England

• Published in: Peace in the Post-Reformation pp. 73 - 100
• Main Author: Bossy, John
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: 05.11.1998
• ISBN: 9780521646055; 0521646057; 9780521640619; 052164061X
• DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511612022.005

I come home to England, and offer two quotations to start with. The first is from Thomas Cranmer's preface to the communion service in his Book of Common Prayer (1549):The same order [as with sexual offences] shall the curate use with those betwixt whom he shall perceive malice and hatred to reign, not suffering then to be partakers of the Lord's Table until he know them to be reconciled. And if one of the parties so at variance be content to forgive from the bottom of his heart all that the other hath trespassed against him, and the other party will not be persuaded to a godly unity, but remain still in his frowardness and malice; the Minister in that case ought to admit the penitent person to the Holy Communion, and not him that is obstinate.The second, a pair, is from Thomas Watson, A Holsome and Catholic Doctrine (1558):Of confession to a man's neighbour whom he hath offended: ‘Because God is charity, and the God of peace and not of dissension, and doth not vouchsafe to pour his grace into that heart where hatred, enmity and breach of peace remaineth; therefore no man can be reconciled to God, whom he hath by his sin offended, that is not reconciled to his brother or neighbour whom by some injury either in word or deed he hath likewise offended.’ […]