Tyson and Wagonhem 1986

Tyson, Gerald P. and Sylvia S. Wagonheim, eds. Print and Culture in the Renaissance: Essays on the Advent of Printing in Europe. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1986.

"The Reformation in England and the Typographical Revolution: 'By this printing ... the doctrine of the Gospel soundeth to all nations," by John N. Wall, Jr. (208-221)

"The English reformers were less concerned with the establishment and definition of a new religious institution than with the transformation of English society into the true Christian commonwealth, a goal to be achieved through authentic worship enabling true Christian social behavior. As a result, their Reformation put at its center printed texts to enable the entire nation to join in a single process of worship and in Christian education aimed at the building-up of the body politic through charitable action." (209)

"my thesis is that the theology of the English Reformers is, in the most profound sense, the Book of Common Prayer. For the new book did not merely intend to replace the old, but it sought to be a book that realized its true meaning in use, through which a nation united in worship could be transformed into the true Christian commonwealth." (214)

countering tendency to not see a difference between reformation of Germany/Switzerland (Luther/Calvin) -- a revolution of doctrine -- with that going on an England, where "no one dominant figure ... bequeathed to his followers so dramatic and extensive a restatement of Christian belief" (214)

"what Cranmer and his fellow reformers intended, clearly, was not private reading of the Bible as an act sufficient unto itself. What they intended was public use of the official documents. It is the union of England in a single use that is of primary concern." (216)

"In this view, private prayer and Bible study were not to be proscribed but instead the private life of each Christian was constantly to be referred to and caught up int he corporate activity of Prayer Book worship. The whole nation was to be gathered at one altar, through the single use of the Prayer Book, to be instructed through proclamation of the Word and to be nourished in the faith through sacramental enactment of the Word." (216)

Herbert, emphasis on reading the Offices aloud each day; ringing a bell so everyone could come hear them (217)

"Cranmer thus sought to avoid having the Word of God shut up in a single book, accessible only in the privacy of one's study and the recesses of one's heart. It was, instead, to be a living Word, a Word proclaimed through reading it aloud and acting it out." (218)

"we need to reconstruct a public world of reading, a world just as dependent on the printed book, yet a world in which different dimensions of the printed word come into play. Private reading takes place in isolation; public reading takes place in a social context, in this case a liturgical context itself made possible by the printing of the text for Cranmer's one use." (219)