Prayer is a universally acknowledged part of the worship due to God; not merely petition, but according to the New Testament models and Christian usage, praise, adoration, confession of sin, and thankful acknowledgment of mercies received. It is a simple and natural expression of dependence, which seems almost necessarily to follow from a belief in the existence of a god. Accordingly we find it both where the object of worship is one Supreme Being and in systems of polytheism. According to the Christian system, however, prayer is not the mere spontaneous approach of man to God in the endeavour to appease his wrath, to win his favour, or to obtain from him any blessing; but the right to approach him in prayer, and the warrant to expect advantage in doing so, rest on the revelation of his own will. Nor is any truth more indisputably taught in the Bible, or more frequently brought into view, both in the Old and in the New Testament, than that God is the hearer of prayer.
But a difficulty presents itself in respect to what may be called the theory of prayer. How can prayer be supposed to influence the divine mind or will? How can a belief in its power be reconciled with any view of the divine decrees, from the most absolute doctrine of predestination to the most modified scheme which recognises the Creator as supreme in the universe? Such questions bring up the same difficulty which attends all other questions of the relations between the human will and the divine, the freedom of man and the sovereignty of God. But whatever seeming inconsistencies may be implied in speculation concerning them, the necessity of prayer and the power of prayer are acknowledged equally by men of the most opposite views; and generally with an acknowledgment of the inability of the human mind to solve some of the problems which are thus presented to it. The extreme predestinarian includes prayer among the means decreed of God along with the end to which it contributes. And whilst prayer is regarded by all Christians as of great value in its reflex influence on the feelings of the worshipper, this is scarcely ever stated as its whole value. It is held by Christians in general that the only true way of access to God is through the mediation of Jesus Christ; and that prayer can be truly made, in faith and for things agreeable to God's will, only by the help of the Holy Spirit. The Protestant churches all hold that prayer is to be made to God alone; but in the Roman Catholic Church, and to some extent in the oriental churches, prayer of a kind is made also to saints, the Virgin Mary, and angels. But as the worship (doulecia) of the saints differs from that (latreia) offered to God, so the invocation of saints and angels is not for the purpose of obtaining mercy or grace from them directly, but in order to ask their prayers or intercession with God on our behalf. For this practice Catholics rely not on the direct authority of Scripture, but on the unwritten word of God conveyed by tradition from very early times. The inscriptions in the catacombs prove that the church of the first centuries invoked the saints; and the famous fathers of the 4th century expressly insist on such invocation. Protestants hold that prayer ought to be conducted in a language known to the worshippers. The Church of Rome has, on the contrary, maintained the general use of the Latin language, even though that language is unknown to most of the worshippers.
Forms of prayer for public use grew up in the earliest times, naturally and inevitably: the Lord's Prayer being doubtless regarded as a warrant and a model. Apparently the most primitive collection is that in the eighth book of the pseudo-Clementine Apostolic Constitutions (q.v.). The prayers in connection with the celebration of the eucharist in the Greek and Roman communions are dealt with at LITURGY. The most important post-Reformation collection of prayers, that of the Anglican Church, is dealt with in the next article. But most of the leading reformers prepared prayer-books. Luther's date from 1523 and 1526, Calvin's from 1538 (from Strasburg) and 1541 (from Geneva), John Knox's for the Church of Scotland (based on that of Geneva) from 1554. The growth of Puritan feeling in Britain led the Nonconformists, Presbyterians, and others to underrate the advantages of set forms of prayer, and to exalt the value of what is assumed to be the spontaneous utterance of the heart. And ultimately it became usual to regard liturgical forms as essentially Episcopalian and un-Presbyterian, though the forms of church government are irrelevant to the question as to the best mode of guiding congregational prayer. Since 1857 a section of the Church of Scotland has made tentative efforts towards securing the use of printed forms of public prayer, without wholly excluding extempore prayer (see LEE, ROBERT). In 1888 the Assembly sanctioned a book of prayer for the use of soldiers, sailors, and others; and the Euchologion, prepared by the Church Service Society, has passed through several editions. In the United States liturgical forms of prayer have been almost wholly disused by all the churches save the Episcopal, Lutheran, German and Dutch Reformed, and Moravian churches. But since the middle of the 19th century there has been a manifest tendency to aim at increased dignity in Presbyterian prayer, and to bridge over the gulf that used to separate Presbyterians from the ancient church in the forms of public approach to the mercy-seat of God. Professor Shields of Princeton's Presbyterian Book of Common Prayer is simply the Anglican prayer-book with the alterations proposed by the Presbyterians at the Savoy Conference (q.v.).
PRAYER FOR THE DEAD, in the Roman Catholic, Greek, and other oriental churches, is offered with the intention and expectation of obtaining for the souls of the deceased an alleviation of their supposed sufferings after death on account of venial sins, or of the penalty of mortal sins, remitted but not fully atoned for during life. The practice of praying for the dead is usually associated with the doctrine of Purgatory (q.v.) or with the belief in a progressive intermediate state (see HELL). It being once supposed that relations subsist between the two worlds, that their members may mutually assist each other, it is almost a necessary consequence of the doctrine of purgatory that the living ought to pray for the relief of their suffering brethren beyond the grave. It seems certain that some such doctrine existed in most of the ancient religions. Its existence among the Jews is attested by the well-known assurance in 2 Maccabees, chap. xii., that 'it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins.' Catholics contend that the doctrine as well as the practice is equally recognisable in the early Christian church. They rely on the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke, xvi. 19-31), as establishing the intercommunion of this earth with the world beyond the grave; and on Matt. xii. 32, as proving the remissibility of sin or of punishment after death; as well as on 1 Cor. xv. 29, as attesting the actual practice among the first Christians of performing or undergoing certain ministrations in behalf of the dead. The Fathers of the 2d, 3d, and still more of the 4th and following centuries frequently allude to such prayers, as Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, St Cyprian, and especially St John Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem, and St Augustine. The liturgies, too, of all the rites without exception contain prayers for the dead; and the sepulchral inscriptions from the catacombs, which reach in their range from the 1st to the 5th century, contain frequent prayers in even greater variety. In the services of the mediæval and later church prayers for the dead form a prominent and striking element (see REQUIEM). The Protestant churches without exception repudiated the practice. In the burial service of Edward VI.'s First Common Prayer-book some prayers for the deceased were retained; but they were expunged from the Second Book; and no trace is to be found in that sanctioned under Elizabeth. Still it is not expressly prohibited, and it is cherished as a private and pious aspiration by not a few within the modern Church of England, as, in Coleridge's phrase, 'something between prayer and wish—an act of natural piety sublimed by Christian hope.'
On the doctrine of prayer, see Bickersteth, Treatise on Prayer (1856); Canon Liddon, Some Elements of Religion (1872); Newman Hall, Prayer: its Reasonableness and Efficacy (1875); Jellett, The Efficacy of Prayer (Donellan Lecture, 1877); the treatises on Apologetics, and manuals of Theology. On prayer for the dead, see Plumptre, The Spirits in Prison (1884); Luckock, After Death (1879), and The Intermediate State (1890). For modern scientific objections, see Romanes, Christian Prayer and General Laws (1874); Tyndall's British Association lecture (repub. 1874); and a series of articles in connection with Tyndall's 'Prayer Test' in Contemp. Rev., vols. xx.-xxii., by Tyndall, Galton, and others, with answers by M'Cosh, the Duke of Argyll, and others. For other questions connected with prayer, see the articles AVE, PATERNOSTER, KNEELING, ROSARY, SAINTS, FAITH-HEALING.
Prayer, BOOK OF COMMON. By this name are known the service-book of the Church of England and the corresponding formularies of other Episcopal churches which have either been derived from the Church of England or largely influenced by it, such as the Episcopal Church of the United States of America, the Church of Ireland, and the Episcopal Church in Scotland. The full title of the English Book of Common Prayer (viz. 'The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, according to the use of the Church of England: together with the Psalter, or Psalms of David, pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches; and the Form or Manner of Making, Ordaining, and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons') declares the varied character of its contents, and indicates that the volume includes many services besides those (viz. Morning and Evening Prayer) to which the term 'Common Prayer' is strictly applied in the technical language of liturgiologists. Thus it will be seen that this compendious service-book embraces elements corresponding to parts not only of the Breviary (q.v.), but also of the Missal (q.v.), the Pontifical (q.v.), and the Manual of the mediæval English Church, from which they were chiefly derived.
It is not our province here to consider generally the influences which operated to bring about the Reformation in England. It must suffice to observe that in regard to liturgical changes the main objects aimed at by the English Reformers were (1) to rid the services of features which were regarded as the outcome of superstition and ignorance (e.g. the invocation of saints, unhistorical and absurd legends read among the 'lessons,' &c.); (2) to introduce a more continuous and more extensive reading of Holy Scripture in the public services; and (3) to present all the services of the church in a language 'understood of the people.' The publication in 1890 (from a MS. in the British Museum) of the draft, revised by Cranmer, of a reformed Latin breviary shows us how much the mind of the most influential of the English reformers had been influenced by the corresponding labours of Cardinal Quignon (see BREVILIARY). The first and second of the objects above referred to were aimed at in this projected work of Cranmer, which was probably abandoned because the bolder design of giving the people all the services of the church in their native tongue had begun to be contemplated. Parts of the preface of Quignon's breviary were transferred, with some modifications, to the preface of the First Prayer-book, and still appear in the prefatory remarks entitled, in the present prayer-book, 'Concerning the Service of the Church.'
The first vernacular service put forth by authority for public use was the Litany (1544), differing in but few particulars from the form still to be found in the prayer-book. On the death of Henry VIII. liturgical reformation was less impeded, the advisers of the young king being favourable to change. The administration of the cup to the laity having been sanctioned by convocation and enjoined by parliament (1 Edward VI. chap. 1), a form for communion 'in both kinds,' in the English tongue, to be added to the Latin mass, was issued in 1548. But this form served only a temporary purpose, for in the following year (1549) was published and authorised the complete prayer-book in English, known as the First Prayer-book of Edward VI. In this book, with singular ability, attaining at times the level of genius, Cranmer and his coadjutors translated and adapted the breviary services of Matins, Lauds, and Prime, so as to construct the 'Morning Prayer' of the Book of Common Prayer; while, in a similar manner, Vespers and Compline were brought into the form of the 'Evening Prayer.' The English services were shortened chiefly by the great reduction of the number of psalms to be 'sung or said' daily. The lectionary was so arranged that the greater portion of the Old Testament was read through systematically in the course of the year, while the whole of the New Testament (with the exception of the Apocalypse) was read through thrice. The old English missals formed the basis of the English communion service, but therewith were combined the new features which had appeared in the 'Order of the Communion' (1548). The other services, as those for baptism, matrimony, burial, &c., were similarly framed, with much discrimination, from the corresponding mediæval services. The ecclesiastical books of the Eastern Church were not wholly unknown to the Reformers, as is testified to by their adoption of the so-called 'Prayer of St Chrysostom,' and by the unquestionable fact that the Athanasian Creed was translated by them from a Greek and not a Latin text. Occasionally the revisers did not scruple to adopt features from more modern sources (e.g. the Pia Deliberatio of the reforming Archbishop Hermann of Cologne). The liturgical revision of 1549 was conducted in a spirit at once conservative and critical, and is marked by a singular combination of independence with reverence for the past.
Owing partly to home influences and partly to the influence of foreign reformers (many of whom were then resident in England, including Bucer, regius professor of Divinity at Cambridge, and Peter Martyr, regius professor of Divinity at Oxford), Cranmer and his associates ceased to be content with the doctrinal colouring of the First Prayer-book; and in 1552 there appeared a revised book (the Second Prayer-book of Edward VI.), marked by many changes mainly favourable to more Protestant views. As a characteristic example may be cited the change made in the words used at the communion in delivering the consecrated elements. In 1549 the words ran 'The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life,' 'The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ,' &c. In 1552 these words were expunged, and for them were substituted 'Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith, with thanksgiving,' 'Drink this in remembrance,' &c. In a similar spirit the 'Invocation' of the Holy Ghost on the elements—'that they be unto us the body and blood of thy most dearly beloved Son'—was removed (together with use of the sign of the cross) from the prayer of consecration. From the baptismal service the exorcism, trine immersion, anointing, and the use of the chrism (or white robe) were omitted. From the burial service prayers for the dead were removed. The vestments of priests and deacons were reduced to the surplice, and those of the bishop to a rochette, for all ministrations. Among changes then made, though of little or no doctrinal significance, may be mentioned the addition of the sentences, introductory address, general confession, and absolution to morning and evening prayer, and of the decalogue and responses to the communion service.
On the accession of Queen Elizabeth the personal ecclesiastical sentiments of that masterful monarch made themselves sensibly felt. In the newly-revised prayer-book of 1559 (Elizabeth's Prayer-book) very few changes were made, but they pointed in one direction. The vestments and ornaments of the prayer-book of 1549 were again enjoined; in the litany the words 'From the tyranny of the bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities, good Lord, deliver us' were omitted; in the communion service the words of Edward's two books at the delivery of the elements were combined in the form still in use; the declaration concerning kneeling (the so-called 'Black Rubric') appended to the communion service of Edward VI.'s Second Prayer-book was omitted.
During Elizabeth's reign the Puritan and Calvinist party within the church increased in strength, and the hopes of its members were raised high on the accession of James I., educated as he had been in Scotland under Presbyterian influence. Not many days after the king's accession he was presented by the Puritans with a petition, called, from the great number of signatures attached to it, the Millenary Petition. This craved for the removal of 'offences' from the prayer-book. The petitioners further suggested a conference, and to this suggestion the king acceded, the outcome being the Hampton Court Conference (January 14, 16, and 18, 1604), so called from its place of meeting. The issue of this conference was deeply disappointing to the Puritan party. The alterations made were comparatively few and unimportant: certain chapters of the Apocrypha (Tobit, v. vi. and vii., and Dan. xiv.) were removed from the lectionary; the words 'or remission of sins' were added as explanatory of the word 'absolution' at morning prayer; a prayer for the queen and royal family, together with some special thanksgivings, as 'for rain,' 'for fair weather,' &c., were inserted. The only changes of much significance were (1) the addition to the catechism of the part treating of the sacraments (attributed to the pen of Overall, Deau of St Paul's, and certainly not favourable to the views of the Puritans), and (2) the insistence on baptism being administered by the 'lawful minister,' as the church's order; while the validity of baptism administered by any person using water and the prescribed form of words is still implied in the text of the service. It is worth observing that, while to the three earlier revisions and the last revision (1662) were given parliamentary authority (2 and 3 Edw. VI. chap. 1; 5 and 6 Edw. VI. chap. 1; 1 Eliz. chap. 2; 14 Carol. II. chap. 4), James considered that the authority of the crown was sufficient to introduce changes, which he was careful to style 'explanations,' as though they were not additions.
The Book of Common Prayer 'for the use of the Church of Scotland' (1637), commonly known as 'Laud's Prayer-book,' was a revision of the English prayer-book, in the construction of which Wedderburn, Bishop of Dunblane, and Maxwell, Bishop of Ross, were chiefly concerned, their English advisers being Laud, Wren, and Juxon. It is mainly remarkable for its reverting in the communion service to some of the characteristic features of the First Prayer-book of Edward VI.—e.g. (1) the 'Invocation,' and (2) the commemoration of the faithful departed. It is also interesting to notice that the Scottish revision anticipated and happily met some of the difficulties that have since been raised in respect to the Athanasian Creed. The prose psalter of this prayer-book was taken from the authorised version of the Bible. The word 'presbyter' was used instead of 'priest.' The calendar records the names of certain Scottish saints—e.g. Colmba, Ninian, Serf, Queen Margaret, &c.
The attempt to force this prayer-book upon the Scottish people in an arbitrary manner, emphasised, as it was, by the riot in St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, on the occasion of its first being read (23d July 1637), and the national uprising that followed are parts of civil history. It should be added that the Scottish prayer-book, which had seemed to be strangled at its birth, was twenty-four years afterwards among the most potent influences affecting the revision which has brought the English prayer-book to its present shape.
During the years of the Great Rebellion it was enacted by an ordinance of parliament (January 3, 1645) that the 'Westminster Directory for the Public Worship of God' should take the place of the prayer-book; and a subsequent ordinance of the same year (August 23) made the use of the prayer-book in public 'or in any private place or family' punishable by a fine of £5 for the first offence, £10 for the second, and a year's imprisonment for the third. This harsh measure went a long way to provoke the reaction of the Act of Uniformity (1662).
On the restoration of the monarchy, in the vain hope of satisfying contending ecclesiastical parties a royal commission was issued (March 25, 1661) to twelve bishops and twelve Presbyterian divines (with nine coadjutors on each side to fill the places of members of the commission who might be absent) 'to advise upon and review the Book of Common Prayer, comparing the same with the most ancient liturgies which have been used in the church in the primitive and present times . . . and, if occasion be, to make such reasonable and necessary alterations, corrections, and amendments as shall be agreed upon for the giving satisfaction to tender consciences,' &c.
The meetings of the commission were held in the Savoy Palace in the Strand, London, and hence the name the 'Savoy Conference,' by which they are commonly designated. Among the best known of the divines of the Episcopal side were Bishops Cosin, Sanderson, and Brian Walton, with Drs Pearson, Gunning, and Heylin. Among the Presbyterians the most eminent were Baxter, Calamy, Bates, Manton, and Reynolds. One of the most notable episodes in the history of the conference was the presentation by Baxter of a liturgy, composed by himself in the space of a few days, which the Presbyterian commissioners desired should be authorised and placed on a footing of equality with the Book of Common Prayer. The conference, as was to be expected from the temper of the times, ended in the discomfiture of the Puritan party, very few of whose suggestions were adopted. Subsequently royal letters were addressed to Convocation directing the revision of the Book of Common Prayer. This revision brought the book to its present state, with the exception of changes in the lectionary, to be noticed below. The result of the revision was authorised by the Convocations of Canterbury and York, and its use enjoined (19th May 1662) by parliament (Act of Uniformity, 14 Carol. II. chap. 4).
Among the more noteworthy changes made at the last revision may be mentioned a new preface (by Bishop Sanderson); the adoption of the Authorised Version for the Epistles and Gospels, the introduction of the prayer for parliament, of the prayer 'for all conditions of men,' of the general thanksgiving, and some of the special thanks- givings; and the reintroduction in a modified form of the commemoration of the departed in the communion service. While the general framework of the prayer-book was preserved intact, very many minute changes were made, more particularly in the rubrics. Speaking generally, the changes, when they possess any distinctive doctrinal colouring, were marked by the dominant influence of the church party. Two entirely new services were added: (1) a service for the baptism of adults, made desirable by the growth of anabaptism during the Great Rebellion, as well as by the need of a form for the baptism of the heathen in our 'plantations;' and (2) a form of prayer and thanksgiving to be used at sea, with a special view to 'his majesty's navy.' Certain printed copies of this prayer-book, minutely examined and brought into conformity with the MS. copy attached to the act of parliament, were certified as correct, and having the great seal attached to them are known as the Sealed Books. One of these sealed copies was deposited in the Tower of London, one in each of the Courts of Law at Westminster, and one with each cathedral chapter.
In the reign of William III. an attempt was made to further revise the prayer-book with a view to the comprehension of dissenters. A royal commission sat and reported, but nothing came of it. In 1872 the table of lessons now in use was approved by convocation, and authorised by parliament (34 and 35 Vict. chap. 37). In the following year certain abbreviations in the daily service were similarly sanctioned (35 and 36 Vict. chap. 35).
In Ireland it may be noted that the first book ever printed in Dublin was the First Prayer-book of Edward VI. It appeared in 1551. The Second Prayer-book of Edward was never introduced. Elizabeth's prayer-book was enjoined by the Irish parliament in 1560, and similarly in 1662 the prayer-book as revised after the Savoy Conference. On the disestablishment of the Irish Church (1869) a revision of the prayer-book was carried through by the General Synod, after a contest between church parties extending over several years. In 1878 the revised prayer-book was published. Among the more important changes are (1) the removal of the rubric preceding the Athanasian Creed; (2) the addition of a question and answer to the Catechism declaring that the body and blood of Christ are 'taken and received only after a heavenly and spiritual manner;' (3) the absolution in the visitation of the sick changed into the form in the communion service; (4) lessons from the Apocrypha removed.
In the Episcopal Church of the United States of America a revised edition of the English prayer-book was authorised and published in 1789. The changes made were very numerous. We can here specify only the following: (1) the removal of the Athanasian Creed; (2) the introduction of the 'invocation' on the elements in the communion service, this latter being at the suggestion of Seabury, the first American bishop. He had been consecrated in Scotland, and was warmly attached to the Scottish Communion Office, of which the 'invocation' is a characteristic feature. A further revision was undertaken in 1881. So far as it has hitherto proceeded, it is largely marked by a desire to revert to particulars of the English prayer-book which had been abandoned in 1789; but neither of the two features noticed above has been altered.
In the Episcopal Church in Scotland the English prayer-book is formally declared to be the 'duly authorised service-book of this church for all the purposes to which it is applicable' (Canon xxxiii.); but a service for the Holy Communion (brought to the form in current use in 1764) is sanctioned in some congregations under certain restrictions. At all consecrations, ordinations, and synods the form in the English prayer-book is required to be used. The Scottish Communion Office is based on the corresponding service in Laud's prayer-book, but many important changes have been made. Among the most noteworthy are (1) the transposition of the place of the prayer of consecration in relation to the prayer for 'the whole state of Christ's Church;' (2) the omission of the words 'militant here in earth;' (3) the alteration in the order of the parts of the prayer of consecration, so that it runs, (a) words of institution, (b) oblation, (c) invocation; (4) the substitution, in the invocation, of the words, 'that they may become the body and blood,' &c., for 'that they may be unto us the body,' &c. This last change is for its abruptness without parallel or precedent.
For the materials from which the prayer-book has been mainly constructed, consult Maskell's Monumenta Ritualia Ecclesie Anglicane (2d ed. 1882), and The Ancient Liturgy of the Church of England (3d ed. 1882); Missale ad usum Sarum (Burntisland ed. 1861-67); Breviarium ad usum Sarum, edited by F. Procter and C. Wordsworth (1879-86); Breviarium Romanum Quignonianum, edited by J. W. Legg (1888). The successive changes made in the English Prayer-book and the Scottish Prayer-book (1637) are admirably exhibited in parallel columns in Keeling's Liturgie Britannice (2d ed. 1851); they may also be studied in J. Parker's The First Prayer-book of Edward VI., compared with the successive Revisions of the Book of Common Prayer (1877). For the history of the prayer-book and a commentary on its contents, see Procter's History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of its Offices (18th ed. 1889); J. H. Blunt's Annotated Book of Common Prayer (revised ed. 1884); Cardwell's History of Conferences . . . connected with the Revision of the Book of Common Prayer (2d ed. 1841). Parker's Introduction to the History of the successive Revisions of the Book of Common Prayer (1877) is invaluable. Cranmer's attempts at a revision of the Breviary is exhibited in Edward VI. and the Book of Common Prayer (1890), by F. A. Gasquet and E. Bishop. Much curious information on the mediæval liturgies of England, more particularly that of York, will be found in the Lay Folk's Mass Book, edited for the Early English Text Society by T. F. Simmons (1879). Among commentaries on particular parts of the prayer-book, Scudamore's Notitia Eucharistica (2d ed. 1876) and Bulley's Variations in the Communion and Baptismal Offices (1842) are of much value. The Fac-simile of the original Manuscript of the Book of Common Prayer attached to the Act of Uniformity, 1662, was produced in photo-lithograph in 1890. On the history of the Scottish and American Communion Offices, see the writer's Annotated Scottish Communion Office, &c. (1884), and the Historical Sketch appended to Professor S. Hart's edition of Seabury's Communion Office (1874).