A smouldering and growing Puritan discontent with the Prayer Book, suppressed with a firm hand under Queen Elizabeth, burst out into a flame on the accession of King James I. in 1603. A petition called the millenary petition, because signed by no less than i,000 ministers, was soon presented to him, asking, among other things, for various alterations in the Prayer Book and specifying the alterations desired. As a result the king summoned a conference of leading Puritan divines, and of bishops and other leading Anglican divines, which met under his presidency at Hamp ton Court in Jan. 1604. After both sides had been heard, certain alterations were determined upon and were ordered by royal authority, with the general assent of Convocation. These altera tions were not very numerous nor of great importance, but such as they were they all went in the direction of catholicizing rather than of puritanizing the Prayer Book; the one exception being the substitution of some chapters of the canonical scriptures for some chapters of the Apocrypha, especially of the book of Tobit. Alter ations were introduced into the service for the private baptism of children in houses, with the object of doing away with lay baptism and securing the administration by the minister of the parish, or some other lawful minister; and the concluding portion of the Catechism, consisting of 1 r questions on the sacraments, was now added.
The next important stage in the history of the Prayer Book was its total suppression in 1645 for a period of 15 years, "the Directory for the Public Worship of God in the Three Kingdoms" being established in its place. The restoration of King Charles II. in 166o brought with it toleration at once. Nonconformists pressed upon the king, either that the Prayer Book should not be re-introduced, or that if it were re-introduced, features which they objected to might be removed. The result was that a con ference was held in 1661, known from its place of meeting as the Savoy Conference. The objections raised from the Noncon formist point of view were numerous and varied, but they were thoroughly discussed between the first meeting on April 15 and the last on July 24, 1661; the bishops agreeing to meet the Puritan wishes on a few minor points but on none of fundamental importance. Later in the year, between Nov. 20 and Dec. 20, Convocation assembled and undertook the revision of the Prayer Book. In the earlier part of the following year the book so revised came before parliament. No amendment was made in it in either house and it finally received the royal assent on May 19, 1662, being annexed to an Act of Uniformity which provided for its coming into general and compulsory use on St. Bartholomew's Day (Aug. The alterations thus introduced were very numerous, amounting to many hundreds and many of them were more important than any which had been introduced into the Prayer Book since 1552. Their general tendency was distinctly in a Catholic as opposed to a Puritan direction, and the 2,000 Puritan incumbents who va cated their benefices on St. Bartholomew's Day rather than accept the altered Prayer Book bear eloquent testimony to that fact. Among the important alterations, the following may be named as of special interest.
(a) The preface "It bath been the wisdom of the Church of England," etc., composed by Sanderson, bishop of Lincoln, was prefixed to the Prayer Book. (b) The authorized version of the
Bible of 1611 was taken into use, except in the case of the Psalms, where the great Bible of I539-154o was retained as much smoother for singing, and in parts of the Communion service.
(c) The rubric preceding the absolution in Morning and Evening Prayer, viz.: "The absolution to be pronounced by the minister alone," was altered into "The Absolution, or Remission of Sins, to be pronounced by the priest alone, standing; the people still kneeling." (d) In the Litany the phrase "Bishops, Pastors and Ministers of the Church," was altered into "Bishops, Priests and Deacons," and in the clause commencing "From all sedition and privy conspiracy," etc., the words "rebellion" and "schism" were added. (e) In the Communion service two rubrics were prefixed to the prayer "for the whole state of Christ's Church militant here in earth" ordering the humble presentation and placing of the alms upon the Holy Table, and the placing thereon then of so much Bread and Wine as the priest shall think sufficient ; and the commemoration of the departed was added to the prayer itself.
(f) The rubric explanatory of the posture of kneeling for recep tion, known as the Black Rubric, which had been added in 1562, but omitted in 1559 and 1604, was re-introduced; but the words "to any real and essential presence there being of Christ's natu ral flesh and blood" were altered to "unto any Corporal Presence of Christ's natural Flesh and Blood"—a very important and sig nificant alteration which affected the meaning of the whole rubric.
(g) A new office was added for the Ministration of Baptism to such as are of riper years. (h) A rubric was prefixed to the Order for the Burial of the Dead, forbidding that order to be used "for any that die unbaptized, or excommunicate, or have laid violent hands upon themselves." (i) In the "Ordering of Priests," and "the Consecration of Bishops," in the formula for ordina tion, after the words, "Receive the Holy Ghost," these words were added "for the Office and Work of a Priest (or Bishop) in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the Imposition of our hands." No substantial alteration has been made in the Prayer Book since 1662. But in 1859 the special services prescribed for Nov. 5, Jan. 3o and May 29 (which had an essential political signifi cance) were abolished by royal warrant, chronicled as having obtained the sanction of the Convocations of Canterbury and York, and also legal force by act of parliament. In 1871 a re vised Lectionary was substituted for the previously existing one, into the merits and demerits of which it is not possible to enter here; and in 1872, by the Act of Uniformity Amendment Act, a shortened form of service was provided instead of the present form of Morning and Evening Prayer for optional use in other than cathedral churches on all days except Sunday, Christmas Day, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and Ascension Day; provi sion was also statutably made for the separation of services, and for additional services, to be taken, however, except so far as anthems and hymns are concerned, entirely out of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. In 1901 new forms of prayer, with Thanksgiving, were prepared by Convocation and authorized by royal warrant, and in 1922 a new Lectionary was issued for use in morning and evening prayer throughout the year.