reign of Edward VI (1547

1553). Thus is 1549 Cranmer promulgated the first Book of Common Prayer. This

volume had very ambitious aims, among which was to introduce one single liturgicaluse for the whole land

6; to make all rites of the Church accessible to the people; to

simplify the daily pattern of prayer7

whilst also making it available to the laity; andalso to provide the faithful with Scriptural teaching within the context of worship.

The 1549 edition was a single mans effort and it tried to mediate between contrastingtheological thoughts of the time. Thus, although this first edition was clearly a fruit ofthe Reformation, it preserved nonetheless a very strong conservative flavour. Forexample some key elements of its structure followed perhaps too closely for otherreformersthe use of Sarum.

Before moving on to consider the second Cranmerian edition of the Prayer Bookit is

worth noting two intermediate events that remain often overlooked and which tookplace between 1549 and 1552.

First, towards the end of 1549 a new wave of iconoclasm spread throughout Englandwith an intensity only surpassed by the Civil War. Not only images, but also holy relicswere destroyed; whilst many invocations to the Saints were blotted out8 of Primiersand artefacts. Cranmer was probably largely responsible for the royal directives whichcommanded all churches to destroy all images, not just the ones of saints9. However,

the archbishop seemed not to be involved in the first iconoclastic frenzy thataccompanied the dissolution of the monasteries under the reign of Henry VIII.

Therefore, one could speculate that Cranmers theological stance on the matter mayhave become more puritan during the time since that first incident which cost England

a great quantity of devotional artefacts, relics, shrines, and all monastic houses.

Secondly, 1550 Cranmer completed the first set of reformed liturgies with thepublication of the Ordinal. The archbishop did not include the ordination rites in thefirst edition ofPrayer Book but kept them as a separate provision following the

3 cf. ibid. 414 cf. ibid. 415 cf. ibid. 396 Notably, the Roman Church only achieved near-total uniformity of use only with the Apostolic

Constitution Quo Primum which promulgated the 1570 edition of the Roman Missal.7 both in terms ofKalendarand of Daily Office.

8 Remarkable examples of this are found in Eamon Duffys The Stripping of the Altars. The author showshow, where destruction of images proved too difficult, the artefacts were just defaced to prevent devotions.9 cf. D.E.W. HARRISON and Michael C. SAMSON (1982) 42


3/5

Fr. Diego Galanzino


3

customs of the medieval Ceremonial of Bishops10. Notably, in the ordination of prieststhe explicatory rites were amended to reflect the new emphases placed on priestlyministry; thus the rite prescribed the giving of a Bible to the priest as well as theEucharistic vessels.

The 1552Book of Common Prayerand further developments

The second stage of Cranmers reform came with the redaction and publication of the

second editionPrayer Bookbetween 1551 and 1552.

By the end of 1550 the Church of England had assumed many of the characteristics ofa continental Reformed church; however the formal and largely conservative style ofworship imposed by Cranmer in the previous year created unrest on both side of thewidening religious divide. On the one hand, those more influenced by Protestant ideaswished to remove any sort of ritualism from thePrayer Book; whilst on the other hand,the traditionalist struggled to adapt to the new regime and criticised Cranmer for his

ambiguous theological stance. The archbishop thus found himself caught between the

extremisms expressed by the continental Reformers and the sheer weight of religiousconservatism

11. Up to this point Cranmer had cut back the ritualism of the Church in

order to establish a liturgy which could be understood by the people thus preventingthem from falling into superstitious practices. However, it seems that Cranmer did not

set himself to amend drastically the sacramental theology of the Church. Indeed, hehad been responsible for the publications the Ten Articles of Faith during the reign of

Henry VIII, but these appeared on the whole only moderately influenced by theReformation

12. Nevertheless, during the brief period in between the editions of the

Prayer Book Cranmer theology about priesthood, the Eucharist and the othersacraments appear to change radically, giving rise to a new quasi-Calvinist way ofworship.

Three things could be seen as shaping Cranmers actions at this time: (a) he recognisedthat the 1549 Prayer Book was a compromise and did not please anyone with its

ambiguous positions; (b) Cranmer became more involved in Protestant circles forminga Protestant Council

13with people such as Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr; (c) he

responded forcefully almost impulsively to the criticisms raised by theTraditionalist party and in particularly by Stephen Gardiner

14, bishop of Winchester

15.

These factors were pivotal in Cranmers decision to publish another Prayer Book withthe aid of Bucer and Martyr. The end result was the 1552 Book of Common Prayerinwhich all sacrificial language was removed, together with any invocation of saints andprayer for the dead

16. Perhaps even more significantly, this edition incorporated the

Black Rubric aimed to catechise the believers about the Protestant understanding of

presence in the Eucharistic elements. The introduction of this rubric wasaccompanied by the breaking up of the Canon which now featured the Communionin the middle of it and the introduction of new words for the communicants which

10 cf. ibid. 4211 ibid. 4112 Cranmer did not support the change from the Ten to the Six Articles towards the later reign of HenryVIII.13 D.E.W. HARRISON and Michael C. SAMSON (1982) 4414 cf. ibid. 4515 Gardiner held the wealthiest bishopric in the Country and a senior status in the Churchs hierarchy. Hecriticised Cranmer for his dubious positions about the Eucharist. More specifically he claimed that the

1549 rite preserved elements of sacrificial offering and hinted towards a real presence of Christ in theelements by means of transubstantiation.16Martin Bucers influence is visible in the Censura. cf. E.C. WHITAKER(1974) 52


4/5

Fr. Diego Galanzino


4

emphasised the spiritual character of the sacrament and a receptionist approach to HolyCommunion.

Almost contemporary to the publication of the 1552 Prayer Book, Cranmer composed

the Forty Two Articles of Faith which were promulgated by Edward VI as thesummary of Anglican faith.

Cranmers reforms revolutionised the liturgical life of the Church of England; howeverthis series of reforms came to sudden end with death of Edward VI in 1553 and theaccession of his sister Mary to the throne. The new Queen wiped out or at least triedto the whole of the reformation appointing Gardiner as Chancellor and reinstatingRoman Catholicism with Cardinal Poles aid. During her reign many supporters of the

Reformation where scattered; they were convinced to recant their positions, exiled, ortried for heresy. Archbishop Cranmeralong with Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridleywas tried at the University Church in Oxford and burnt at the stake soon afterwards.

However, Mary Is attempts to re-establish Roman Catholicism in England also cameto an abrupt end with the death of the Monarch. The reign of Elizabeth I saw thereinstatement of a national church with the Act of Supremacy 1558 and the

reintroduction of the Book of Common Prayer through the Act of Uniformity 1558.The Elizabethan edition of the Prayer Book reflected the volatile climate of the timeand also the varied theological perspectives of the royal court; it became a sort ofcompromise between the 1549 and the 1552 editions by dropping the Black Rubric andby conflating both the more Catholic and the Protestant Communion Sentences. Duringthe same reign the Chapel Royal, other royal peculiars, and many English cathedralsdeveloped a style of worship which contrasted Cranmerian liturgies with new forms ofritualism17.

A lasting legacy

Partially because of Thomas Crenmers unusual approach to reforming the liturgyhistorians hold contrasting opinions on whether or not the reforms introduced by the

archbishop reflect a gradual change in his theology especially through the laterinfluences of Bucer, Martyr and through the raise of Northumberland and other zealous

reformers at the court of Edward VI.

Cranmers agenda aimed to take the Churchs liturgy out of medieval piety and thecomplex style of corporate worship that fuelled it. This was achieved in a way thatallowed the English Church to be influenced by continental Reformers whilstpreserving some of her Catholic roots and developing a style of worship that replaced aprivate, disengaged devotional life. Sacred scripture and the documents of the EarlyChurch became the canons by which the Church was to judge her liturgy. Cranmer

remained faithful to the historical documents which he knew about the early Churchsetting him apart from the extremisms of some continental Reformed Churches.

To this day however, Cranmer secondPrayer Bookremains in the use of the Church ofEngland as this was largely left untouched in the 1662 edition. Cranmers work isconsidered the prototype of English ritual language. The corporate character of dailyprayer introduced by the Archbishop is also a strong feature of Anglicanismworldwide.

17 cf. Diarmaid MACCULLOCH (2003) 511


5/5

Fr. Diego Galanzino


5

Bibliography

G.J. CUMING,A History of Anglican Liturgy, The Macmillan Press (London, 1982)Eamon DUFFY, The Stripping of the Altars, Yale University Press (2005)

D.E.W. HARRISON and Michael C. SAMSON, Worship in the Church of England,SCPK (London, 1982)

Diarmaid MACCULLOCH,Reformation, Allen Lane (London, 2003)

E.C. WHITAKER, Martin Bucer and the Book of Common Prayer, The Alcuin Club(1974)

thomas cranmer liturgical agenda

Documents