farfel_n01_151_064

Catalogue Book of Common Prayer
James R. Page Z 7813 P13f
Ref.

#14 Charles II (1650-1685)
The year 1660 brought Charles II to the throne + the
book of Common Prayer again into good grace; the long
discarded works were heard once more in the House of Lords,
on the occasion of a thanksgiving on May 10. But despite
a king who had "declared a liberty to tended consciences,"
there were differences between Presbyterian divines + Church
of England bishops to be resolved before the Prayer Book
was to be presented in a revised form sanctioned by
Lords, Commons + King. The great Savoy confrence was
to convene + subsequently some 100 alternations were to be
made in the Book. Then on May 19 1662 Charles gave
his royal assent. For the next 291 years (1955) the Book of
Common Prayer according to the use of the Church of
England has remained virtually unaltered.

A curious convention had grown up around the evangelists. The 1st
chapter of the Book of Exekiel gives a glowing account of a vision in
which the prophet saw 4 living creatures + 2 wheels - a wheel within a wheel -
controlled from Heaven by the spirit of the Lord. The 4 living creatures
reappear in the Book of Revelation, + the early Fathers of the Church tried
hard to understand what they were supposed to mean. One hit on the
idea that they corresponded to the 4 envangelists. Their faces, we are
told, were those of a man, a loin, an on + an eagle. Now this
Gospel of Matthew begins with the visit of an angel, who would have
the face of a man. Mark leads off with "a voice crying in the
wilderness" - the lion perhaps. Luke starts with a preiest offering
up a sacrifice - usually taking the form of a calf or an ox.
John says "In the beginning was the Word" - the winged
Word, the eagle. All very artificial + hardly convincing; but the idea
took such firm hold in Christian art that the 4 living
creaters were set as symbols, each alongside its own
evangelist, for more than 1500 years.