British state prayers, fasts and thanksgivings 1540s to 1940s

1540 年代至 1940 年代英国国家祈祷、禁食和感恩节

• 批准号: AH/E007481/1
• 负责人: Philip Williamson
• 金额: $ 41.27万
• 依托单位: Durham University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2007 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FE007481%2F1
• 关键词: British; state; prayers; fasts; thanksgivings

For four hundred years, from the 1540s to the 1940s, English monarchs and British governments summoned the nation to special acts of public worship. Most of these occasions are unstudied, and their long history -- a remarkable continuity between early-modern and recent times -- remains obscure. This project brings together for the first time information and texts for these special observances, defines their nature and purposes, and demonstrates their wider religious, political and cultural significance.At times of national threat or celebration (e.g. conspiracies, bad weather, military victories, royal births) the state added special prayers to ordinary church services. At especially anxious or momentous times (war, epidemics, dearth; defeat of rebellions, peace treaties, royal jubilees) whole days were set aside for either fasting and humiliation or thanksgiving, with special liturgies superseding the Prayer Book services. Some occasions -- Charles I's 'martyrdom', the Restoration, Gunpowder Treason and the Glorious Revolution, the monarch's accession -- became annual religious commemorations. Until the 1850s, special 'days' were usually ordered for weekdays, requiring cessation of secular work. In the early twentieth century they were revived as national days of prayer, held on Sundays, the last in 1947. State prayers and days were national events, reaching into every parish in England and Wales, and from the seventeenth century Scotland and Ireland. They were significant occasions, rich in meaning, purpose and consequence. Most basically, they register peaks of public religious, moral, political and social anxiety or celebration. More deeply, the state orders and forms of prayer express official religious belief about particular secular events and natural occurrences. They are prime evidence for the force and persistence of government acknowledgement of divine superintendence over the English, later British, nation, and belief in special providential interventions that could be assuaged or prompted by the united prayers of the whole people. State prayers and days were central in shaping ideas of national identity in terms of Protestantism, godliness and divine providence, and helped consolidate the idea of a British state. They had considerable political and social significance, in communicating news to local communities and eliciting officially sanctioned participation in public issues. Together with the annual commemorations they illuminate church-state relations: exercise of the royal supremacy, ministerial decisions on religious matters, and the higher clergy's (in Scotland the General Assembly's) role in public life. At times occasions of political contention, they long aroused tension between the established churches and dissenters, until becoming opportunities for ecumenical co-operation in the twentieth century.Although features of the annual commemorations have been examined, few special occasions have been studied, no list exists and their full history has never been investigated. This project will produce an edition containing a complete list of prayers and days (numbering c. 450) and extracts from the orders and forms of prayer. A co-authored monograph will analyse these texts, the conditions which produced them and the responses they evoked, revealing much about religious and political doctrine, state ideological 'projection', and popular religiosity. It will provide a fresh perspective on particular political and religious episodes and on the character of the British Protestant alliance between state and church. A volume of essays will explore their wider significance for studies in politics, religion and culture over the four centuries.

从16世纪40年代到20世纪40年代的400年里，英国君主和英国政府召集全国人民进行特别的公共崇拜活动。大多数这些场合是未经研究的，其悠久的历史-早期现代和近代之间的显着连续性-仍然模糊不清。该项目首次汇集了这些特殊纪念活动的信息和文本，界定了其性质和目的，并展示了其更广泛的宗教、政治和文化意义。在国家面临威胁或庆祝的时候（例如阴谋、恶劣天气、军事胜利、皇家出生），国家在普通教堂礼拜仪式中增加了特别祈祷。在特别焦虑或重大的时候（战争，流行病，缺乏;叛乱失败，和平条约，皇家禧年），整天都留出要么禁食和羞辱或感恩，与特殊的礼仪取代祈祷书服务。一些场合-查理一世的“殉难”，复辟，火药叛国和光荣革命，君主的加入-成为每年的宗教纪念活动。直到19世纪50年代，人们通常在工作日安排特殊的“日子”，要求停止世俗的工作。在世纪早期，这一节日又被恢复为在星期天举行的全国祈祷日，最后一次是在1947年。州祈祷和节日是全国性的活动，影响到英格兰和威尔士的每个教区，从十七世纪开始，影响到苏格兰和爱尔兰。这些都是意义重大的场合，有着丰富的意义、目的和后果。最基本的是，它们记录了公众宗教、道德、政治和社会焦虑或庆祝的高峰。更深层次地说，国家的命令和祈祷形式表达了官方对特定世俗事件和自然事件的宗教信仰。它们是主要的证据，证明政府承认上帝对英国，后来是英国，国家的监督，并相信特别的天意干预，可以通过全民的联合祈祷来缓解或促进。国家祈祷和节日是塑造新教、敬虔和神圣普罗维登斯等民族认同观念的核心，也有助于巩固英国国家的观念。它们在向当地社区传播新闻和促使官方批准参与公共事务方面具有相当大的政治和社会意义。与每年的纪念活动一起，他们照亮了教会与国家的关系：皇家至高无上的权力，宗教事务的部长决定，以及高级神职人员（在苏格兰是大会）在公共生活中的作用。在政治争论的时候，他们长期引起紧张关系之间建立教会和持不同政见者，直到成为机会，在20世纪的普世合作。虽然每年的纪念活动的特点已被检查，很少有特殊场合已被研究，没有名单存在，其完整的历史从来没有被调查。这个项目将产生一个版本包含一个完整的祈祷和天（编号C。450)并摘录了祈祷的命令和形式。合著的专著将分析这些文本，产生它们的条件和它们引起的反应，揭示了很多关于宗教和政治学说，国家意识形态“项目”和流行的宗教信仰。它将提供一个新的角度对特定的政治和宗教事件和英国新教联盟之间的国家和教会的性质。一本论文集将探讨它们在四个世纪以来对政治、宗教和文化研究的更广泛意义。

项目成果

Public Worship and Political Participation in Elizabethan England

伊丽莎白时代英国的公共崇拜和政治参与

• DOI: 10.1086/662297
• 发表时间: 2012
• 期刊: Journal of British Studies
• 影响因子: 1
• 作者: Mears N

The 'Holy Days' of Queen Elizabeth I

伊丽莎白一世女王的“神圣日子”

• DOI: 10.1111/1468-229x.12971
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: History
• 影响因子: 0.5
• 作者: MEARS N

Special Worship in the British Empire: From the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Centuries

大英帝国的特殊崇拜：从十七世纪到二十世纪

• DOI: 10.1017/stc.2017.14
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: Studies in Church History
• 作者: Hardwick J

National Prayers: Special Worship since the Reformation: Volume 3: Worship for National and Royal Occasions in the United Kingdom, 1871-2016

国家祈祷：宗教改革以来的特殊崇拜：第 3 卷：英国国家和皇家场合的崇拜，1871-2016 年

• 发表时间: 2020
• 作者: Williamson Philip

National Prayers: Special Worship since the Reformation: Volume 1: Special Prayers, Fasts and Thanksgivings in the British Isles, 1533-1688

国家祈祷：宗教改革以来的特别崇拜：第一卷：不列颠群岛的特别祈祷、禁食和感恩节，1533-1688 年

• 发表时间: 2013
• 作者: Williamson Philip