ABSTRACT
The Path to the English 1662 Book of Common Prayer South of the border, encouraged by the promise in the Declaration of Breda in 1659 to grant liberty to tender consciences, some of the presbyterian Anglicans presented the monarch-elect with an address and proposals for such liberty, asking him not to restore the Book of Common Prayer without modification as regards ceremonies. Charles’s reply in His Majesty’s Declaration to all his loving subjects of his kingdom of England and dominion of Wales, concerning ecclesiastical affairs was to declare the hitherto outlawed liturgy to be ‘the best we have seen’,1 but promised to ‘appoint an equal number of learned divines of both persuasions, to review the same, and to make such alterations as shall be thought most necessary’; in the meantime, Charles would still allow a wide latitude on ceremonies. On 25 March 1661, a Royal Warrant set up a commission to review and deliberate on liturgical reform – the Savoy Conference. The Warrant ran for four months. The first meeting took place on 15 April, and deliberations came to an end on 25 July, without much agreement. The Convocation of that November had the task of the official process of revision, and over a period of twenty-two days the text was agreed which was to be, technically at least, the sole lawful liturgy of the Church of England until the 1960s.2
