Church of England Record Society – serie

`An invaluable source for ecclesiastical history... promises to be a highly important record series.' ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEWThis is the first of two volumes which reproduce manuscript and printed documents for the years 1603-1642. The articles issued by archbishops, bishops, archdeacons and others exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction have been frequently used by historians as evidence of the priorities and concerns of church government, but until now there has been no systematic examination of the structure and contents of articles, nor the relationship between sets issued bydifferent archbishops, bishops or archdeacons. These two volumes attempt to fill this gap.Volume 1, centring on the Church of James I, contains no less than sixty-six sets of articles, printed either in full or in collated form and includes injunctions or charges issued duringor after visitations. Volume 2 extends the same treatment to the Caroline Church up to the Civil War.KENNETH FINCHAM is lecturer in history at the University of Kent at Canterbury.

Texts expressing concerns and priorities of the church during the reign of Charles I.`Sets a standard of excellence which will gain the society a high reputation... Documents which have for much too long been inaccessible to ecclesiastical and social historians, and which they cannot afford to ignore.' JOURNAL OFECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY `An important sourcebook for research about early seventeenth-century religious and social history.' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT [Following on from the highly-praised first volume of visitation articles, covering the years 1603-25] This selection of articles and injunctions issued by archbishops, bishops, archdeacons, and other ecclesiastical ordinaries in the early Stuart church concentrates on the church of Charles I, from his accession in 1625 to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642. The volume traces the impact of Laudian reforms as well as the defensive reaction of the Church hierarchy in 1641-2. The range of churchmanship included is broad, stretchingfrom the articles and injunctions of Laudian enthusiasts such as bishops Wren and Montagu to those issued by Calvinist episcopalians such as Hall and Thornborough. The introduction places these texts in their historical and historiographical contexts, and an appendix lists all surviving sets of visitation articles for the years 1603-1642. The volume will be a valuable work of reference for anyone interested in the government and ideals of the early Stuartchurch.Dr KENNETH FINCHAMis Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Kent at Canterbury.

A essential reference work for the history of the Church of England and Anglican canon law.This volume is a major new scholarly edition of some of the most important sources in the history of the Anglican Church. It includes all the canons produced by the Church of England, from the opening of the Reformation parliamentin 1529 to 1947. Most of the material comes from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, among which the canons of 1529, 1603 and 1640, and Cardinal Pole's legatine constitutions of 1556, are of particular importance. Butthe volume also includes the first scholarly editions of the deposited canons of 1874 and 1879 and the proposed canons of 1947. In addition, it includes both the Irish canons of 1634 and the Scottish canons of 1636. The canons areaccompanied by a substantial number of supplementary texts and appendixes, illustrating their sources and development; Latin texts are accompanied by parallel English translations, and the editor provides a full scholarly apparatus, which is particularly valuable for its identification of the sources of the various canons. The texts are preceded by an extended introduction, which provides not only an up-to-date analysis of the framing and significance ofeach set of canons, but also critical discussions of the origins and development of canon law and the system of ecclesiastical courts. It is an essential work of reference for anyone interested in the history of the Church of England since the Reformation, or in Anglican canon law.GERALD BRAYis Anglican Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School, Samford University.

The life of a Victorian religious community, both within the privacy of the convent and in its work in the wider world, including front-line nursing.This book introduces readers to the life of a Victorian religious community, both within the privacy of the convent and in its work in the wider world, based on documents preserved by the Society of All Saints Sisters of the Poor.It begins by using the memoirs of first-generation members of the community, a colourful and human introduction to the Anglican 're-invention' of monastic life in the second half of the nineteenth century. The section on government includes the power struggles between the sisters and the religious establishment, and the community's determination to retain its identity after the death of the mother foundress. The sisters nursed with the newly-formed Red Cross in the Franco-Prussian War, work recorded in a diary which discusses the difficulties and dangers of Victorian front-line nursing. Most of all, the documents reveal the challenges and excitement of the struggle to establish awomen's community, to be unfettered in their work with the poor and suffering, and to govern themselves, in a world dominated by men largely hostile to their aspirations. SUSAN MUMM is lecturer in religious studies at the OpenUniversity, Milton Keynes.

Important texts in the Church's history collected together in one volume.This first miscellany volume to be published by the Church of England Record Society contains eight edited texts covering aspects of the history of the Church from the Reformation to the early twentieth century. The longest contribution is a scholarly edition of W.J. Conybeare's famous and influential article on nineteenth-century "Church Parties"; other documents included are the protests against Archbishop Cranmer's metropolitical powers of visitation, the petitions to the Long Parliament in support of the Prayer Book, and Randall Davidson's memoir on the role of the archbishop of Canterbury in the early twentieth century.Stephen Taylor is Professor in the History ofEarly Modern England, University of Durham.Contributors: PAUL AYRIS, MELANIE BARBER, ARTHUR BURNS, JUDITH MALTBY, ANTHONY MILTON, ANDREW ROBINSON, STEPHEN TAYLOR, BRETT USHER, ALEXANDRA WALSHAM

Insight into the minds and methods of 'godly' ministers - early nonconformists - who sought to modify the Elizabethan settlement of religion.At the heart of Elizabeth I's reign, a secret conference of clergymen met in and around Dedham, Essex, on a monthly basis in order to discuss matters of local and national interest. Their collected papers, a unique survival from the clandestine world of early English nonconformity, are here printed in full for the first time, together with a hitherto unpublished narrative by the Suffolk minister, Thomas Rogers, which throws a flood of light on similar, ifmore public, clerical activity in and around Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, during the same period. Taken together, the two texts provide an unrivalled insight into the minds and the methods of that network of 'godly' ministers whose professed aim was to modify the strict provisions of the Elizabethan settlement of religion, both by ceaseless lobbying and by practical example. The editors' introduction accordingly emphasizes the complex nature of the English protestant tradition between the Tudor mid-century and the accession of James I, as well as attempting to plot the politico-ecclesiastical developments of the 1580s in some detail. A comprehensive biographical register of the members of the Dedham conference, of the Bury St Edmunds lecturers, and of many other important names mentioned in the texts, completes the volume. PATRICK COLLINSON is Regius Professor of Modern History, University of Cambridge;JOHN CRAIG is associate professor at Simon Fraser University; BRETT USHER is an expert on Elizabethan clergy.

Daniel Wilson (1778-1858) was a prominent personality in the British administration of the Indian subcontinent during the mid-nineteenth century, as Anglican bishop of Calcutta from 1832 and the first metropolitan of India and Ceylon.Daniel Wilson (1778-1858) was a prominent personality in the British administration of the Indian subcontinent during the mid-nineteenth century, as Anglican bishop of Calcutta from 1832 and the first metropolitan of India and Ceylon. His episcopate coincided with the final decades of the British East India Company, and his vast diocese stretched from the Khyber Pass to Singapore. Under his leadership, the position of the Church of England in India was consolidated at a formational period for the nascent Anglican Communion, with the creation of new dioceses, the wide deployment of chaplains and missionaries, and an aggressive programme of church building in a colonial landscape dominated by temples and mosques.Wilson's private journal covers the second half of his episcopate, beginning with a day-to-day account of his furlough in England in 1845-46, and including his frequent, lengthy journeys on visitation to far-flung mission stations. It reveals the development of his missionary strategies, his relationships with political and ecclesiastical power-brokers, his attitudes to Hinduism and Islam, and his confidence in the blessings of European civilization. The journal also sheds light upon Wilson's evangelical piety and abhorrence of Tractarianism, as well as his attempts to discipline immoral and criminous chaplains who brought public scandal upon thechurch.ANDREW ATHERSTONE is Tutor in History and Doctrine at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and a member of Oxford University's Faculty of Theology and Religion.

The correspondence of William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645, provides revealing insights into his mind, methods and activities, especially in the 1630s, as he sought to remodel the church and the clerical estatein the three kingdoms.William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645, is a central figure in the history of seventeenth-century Britain. Laud's correspondence provides revealing insights into his mind, methods and activities, especially in the 1630s, as he sought to remodel the church and the clerical estate in the three kingdoms. The Further Correspondence of William Laud prints 223 letters, drawn from thirty-eight libraries and archives, which were not included in the nineteenth-century edition of his Works. It has real importance for our perception of Laud and the early Stuart church, greatly increasing the number of his letters for the 1620s and providing significant new information, such as the three earliest letters to his closest political ally, Thomas Wentworth, in 1630. Other correspondents include politicians such as Sir John Coke and Lord Keeper Coventry, the diplomat Sir William Boswell, numerous heads of colleges at both Oxford and Cambridge, and churchmen such as Bishops John Bridgeman of Chester and John Bramhall of Derry as well as Cyril Lucaris, Patriarch of Constantinople. A lengthy introduction assesses the waysin which these letters deepen our knowledge, broaden our understanding and refine our views of Laud's various roles, as chief ecclesiastical counsellor to Charles I, court politician and administrator, chancellor of Oxford University, and overseer of religious reformation in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland. An appendix lists all of Laud's correspondence in chronological order. Collectively, the letters attest to his extraordinary energy andtireless commitment to reform and point to the indelible impact that Laud made on his contemporaries.KENNETH FINCHAM is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Kent. He has written extensively on religion and politics in early modern Britain, including two monographs, Prelate as Pastor: the Episcopate of James I (1990) and, with Nicholas Tyacke, Altars Restored: the Changing Face of English Religious Worship 1547-c.1700 (2007); edited two collections of essays, The Early Stuart Church 1603-1642 (1993) and, with Peter Lake, Religious Politics in post-Reformation England (2006); and edited two volumes of Articles and Injunctions of the Early Stuart Church (1994-8) for the Church of England Record Society.

Contributes to a better understanding not only of ecclesiastical power and politics but of life in an élite household in seventeenth-century BritainThe Lambeth and Croydon Palace accounts for William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, represent the only extant record of the archiepiscopal household during his tenure in office. Spanning the period from December 1635 to January 1642, they offer a unique prism through which to view the highs and the lows of Laud's controversial career. They provide a wealth of new insights into his formal role, his private life and his personal habits, while at the same time casting new light on his associations with men and women from across the social hierarchy, including courtiers, privy councillors, merchants, MPs and, of course, the king. Yet the document itself, lost between 1642 and 1912 andnow housed in the National Archives, Kew, has almost entirely escaped the attention of modern scholars.This important manuscript is edited and analysed here in full for the first time. A lengthy introduction provides an overview of the ways in which the document brings to life both the household and its head, demonstrating how the household responded to its immediate social environment and the wider political context; interrogating the gifts and their givers to identify networks of people in social, political and religious terms; and, more generally, teasing out the relationship between material objects and political power. This is followed by a complete text of the manuscript, with contextual footnotes. Thus, the volume contributes to a deeper understanding not only of ecclesiastical power and politics, but of life in an élite household in seventeenth-century Britain.LEONIE JAMESis Lecturer in History at the University of Kent, Canterbury and author of 'This Great Firebrand': William Laud and Scotland, 1617-1645 (Boydell Press, 2017).

The Right Reverend Llewellyn Gwynne's diaries offer a unique insight into a period of change for the army, chaplains and the Church of England during a critical period of the First World War.Few men spent the whole of World War One serving in the British Expeditionary Force, from its initial deployment in August 1914 to its demobilization in February 1919. One who did was the Right Reverend Llewellyn Gwynne, the bishop of Khartoum. On leave in London in the summer of 1914, he persuaded the archbishop of Canterbury that his experience with troops in the Sudan made him an ideal candidate for a temporary commission as a chaplain. Gwynne went to France with a Hospital and then, in December 1914, was transferred to a Field Ambulance in the front line. During July 1915, he was summoned back to London to be told that he was now the Deputy Chaplain General and thus responsiblefor the oversight of all Anglican chaplains. An inveterate diarist, Gwynne kept a detailed record of his life as a unit chaplain and how he managed the transition to high office in the Army Chaplains' Department. The diaries arepreceded by an introduction that discusses the work and organisation of Anglican chaplains in the department and how Gwynne came to have the role in it that he did. Together, they offer a unique insight into a period of change forthe army, chaplains and the Church of England during a critical period of the war.The Rev. Dr PETER HOWSON is a Methodist Minister who had a career as an army chaplain before turning to research. He is the author of Muddling Through: The organisation of British army chaplaincy in the First World War and is the Secretary of the Society for Army Historical Research.

The third of four volumes, containing the edited texts, commentaries and source notes for each of the nearly nine hundred occasions of special worship including the development of national days of prayer during the two world wars,and a proliferation of nation-wide services for royal occasions.Since the sixteenth century, the governments and established churches of the British Isles have summoned the nation to special acts of public worship during periods of anxiety and crisis, at times of celebration, or for annual commemoration and remembrance. These special prayers, special days of worship and anniversary commemorations were national events, reaching into every parish in England and Wales, in Scotland, and in Ireland. They had considerable religious, ecclesiastical, political, ideological, moral and social significance, and they produced important texts: proclamations, council orders, addresses and - in England and Wales, and in Ireland - prayers or complete liturgies which for specified periods supplemented or replaced the services in the Book of Common Prayer. Many of these acts of special worship and most of the texts have escaped historical notice. National Prayers: Special Worship since the Reformation, in four volumes, provides the edited texts, commentaries and source notes for each of the nearly nine hundred occasions of special worship, and for each of the annual commemorations.The third volume, Worship for National and Royal Occasions in the United Kingdom 1871-2016, reveals the considerable changes in special worship during modern times. These include new subjects for special prayers, many services for royal events, wartime national days of prayer, and developing co-operation among leaders of the main British churches, together with transformations in the styles of worship in both the Church of England and the Church of Scotland

A complete transcription of the Lambeth Library MS 1126.Lambeth Library MS 1126 was compiled, probably in late 1663, on behalf of Gilbert Sheldon, the new archbishop of Canterbury, as a conspectus of the parishes of Canterbury diocese and the archiepiscopal peculiars. A number of entries contain illuminating comments on the religious complexion of the parish, relating to both its incumbents and leading laity, of a type not found elsewhere for the 1660s. Its value for historians is twofold: first, the light it throws on the restoration of the episcopalian Church of England in the early 1660s. Notwithstanding the Act of Uniformity enforced at St Bartholomew's Day 1662, it is abundantly clear from this Catalogue that the Church of England remained divided and unsettled in the parishes, at least in Canterbury diocese. Second, the Catalogue is of interest for the administrative processes it records, as an incoming archbishop, necessarily non-resident, sought to become acquainted with the clergy and prominent laity in the parishes, information which was then updated over the next twenty years. In this respect, the Catalogue adumbrates the more routine and fuller collection of information about the parishes in the eighteenth-century church. A few of the comments in the Catalogue have already been referred to by historians, but this complete transcription has allowed in-depth analysis and concludes that Canterbury diocese must have experienced many more ejections of clergy than has previously been recognized, pointing to a need for more detailed examination of events in other dioceses.

During the 1640s Parliament carried out a purge of the parish clergy, ejecting over 2000 ministers from their livings. The proceedings of the purge in Essex in 1644-45 are recorded in two manuscripts: British Library, Additional MS 5829 (well known to scholars but not previously published), and University of Leicester Library, MS 31. The latter manuscript has only recently been recognised as a contemporary record of the purge of the clergy of Essex which was thought to have been lost in the eighteenth century. It is shown to be a sibling of the books which record similar events in Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. These manuscripts illustrate the pressures which had built up within the Church at parish level during the 1630s and during the first Civil War in a county where puritanism was particularly strong. Comparison of the content of the two MSS enables a study of how the purge was conducted and its results. It shows that a significant number of the victims were able to retain their livings, and suggests how this came about.

A history of the annual British and Irish state and religious anniversaries and occasions of special worship from the sixteenth century to the present.Since the sixteenth century, the governments and established churches of Britain and Ireland have summoned their nations to special acts of public worship during crises, wars and times of celebration, or for annual days of commemoration and remembrance. These special prayers, special days of worship and religious anniversaries were national events, reaching into every parish. They had considerable religious, ecclesiastical, political, ideological, moral and social significance, and they produced important texts: proclamations, council orders, addresses and - in England and Wales, and in Ireland - prayers or complete liturgies which temporarily supplemented or replaced the services in the Book of Common Prayer, and most recently in Common Worship. National Prayers. Special Worship since the Reformation in four volumes, provides the edited texts, commentaries and source notes for over 900 occasions of special worship and for each of the annual commemorations.The final volume, Anniversary Commemorations, Additional Material and Indices, 1533-2023, describes the orders and services for the nine early modern state anniversaries, including Accession day, Gowrie day, Gunpowder Treason day, Restoration day, and commemoration of Charles I's execution and the Great Fire of London, and for the modern state anniversaries of Armistice day and Remembrance Sunday. It includes materials on particular occasions of special worship for 2016-23, including the Covid pandemic, commemoration of Prince Philip, platinum jubilee and funeral of Elizabeth II, and coronation of Charles III. Appendices provide supplementary material for the whole period of the edition, including extensive additions to the list of particular occasions of special worship observed from 1533 to 1660. An index of biblical references and a general index are provided for all four volumes of the edition.

One of the most outstanding diarists in modern Britain, the leading churchman and public figure Herbert Hensley Henson (1863-1947) commenced his Journal in Birkenhead in 1885, while tutoring the indolent son of William Rathbone, a Liverpool shipping magnate. This extensively annotated edition publishes the first four volumes in full. It covers his experiences in a ship-building town hit hard by the industrial depression of the mid-1880s, and mired in religious sectarianism; his return to All Souls College, Oxford, and establishment of the Oxford Laymen's League for the defence of the Church, while agonising over whether he should become ordained; and his work at the Oxford House, the Anglican settlement in Bethnal Green, in combatting the influence of secularism. The value of the Journal from its earliest volumes is evident in its incisive commentary on people, places, and events, its searching reflections on Christianity and the authority of the Church, and in its fine literary style.

Rogers's diary offers a direct and personal expression of the meaning of English Puritanism on the eve of the civil war.Samuel Rogers began his diary just before his twenty-first birthday. He was a godly minister from godly stock - his grandfather, father and uncle were all part of the Puritan Movement - and his diary begins as Samuel finishes hiseducation at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Samuel expresses his intense loneliness as chaplain to the unsatisfactory Dennys of Bishops Stortford, and his efforts to obtain comfort from the nearby godly community - including visitsto Wethersfield, where his father was lecturer. His isolation eases, and his diary ends, shortly after he is appointed chaplain to the family of Lady Mary de Vere, whose contacts with prominent members of the godly he details in his pages. The diary's unrivalled view, from a day-to-day puritan perspective, of what the 1630s were like for a godly minister 'in the battlefield' makes it a valuable record. For Rogers, everything is of religious relevance: in addition to the social detail of the diary there is also a real and persuasive revelation of the spiritual meaning of Puritanism.

C19 diary, correspondence and sermons cast light on the Evangelical movement and its relationship with the Church of England.Between the end of the eighteenth century and the end of the nineteenth evangelicalism came to exercise a profound influence over British religious and social life - an influence unmatched by even the Oxford movement. The four texts published here provide different perspectives on the relationship between evangelicalism and the Church during that time, illustrating the diversity of the tradition. Hannah More's correspondence during the Blagdon controversyilluminates the struggles of Evangelicals at the end of the eighteenth century, as she attempted to establish schools for poor children. The charges of Bishops Ryder and Ryle in 1816 and 1881 respectively reveal the views of Evangelicals who, at either end of the nineteenth century, had a forum for expressing their views from the pinnacle of the church establishment. The major text, the undergraduate diary of Francis Chavasse [1865-8], also written by a future bishop, provides a fascinating insight into the mind of a young Evangelical at Oxford, struggling with his conscience and his calling. Each text is presented with an introduction and notes.Contributors ANDREW ATHERSTONE, MARK SMITH, ANNE STOTT, MARTIN WELLINGS.MARK SMITH teaches at King's College, London; STEPHEN TAYLOR is Reader in Eighteenth Century History, University of Reading.

Extracts from journals, diaries and official guidelines give a full picture of the role of the Victorian Deaconness.The revival of religious orders in the mid-nineteenth century opened up a field of Christian ministry for women distinct from previous types of church work, which had been voluntary, part-time, and necessarily limited by contemporary identification of women with the domestic sphere. The Deaconess Movement posed a threat to the accepted gender order of Victorian society, creating new spheres of activity and roles of authority for women outside the home.This volume, bringing together documents on the Movement from a variety of unpublished archives, offers an introduction to a neglected aspect of women's involvement in official Church ministry through the women's own voices.It provides a coherent illustration of the circumstances which fostered the revival of an ancient order of ministry for women, through the first-hand experience of some of the individuals who were involved in the early years. Socially divisive, theologically controversial, the claims of women to be part of an order analogous to that of the male diaconate formed the basis of their active participation in the ecclesiastical hierarchy right up to the presentday.

Provides for a selection of texts, together with scholarly introductions, from one of the world's great private libraries, covering a period from Elizabeth I to the Church's involvement in homosexual law reform.This volume of the Church of England Record Society, published in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the foundation of Lambeth Palace Library, is a tribute to the value of one of the world's great private libraries to the scholarly community and its importance for the history of the Church of England in particular. Thirteen historians, who have made considerable use of the Library in their research, have selected texts which together offer an illustration of the remarkable resources preserved by the Library for the period from the Reformation to the late twentieth century. A number of the contributions draw on the papers of the archbishops of Canterbury and bishops of London,which are among the most frequently used collections. Others come from the main manuscript sequence, including both materials originally deposited by Archbishop Sancroft and a manuscript published with the help of the Friends of Lambeth Palace Library in 2007. Another makes use of the riches to the papers of the Lambeth Conferences. Each text is accompanied by a substantial introduction, discussing its context and significance, and a full scholarly apparatus. The themes covered in the volume range from the famous dispute between Archbishop Grindal and Queen Elizabeth I, through the administration of the Church by Archbishop Laud and Archbishop Davidson's visit to the Western Frontduring World War I, to involvement of the Church in homosexual law reform.

This volume provides a rich new resource for exploring religion and daily life in Interregnum and Restoration England.Thomas Larkham kept his 'diary' - an account book with spiritual musings and autobiographical notes - throughout his time as Vicar of Tavistock, Devon, and on into his days as a nonconformist apothecary in the town. Only fragmentshave appeared in print before. This edition provides a new resource for exploring religion and daily life in Interregnum and Restoration England.Larkham's life captures the twists and turns a clerical career could take in the 17th century. He went to New England in the 1630s, then came back and joined the Parliamentary army. As Vicar of Tavistock in the 1650s, he took a controversial path. He preached to the parish at large but restricted baptism and communion to an ever smaller circle. Local resentment erupted in a no-holds-barred pamphlet war. A watershed came in 1660. Larkham scored a thick black line in his diary under these words: 'The Lords day Oct. 21. I left mine imployment of preaching in feare & upon demand of the Patron'. The entries that follow show how his fortunes changed as a result - prisoner, fugitive preacher, Tavistock apothecary.The diary illuminates the private side of a turbulent public life. It is intriguing both for what it includes and for what has to be read between the lines. The edition also includes two rare tracts - Naboth and Judas hanging himselfe - from the vociferous debate his activities provoked. A substantial introduction sets Larkham and his diary in context.SUSAN HARDMAN MOORE is Senior Lecturer in Divinity at the University of Edinburgh.

Letters of an important clergyman that provide a well-informed and lively commentary upon the religion, politics and society of the time.The letters of Theophilus Lindsey (1723-1808) illuminate the career and opinions of one of the most prominent and controversial clergymen of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His petitions for liberalism within the Church of England in 1772-3, his subsequent resignation from the church and his foundation of a separate Unitarian chapel in London in 1774 all provoked profound debate in the political as well as the ecclesiastical world. His chapel became a focal point for the theologically and politically disaffected and during the 1770s and early 1780s attracted the interest of many critics of British policy towards the American colonies. Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Priestley and Richard Price were among Lindsey's many acquaintances.

The first of four volumes, containing the edited texts, commentaries and source notes for each of the nearly nine hundred occasions of special worship and for each of the annual commemorations in Engand and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.Since the sixteenth century, the governments and established churches of the British Isles have summoned the nation to special acts of public worship during periods of anxiety and crisis, at times of celebration or for annual commemoration and remembrance. These special prayers, special days of worship and anniversary commemorations were national events, reaching into every parish in England and Wales, in Scotland and in Ireland. They had considerable religious, ecclesiastical, political, ideological, moral and social significance, and they produced important texts: proclamations, council orders, addresses and - in England, Wales and Ireland - prayers or complete liturgies which for specified periods supplemented or replaced the services in the Book of Common Prayer. Many of these acts of special worship and most of the texts have escaped historical notice. National Prayers. Special Worship since the Reformation, in four volumes, provides the edited texts, commentaries and source notes for each of the nearly nine hundred occasions of special worship and for each of the annual commemorations.The first volume, SpecialPrayers, Fasts and Thanksgivings in the British Isles 1533-1688, has an extended Introduction to the four volumes and a consolidated list of all the occasions of special worship. It contains texts and commentaries which revealthe origins of special occasions of national worship during the Reformation in both England and Scotland, the development of fast days and wartime prayers later in the sixteenth century, and what we know about the origins of special national worship in Ireland. It also shows how special worship became a recurrent focus and expression of religion and political contention during the seventeenth century.Edited by Natalie Mears, Alasdair Raffe, Stephen Taylor and Philip Williamson (with Lucy Bates).