Lutheran movement in england during the reigns of henry VIII. And edward VI
CHAPTER XVIII. THE LITANY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH
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CHAPTER XVIII. THE LITANY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.Provision for the reading of Scripture Lessons in English. Introduction of Homilies. Purification of the Mass, a gradual Process. Revision of the Litany. The old English Litany (1410). Luther’s Revision (1529). Cranmer’s of 1544, from the Reformation of Cologne (1543), and this from Luther. Earlier Revision of Marshall (1535), also follows Luther. Luther’s and Marshall’s in parallel columns. Hilsey’s Revision of 1539, dependent on Marshall. Luther’s changes in the Litany, transferred to England, examined in detail. Dr. Blunt’s singular mistake. As with the German, so with the English Reformation, the first step in reforming the service, was to provide what is the chief part of the service, the Holy Scriptures, in the language of the people. We have noted the difficulties attending the translation of the Bible, and how it gradually overcome opposition. First we find a proclamation of the King, of November 14th, 1539, (1538) “allowing private persons to buy Bibles, and keep them in their houses.”260 Eighteen months later, May 5th, 1541 (1540), all curates were commanded, under penalty of a fine of forty shillings a month, to set up Bibles in their church, in a convenient place for the people to read. In St. Paul’s, London, six Bibles were thus provided.261 But in accordance with his vacillations, two years later, the king took measures again to suppress their circulation, and Grafton, the publisher, was committed to the Fleet for six weeks, and released only on condition that he would “neither sell nor imprint any more Bibles, till the King and clergy should agree upon a translation… And from [[@Page:231]]hence-forth the Bible was stopped during the remainder of King Henry’s reign.”262 In 1542, however, the Convocation ordered that “one chapter of the New Testament in English should be read every Sunday and holidays, and “when the New Testament was through, then to begin the Old.”263 Provision was made for Homilies at the same time. Every morning and evening, one chapter of the New Testament was to be read in each parish. Provision was also made that “all mass books, antiphoners, porturses in the church of England should be corrected, reformed and castigated from all manner of mention of the Bishop of Rome’s name; and from all apocryphas, feigned legends, superstitions oraisons, collects, versicles and responses.”264 Nothing, however, in the way of liturgical reform was effected during Henry’s reign, except in the Litany. The Litany was the processional prayer of the Early Church, used especially on occasions of great or impending calamity, appointed as early as A. D. 450 by Mamertus, Bishop of Vienna, for the three days before Ascension Day, known as Rogation Days. It was used also at other times, especially during Lent, and had a powerful hold upon the people. It was not strange, therefore, that in 1544, Cranmer undertook to revise it; for it had forced itself into the language of the people long before the Reformation, filled, however, with all the abominations of the worship of saints. In an English Primer, according to Dr. Maskel’s conjecture of about 1410, it is found, in a form, of which the following are some of the petitions: “Lord: Have mercy upon us. Christ: Have mercy upon us. Christ: Hear us. God the Father of Heavens: Have mercy upon us. [[@Page:232]] God the Son, azenhier of the world: Have mercy upon us. God, the Holy Ghost: Have mercy upon us. The Holy Trinity of God: Have mercy upon us. From fleshly desires: Goqd Lord, deliver us. From wrath and hate and all evil will: Good Lord, deliver us. From pestilence of pride and blindness of heart: Good Lord, deliver us. From sudden and unadvised death: Good Lord, deliver us. From lightning and tempest: Good Lord, deliver us. From covetousness of vain glory: Good Lord, deliver us. By the privity of thine holy incarnation. By thy holy nativity. By thy blessed circumcision and Baptism. By thy fasting and much other penance doing. By thy blessed burying. By thy glorious rising from death. By thy marvelous stigying to Heaven. By the grace of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. In the hour of our death. In the day of doom.” They are accompanied by such petitions as: “St. Mary: pray for us. Holy Virgin of virgins: pray for us. St. Michael: pray for us. St. Gabriel: pray for us. St. Raphael: pray for us. All holy angels and archangels: pray for us. All orders of holy spirits: pray for us. St. John the Baptist: pray for us. All holy patriarchs and prophets: pray for us. St. Peter, Paul, Andrew, John, James, Philip, etc. All holy apostles and martyrs.” Down to “St. Mary the Egyptian, Perpetua, Anne, Catherine, Margaret, Agatha, Agnes, Felicitas,” etc. As early as 1521, when Luther was summoned to Worms, a Litany (Litany for the Germans)265 was adapted at Wittenberg [[@Page:233]]into a prayer for Luther’s cause. Its petitions are not altogether free from the Romish leaven and sound very strangely: “Christ, hear the Germans.” God, the Father in heaven, have mercy upon the Germans.” “St. Raphael, pray for the Germans.” “All holy angels and archangels, pray for the Germans.” “From all evil, help the Germans.” “From those who come to us in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves, help the Germans.” “From the horrible threats, bulls and banns of the Pope, protect the Germans, Lord God.” “From all godless and heretical doctrine, cleanse the schools, dear Lord God. “From all unspiritual questions, protect the theologians, dear Lord God.” “From all evil suspicions against Lutheranism, free the minds of the great.” “We, Germans, do beseech Thee to hear us.” “To guard and protect Martin Luther, the firm pillar of the Christian faith, as he will soon enter Worms, from all Venetian poison.” “To support that valiant German Knight, Ulrich von Hutten, Luther’s trusted friend, in his good purpose, and render him steadfast in the work undertaken for Luther.” “To testify to the Italians, Lombards and Romans, that Thou art Lord God.” “And graciously to hear us, Germans.” The accompanying Psalm begins: “Make haste, O God, to deliver us Germans.” This may be characterized as a popular adaptation of the of Litany, in violation of churchly taste and character. Nevertheless it indicated that the Litany could readily be utilized in the service of the purified faith. Before March 13th, 1529, Luther had revised the Litany, in both German and Latin, and introduced it, as revised, into the service at Wittenberg. He writes that the Latin was commonly chanted after the sermon on Sunday by the school boys. He is quoted as saying that it was, next to the Lord’s Prayer, the best that could be prated. Cranmer follows Luther closely, either immediately, or through the Litany in the Reformation of Cologne, which is Luther’s. “The whole Litany very much resembles that of Hermann, the reforming Archbishop of Cologne.”266 He “had before him the litany formed upon the [[@Page:234]]same ancient model, by Melanchthon and Bucer (1543) for Hermann.”267 Both the writers from whom these statements are derived, have overlooked Luther’s earlier work, of which Cranmer probably heard during his abode in Germany. Dr. Blunt knows of Luther’s Litany, but thinks that its date was 1543. The relation of Cranmer’s work to Luther’s, becomes manifest when we examine the manner in which the Reformed Anglican Litany attained its present form. In 1535 already, a translation of the chief parts of the service, as a private attempt at its reformation, known as Marshall’s Primer, was published. It retains, in the Litany, the intercession of saints. With these omitted, it will be seen at a glance how closely it corresponds to Luther’s Latin Litany.
In 1539, Bishop Hilsey, of Rochester, at the commandment of Crumwell, prepared a “Primer,” giving us the first official form of the Reformed English Litany. It very closely follows Marshall, reducing the number of saints, but including the archangels, apostles, evangelists and a few martyrs, confessors and virgins. In other respects, the correspondence with Luther of [[@Page:238]]1529, while not as close, in general continues. The closing collects differ. In the Litany prepared in 1544, which is that of the Book of Common Prayer, the simple Kyrie was omitted, and a beginning made with its expanded paraphrase, to which “miserable sinners” was added, the dogmatic statement of the procession being inserted in the third petition. The Ne reminiscaris was transferred from the close of the Penitential Psalms, to the beginning of the deprecations. The deprecations themselves are multiplied from the pre-Reformation English Litanies. Luther’s Litany, after the Roman, furnished: “From Sin.” Luther’s German Litany of 1529, suggested the double translation of “Insidiis” as “crafts and assaults” (Trug und List) “of the devil,” and, as in 1535, the translation of “perpetua” as “everlasting” (für den ewigen Tod). A more accurate rendering of the Latin of 1529, than that of Marshall gives “From battle and murder” “Sudden and unforseen death,” found even in Sarum, however, has been changed into “Sudden,” while Luther’s German, followed by Reformation of Cologne, has made it “bösen schnellen Tod.” The Obsecrations almost precisely reproduce Luther’s Latin, adding however “Circumcision,” changing “Temptations” into the singular, and omitting “Comforter” from “By the coming of the Holy Ghost.” The intercessions are expanded, and the order is changed for apparent reasons. While Luther’s Litany defers praying for temporal rulers until the tenth intercession, the Litany of 1544, according to Henry’s pretensions as Head of the Church, inserts five petitions for him before that for bishops and pastors. In the American “Book of Common Prayer,” this inversion has not been changed, and prayers for temporal, are made in Episcopal churches before those for spiritual rulers, even with the assumption which the change declares no longer received. The “Bishops, Priests and deacons” of the Prayer Book are the “Bishoffe, Pfarrherr und Kirchendiener” of Luther’s German. Concerning the petition: “To give to all thy people an increase of grace,” Blunt says: “A [[@Page:239]]beautiful combination of the passage about the good ground with James 1: 21 and Gal. 5: 22. Its date is 1544.” Cf. however Luther (1529) above: “Ut incrementum Verbi” etc. So also all the clauses which he is unable to trace to earlier English Litanies or Roman use, and assigns to 1544; but which are found already in the Primer of 1535. Marshall’s probable misunderstanding of Luther’s Latin is rectified in the petition: “That it may please Thee to strengthen such as do stand, and to comfort and help the weak-hearted, and to raise up them that fall.” So also Luther is again more accurately rendered in the “To beat down Satan under our feet,” and while not precisely, yet far more nearly than in 1535, in the clause: “To succour, help and comfort.” Of the intercession: “To defend and provide for the fatherless children and widows, and all that are desolate and oppressed,” Blunt says: “One of the tenderest petitions in the Prayer Book, and full of touching significance, as offered to Him who entrusted His Mother to His Apostle. It was placed here in 1544 (the words being clearly suggested by such passages as Ps. 146: 9; Jer. 49: 11).” Again Luther has been overlooked, even though Hermann of Cologne, is referred to: “Ut pupillos ei viduas protegere et providere.” So in the next petition, “expressing” as the same author says, “the same all comprehensive charity,” Cranmer turned from Marshall to Luther, and translated literally: “That it may please thee, to have mercy upon all men.” The same may be said of the next petition. The versicle and collect that directly follow the Litany, are from Luther. Dr. Blunt gives the form of the collect from the Sarum Mass in his parallel with the English; but Cranmer followed Luther with all his variations from that text. Into that collect, Luther inserts, or follows another text that inserts: “Misericors Pater” and the English Litany reads: “O God, Merciful Father.” Sarum reads: quas pietati tuae pro tribulatione nostra offerimus; Luther: quas in afflictionibus quae jugiter nos premunt coram te effundimus;” and then, the English [[@Page:240]]Litany; “That we make before thee in all our troubles and adversities whensover they oppress us.” Sarum reads:— “Impiorantes ut nos clementer respicias;” Luther: “Easque clementer exaudi;” and then, the English Litany: “And graciously hear us.” It is certainly very patronizing for Dr. Blunt to remark: “Hermann’s and Luther’s form is very like ours.”268 But it is still more surprising to read his remark: “It is somewhat doubtful whether in the case of the Litany, our English form was not in reality the original or that in Hermann’s book!!” In a foot-note, he adds that Cranmer had married a niece of Osiander, who is said to have prepared the Nüremberg formularies for Luther,” etc. Can it be, that any one could think of tracing the liturgical reformation of the Lutheran Church, in this way, to an English source? It certainly is inverting history! The English Litany thus formed was set forth for public use, June 11th, 1544. With it ended the work of liturgical reform in the reign of Henry VIII., the Primer of 1545 excepted, which has significance only as an aid to the more thorough preparation of what was to follow, and not for its influence on public worship. [[@Page:241]] |