I ran across an interesting discovery the other day…

While looking through the Three Prymers for another purpose, I took notice of the kalendar of the second prymer, referred to as the bishops’ prymer, written by John, Bishop of Rochester and others within the reign of Henry the 8th. (According to my downloaded file, the kalendar of which I speak begins on PDF page 308.)

Just to clarify, this text was written when the official public services of the Church of England were still the Latin-language Sarum services according to the Missal and the Breviary.

The kalendar is not a true kalendar in the sense that it would give a listing of the days and the sanctoral or occasional fixed temporal feasts that fall upon it. Instead, this kalendar is used as a general framework on which is superimposed the moveable contents of the Temporal Cycle with the red-letter days inserted as they appear.

The page has three main columns. The middle column gives only the dominical letters and so is just a string of letters repeating from A to g. A thin column by the side of the page gives a breviary-type reading (you’ll see why I call it that in a second) while a wider column on the other side of the letters gives the incipit and chapter for the Epistle and Gospel readings for Sunday and festal masses. The “breviary” column is roughly aligned with the Sundays listed in the “Mass” column.

These are the contents of the “Mass” column for January:

• [New Year’s Day]: For the, Tit. ii; And when, Luke ii
• On the Sunday within eight days of Christmas whenever it fall: And I say, Gal. iv; And his, Luke ii
• [Untitled–Christmas II? Vigil of Epiphany?]: For the, Tit. ii; When Herod, Matt. ii
• The Epiphany: Esa. lx; When Jesus was born, Matt ii.
• On the Sunday next after Twelfth Day: Rise up, Esa. lx; The next day, John i
• On the Second Sunday after Twelfth Day: I beseech, Rom xii; And when he, Luke ii
• On the Third Sunday, if there fall so many: Seeing we have, Rom xii; And the third, John ii
• On the Fourth Sunday, if there fall so many Twelfth Day and going out of ma.: Be not wise in your, Rom xii; When Jesus was, Matt. viii
• On the Fifth Sunday if there be so many between Septuagesima and Twelfth Day: Owe nothing, Rom xiii; And he entered, Mark iv
• On the Sixth Sunday, if there be so many between Twelfth tide and Septuagesima: Now therefore as elect, Col. iii; The kingdom of heaven is, Matt. xiii
• On the Sunday when marriage goeth out [Septuagesima]: Perceive ye not how that, 1 Cor ix; For the kingdom of heaven, Matt. 20

If you check your Sarum Missal you’ll find that this is pretty darn close to the list of readings there. It’s not exact, but that that may have as much to say about variation in the Sarum Missal tradition than anything else. For instance, my Missal shows Matt 8 for the Fifth Sunday (Fourth after the Octave) but the passage pointed to here, Mark 4, is the Synoptic parallel of the same miraculous feeding. Likewise, my missal doesn’t include a Sunday after the Nativity, but the readings here line up closely with the Sixth Day after the Nativity (the only one without a feast) whether a Sunday or not. Thus, this appears to be a rough and ready means for the laity to either follow along or to read beforehand the Epistles and Gospels that will be heard in Latin at Mass.

Here, then, is the “breviary” column:

• New Year’s Day: Read the Epistle to Tit[us] & 2[nd Letter] to Timothy
• [Opposite Sunday after Twelfth Day]: Read the Epistle to the Romans
• [(sort of) Opposite Second Sunday]: Read the Epistle to the Corinthians
• [(sort of) Opposite Third Sunday]: Read the 2[nd Letter] to the Cor[inthians]
• [(sort of) Opposite Fourth Sunday]: Read this week to the Gal[atians] & 1[st Letter] to Tim[othy]
• [(sort of) Opposite Fifth Sunday]: Read the [Epistle to the] Epeshians & [to the] Phil[ippians]
• [Opposite Sixth Sunday]: Read [the Epistle] to the Thess[alonians] & to the Col[ossians]
• [Opposite Septuagesima]: On this Sunday the Church beginneth to read the Scripture in order

As we move through the rest of the months, we find that the instructions given in the “breviary” column move in rough correlation with the Sundays indicated in the “Mass” column. Sometimes they are unable to link clearly due to spacing and the type already on the page. However—as in the case of January—by counting back and giving each instruction a week, the proper arrangement can be found. Now I’ll give the sequence for the rest of the year, noting months and Sundays where pertinent, passing in silence over reiterated readings:

• [Opposite Sexagesima]: Read this week within the Church, Genesis.
• [Opposite Mid-Lent Sunday [The Fourth Sunday]]: Read here with the Church the Second Book of Moses, called Exodus.
• [Opposite Passion Sunday [the Fifth]]: Read this week with the Church the prophet Jeremy.
• [Opposite Easter-Day]: Read this week the Acts of the Apostles.
• [Opposite First Sunday after Easter]: Read this week with the Church  the Apocalypses of John.
• [Opposite the Third Sunday after Easter]: Read this week the Epistle of James and of Peter both.
• [Opposite Fourth Sunday after Easter]: Read this week the Canonical Epistle of John and Jude.
• [Opposite Sunday before the Cross [Rogation] Days]: Read of the Acts of the Apostles this week.
• [Pentecost Week]: Read of the Acts.
• [Opposite the First Sunday after Trinity]: Read in the First Book of the Kings [1 Samuel] with the Church this week.
• [Opposite the Second Sunday after Trinity]: Read with the Church this week in the Second Book of the Kings [2 Samuel].
• [Opposite the Third Sunday after Trinity]: Read this week the third [Book of the Kings [1 Kings]].
• [Opposite the Fifth Sunday after Trinity]: Read this week the fourth [Book of the Kings [2 Kings]].
• [Opposite the Seventh Sunday after Trinity]: Read this week the Chronicles called Paralipo.
• [Opposite the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity (First in August)]: Read here the Proverbs with the Church.
• [Opposite the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity]: Read here Ecclesiastes.
• [Opposite the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity]: Read here the History of Job.
• [Opposite the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity]: Read the History of Tobit.
• [Opposite the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity]: Read here the story of Judith.
• [Opposite the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity]: Read here the History of Hester.
• [Opposite the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity (First Sun. in October)]: Read the First Book of the Maccabees.
• [Opposite the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity]: Read the Second Book of Maccabees.
• [Opposite the Twenty-Third Sunday after Trinity]: Read Ezechiel.
• [Opposite the First Sunday of Advent]: Read Isaie with the Church.
• [Opposite the Fourth Sunday of Advent]: Read Isaie still until the First Sunday after New Year.

What we have here is a pre-prayer book attempt to set the breviary pattern of reading through Scriptures before the literate laity. Note that we’re only talking one passage of Scripture at a time (not four as we’ll see with Morning and Evening Prayer).

As a scheme, it exhibits many of the faults that breviary schemes have suffered throughout Christian history, namely: too much time for some books, not nearly enough for others. The late summer is a classic case. One week is provided for the dense poetic book of Job and its 42 chapters, while just a little later three weeks are given for the 14 novelistic chapters of Tobit. Again, Genesis is spread out from Septuagesima until Mid-Lent (not a bad plan for its fifty chapters, some of which are lengthy); Exodus is allotted one week (not nearly enough).

As far as absences go, there’s no Daniel, none of the Twelve Minor Prophets, no Law after the first two books, and we miss the apocryphal wisdom books altogether.

Nevertheless, this is the first attempt that I’ve seen to introduce a plan of Scripture reading to the laity.

I imagine there’s more to be said about this scheme, how it compares with other pre-Reformation schemes, how it feeds into the prayer books, as well as how it connects to the rest of the prymer as a whole. So this is the first rather than the last word on the subject.

After detailing some of the changes that occurred with the 1561 revision of the 1559 Daily Office Lectionary (you may want to review the previous post), it’s time to take a look at what it all means. For me, at least, there are several things that jump out at me.

User Experience

One of the big changes here is the user experience. With Cranmer’s original plan, you could stick three bookmarks in your Bible—one for the OT, one for the Gospels/Acts, one for the NT Epistles—and watch them proceed through each year in a virtually unbroken march. Thus, in the active user experience, continuity and coverage is in the foreground. With this revision, I wouldn’t say that daily march is broken, but it’s certainly disturbed. The reason is that we’re no longer dealing with a single sequential pass through the Old Testament; instead, we’re experiencing two and a half! As in Cranmer’s plan, there is a single overarching sequence that moves through the Old Testament throughout the calendar year. However, there’s now another sequential series that is appointed for Sundays. It’s a miniaturized version of the bigger cycle and, presumably, aims to hit the high points for the slackers who only get their offices on Sundays. Thus, you now have the main cycle running concurrently with the Sunday “greatest hits” cycle. But it gets worse—the Sanctoral OT readings pick up where the Sunday OT readings left off: in the Wisdom Literature. So, not only do you have these two cycles moving in loose parallel, you also have to add in dips into the Wisdom Lit for most of the red-letter days which occur at a rate of about two each month. Hence, two and a half cycles… The result is that you have to do a bit more jumping around for the OT readings.

Red-Letter Awareness

The assignment of OT lessons to the red-letter days was a real shift away from the 1552 policy and the incorporation of these lessons into the 1561 kalendar meant that they could no longer be ignored because they were in a different table as in the 1559 edition. Just to recap, a red-letter day gets its name from the old manuscript kalendars where the more important feast days would be written in red ink rather than black. This tendency continued into the age of printing and some of the BCPs from various times and places will have red letters for the major holy days or at least a distinctive font. Functionally, these tend to be the days where the apostles and other New Testaments saints were celebrated. Something interesting is going on with these… A few of them were singled out for attention by Cranmer in the 1549 kalendar; he appointed special New Testament readings for Stephen, John, Paul, Barnabas, and Peter. With the exception of John, these readings were from Acts and give some scriptural backing to the saint being celebrated. Notice what happens with this lectionary, though. The kalendar calls attention to these days by making an alteration in the Scriptural pattern. However, the readings appointed give absolutely no information about the saint; the point is not directed edification towards the individual being honored. Instead, it seems that a link is forged between notions of sanctity and the so-called “orthodox wisdom” traditions found pre-eminently in Proverbs, Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus. That is, these traditions bolster the notion that right action brings divine favor. (These are counter-balanced canonically by the so-called “wisdom in revolt” traditions of Job and Ecclesiastes that rightly point out that crap happens to the righteous too.)  As the wisdom tradition moves into the apocryphal, Hellenistic books of Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus, right action tends to be identified much more closely with obedience to Scripture (Torah, to be precise, but not narrowly so). I see in this otherwise unusual pattern a statement that sanctity is grounded in right—Scriptural—action. I think this is quite in line with Reformation anxieties around the saints; this is a means of both preserving the observances and re-emphasizing the importance of Scripture. The new addition of Leviticus 26 (which hadn’t ever been present in the lectionary before) seems to underscore this emphasis on the keeping of Scripture.

Continued Ceremonial Hacking

A renewed emphasis on the obedience to Scripture also requires new safeguards against Scripture taken to an extreme–“Judaizing.” One of the occasional features of certain factions of the continental Radical Reformation was an over-zealous adoption of Torah regulations on Christian communities. Of the Torah material, the most suppressed material is that relating to religious observance and the ceremonial aspects of Israelite religion. Was this due to a fear that the simpler folk might decide to worship according to Jewish customs and traditions? Who knows… What canbe said is that the 1561 lectionary shows an even greater suppression of biblical material related to cultic worship. The overall effect is that fewer and fewer passages are read that show God legislating ceremonial worship, and the care and cost taken around implements, ornaments, and vestments for divine service. Can we see in this a more puritanical turn that strikes against both Jewish and Catholic traditions at a single blow? Yeah—I think so. This lectionary leaves even fewer Scriptural warrants for defenders of Christian ornament and ceremonial than previous versions.

People and Places

The big losers here are, of course, genealogies and long lists of Ancient Near Eastern place names. This is really no surprise; few people find these passages particularly entertaining and if there’s a renewed emphasis on edification, then it’s no surprise that these chapters got the boot. Is there a theological argument to be made in defense of these passages? Of course—we may not find them edifying in their particulars, but they are edifying specifically because of the principle of particularity. That is, they remind us that God tends not to work in the abstract. Instead, he works with particular tribes, and families, and individuals—who knows, maybe even us… There is an incarnational aspect to particularity which can teach us something even if all the Hebrew names blur together after a while. Keeping that little lesson in mind, I have a feeling that we won’t see many of these chapters coming back as we move through the rest of lectionary tradition.

Theological Issues

Only one chapter seems to be removed due to theological reasons, and that’s Job 23. We mentioned wisdom-in-revolt above, and Job is seriously revolting in this passage. He decries the absence of God in his experience of suffering and questions the justice of God more starkly here than anywhere else that I can recall. I can’t prove it, but my guess is that this chapter was removed because the editors were too uncomfortable with its content.

Suppression of Magic

The other interesting disappearances are the targeted removals of certain apocryphal chapters. The loss of Tobit 5, 6, and 8, the trimming of Ecclesiasticus 46, and the dropping of Daniel 14 seem to be connected by a common thread—they all have something to do with magic and the supernatural. Remember now, this was the age of John Deeand angel magic. I have a feeling that the Hellenistic spirit of enchantment hit just a little too close to home in the Elizabethan age, and that the editors removed these lest they fuel the fire and suggest that these practices had Scriptural support.

Summary

In conclusion, it’s my contention that the 1561 revision of the Daily Office Lectionary represents the culmination of a shift away from the chief principle of the 1549 lectionary. Cranmer started with the principle of coverage and arranged his lectionary accordingly. By his 1552 revision, we’d already seen some cracks appear and the suppression of certain material. This accelerated with the 1559 edition and by the 1561 version it’s clear that we have a new chief criterion pushed by the queen—edification. Don’t get me wrong: coverage was still important and the vast majority of the OT and NT was still being read on a yearly basis. Two main things are going on. First, the less edifying readings are being culled in order to foreground the more edifying—particularly the “orthodox wisdom” passages. Second, there is an awareness of the special role and requirements for Sunday reading. Elizabeth’s lectionaries reflect the first acknowledgement that not everybody is going to be following along day-by-day and that Sundays have a special role. If people are only going to hear two chapters of Old Testament a week (Sunday morning and evening), then let’s make sure that it’s going to be something edifying rather than whatever random chapters happen to roll around.

According to Procter and Frere’s history of the BCP, Elizabeth’s letter to her ecclesiastical council written on January 22, 1561 had little impact on the lectionary.

They were wrong.

The kalendar revision of 1561 was the biggest shift in both kalendar and Daily Office lectionary policy since the production of the first Book of Common Prayer. 1561 represents a sweeping reform that fully embeds the modifications from 1559 into the kalendar system, moves the devotional clock “back” towards late Sarum practice, and establishes a new guiding hermeneutic for how biblical lessons are assigned through the year.

So—what precisely happened here? First, 1560 happened and the translation of the 1559 Book of Common Prayer into Latin. When we look at the kalendar of the Liber Precum Publicarum (LPP), two things are immediately obvious. First, the Daily Office readings are identical with the 1559 book. (As far as I’ve determined… I’ve been surprised on this in the past, though.)

Second, the kalendar has exploded with commemorations. Most every day of the year has a black-letter observance.  The exact source of all of the commemorations is not easy to trace. According to Vernon Staley (one of the the greats of the English Use movement), there are four negative indicators that these were taken up from the kalendars of the Sarum Missal and Breviary. In both the LPP kalendar and the Sarum kalendars:

1. Neither Joseph, adoptive father of Our Lord nor Joseph of Arimathea are present
2. There is an absence of Scottish and Irish saints with the sole exception of Bridget
3. Certain Western greats are conspicuously absent: viz. Anselm, Aquinas, and Bernard
4. There is an absence of the Eastern saints–even the two directly mentioned in the prayer book (Athanasius and Chrysostom)

The 1561 kalendar revision is a slimmed-down version of the 1560 LPP kalendar. Staley states:

It is exceedingly difficult to determine on what principles the four commissioners proceeded in compiling the list of black-letter or minor saints days, which we find in our present Kalendar [Ed.: he means the 1662 kalendar]. The selection has, to say the least, an appearance of caprice and inconsistency which is almost, if not altogether, impossible to justify.

. . .

Broadly speaking, the holy days in the Kalendar of the Book of Common Prayer correspond to the Feasts of Nine Lessons in the Sarum books. It does not seem improbable that the compilers of the Kalendar of 1561, which is practically our present Kalendar, took the Feasts of Nine Lessons in the Sarum books as their working basis, making such modifications as they felt desirable ; though this theory by no means disposes of all difficulties and inconsistencies as to omissions and additions which are presented to students of the Kalendar of the Prayer Book.

Thus, the sanctoral revision of 1561 is best thought of as a capricious rendering of the more important feasts of the Sarum kalendars.

When it comes to the Scripture dispositions, things are a bit different.

The first change between the 1561 kalendar and the ones that came before it is that all of the red-letter days from the proper lessons table have been thoroughly incorporated into the yearly round. Thus, days like Candlemas, the Annunciation, St Matthew and St Luke all receive their own proper OT lessons. On the surface this is a small change as these lessons had already been in the proper tables of the 1559 book. What makes this so important is the effect that it has on the rest of the year. The chapters appointed for Sundays and Holy Days were also retained without exception in the in-course reading cycle (so they would be read twice every year, once on the Holy Day and once where they fit within the canon). But, in order to make room for these proper OT readings, 38 chapters of Scripture had to be cut in order to let the rest of the cycle function as it should.

Cranmer’s original prime directive of comprehensiveness—reading through all of Scripture every year—has just moved into second place. It has been replaced by “edification.” Comprehensiveness is self-evident: you’ve either read through all the chapters or you haven’t. Edification is a fundamentally interpretive criterion: what is edifying is based on what the selectors  deem to be edifying.

So—38 chapters had to go. To put this in perspective, it would be like losing one large book of Scripture (like cutting the entire book of Job) or losing more than half of the minor prophets (those twelve books contain only 69 chapters between them). What got cut? We’ll go sequentially through the year:

1. January loses Exodus 6 (a narrative reduplication of God’s promise to Moses and Israel concluding with the genealogy of Moses)
2. The usual jump from Exodus 24 to 32 is retained
3. Exodus 35 and 40 on the construction & erection of the tabernacle get dropped
   Leviticus 26 gets added back in (details blessings and curses on those who keep or don’t keep God’s law)
4. Numbers gets savaged, losing 10 (silver trumpets, order of march), 15 (sacrificial regulations), 18-19 (sacrifice, red heifer), 26 (second census of Israel), 28-29 (sacrifices), 33 (stages of march), 34 (boundaries of land, naming of leaders)
5. March loses  Deuteronomy 23 (no eunuchs, foreigners in sanctuary, on noct. emissions, prostitutes, usury, etc.)
6. The reduplication of Joshua chapters that we had seen in the 1552-9 ends, but the readings now jump from 10 to 23, dropping more chapters than before and wrapping with Joshua’s final address
7. Ezra begins at ch. 2, leaving out 1 (edict of release and return of temple treasures), 8 (appointment of priests and vessels), and 10 (condemnation of foreign brides, list of priests and levites who had married them)
8. Nehemiah missing 3 (builders of sections of wall), 7 (registration of the nation), 11-12 (naming of leaders, dedication of wall)
9. Omits Job 23 (Job’s cry of dereliction on the absence of God)
10. Prov 30 (sayings of Agur) omitted
11. A note on MP on July 26th states that Dan 13 is read until the end of Susanna, omitting Bel & the dragon; no Dan 14, Prov 30 [left out earlier] takes its place instead
12. Tobit is read in course on Sep 28th, break for Michael, continues on 30th, then on October 1st replacing Tobit 5 (angel travels with Tobit), and 6 (fish magic) are replaced with excised Exodus 6 minus genealogy and Joshua 20 (appointment of the cities of refuge);Tobit 7 picks up on MP of the 2nd.  Joshua 22 (Joshua’s instructions to the Reubenites) replaces Tobit 8 (exorcism) at EP on 2nd
13. The note on Ecclesiasticus 46 seems to indicate that the last verse is left off, the one speaking of Samuel’s prophecy after death.
14. Isaiah begins on EP of December 23 with the ending of Baruch

In summary, we see a few things going on here. There’s a continued curtailing of the law which, again, seems to focus on descriptions of ritual worship. We also see some consistent moves against genealogical material and the mass listings of tribes and people and foreign places. Some of the more objectionable material is dropped from Job and from the apocryphal narratives.

I’ll unpack some of the implications of these cuts in another post (lest this one get hideously long…).

There is an interesting trend when we look at the provision of proper lessons for the Daily Office lectionaries between 1549 and 1559.

In the 1549 BCP, there are twelve fixed-feast days that receive proper lessons within the kalendar; these days are identified in the previous post.  Too, within the BCP’s mass sets, there are an additional 10 moveable-feast days with proper lessons, all related to Easter. One of the key changes is the replacement of the OT lessons in Holy Week with Lamentations:

• Wednesday EP: Lam 1
• Thursday MP/EP: Lam 2/Lam 3
• Friday MP/EP: [Gen 22/Isa 53]
• Saturday MP: Lam 4-5

The 1552 book did away with the instructions hidden in the mass sets. Instead, it offered a table before the kalendar that established what the particular days were that received their own propers. It follows the liturgical year and begins with Christmas, the first feast of the church year receiving a proper.  There were no new additions between the 1549 and the 1549 and only a few changes.

One was Christmas. In the 1549 BCP, two masses were provided for Christmas, this first using the Luke 2 Gospel, the second the John 1; Matthew 1 was the reading at Christmas MP. This fits with standard medieval lectionary practice which appointed Matthew 1 for Christmas Eve (day), Luke 2 for the first two masses of Christmas, and John 1 for the third. The 1552 retains only the second service, drops Matthew 1 and shifts Luke 2 to Christmas MP.

The other major change was the suppression of Lamentations during Holy Week. The new pattern looks like this:

• Wednesday EP: Hosea 13-14
• Thursday MP/EP: Daniel 9/Jeremiah 31
• Friday MP/EP: [Gen 22/Isa 53] (unchanged)
• Saturday MP: Zechariah 9

Lamentations was used in the first nocturn of the Sarum Breviary Night Office from Maundy Thursday through Holy Saturday; perhaps the suppression of the book in the 1552 BCP was due to too-close of a connection between Lamentations and the old rites of tenebrae.

The 1559 book was presented as substantially the 1552 book but with the addition of a new table of proper lessons. The pay-off here is that the kalendar was unchanged; Cranmer’s pattern of readings from the 1552 BCP was left untouched. Nevertheless, the proper tables presented quite a number of readings that reflect a whole new way of apportioning readings for feasts.

Two tables prefaced the kalendar in the 1559 BCP: a table of Sundays and a table of Holy Days. While conceptually distinct, they are sequentially linked. Evidently, someone had a list of the days needing lessons and a corresponding list of edifying chapters of the Scriptures.The Sundays of Advent begin with lessons from Isaiah. They proceed sequentially through 22 selected chapters from Isaiah, running from Advent 1 through Epiphany 5. Then, Septuagesima begins with Genesis. Genesis runs through the first half of Lent. Exodus is read through Passiontide and the first part of Easter Week. After a brief dip through Numbers, the majority of Easter is given to the selected reading of Deuteronomy with the final exhortation from Moses in 30-34 rounding of the Monday and Tuesday following Pentecost.  From there we head into the histories, take a very quick swing through the prophets, then, on the 21st Sunday after Trinity head into Proverbs. This is significant—we’ll remain in the Wisdom literature for the rest of the tables.

The Sunday table ends on the 26th Sunday after Trinity with Proverbs 17 and 19. Significantly, the first entry on the Holy Days table, St Andrew, receives only two OT lessons: Proverbs 20 and Proverbs 21. It continues the pattern of the previous literally without a hitch. From there things seem to proceed along fairly simple rules: 1) all former readings are retained. If a proper lesson was given in the 1552 book, it is retained here. 2) If an OT lesson was not provided for either MP or EP for any red-letter day, one is provided out of the sequential order.  So, saints’ days receive readings from the Wisdom Lit, the Easter weekdays receive Exodus readings, and the Ascension and Pentecost weekdays receive Deuteronomy.

Over all, 16 new days get added to the table; with OT readings for all plus the previous 21, that’s a lot of days with propers. the 1559 book doesn’t do anything about this large influx of material , nor does it account for the 32+ chapters that are now dropped out of the sequential reading by these new propers.

That’ll have to wait until the revision of 1561…

After some more research, I need to make some corrections and clarifications to some of the previous posts. Some items are things that I overlooked or didn’t notice before; others are items that now seem more significant in light of the trajectories I’m seeing. I’ll note the corrections here, then fold them into the posts where they belong as I have time.

On the 1549 Lectionary

I made two main errors in describing the 1549 Office Lectionary. The first  is not noting the compete absence of 1 & 2 Chronicles. These books are essentially a rewrite of the Samuel/Kings material, the key difference being the intense focus on worship and levitical activities. If anything, the omission of these two books furthers the trend that downplays Israelite worship and ceremonial.

The second error was failing to note that directions on the Office readings were included at points within the Collect/Epistle/Gospel propers for Masses through the year. In addition to clarifications on the lengths of some lessons, I discovered that the book appoints proper psalms at the Offices on Christmas, Easter Sunday, Ascension Day, and Pentecost. Furthermore, proper lessons are appointed for Wednesday in Holy Week until Easter Tuesday and for Ascension Day, Pentecost, and the morning of Trinity Sunday. Thus, it *does* provide for a limited number of proper lessons within the moveable section around Easter. It’s noteworthy, though, that in the main even these days don’t effect the OT lessons. In Holy Week, the OT lessons are preempted by the reading of Lamentations, but the Easter week, Ascension, and Pentecost propers are only for the NT lessons, maintaining the continuous reading of the OT. So—retaining as much of the OT as possible while still marking the days seems to be a key consideration.

In addition to the temporal days noted above, there are twelve other days that have appointed proper lessons. The in-course readings continue on the next day, so that no chapters are omitted.  Too, the OT cycle is disturbed as little as possible; of the twelve days, only 5 provide first (OT) lessons for MP & EP while a 6th (Innocents) gives only a proper first OT lesson in the morning, not the evening. The days are:

• Circumcision
• Epiphany
• Conversion of Paul (NT only)
• Philip & James (NT only)
• Barnabas (NT only)
• Nativity of John the Baptist
• Peter (NT only)
• All Saints
• Christmas
• Stephen (NT only)
• John (NT only)
• Inn (1 OT only)

Where NT only lessons are provided they are from Acts with the exception of John who receives his from Revelation.

Daniel’s chapters run to a total of 14. Canonical Daniel runs to 12 chapters indicating the inclusion of Susanna as ch 13 and Bel & the Dragon as ch 14.

On the 1552 Lectionary

I had said that I had found no changes to the Scriptures appointed between the 1549 and 1552 lectionaries. Upon further probing, I found some!

In the month of March, there are some oddities in the reading of Joshua. In the 1549 book, Joshua begins on the 15 at MP and continues sequentially through EP of the 26th. In the 1552 book, Joshua begins on the 15th at MP but the 16th heralds a shift… Joshua 3 is read at MP—and is repeated at EP! This arrangement will continue with the same chapters appointed for MP and EP until the 23rd where Joshua 10 is appointed at MP and Joshua 11 follows at EP. On the next day we have Joshua 12 at MP, then Joshua 20 at EP. The rest of the book finishes out regularly by EP of the 26th.

So, what’s happened is this: Joshua 13-19 has been excised. This is the section that describes in mind-numbing detail which families and clans of the Children of Israel get which cities and plots to boundary stones and such as they settle in the land.  However, dropping seven chapters would wreak havoc on the carefully constructed pattern for the rest of the year. In order to drop this section with a minimal impact to the cycle, the more overtly edifying historical chapters were recycled.

There is also some fancy-footing around Ezra and Nehemiah (referred to here as 1 and 2 Esdras). In the 1549 lectionary, Ezra begins at EP of May 29th and the two books are read straight through with Nehemiah 13 ending at EP of June 9th; Esther begins on the 10th. In the 1552 lectionary, 2 Kings 25 is reduplicated for EP on the 29th and Ezra begins at MP on the 30th.  Ezra 4 is appointed for both May 30th EP and June 1st MP. Ezra 5 is read at EP on June 1st, then chs 6-8 are duplicated at both MP and EP until Ezra 9 and 10 appear at MP and EP of June 5th. The subsequent reading of Nehemiah skips chs 2, 7, and 10-12. With these omissions, Nehemiah 13 falls at EP of June 9th; Esther begins on the 10th.

In short, Ezra is artificially expanded so as to skip the enumeration of peoples and tribes who returned from exile in Nehemiah. I do find odd the choice to skip ch 2 which is a narrative about the granting of permission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem; if anything I’d expect the dropping of ch 3 which details which people are to rebuild which sections of the wall.

Both of these changes (i.e., to Joshua and Nehemiah) are retained in the 1559 lectionary.

When we get to the Daily Office lectionary of the 1559 BCP, the lectionary takes its first major turn away from the lines laid down by Cranmer ten years before. Where the 1552 book had introduced proper lessons for several of the holy days, this book goes a far sight further and appoints lessons for all the Sundays of the year.

The Sunday lessons are quite interesting for what they do and don’t do. First, only two lessons are appointed for each Sunday, the OT lessons for Morning and Evening Prayer. Thus, the in-course reading of the NT is not disrupted. This ensures that edifying lessons are selected on the day when the greatest number of congregants will be present in church.

Second, it solidifies the place of the liturgical year by making it more visible. In contrast to the earlier books, a reader know needed to be aware of what Sunday they were approaching in order to correctly discern the reading.

Third, the OT lessons were apparently selected with the older lectionary system in mind to a degree. Lessons from Isaiah are selected from Advent through the Sundays after Epiphany. Then the lectionary starts with Genesis on Septuagesima. Selected lessons run until the middle of Lent where it shifts into Exodus. The Easter season gets bits from Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Sundays after Trinity quickly transition to the Historical books: after one Sunday of Joshua, and one of Judges it moves into 1 Samuel [nb: it’s listed as 1 Kings but you’ll note that it proceeds to 4 Kings indicating that their English Bible is following the Vulgate book naming conventions]. The Samuel-Kings complex is read through the 13 Sunday after Trinity when we make a turn into prophets. Select bits are read from Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, Micah, and Habakkuk. Then, at EP of the 21st Sunday after Trinity, it moves to Proverbs where it stays until the start of Advent.

In the old Office lectionary—whether we’re talking about the scheme of Ordo XIII or the Sarum Breviary—the summer was given over to History, Wisdom, and the Minor Prophets (plus Ezekiel). The 1559 system doesn’t follow that exactly, but makes general motions in that direction along with the classic placement of Genesis and Exodus with Pre-Lent and Lent. (The Old English students reading will note that Ælfric’s reading for Mid-Lent Sunday in the Lives of the Saints is actually a quick recap of Moses and the Exodus.)

Apparently, some of these selections were displeasing to the queen. On January 22nd, 1561 she sent a letter to her Ecclesiastical Commissioners requesting them: ” to peruse the order of the said lessons throughout the whole yere, and to cause some new calendars to be imprinted, whereby such chapters or parcells of less edification may be removed, and other more profitable may supply their roomes…” (Cardwell, Documentary Annals, 1.262). Given the date, such a request may not be entirely surprising: MP on the 19th was Gen 34 (the rape of Dinah and subsequent post-circumcision slaughtering of a town), MP on the 20th was Gen 36  (the genealogies of Esau and Edom), MP on the 21st was Gen 38 (Onan and Tamar’s seduction of her father-in-law Judah).

New kalendars were indeed drawn up by Parker (+Canterbury) and Grindal (+London) but only a three minor changes were made to the Sundays and Feast days; the major change was the restoration of a fair number of Sarum black-letter feast days. No change was made to the in course reading schedule that I know of. Indeed, a comparison of the 1552 and 1559 in-course schedule shows no changes whatsoever.

There is one other area where changes were made, though, and that’s in the Proper Lessons for Holy Days. As noted previously, readings—typically from Acts—were appointed as the second lesson at MP for some feast days in order that the passages about certain saints would be read on their days. What we see here is a far more thorough revision of how saints’ days were celebrated. The second lessons were left as printed in the in-course reading. This table changes the first lesson at MP and consistently appoints lessons from the Wisdom books: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,  Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, and Job in an oddly in course selection. (Feasts of Our Lord and the weekdays around Easter tend to get typological passages such as Gen 22—the sacrifice of Isaac—for Good Friday.)

The appearance of the Sunday table and the alterations to the Proper Lessons table may reflect a certain relaxing of the discipline of the lectionary. There was a certain easing of the Act of Uniformity around the selection of lessons and the introduction to the Second Book of Homilies (1562) allows clergy to:swap out readings at their discretion:

And where it may so chance some one or other Chapter of the Old Testament to fall in order to be read upon the Sundays or Holy days, which were better to be changed with some other of the New Testament of more edification, it shall be well done to spend your time to consider well of such Chapters before hand, whereby your prudence and diligence in your office may appear, so that your people may have cause to glorify God for you, and be the readier to embrace your labors, to your better commendation, to the discharge of your consciences and their own.

So—the original pattern laid down by Cranmer was kept for yearly in-course reading, but new options were available for Sundays, Holy Days, and cases where the lessons were seen as unfit for public consumption.

One final item to consider is the theological message of appointed Sunday readings. What did this say about what was to be the main public service on Sundays—the Mass or the Office? It’s a question that deserves more investigation but, to me, it looks like a move to either suggest a shift or to reinforce a practice that had already occurred.

Last time we talked about the 1549 and 1552 lectionaries and said that they were essentially the same. And it’s true, they were—in their basic framework. Were the 1552 headed in a different direction, though, is that it had a table before the kalendar-based table that was entitled: Proper Psalms and Lessons for divers Feasts and Days, at Morning and Evening Prayer.

Let’s recap briefly. The kalendar table gave two readings for each Office for every single day of the year. The system proceeding through the Scriptures in canonical order except when the order was broken by a feast. So—we need to note two things in particular. First, there are no psalms associated with this table. They weren’t needed because the monthly pattern had already been laid out in a previous preface and there was no need to reprint what had already been said. Second, a table of this kind can only designate lessons for feasts that fall on stable dates. And since several of the primary feasts of the Christian Year fall based on the fluid date of Easter, they cannot be represented by such a table.

These are the two limitations that the additional table in the 1552 book was trying to address. In some cases (especially the feasts of saints) the notes on replicate what is already provided in the kalendar table. In others, though, proper psalms are given that were not provided for in the kalendar table. Furthermore, lessons are given for certain non-fixed days. For example, a provision is introduced for the Wednesday before Easter—but it’s partial: “On Wednesday before Easter, at Evening Prayer. The first Lesson, Hosea 13, 14.” Of the four readings read on any given day, this table directs only a change in one for this occurrence. Only rarely are psalms and all four readings provided. For Trinity Sunday, for instance, we have only this: “On Trinity Sunday, at Morning Prayer. The first Lesson, Gen. 18. The second Lesson, Matt. 3.” (Nothing provided for Evening Prayer at all…)

Here are the “divers Feasts and Days” so appointed:

• Christmas Day
• St Stephen’s Day
• St John the Evangelist’s Day
• Innocents’ Day
• Circumcision Day
• Epiphany
• Wednesday before Easter
• Thursday before Easter
• Good Friday
• Easter Even
• Easter Day
• Monday in Easter Week
• Tuesday in Easter Week
• Ascension Day
• Whitsunday
• Trinity Sunday
• Conversion of St Paul
• St Barnabas Day
• St John Baptist’s Day
• St Peter’s Day
• All Saints Day

When you look at most of the readings appointed, they are more often than not the biblical texts that pertain to the particular saint on offer. The readings are proper so as to establish the biblical appearance of the saint.

Thus, this table introduced a tiny bit more of the liturgical year into the Daily Office Lectionary. More important, it introduced a precedent for a Temporal table to supplement the static Kalendar table.

Michael asked a question in a different venue about the Daily Office lectionaries of the various BCPs. This is a topic about which I have commented here on occasion and have been collecting notes until the time I have an opportunity to write on it more fully. However, the mood strikes to write a bit on the lectionary of the first two prayer books.

Official Statements

In the main, there is very little difference between the first book and the second. Indeed, there are no Scriptural differences that I can tell—there are only changes in how the days are entered in the kalendar and how the names of the books are rendered. The reading of Scripture between the two is identical. There are two places where the Daily Office lectionary is discussed. The first is in the initial preface that discusses the problem with the old way of doing things. It is a corruption of an originally better plan:

THERE was never any thing by the wit of man so well devised, or so surely established which (in continuance of time) hath not been corrupted : as (among other things) it may plainly appear by the Common Prayers in the Church, commonly called Divine Service : the first original and ground whereof, if a man would search out by the ancient Fathers, he shall find that the same was not ordained, but of a good purpose, and for a great advancement of godliness : for they so ordered the matter, that all the whole Bible (or the greatest part thereof) should be read over once in the year, intending thereby, that the Clergy, and specially such as were ministers of the congregation, should (by often reading and meditation of God’s word) be stirred up to godliness themselves, and be more able also to exhort other by wholesome doctrine, and to confute them that were adversaries to the truth. And further, that the people (by daily hearing of holy scripture read in the church) should continually profit more and more in the knowledge of God, and be the more inflamed with the love of his true religion. But these many years past, this godly and decent order of the ancient Fathers hath been so altered, broken, and neglected, by planting in uncertain stories, legends, responds, verses, vain repetitions, commemorations, and synodals, that commonly when any book of the Bible was begun, before three or four chapters were read out, all the rest were unread. And in this sort, the book of Isaiah was begun in Advent, and the book of Genesis in Septuagesima : but they were only begun, and never read through. After a like sort were other books of holy scripture used.

Thus, this preface lays out a fundamental principle: mass coverage on a yearly basis. Another preface describes the structure of what’s going on:

The Old Testament is appointed for the first Lessons at Matins and Evensong, and shall be read through every year once, except certain books and chapters which be least edifying,
and might best be spared, and therefore are left unread.

The New Testament is appointed for the second Lessons at Matins and Evensong, and shall be read over orderly every year thrice, beside the Epistles and Gospels ; except the Apocalypse, out of the which there be only certain Lessons appointed upon divers proper feasts.

And to know what Lessons shall be read every day, find the day of the month in the Calendar following ; and there ye shall perceive the books and chapters that shall be read for the Lessons, both at Matins and Evensong.

And here is to be noted, that whensoever there be any proper Psalms or Lessons appointed for any feast, movable or unmovable, then the Psalms and Lessons appointed in the Calendar shall be omitted for that time.

Ye must note also, that the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, appointed for the Sunday, shall serve all the week after, except there fall some feast that hath his proper.

This is also to be noted, concerning the leap years, that the 25th day of February, which in leap years is counted for two days, shall in those two days alter neither Psalm nor Lesson ;
but the same Psalms and Lessons which be said the first day, shall serve also for the second day.

Also, wheresoever the beginning of any Lesson, Epistle, or Gospel is not expressed, there ye must begin at the beginning of the chapter. [1552: And wheresoever is not expressed how far shall be read, there shall you read to the end of the chapter.]

Structure and Organization

Organizationally, the pattern is very simple. The books of the OT are read sequentially a chapter at a time except when certain major feasts intervene and receive their own readings. Case in point is the feast of the Circumcision on January 1—as a result the sequential read through beginning with Genesis 1 doesn’t begin until January 2nd.

So, MP (Morning Prayer) has two readings, the OT [Gen 1] and the Gospel+Acts [January 2 begins with Matthew 1]; EP (Evening Prayer) has two readings, the OT continuation from the morning [Gen 2] and the Epistles [Rom 1]. The fundamental rule is maximum coverage. If repetition happens, so be it. Case in point—Romans 2 is the appointed NT reading for the Circumcision at MP, and is then repeated in course  two days later as the NT reading for EP.

May 1st ends the first read through the New Testament Epistles—Jude is appointed on that day, on the next we begin again with Romans 1. The Apocalypse (as noted in the preface) is absent from the sequence. Likewise, the Gospels+Acts track of MP completes Acts 28 on May 2nd and Matthew 1 begins again the next day. The third NT read through is synchronized, Matthew 1 and Romans 1 beginning again together on August 31st. The cycle ends neatly and precisely on Dec 31 with Acts 28 and Jude.

Omissions

It then remains to note exactly what the ” except certain books and chapters which be least edifying” might actually be…

We’ve already noted the absence of the Apocalypse. This is the only omission from the New Testament. It appears in the NT readings appointed for the feast of John the Evangelist: MP gets Apoc. 1, EP gets Apoc 22. It also appears on All Saints: Apoc. 19 at EP.

Turning to the OT, things are a little more interesting. Because of the sequential lay out, I’ll move through sequentially, identifying dropped stitches or other items worthy of note:

• Gen 10 (genealogies of the the sons of Noah)
• Exodus 25-31 (these are the infinitely precise regulations around the construction of the tabernacle, describing how the tent and the vestments are to be made from costly fabrics, precious metals and gems, and how worship there is to be conducted.)
• All of Leviticus except 18-20 which largely is about sexual relations with some economic and ceremonial rules thrown in too.
• Numbers 1-9 (reckoning of Israel and disposition of the Levites, offering and worship rules)
• Oddly, Isaiah is removed from sequence. Jeremiah follows immediately after Ecclesiastes
• Mass omissions in Ezekiel; it’s easier to say what does remain than what doesn’t. What remains is Ezekiel 2-3, 5-7, 13-14, 18, 33-34.
• The Apocrypha begins with Tobit on October 5th immediately after the end of Malachi. However, the books read are (in order) Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Baruch. No Maccabees.
• Isaiah begins on November 28th.

Preliminary Reflections

A full study uis needed to think through the implications of what’s here, but let me make at least a few tentative comments regarding what I notice here.

Lack of Liturgical Year

It should be noted first of all, that there is a notable absence of the liturgical year as a structuring device. The movement of the readings is determined primarily by the civil calendar and the sequence of the books themselves. In one sense, this is helpful because it greatly aids the cause of coverage: it’s quite plain what you’ve read and what you haven’t. On the other hand, it suppresses the liturgical year’s role as a means of ordering Christian time.

There’s only one clear departure from this principle and one perhaps accidental one. The movement of Isaiah to the end of the year is intentional. The first preface notes the custom of reading Isaiah in Advent—this lectionary keeps the same principle. The only other possible concession to pre-Reformation custom is the appearance of the wisdom books of the Apocrypha in the Fall. It’s hard to say, though, if this was by plan or simply sequentially-induced coincidence.

Lack of Apocalyptic

With the suppression of the Apocalypse and Ezekiel, we loose much of the hardcore apocalyptic content of the canon. Yes, Daniel is still in there as is the little apocalypse of Isaiah. However, the heavily visual vignettes disappear. I’m not sure exactly why. Part of the concern might have been the persistent interpretation of apocalyptic symbols with reference to governments and rulers. In short, apocalyptic provides ready fodder for those who would use the Scriptures against their rulers; Cranmer may have been taking this option out of their hands. Another interesting possibility is that much of the visionary material in Ezekiel and Revelation  relates to worship, particularly heavenly worship. Was there a suppression of the rich ceremonial described in relation to the worship of God in these texts?

Lack of Worship Law

Much of the legal material of the Law was suppressed. This is not surprising given the tendencies of Radical Reformation groups to try to take these seriously and impose ancient Israelite law on the portions of Europe they held. What seems significant to me, though, is the particular targeting of the legislation around the construction and ceremonial of the Tabernacle. The description of the wealth to be used and the richness of the material is excised. Why? Was this through concern about Radical Reformation tendencies, or was it a suppression of a particular biblical attitude towards worship that might have been used to uphold “Romish” customs around vestment and ornaments in churches?

Given the suppression of apocalyptic worship in relation to suppression of the regulations around the Tabernacle, it seems likely that one of the aims of this lectionary was to downplay the visual and ceremonial aspects of worship—but more study would be required to prove this point.

Conclusion

In fine, this is an interesting lectionary. Its principle goal is coverage of Scripture and it does that well. The OT is read through every year, the NT three times. Readings are at least a chapter long and therefore could get lengthy depending on the chapter. There is a conspicuous absence of the liturgical year in its organization and the omission of certain texts seem to further downplay the scriptural witness to ceremonial worship.