Church
Government - John Calvin
Puritan
Hard Drive - Still Waters
Revival Books
The Form of Prayers and
Ministration of the Sacraments, etc.
Used in the English Congregation
at Geneva (1556)
The Genevan Book of Order grew out of early efforts by the Protestant
Reformers to purify the worship of the church. These efforts found local
expression in the English congregation of Geneva, and they formed the basis for
Scottish Presbyterianism.
During the early days of the Reformation, the Anglican church was only
partially cleansed of Romish rituals. After Mary Tudor began her bloody reign,
many English Protestants fled from their homeland, seeking refuge on the
Continent; they formed Englishspeaking congregations in several cities.
In the summer of 1554, English refugees in Frankfurt formed a church, and
issued an invitation to other Englishmen living in Europe to join them. This
congregation called John Knox to be one of their pastors, and he arrived to
begin his ministry in the autumn of 1554.
A dispute soon arose, when a faction within the church insisted upon using
the Anglican liturgy. Knox took his stand, saying he would not administer the
communion service according to the Anglican manner. "There were things in
it placed," he said, "only by warrant of man's authority, and no
ground in God's word for the same, and had also a long time very
superstitiously in the Mass been wickedly abused."[1]
In the midst of this conflict, Knox, William Whittingham and others sent a
letter to John
Calvin; the epistle included a summary of the Anglican liturgy, requesting
Calvin's judgment of the English service. The letter contains a tame
description of various elements of the liturgy, and from this correspondence we
may gather what things were the basis of the dispute in Frankfurt: the
minister's surplice, appointed lessons, prescribed prayers and fasts, high
feasts and holidays, receiving the communion in a kneeling posture, allowing
private administration of the Lord's Supper, the use of the sign of the cross
in baptism, godfathers making vows in the name of the child at the time of
baptism, and the purification of women after childbirth.
Seeking to resolve the dispute over worship, the congregation appointed
Knox, Whittingham, Anthony Gilby, John Foxe, and Thomas Cole to draft an order
of worship. When this service was presented to the congregation it was
wellreceived, except by the party bent on the Anglican liturgy.
In order to promote concord, another committee was organized; this time it
was composed of Knox, Whittingham, Thomas Parry and the other pastor of the
congregation, Thomas Lever. A compromise was reached, by which some portions of
the English book were allowed, but other matters were arranged according to the
present state of the church. The congregation further agreed that the
compromise settlement would be followed until the month of April, subject to
review at that time.
Peace lasted during February and into midMarch. At that time, a new
contingent of English exiles reached Frankfurt. Led by Richard Cox, the new
company disrupted the church by reading the Anglican litany during a worship
service, without prior consent of the congregation.
Knox chided the disrupters, saying, "By the word of God we must seek
our warrant for the establishing of religion, and without that to thrust
nothing into any Christian congregation."
Cox and his faction contended "their church should have an English
face." Knox's response was, "The Lord grant it to have the face of
Christ's church, which is the only matter I sought, God is my record; and
therefore I would have had it agreeable in outward rites and ceremonies with
Christian churches reformed."
In order to get rid of Knox, Cox and his company stooped to base political
maneuvers. They accused Knox of treason before the civil authorities, citing
portions of his Faithful Admonition to the Professors of God's Truth in
England (1554). Knox was forced to leave
Frankfurt, and so he returned to Geneva in 1555.
Even after Knox's departure, the Frankfurt congregation could not achieve
harmony. The struggle continued between two parties holding distinct positions
concerning worship. The liturgical party, as always, maintained the right of
the church to institute new ceremonies and means of worship. The advocates of
the simpler form of worship stood by the word of God as the sufficient and sole
guide to provide the divine pattern of worship.
In October of 1555, at least fifteen families of the English exiles
(formerly residing in Frankfurt) relocated to Geneva. Knox had recently
departed from the city, to make a visit to Scotland. When the Englishmen formed
their congregation, they called Christopher Goodman and Anthony Gilby to preach
and administer the sacraments, "in the absence of John Knox." Knox
returned to Geneva the following September, and he resumed up his ministry
among them. Christopher Goodman continued as copastor with Knox.
The English congregation at Geneva adopted the Book of Order originally
written in Frankfurt by Knox, Whittingham, Gilby, Foxe, and Cole. The Book was
published in English under the title of The Form of Prayers and Ministration
of the Sacraments, etc. used in the English Congregation at Geneva: and
approved by the famous and godly learned man, John Calvin. The volume included a metrical version of the
psalms, and Calvin's catechism. The psalter and the catechism preceded the Form
of Prayers in the 1556 edition. A Latin translation of the book was also
issued.
Upon the death of Mary, most of the English refugees went quickly home. Knox
returned to Scotland to lead in efforts to reform his native land.
The amazing success of the Scottish Reformation created some immediate
difficulties. The church was without a full ministry, regular church courts, or
an established order. The Scottish Confession of 1560 was composed to provide
the doctrinal testimony of the church. Calvin's catechism was immediately
employed for instruction of the youth and the unlearned. The authors of the
Scottish Confession also drafted the First Book of Discipline, which was
designed to provide a blueprint for social, educational, and ecclesiastical
institutions.
During this era, the Scottish church was forced to rely upon several stopgap
measures, such as the use of superintendents, readers, and exhorters. The need
for a guide to worship was immediately apparent. While the First Book of
Discipline contained the broad outlines of church polity, a more specific order
of worship was desired.
The Genevan Book of Order was the natural choice for the Scottish church,
except that the scope of the Genevan Book was greatly localized in nature,
since it was originally prepared for the needs of a single congregation. Thus,
in 1564, the Scottish General Assembly adopted the Geneva Book, enlarging it
with some additional prayers and forms suited to the expanding needs of the
church of Scotland. Thereafter the Scottish form of the document became known
as "The Book of Common Order."[2]
It should be noted that it is entirely inappropriate to refer to the Book of
Order as a liturgy. The term liturgy was never applied to the document by its
authors or proponents, whether in Frankfurt, Geneva, or Scotland. The historian
C.G. M'Crie writes:
The expression
"Liturgy" applied to the Form of Prayers was both unfortunate and
infelicitous. For whether the term be taken in the more restricted technical
sense in which it is applied to the Communion service at the altar, or in the
wider and more popular acceptation according to which it describes prescribed
and obligatory forms or offices of
worship, it is altogether inapplicable to any Presbyterian servicebook, which
never aims at being more than a directory, with forms for optional use.[3]
William Whittingham is generally credited with writing The Preface to the
Book of Order. The Preface states that the regulative principle of worship is
foundational to the entire Book:
We...present unto you which desire the increase of God's glory, and the pure simplicity of his word, a form and order of a reformed church, limited within the compass of God's word, which our Saviour has left unto us as only [alone] sufficient to govern all our actions by; so that whatsoever is added to this word by man's device, seem it never so good, holy, or beautiful, yet before our God, who is jealous and cannot admit any companion or counsellor, it is evil, wicked, and abominable.
For as ceremonies grounded upon
God's word, and approved in the New Testament, are commendable (as the
circumstance thereof does support), so those that man has invented (though he
had never so good occasion thereunto), if they are once abused, import a
necessity, hinder God's word, or be drawn into a superstition, without respect
ought to be abolished.
The Genevan Book begins with a Confession of Faith which uses the Apostles'
Creed as a general outline. Yet, the Confession provides an expanded statement
of the principal doctrines of the Christian faith. It stresses the sovereignty
of God in the salvation of men, and it explains the person and work of Christ
in a warmly devotional manner. The Confession also gives an enlarged exposition
of the doctrine of the church, treating the marks by which the true visible
church is discerned. Since the Confession of the English Congregation at Geneva
was approved by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, it forms part
of the confessional testimony of Scottish Presbyterianism.
Following the Confession, the Book of Order covers some preliminary matters
of church organization, notably the duties and election of office-bearers.
The order of worship for the weekly service on the Lord's day is composed of
the following items: (1.) a congregational prayer for confession of sin; (2.)
congregational singing of a psalm, followed by (3.) a prayer before the sermon;
(4.) the sermon (coupled with the reading of scripture); after the sermon, (5.)
a prayer for the whole estate of Christ's Church; (6.) congregational singing
of another psalm; (7.) the minister pronouncing a blessing (taken from
scripture) upon the congregation.
Forms are also provided for the more occasional aspects of public service:
the order of baptism, the administration of the Lord's supper and a marriage
service, along with directions for visitation of the sick and burying the dead.
Next follows a chapter on church discipline. This chapter establishes the
warrant and general precepts pertaining to ecclesiastical discipline. In Church
of Scotland, this chapter was later supplemented by the Order of
Excommunication and Public Repentance (1569), authored by Knox and several
other ministers at the request of the General Assembly.
The Genevan Book provides several household prayers, and concludes with a
prayer made when the congregation first assembled to approve the Confession of
Faith and Book of Order.
A word should be said about the side notes appearing in the text. These
notes appeared in the original edition, functioning as footnotes do today.
Obviously, references to classical authors or apocryphal books did not carry
equal authority with proof texts from the scriptures, even though all items
were placed as marginal notations. This was simply a routine publishing format
of the sixteenth century. Moreover, in some cases, the biblical references do
not function as "proof texts" at all. Rather, they seem to be
furnished to direct the reader to related passages in the Bible, for further
meditation upon the general doctrine under consideration at that point in the
text more of a topical reference than a proof text.
The scripture references proved to be the most formidable challenge for the
publisher, in preparing the present edition. When the Genevan Order was first
issued, scripture texts were referenced by book and chapter numbers; the biblical
chapters were then subdivided into sections, labeled by letters of the
alphabet, such as "Matthew 7a," or "Luke 2d." Since our
current system of versification was not yet in use, a problem develops in
seeking to identify precise verse numbers for the scripture references given in
the Genevan Order. This difficulty is further compounded by obvious cases of
typographical errors, and scattered discrepancies between different versions of
the Book of Order.
The editor makes no claim of producing a definitive or critical edition of
the scripture references for the Genevan Order. He consulted additional
sources, such as Tyndale's New Testament and Dunlops's edition of the Book of
Common Order,[4] seeking to clear up some of the difficulties.
Nevertheless, students desiring a detailed study of the marginal references to
the Genevan Order should consult original editions of the text.
The Genevan Book is as remarkable for its brevity as it is in its scope. It
covers preeminent matters of worship and church government quite succinctly,
resting the particulars (as well as the whole) upon the holy scriptures.
Readers need only a cursory glance at contemporary Presbyterian books of order
to see how far these modern manuals of polity have degenerated from their
venerable Genevan predecessor.
May the day soon dawn when Presbyterian churches return to the landmarks of
the Protestant Reformation, becoming Reformed in both doctrine and manners.
The Publisher
Notes for Publisher's Introduction
1. Historical details pertaining to the Book of Order may
be verified in the following sources: A Narrative of the Proceedings and
Troubles of the English Congregation at Frankfurt on the Maine in The Works of John Knox (ed. by David Laing; Edinburgh: James Thin, 1894),
Vol. iv, pp. 168; The Form of Prayers and Ministration of the
Sacraments, etc., Used in the English Congregation at Geneva, in Knox's Works, Vol. iv, pp. 143-48; C.G. M'Crie, The
Public Worship of Presbyterian Scotland
(Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1892), pp. 78-122; W. Stanford Reid, Trumpeter
of God: A Biography of John Knox (1974;
rpt. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1982), pp. 105-29.
2. The Book of Common Order, in its expanded form, may be
found in Knox's Works, Vol. vi pp.
275-380. The present reprint follows the original Geneva Book of
Order (1556).
3. C.G. M'Crie, The Public Worship of Presbyterian
Scotland (Edinburgh: William Blackwood,
1892), p. 106.
4. William Dunlop, ed., A Collection of Confessions of
Faith, Catechisms, Directories, Books of Discipline, etc. of Public Authority
in the Church of Scotland (Edinburgh: James
Watson, 1722), vol. 2.
Copyright ©1993 by Presbyterian Heritage
Publications