ABSTRACT
Eamon Duffy, writing in elegiac tone, closed his Stripping of the Altars with a recognition of the importance of Cranmer's Prayer Book in transforming the English religious landscape, and shaping English Protestantism. Duffy identifies the role of the prescribed liturgy of the Elizabethan church in shaping the religious identities of the people of early modern England. The role of the Prayer Book liturgy in the religious education of those who worshipped according to it was of fundamental significance, shaping not only their devotional language but also their theological understandings. This chapter explores in many areas of the Church of England's life there existed something of a mismatch between official doctrinal positions, especially as concerned soteriology theologies of salvation and predestination and the theology conveyed between the Prayer Book liturgies. Kenneth Fincham and Nicholas Tyacke have reminded that the actual practice of parish religion during the early modern period, the 'face' of worship week by week, remains in many ways mysterious.
