Besides the famous and far-spreading Use of Sarum, other Uses, more local and less known, grew up in various English dioceses. In virtue of a recognized diocesan independence, bishops were able to regulate or alter their ritual, and to add special masses or commemorations for use within the limits of their jurisdiction. The better known and the more distinctive of these Uses were those of York and Hereford, but we also find traces of or allusions to the Uses of Bangor, Lichfield, Lincoln, Ripon, St. Asaph, St. Paul's, Wells and Winchester. The Eucharistic service was contained in the volume called the Missal (q.v.), as the ordinary choir offices were contained in the volume known as the Breviary (q.v.).
The Anglican liturgy of Reformation and post-Reformation times is described under the heading of PRAYER, BOOK OF COMMON, but a brief description may be added here of the liturgies of other reformed churches. The liturgy of the Scottish Episcopal Church in nearly its present form was compiled by Scottish bishops in 1636 and imposed—or, to speak more accurately, attempted to be imposed—upon the Scottish people by the royal authority of Charles I. in 1637. The prelates chiefly concerned in it were Spottiswood, bishop of Glas gow; Maxwell, bishop of Ross; Wedderburn, bishop of Dunblane ; and Forbes, bishop of Edinburgh. Their work was approved and revised by certain members of the English episcopate, especially Laud, archbishop of Canterbury; Juxon, bishop of London ; and Wren, bishop of Ely. This liturgy has met with varied fortune and has passed through several editions. The present Scottish office dates from 1764. It is now used as an alternative form with the English communion office in the Scottish Episcopal Church. The general arrangement of its parts approximates more closely to that of the first book of Edward VI. than to the present Anglican Book of Common Prayer. (See Bishop J. Dowden, The Annotated Scottish Communion Service, 1884.) American Liturgy.—The Prayer Book of "the Protestant Episcopal Church" in America was adopted by the general con vention of the American church in 1789. It is substantially the same as the English Book of Common Prayer, but among impor tant variations we may name the following: (a) The arrangement and wording of the order for Holy Communion rather resembles that of the Scottish than that of the English liturgy, especially in the position of the oblation and invocation immediately after the words of institution. (b) The Magnificat, Nunc dimittis and greater part of Benedictus were disused; but these were rein stated among the changes made in the Prayer Book in 1892.
(c) Ten selections of Psalms are appointed for use as alternatives for the Psalms of the day. (d) Gloria in excelsis is allowed as a substitute for Gloria Patri at the end of the Psalms at morning and evening prayer. In addition to these there are many more both important and unimportant variations from the English Book of Common Prayer.
The Prayer Book in use in the Irish portion of the United Church of England and Ireland was the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, but after the disestablishment of the Irish church several changes were introduced into it by a synod held at Dublin in 187o. These changes included such im portant points as: (a) the excision of all lessons from the Apoc rypha, (b) of the rubric ordering the recitation of the Athanasian Creed, (c) of the rubric ordering the vestments of the second year of Edward VI., (d) of the form of absolution in the office for the visitation of the sick, (e) the addition to the Catechism of a ques tion and answer bringing out more clearly the spiritual character of the real presence.
The Presbyterian churches of Scotland at present possess no liturgy properly so called. Certain general rules for the conduct of divine service are contained in the Directory for the Public Worship of God agreed upon by the assembly of divines at Westminster, with the assistance of commissioners from the Church of Scotland, approved and estab lished by an act of the general assembly, and by an act of parlia ment, both in 1645. In 1554 John Knox had drawn up an order of liturgy closely modelled on the Genevan pattern for the use of the English congregation to which he was then ministering at Frankfort. On his return to Scotland this form of liturgy was adopted by an act of the general assembly in 156o and became the established form of worship in the Presbyterian church until the year 1645, when the Directory of Public Worship took its place. Herein regulations are laid down for the conduct of public worship, for the reading of Scripture and for extempore prayer before and after the sermon, and in the administration of the sac rament of baptism and the Lord's Supper, for the solemnization of marriage, visitation of the sick apd burial of the dead, for the observance of days of public fasting and public thanksgiving, together with a form of ordination and a directory for family worship.