Lutheran movement in england during the reigns of henry VIII. And edward VI

CHAPTER XX. THE MORNING AND EVENING SERVICES OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

The Ancient Matin Service. The Lutheran Revision of the Matin Service. Luther’s Explanation of its parts. The typical Lutheran Matin Service and that of Edward VI.; in parallel columns. The earlier English Matin Service. The Vesper Service of I Edward VI. Kliefoth’s Explanation of the Structure of the Lutheran Matin and Vesper Services. I. Edward’s Substitution of Psalms for Introits according to Luther’s Formula Missae of 1523. Not followed by the Lutheran churches. Loss of Introits by English Church. The Collects in the Lutheran Orders. Why the English Church anticipated the Lutheran, in revision of the ancient Collects. New Collects. Gospels and Epistles in the two systems. Minor Variations explained. How the English Orders sometimes follow Luther, where he has not been followed in the Lutheran Church.

In noticing the later changes in the Communion Service, we have anticipated the historical order. The commission which prepared the temporary order for communion, continued its labors, and by the close of the year had the entire book ready to be submitted to the King, by whom it was laid before Parliament, and was finally published, Pentecost, 1549 (June 9th). The chief members of the commission besides Cranmer, “were probably Ridley, Goodrich, Holbeach, May, John Taylor, Haynes and Cox.” (Procter.)

The “Order for Daily Morning Prayer” of the English Church does not grow, like the Hauptgottesdienst of the Lutheran Church, entirely from the Communion Service or Mass of the Ancient Church but from its Matin Service, to which it appends that of the Mass. The Matin was the early service before day, provided not for the laity, but for the clergy alone. From the very [[@Page:246]]beginning, Luther pointed out the great profit which would be derived by an adjustment of it to the uses of schools, (1523). “For Matins, of three lessons . . are nothing but words of divine Scripture; and it is beautiful, yea, necessary that the boys be accustomed to reading and hearing the Psalms and the lessons of the Holy Scriptures.” (1526): “Early, about five or six, several psalms are sung as at Mass; then there is a sermon on the Epistle for the day, chiefly for the sake of domestics, that they may be cared for and hear God’s Word, since they cannot attend other preaching. Afterwards there is an antiphon, and the Te deum laudamus, Benedictus, with the Lord’s Prayer, Collects and the Benedicamus domine.”

This simple service is almost precisely that of the Prayer Book of 1549. It is interesting to compare it with the old Lutheran Matin Service given in Löhe’s Agende.

Lutheran.	1st Edward VI.
[Schleswig-Holstein (Bugenhagen, 1542) begins with, Creed; Lord’s Prayer ]	Lord’s Prayer.
O Lord, Open thou my lips And my mouth shall, etc. O God, make speed to, etc. O Lord, make haste to, etc. Gloria Patri. Hallelujah. Venite, Ps. XCV. Gloria Patri.	O Lord, Open thou my lips And my mouth shall, etc. O God, make speed to, etc. O Lord, make haste to, etc. Gloria Patri. Hallelujah. Venite, Ps. XCV. Gloria Patri.
Hymn O satisfy us early with thy, etc. And we will be glad, etc.
One to three psalms. Gloria Patri at end of each.	Certain psalms. Gloria Patri at end of each.
First Lesson. [“Ordinarily from the Old Testament,” Prussian KO, 1525.]	Old Testament Lesson.
Te Deum.	Te Deum or Benedicite.
Second Lesson.	New Testament Lesson.^270
Benedictus. Kyrie. Lord’s Prayer.	Benedictus. Kyrie. Creed. [[@Page:247]]
	Lord’s Prayer.
Versicle and Response.	Versicles and Response.
Salutation and Response.	Salutation and Response.
Several Collects, the first being for the day.	Collect of day, followed by collect for peace and for grace.
Salutation and Response. Benediction.

Let this be compared with the far more complex Matin Service in Bishop Hilsey’s Primer of 1539, or Henry’s of 1545, and the determining influence of the Lutheran liturgies will be apparent.

The same may be said of the Order for Evensong of 1549. We give it for comparison with the Vesper Service, familiar to many of our readers from its place in the Common Order of the Lutheran Church:

Lord’s Prayer. O God, make speed to save us. O Lord, make haste to help us. Gloria Patri. Hallelujah. Psalms in Order. Old Testament Lesson. Magnificat. New Testament Lesson. Nunc Dimittis. Same suffrages as at Matins. Collects.

Concerning the structure of the Lutheran Matin and Vesper Services, which have been thus followed by the Church of England, Kliefoth²⁷¹ has some observations that may be of importance to our readers:

“The Matins begin with an introduction consisting of the Domine labia mea, Deus in adjutorium and Venite, in which God is, on the one hand, invoked to grant his aid against all enemies and hindrances to the preaching of his Word; and the congregation, on the other hand, is invited, by such proclamation and confession, to call upon the Lord. Then follows the psalmody, consisting of Psalms 1-109 in order, and when they are finished, beginning anew. While, however, the contents of the psalms are general and always identical, regard to the facts of salvation which the day affords in accordance with the order of the Church Year, is had by the antiphons which they include. Following the psalmody is the reading of Scripture; the entire Scripture is read continuously, but, again, with regard to [[@Page:248]]the Church Year, the chief facts or fundamental thoughts contained in what is read being always presented by the responsories. But after the congregation has been fed by the Word of God in the two-fold form of psalmody and lesson, it allows the Word of God to bring forth fruit; and such fruit appears in the hymnody. The Te Deum and the Benedictus, or a hymn and the Benedictus, or a hymn and the Athanasian Creed are sung; for in singing the Athanasian Creed or Te Deum or Benedictus, we make confession of our acceptance of the salvation which has been heard from the Word of God, and bring the sacrifice of the fruit of our lips; since when a hymn or the Te Deum or the Benedictus is sung, God and his salvation is praised and the sacrifices of thanksgiving are offered. At the same time, this hymnody gives Matins the character of Morning Worship, since a morning hymn is naturally chosen. But a Christian not only has to thank and praise God; hence, following the hymn is the act of supplication; in the Kyrie, God’s mercy is implored, the Lord’s Prayer, the common prayer of all children of God is prayed, and finally everything is summarized in the Collect, which, since it is de tempore, recurs again to the particular fact of salvation given in the Church Year, and presented already by the antiphons of the psalms and the hymn. Nothing then remains, but finally in the Benedicamus, to implore God’s blessing. All this is both liturgically and musically connected in the closest and most beautiful manner; between the various parts, there ascends unto Heaven, at intervals (after the Deus in adjutorium, after the Psalms, after the responsories, after the Benedictus) the Gloria Patri, bearing the whole as a morning offering to the throne of grace. The Matin Service, therefore, can be simply arranged in the succession of: “Introduction, Psalmody, Lessons, Hymnody, Prayer and Conclusion.”

We find precisely the same succession in Vespers. The distinction is confined to the somewhat briefer arrangement of the introduction, the use of the Vesper (Ps. 110-150) instead of the Matin psalms, and the difference of Hymnody. The last is [[@Page:249]]the most important distinction between Vespers and Matins, as it is given thereby the character of an Evening Service of Prayer. In Vespers, it is not the jubilant Te Deum, nor the morning hymns, but the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis and evening hymns, that are sung; and the Nunc dimittis is a hymn of parting, for the close of the day, as well as for the close of life. Thus there is in Lutheran Matins and Vespers, a structure just as thoughful, as in the chief service. It has here just as fixed an order and organization, and, yet, with this, provision is made for the richest impartation of the entire divine word, and the most careful adaptation to the peculiarities of the seasons and days of the Church Year.”

Next to the orders for “Matins and Evensong throughout the year,” the Liturgy of 1549 gives the variable parts of the service for each day of the Church Year.

The Introits are not those of the Roman or Sarum Missals, but entire psalms, viz., 1. Sunday in Advent, Psalm 1. 2d, Ps. 120. 3d, Ps. 4. 4th, Ps. 5. Christmas Day, At First Communion, Ps. 98; At Second Communion, Ps. 8. St. Stephen’s Day, Ps. 52, etc.

This change was made according to Luther’s advice in 1523, when in his “Formula Missae” he writes: “We would prefer psalms.” In this, however, he was not followed by the Lutheran churches generally. The liturgy of Schwabach Hall of 1526, however, directs that for the Introit, psalms be sung. In the Lutheran Church, the retention of the Introit was attended with no little difficulty. It was sung neither by the pastor, nor by the people, but by the choir; as announcing to both the leading thought that the Lord had for his Church on that day. There was much trouble encountered in its translation. In the Latin, each Introit had its own musical arrangement, and to such a degree was the effort made to give each word and shade of thought its proper tone, that it is impossible to sing the Introits translated into German, according to the setting which they have in Latin.²⁷² For a time in some orders, the Introit of the leading [[@Page:250]]festivals was used on the Sundays belonging to the period of which it was the center, thus rendering such difficulties less numerous. But they all were finally overcome; and the Lutheran Service rejoices in the retention of the old Introits. In the English Church, the substitution of the Psalms was unsatisfactory, for the reason that no series of Psalms can be used to express the precise thought of each Sunday and, therefore, in the revision of 1552, they fell out. Wheatly has some just observations on the defect caused by this suppression of the Introits.²⁷³

As with the Introits, so with the Collects, the Lutheran Orders encountered peculiar difficulties in adapting them to the revised service. They are in the original so condensed, and so much of the form often depends upon alliteration and other peculiarities not readily translatable, that time was required for this work. Besides this, in a number, though, as Luther remarks in his Formula Missae, not in most of those for Sunday, unevangelical doctrine had entered, of which they had to be purged. In the Roman Church, contrary to the order of Gregory where but one occurs, three Collects were read together, the first being that of the day. Luther insisted that there should be one Collect, and, for the time, thought that this, instead of being varied every Sunday, should be more frequently repeated, in order that the people, by becoming familiar with it, might the more heartily enter into its spirit. The Brandenburg-Nürnberg Order contains, therefore, eighteen Collects, without designation of day, one each for the Birth of Christ, the Passion of Christ, Easter, Ascension Day, Whitsunday, Trinity, the Coming of God’s Kingdom, the Doing of God’s Will, and two Pro pace. Soon the attempt was made to compose anew Collects for each Sunday, the most noted being those of Veit Dietrich, pastor of St. Sebald’s Nürnberg, (Wittenberg, 1541,) and of Johann Matthesius, (Nürnberg, 1568,) a rich collection for all Sundays and Festivals appearing also in the Oesterreich unter Ems Order of 1571. The Lutheran Church was, therefore, anticipated by the Church of England, [[@Page:251]]in the work of the more complete revision of the old Collects. This was undoubtedly owing partly to the far greater ease with which translations of prayers could be made from Latin into English, than from Latin into German, the Latin elements in the English offering much aid; for it must not be forgotten that, in devotional language, only the very simplest words are allowable, and a single technical and scientific term, on the one hand, or a colloquial phrase, on the other, would mar an entire Collect. The compilers of the Book of 1549, however, also followed the example of the Lutheran reformers of the Service, in substituting for the old Collects a number which they either composed or, in some cases, probably derived from Lutheran sources. The new Collects of 1549 are those for I., II. Advent, Second for Christmas day, Quinquagesima, Ash Wednesday, I. Lent, I., II. p. Easter, Sts. Thomas, Matthias, Mark, Philip and James, Barnabas, John the Baptist, Peter, James the Apostle, Matthew, Luke, Simon and Jude and All Saints’, Days, changes being made in those for Sexagesima, Sunday p. Ascension, Conversion of St. Paul and St. Bartholomew.

The Gospels and Epistles of I. Edward VI. and of the Lutheran Orders, exhibit only a few variations. Some of these are more noticeable in the Second Book (1552), as e. g. where in the First Book, provision is made for two communion services on Christmas and Easter, double sets of lessons are given, in the Second Book, with only one Communion Service, the lessons for the second Christmas Service, and for the first Easter Service are adopted, while the permanent lessons in the Lutheran Church become those for first Christmas Service, and the second Easter Service. These differences thus are entirely those of a later time. Luther in 1524²⁷⁴ gave Heb. 1: 1-12, and John 1: 1-14, as the lessons for High Mass, on Christmas the Day after the proper lessons for Tit. 2: 11-15 and Luke 2: 1-14. The use of Sarum shows the former lessons as those for Christmas at Midnight, and the latter as those for the third mass. [[@Page:252]]

The Gospels and Epistles of the four Sundays in Advent in the Lutheran and Anglican Churches differ from those in the Roman Missal, the latter omitting the pericope of our Lord’s trumphal entry, and the corresponding epistle on I. Advent, and transferring thither the lessons for II. Advent; and then transfering to II. Advent, those of III. Advent; to III. Advent, those of IV. Advent; and as those for IV. Advent, prescribing Luke 3: 1 sqq. for the Gospel, and 1 Cor. 4: 1 sq. for Epistle, a modern change on the part of Rome, contrary to the testimony of the older Orders. So too especially in the latter part of the Church Year, Rome has made many changes in the lessons of the Ancient Church, which the Lutheran Church has retained.

On the Sunday after Christmas, I. Edward introduced, instead of the Gospel of both the Sarum and Lutheran Orders, the Gospel for Christinas eve, and the Midnight Christmas Service, Matth. 1: 1 sqq., services for which the English Reformers made no provision, but whose Gospel they deemed it important to retain. For Palm Sunday, Luther in 1524 prescribed two Gospels,²⁷⁵ one for the day generally used in the Lutheran Church; the other for the Mass, Matth. 26, 27, adopted by I. Edward, and also even to the present used in many Lutheran churches, as part of the Passion History. If we find a divergence on XXV. Sunday p. Trinity between the lessons of the two Churches, a reference to Luther, 1524, shows that those prescribed by him are the same as those of I. Edward, viz., Epistle: Jerem. 23: 5-8; Gospel: John 6: 5-14.²⁷⁶ That is, the difference is, that the English Reformers followed Luther’s “Register of Epistles and Gospels,” while the Lutheran Orders followed those adopted by Luther in his Postils. [[@Page:253]]