ABSTRACT
Queen Katherine Parr's personal prayer book begins in a conventional fashion with a summary narrative focused on the passion and crucifixion of Jesus as the culmination of His life and ministry, and the demonstration that he is the Saviour of humankind. The emotional intensity of Parr's prayer does not approach the extremes of graphic detail or of physical union with the Saviour imagined in St. Bridget's "Fifteen Oes", a set of lyrical ejaculations on the names of Jesus that is regularly included in traditionalist Primers of the period. Parr handles the first overtly Scriptural material in her personal prayer book with confidence and freedom. Parr's prominent endorsement of vernacular Scripturalism in the six prayers of identified men and women is followed in her prayer book by a sequence of prayers taken alternately from traditionalist and reformist Primers. There are, additionally, repercussions of Parr's public literary activity in the latter half of her personal prayer book.
