Wednesday, October 11, 2017

More About BCP Wording

Regarding the issue I raised yesterday of where the wording in Divine Worship comes from (and whether it matters), a visitor notes:
1549: "... to feede us in these holy Misteries, with the spirituall foode of the moste precious body and bloud ..."

1552: "... to fede us, whiche have duely receyved these holye misteries, with the spirituall foode of the most precious body and bloud ..."

1928 (USA): "... to feed us who have duly received these holy mysteries with the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood ..."

It is curious that [Divine Worship via] St John the Baptist, Bridgeport, reverts to 1549 for the "Prayer of Thanksgiving" (the "which have duly received" does have a slight Protestant/Reformed feel to it, but it is hardly heterodox or objectionable from a Catholic perspective) but not for the "Prayer of Humble Access", which was altered by Cranmer in 1552 (and followed in all subsequent English and American BCPs) to eliminate any necessary or exclusive connection between "eating the bread and wine" and "receiving Christ's Body and Blood;" cf.:

1549: "We do not presume to come to this thy table (o mercifull lord) trusting in our owne righteousnes, but in thy manifold and great mercies: we be not woorthie so much as to gather up the cromes under thy table: but thou art the same lorde whose propertie is alwayes to have mercie: Graunt us therefore (gracious lorde) so to eate the fleshe of thy dere sonne Jesus Christ, and to drynke his bloud in these holy Misteries, that we may continuallye dwell in hym, and he in us, that our synfull bodyes may bee made cleane by his body, and our soules washed through hys most precious bloud. Amen."

1552: " We doe not presume to come to this thy table (O mercyfull Lorde) trustinge in our owne righteousnesse, but in thy manifolde and greate mercies: we bee not worthye, so much as to gather up the crommes under thy table: but thou art the same Lorde whose propertie is alwayes to have mercye: graunt us therfore (gracious lord) so to eate the fleshe of thy dere sonne Jesus Christe, and to drinke his bloud, that our synfulle bodyes maye be made cleane by his body, and our soules wasched through his most precious bloud, and that we may evermore dwel in him, and he in us. Amen. "

1928 (USA): "We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy: Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his Body, and our souls washed through his most precious Blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen."

The puzzling thing here is that whatever Cranmer's local intent in adding, deleting, or emending particular words in a particular context, his overall task was clearly to develop a Protestant liturgy that would satisfy the Tudor establishment while keeping the lid on Catholics, at least until Mary came to the throne. I'm not sure why Rome would want to take this effort so seriously -- and in his September interview, Bp Lopes ". . . notes that the sources for their missal – 'the 1549 Book of Common Prayer and the Sarum Missal – are actually older than the Tridentine reform and the Missal of Pius V [of 1570]. So things that ‘look like’ what we Catholics know as Tridentine often predates [sic] that form.'”

I didn't mention this yesterday -- the Prayer of Thanksgiving was enough for one post -- but the St John the Evangelist Bridgeport bulletin I linked also contains what I assume is the Divine Worship version of the Prayer of Humble Access:

We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy. Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.
So, pace Bp Lopes, Divine Worship in this case simply takes the wording of the 1928 TEC BCP verbatim and does not revert to 1549. This strikes me as an Anglican -- but Anglican in sort of a bad and slapdash way -- approach to things. He may feel the criticism of Anglican liturgy as being recent has merit, because in fact DW has clearly adopted post-1549 wording, and apparently in at least some cases, it strictly follows models from 1662 and 1928. So far, without the opportunity to study Divine Worship -- The Missal in more detail, I'm inclined to think his reference to 1549 confuses the issue.