The Elizabethan Church
Despite the break with Rome, Latin liturgies continued throughout the reign of Henry VIII. It was under the reign of his son, Edward VI, that the first English Book of Common Prayer was produced in 1549; it is believed to have been largely the work of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. An extensively revised version was introduced in 1552, now more openly revealing the influence of Reformed theology. Latin mass was reintroduced for the short period that Catholic Queen Mary was on the throne. Then, in 1559, Elizabeth I introduced a third version of the Prayer Book. Although this was a radically Protestant work, which made no more concessions to Catholics, its authors rowed back in a few details from some of the more obviously Reformed implications of the 1552 text. The words used when communicants received the elements left some ambiguity over the nature of the consecrated bread and wine. Elizabeth seems to have intended that communicants could interpret the service as they chose, hoping thereby to conciliate any Lutherans among her subjects, as Lutherans believed that bread and wine became simultaneously the body and blood of Christ when consecrated. This Prayer Book was in use until outlawed in 1645, after the outbreak of civil war, and our pictures show a service as it might have been conducted using it.