Protestantism in England From the Times of Henry VIII - James Aitken Wylie

communion, and that the service should be in
English instead of Latin. To enable a people long
unused to worship to take part in it with decency
and with the understanding, he prepared a Liturgy
in order that all might offer their adoration to the
Supreme, and that that adoration should be
expressed in the grandest and most august forms of
speech. For the magnificent shows of Rome,
Cranmer substituted the sublime emotions of the
human soul. How great an advance intellectually as
well as spiritually!
In furtherance of this great end, two
committees were appointed by the king, one to
prepare a Communion Service, and the other a
Book of Common Prayer, or Liturgy. The
committees met in the royal palace of Windsor, and
spent the most of the summer of 1548 in
deliberations on this important matter. The notes
prepared by Cranmer, evidently with the view of
being submitted to the committee as aids to 'inquiry
and guides in discussion, show us the gradual
advance of Cranmer and his fellow Reformers to
the conclusions they ultimately reached.
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