User:Pbritti/sandbox/The Order for the Communion

The Order for the Communion was an 1548 liturgical text produced by Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, for use within the Latin Mass. Its use was legally mandated throughout the Church of England by royal proclamation of Edward VI from Easter, 1 April 1548 until Whitsunday, 9 June 1549, when it was replaced by first Book of Common Prayer. The Order for the Communion marked an increased implementation of the English Reformation into the Church of England's worship and anticipated the development of a eucharistic theology distinct from that of the Catholic Church.

Elements of The Order of the Communion were in line with Continental Reformed Protestantism, particularly Hermann von Wied's Lutheran liturgy and Swiss theology. The Order of the Communion introduced English into the Mass, which had previously exclusively been celebrated in Latin. In line with an act passed by Parliament in 1547, the text provided for communion under both kinds. It also saw Cranmer impose elements of his Reformed theology of the Eucharist that had been restrained under Henry VIII.

Though short-lived, The Order of the Communion bore many similarities with the 1549 prayer book that replaced it; the compilation of the 1549 prayer book may have been largely completed by the time that the 1548 text was implemented. Portions of The Order of the Communion remain present in currently used editions of the Book of Common Prayer as used throughout Anglicanism, including the 1979 prayer book of the Episcopal Church in the United States.

Background
In the midst of the Protestant Reformation, King of England Henry VIII came into conflict with the papacy over the issue of receiving an annulment from his wife, Catherine of Aragon. Thomas Cranmer, then a priest, was sent to Spain as a diplomat in 1527 before becoming part of a group of theologians organized to secure Henry's annulment. In 1532, Cranmer was sent on a diplomatic mission to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. In Nuremberg, Cranmer witnessed Lutheranism first hand and took an interest in Lutheran forms of worship. During this trip, Cranmer married Margarete, the niece of local Reformation figure Andreas Osiander. This act was forbidden for priests in England at the time and served as an indication that Cranmer was becoming swayed by Protestant principles.

Shortly afterwards, he was recalled to England by Henry, where the king had selected Cranmer to become the next Archbishop of Canterbury to lead Church of England. After his installation in 1533, Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell aided in Henry's initiation of the English Reformation and the Church of England's split from the Catholic Church. Cranmer and Cromwell both expressed Protestant theology that exceeded the bounds of Henry's willingness to break with medieval doctrine. The Six Articles of 1539 expressed Henry's unwillingness to embrace Lutheran-style reforms and, with Cromwell's execution, Cranmer was theologically alone. These setbacks did not prevent Cranmer from producing an English-language Exhortation and Litany–the first authorized Church of England liturgical text in the vernacular–in 1544.

In August 1546, French envoy Claude d'Annebault was received in England to much fanfare and brought to the king at Hampton Court Palace. Cranmer–and possibly Henry–were optimistic that the King of France, Francis I, would be receptive towards an agreement to reform the Latin Mass. At the ambassador's departure, Cranmer also left the king's court to begin drafting such a eucharistic liturgy. Simultaneously, Cranmer's personal theology of the eucharist increasingly shifted from the Lutheran views that he had developed through the 1530s towards more reformed 'Swiss' forms. Cranmer's work on revision to accommodate this proposed agreement with France was the point of origin for what would eventually become The Order for the Communion and the 1549 Book of Common Prayer.