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Thanksgiving Service 367
Estates . . . did ordain, That in all times and ages to come the
fifth of August should be solemnly kept with prayers, preachings,
and thanksgiving for the benefit, discharging all work, labour, and
other occupations upon the said day, which might distract the people in
any sort from those pious exercises.''
There seems no reason to think that any form of service
was issued in Scotland. The form before us seems to have been
put forth by royal authority in England in 1603, immediately
after the union of the crowns, but before the revision of the Prayer
Book which succeeded the Hampton Court Conference. The
5th of November was appointed a day of thanksgiving in
England for the failure of the Gunpowder Plot, and a service
was set forth for it in 1606. After the Restoration the service
for Gunpowder Treason, together with those for King Charles the
Martyr Qoth Jan.) and the Restoration (29th May), were ordered
by Royal Proclamation to be printed with the Prayer Book. This
was done, and the days were observed, until 1859, but the
Gowrie Conspiracy service passed into obscurity with the Great
Rebellion.
The service consists of Morning Prayer, Litany and the first
part of the Communion Service printed at length as in the Prayer
Book of the time, but with only the minimum of rubrics, the
proper psalms, lessons and collects being inserted in their respective
places, two prayers for alternative use being added at the end.
In the threadbare rubrics puritan influence is manifest in the substitution
of the word '
minister '
for '
the latter occurs in the Prayer
'
priest
in all
places where
Book of the time. This had
in certain unauthorised versions of
already been done in England
the Prayer Book which had been issued by the puritan party
during the last half of the reign of Elizabeth, but it is surprising
to find it in a form set forth by authority just before the
Hampton Court Conference, and it may be suggested that the
reason is to be sought in Scottish influence rather than in that of
the English nonconformists. The three psalms used are not
definitely prescribed, but are to be selected from the seven provided.
With this arrangement we may contrast that of the service for
Gunpowder Treason, where the psalms are definitely
fixed. As
in the latter service, there are the special versicles and responses
for the King among those before the collects. As in Prayer
Books before 1604, there is no suffrage
for the Royal Family
in the Litany, but before the conclusion of the Litany there is the
prayer In the time of any common plague
or sickenesse. The Lessons