Its Deja vu all over again...... almost.
Having been a life-long Episcopalian and still active today in the face of slings and arrows buffeting The Church, AND as you well know, most interested in all thinges Jamestowne, I have looked into the differences between the 1559 order of matrimony and the one we currently use, The 1979 prayer book.
Observation #1 - Let it never be said that the Episcopalians abandon a good thing. The structure of the service is pretty much the same, and I think the intent remains the same....... that the purpose of the service is 50/50..... 50% for the benefit of the couple and 50% to remind the congregation of their own vows and what the estate of Holy Matrmony means.
Observation #2 - The emphasis of WHY a marriage has not only seen a shift, but also a resurrection. In the 1559 version, the three reasons in order:
1559 Prayer Book - Church of England
1 - Procreation of children
2 - ...'a remedy against sinne and to avoide fornication, that such persons as have not the gift of continencie might mary, ande kept themselves undefiled as members of Christes body.' (Shades of some of those scenes in the movie 'Shakespeare in Love', which reflected the mores of the early 1600's :)))
3- Thirdly, for the mutual society, helpe and comfort, that the one ought to have for the other.....
1928 Prayer Book - The Episcopal Church in America
No list of reasons given.
1979 Prayer Book - The Episcopal Church in America
Very interesting, in that this revision, a list was not only resurrected, but that two of the 1559 reasons reappear, though in different order, and are not numbered as they were in the 1559 version.
...is intended by God for their mutual joy;
for the help and comfort of one another in prosperity and adversity;
and when it is God's will, for the procreation of children and their nurturre in the knowledge and love of the Lord.
Observation #3 - Two rings in the Episcopal Service do not appear in either the 1559 or the 1928 prayer book. I don't have copies of those in between, but I am guessing that a ring for a man was a product, at least in the Episcopal Service, of the latter part of the 20th century. Neither my father (married 1926) nor my wife's father (married 1930) wore wedding rings.
Psalms were said or sung at the end of the 1559 service. Hymns as we know them did not find their way into servivces of The Church of England until the end of the 17th century. (How I would have envied those Lutherans across The Channel, belting out the words that Luther set to those old tavern songs as early as the mid 1500s!)
Randy Cabell - The Trumpeter of Jamestowne
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jurretta Heckscher" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 7:21 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Pocahontas's Wedding questions
> Aha! Got it. The 1559 marriage ceremony, that is:
>
> http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1559/Marriage_1559.htm
>
> More information on this version of the BCP here:
> http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1559/BCP_1559.htm. It thus
> seems safe to assume, does it not, that this was the rite that would
> have been used for the Rolfes' marriage?
>
> By way of comparison, the 1552 version is here:
>
> http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1552/Marriage_1552.htm
>
> And, again, the 1662 version, which I believe was used with little or
> no change for more than 3 centuries, is here:
>
> http://www.eskimo.com/~lhowell/bcp1662/occasion/marriage.html
>
> Hope this is helpful.
>
> --Jurretta
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
|
