The Book of Common Prayer: Its Origin and Growth

"As the light of the sun is to the eye of the body, so is praier to the soul."

T HE gradual collection of Books of Common Prayer and other books related thereto has been one of the avocations of a busy professional life. I am sometimes asked: "But why collect Prayer-Books?" This sketch is my answer to that question.

The English Book of Common Prayer is one of the most interesting and instructive subjects of devotional and historical study. It is the first book, comprising all the offices of the Church and also forms of private devotion, which was established as a complete liturgy by the ad of the state. All previous forms of worship had been promulgated by ecclesiastical authority alone, and had no binding force in the law of the state; but this book was enacted as the only legal form of public worship by a Parliament of the Commons and Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Crown. Although it was first prepared by the clergy, it was necessarily so framed as to stand the test of legislative debate and meet the approval of the people by their representatives in Parliament; and the legal validity of its use rests solely upon the authority of the act of Parliament. It was also the first complete book of devotions for the clergy and the worshippers in the language of the people, so that it might "be understanded by the people." It was a compromise between conflicting opinions as to religious doctrine and as to forms of worship. This was its strength; for this made it a liturgy established by the consent and authority of the people, for the use of the people, in the common language of the people. It has been twice proscribed by law, all copies of it ordered to be destroyed, and its use in public or private devotions made a crime. But it has, with few substantial alterations, remained unchanged in its original form for three hundred and fifty years. Read More

Josiah Henry Benton, Jr., was the son of a Congregationalist minister. Born in Vermont, he also lived in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. During his life time he was a lawyer, civil servant, and author. After moving to Boston, he became a trustee of the Boston Public Library. He was an avid collector of Prayer Books. From the biographical material that I found on the Internet, I was not able to ascertain if he had any connection with the Protestant Episcopal Church or Anglicanism beyond his love of The Book of Common Prayer. At the time he wrote this history of the Prayer Book, the 1892 Prayer Book was the authorized Prayer Book of the Protestant Episcopal Church.