COMMON ORDER, BOOK OF, sometimes called The Order of Geneva or Knox's Liturgy, a directory for public wor ship in the Reformed Church in Scotland. In 1557 the Scottish Protestant lords in council enjoined the use of the English Com mon Prayer, i.e., the Second Book of Edward VI. Meanwhile, at Frankfort, among British Protestant refugees, a controversy was going on between the upholders of the English liturgy and the French Reformed Order of Worship, respectively. By way of compromise John Knox and other ministers drew up a new liturgy based upon earlier Continental Reformed services, which was not deemed satisfactory, but which on his removal to Geneva in 1556 he published for the use of the English congregations in that city. The Geneva book made its way to Scotland, and was used here and there by Reformed congregations. Knox's return in 1559 strengthened its position, and in 1562 the General As sembly enjoined its use as the "Book of Our Common Order" in "the administration of the Sacraments and solemnization of marriages and burials of the dead." In 1564 a new and enlarged edition was printed in Edinburgh, and the Assembly ordered that "every Minister, exhorter and reader" should have a copy and use the Order contained therein not only for marriage and the sacraments but also "in Prayer," thus ousting the hitherto permissible use of the Second Book of Edward VI. at ordinary service.
The rubrics of the Scottish portion of the book are somewhat stricter, and, indeed, one or two of the Geneva rubrics were made more absolute in the Scottish emendations; but no doubt the Book of Common Order is best described as a discretionary liturgy. The Westminster Directory which superseded the Book of Common Order, like it, enjoined interment "without any cere mony," such being stigmatized as "no way beneficial to the dead and many ways hurtful to the living." Civil honours may, how ever, be rendered.
Between 1606 and 1618 various attempts were made under English and Episcopal influence, by assemblies afterwards de clared unlawful, to set aside the Book of Common Order. The efforts of James I., Charles I. and Archbishop Laud proved fruit less; in 1637 the reading of Laud's draft of a new form of service based on the English prayer book led to riots in Edin burgh and to general discontent in the country. The General Assembly of Glasgow in 1638 abjured Laud's book and took its stand again by the Book of Common Order, an act repeated by the assembly of 1639, which also demurred against innovations proposed by the English separatists, who objected altogether to liturgical forms, even to the Lord's Prayer. The following years witnessed a counter attempt to introduce the Scottish liturgy into England, especially for those who in the southern kingdom were inclined to Presbyterianism. This effort culminated in the Westminster Assembly of divines (1643), at which six commis sioners from the Church of Scotland were present, and joined in the task of drawing up a Common Confession, Catechism and Directory for the three kingdoms. The General Assembly of after careful study approved the new order. An act of Assembly on Feb. 3, and an act of parliament on Feb. 6 ordered its use in every church, and henceforth, though there was no act setting aside the Book of Common Order, the Westminster Directory was of primary authority. The act of parliament recognizing the Directory was annulled at the Restoration and the book has never since been acknowledged by a civil authority in Scotland. But General Assemblies have frequently recommended its use, and worship in Presbyterian churches is largely conducted on the lines of the Westminster Assembly's Directory.
Contemporary Scottish worship, during the period (1564-1645) when the Bock of Common Order was in use, is described by W. Cowper, Bishop of Galloway, in his Seven Days' Conference Between a Catholic Christian and a Catholic Roman (1615), and A. Henderson in The Government and Order of the Church of Scotland (1641).