Characteristics of Scottish Worship During 1558-1638 - Assignment Example

Characteristics of Scottish Worship during 1558 – 1638 Ever since man has become man, the spontaneity of the feeling of worship has become associatedwith the very existence of human beings. In fact, the sense of the feeling for worship had been there even before the feeling or the urge came to have the articulation of ‘worship’. It is not necessary that the word worship has to be associated with religion, as it may seem too many. Man can worship anyone or anything in any form. Perhaps, it is for this reason that worship has been infused into various customs just as most of the spontaneous human feelings are formulated into customs, irrespective of the territory, irrespective of belief, irrespective of race and irrespective of time. Down the ages man has been associated with the practice of worship. There have been rituals associated with worship. There have been much of norms and forms of worship, depending upon the human culture of time and place. There are several factors that play important roles in bringing about changes in the rituals of worship but the essence does seldom change. Since Scotts are no exception in having a history of progress and civilization of their own, they must have had their own types of habits and practices of worship. It would also be quite ridiculous to think that they have not had a history of change in the ways of worshipping down the ages in the history of civilization. Just as some parts of the entirety are always considered to be exceptionally significant in comparison to others, the history of the evolution of the Scottish worship has a particular span that stands out to be exceptionally remarkable and distinguishable. The second half of the sixteenth century and the initial decades of the seventeenth century were marked especially by the changing lifestyle of the lives of the people in general. Since worship is one of the most predominant aspects of daily life of the people of all countries and all times, the characteristics of Scottish worship must have undergone some changes during that time. Let us have an overview of hoe the Scottish worship was like in the later half of the sixteenth century and the early decades in the seventeenth century. With Christianity prevailing in the sixteenth and seventeenth century Scotland, and the beginning of the material prosperity of the churches by the 1550s, the rituals of worship that the people maintained down the ages, started going under reforms. Before 1558, the Scottish worship was mainly characterized worship in the typical Christian style. For instance, the Psalter had to be sung in due course in each month. It was mandatory to read through the entire Old Testament once a year. On the other hand, the New Testament was a must to read for two times in a year. One of the most characteristic features of the Scottish worship of this time is that though the New Testament had to be read through by the Scotts twice a year, the Revelation was to be read only once (Maxwell, 2007, 38). One of the characteristic features of the Scottish worship of this time was to go through special courses on the Sundays as well as the other holidays. It was not that the change in the characteristic features of the Scottish worship started taking place right in the year of 1558. It was in the year of 1552 that there was a revision of the B. C. P. when the titles to the Morning Prayer as well as the Evening Prayer were changed by Cranmer. It was really a very bold step on his part to frame and introduce the ‘Confession of Sins and Absolutions’ at the beginning of the services. (Graves and Tice, 1998) After this the Scripture Sentences and an Exhortation was placed, followed by the Lord’s Prayer. Moreover, the Jubilate Deo was also added to the Benedictus as an alternative immediately after the Jubilate Deo followed the Creed. The Salutations were placed prior to the Kyries and then the Lord’s Prayer used to be said. All had to join in the prayer. Most interestingly, the Litany had to be used when the bishop ordained. However, they commonly used to be used on Sundays, Wednesdays and on Fridays. These characteristics of the Scottish worship had remained almost the same for a considerably long time. It is alleged that Easter Ross, the congregation of the remote Kirk of Kilchrist, was imprisoned within their building by an opponent clan and then was burnt alive. (Heal, 2005, 425) This rival clan was known as Glengarry Macdonalds. Three cases of rival attacks are known from the narratives of the feuds in the Scottish Highlands. The Macdonalds used to attack the Scotts when they were in their Sunday worships. There is, in fact, a significance of such early seventeenth century tales of the Gaidhealtachd. They had the assumption of the regular presence of the members of the clan in the church. It is quite contrary to the characteristics of the Scottish worship as were found in the religious observances during the pre-reformation period. In this case, the characteristics of the Scottish worship become distinguished from the worship style of the parishioners who used to observe or attend Matins, Mass and Evensong on the Sundays only. The beginning of the seventeenth century is marked by the religious changes that were mainly characterized by substitution of one form of mandatory liturgy for another form of it. This time the attendance was enforced by the church. In addition to that, most extraordinarily, the state also supported the decision of the church. The language of the titles of the liturgies that were chosen in England as well as in Scotland, were very significant. The titles that were chosen were ‘the Book of Common Prayer’ and ‘the Book of Common Order’. What is most interesting as well as amazing about the intention of the reformers is the fact that they expected that the entire population would visit the church and sit there week in and week out to observe the same acts of worship. So far as the Protestants were concerned, the sermon was a must to be the center of the entire process. However, the entire process did take into account prayer as well as praise in a much complex manner. According to An Homily for Repairing and Keeping Clean of Churches, “the whole multitudes of Gods people in the parish should with one voice and heart call upon the Name of God’ (An Homily for Repairing and Keeping Clean of Churches, n.d., 273). It was by the year of 1603 that the three generations of the Welsh, the English as well as the Scottish parishioners had already become regular participants in the reformed liturgies. The lives of these parishioners were framed and also conditioned by the regular experience of participating in the liturgies, making them feel that it was a necessity for them to understand this as a prelude to any kind of discussion of religion, community and of the individual. In the first decade of the seventeenth century, the Sunday worship was a result of the combination of the Morning Prayer, litany and ante-communion, which was again supplemented by occasional sermon or communions. There was a cycle of spiritual reading infused into the process of services. The purpose that such infusion of spiritual reading served was to ensure that the parishioners duly heard the Psalter once in every thirty days, the Old Testament once in a year while the New Testament four times in a year. (Schmidt, 2001, xi) The early years of the first decade of the seventeenth century are marked by the parallel Scottish account of the rituals and other practices of regular worship. The way William Cowper, the bishop of Galloway, describes the Sunday service as a part of the Scottish worship in the early seventeenth century, the service processes were quite close to the ‘Book of Common Prayer’. (Heal, 2005, 296) The characteristics of Scottish worship of this time took into account the readers’ service at the beginning, prayers and the singing of the metrical psalms. It used to be believed that the hearts of the people were more reverently prepared for hearing the word. The following stage of the worship commenced with the entrance of the minister into the pulpit. After that a prayer was offered, followed by a sermon being delivered. There also used to be a concluding prayer, the creed and the benediction. It is to be noted in this regard that it is one of the characteristic features of the Scottish worship at the beginning of the seventeenth century to put emphasis on the sermon. This reinforces the idea that such Scottish worship was characterized by clerical dominance. One more thing about the Scottish worship that needs special attention is the fact that the Scottish congregations were expected to participate in the prayer – “Scottish communions and American revival, as popular evangelical traditions, were often the conservators of Christian , mutuality and community in a world that found it ever harder to preserve such ideals”. (Schmidt, 2001, 218) One of the features of the Scottish worship in the seventeenth century was that the Scottish divines treated the public prayer as well as the collective worship much seriously. Apart from necessary means to inculcate understanding individuals and spiritual obedience, the public prayer and the collective worship were also thought to be a very powerful weapon that serves the purpose of gaining divine attention and God’s blessing. The prince as well as the people of the Nineveh assembled themselves as the principal army of supplicants but it was not in the power of god to withstand them (Hooker, 1851). What is most impressing about such process of prayer and praise is the factor that the people offered their prayers for the pursuit of whatever was good and needful for the entire community. The act of the people being present and collectively performing the prayers happened to be the ‘earwitnesses’ to the petitions and also the desires of each of the individuals present. It is not that the worship processes or the rituals of the prayer and praise always had good results on the minds of the people. However, there is no denial to the fact that the introduction of the revised rituals and worship process had brought about a drastic change in the daily life of the Scottish people. All will also be unanimous over the fact that it had caused a remarkable change in the religious as well as in the social lives of the Scottish people. The concept of collective worship and pray for the good and the needful of the entire community had definitely brought a unity among the common people, which resulted in a unique form of social fraternity. Here lies the uniqueness of the characteristic features of the Scottish Worship in the later half of the sixteenth century and the early decades of the seventeenth century. References 1. An Homily for Repairing and Keeping Clean of Churches (n.d.) retrieved on February 7, 2009 from: http://www.footstoolpublications.com/Homilies/Bk2_CleanChurch3.pdf 2. Graves, K. and P. Tice, 1998. The Worlds Sixteen Crucified Saviors: Chapter 25: Absolution, and the Confession of Sins, of Heathen Origin, Book Tree, available at: http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/kersey_graves/16/chap25.html (accessed on February 13, 2009) 3. Heal, F. 2005, Reformation in Britain and Ireland, Oxford University Press 4. Kidd, C. 2007. On Heroes, Hero-Worship and Demonology in Scott, The Scottish Historical Review, 86: 108-112 5. Maxwell, W.D. 2007. An Outline of Christian Worship Its Development and Forms, READ BOOKS 6. Schmidt, L.E. 2001. Holy Fairs, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Read More