Origins
The movement against the Book of Common Prayer, partly inspired by Parliament, had come to a head with the submission of the 'Root and Branch' petition of 1640, which demanded 'that the said government (meaning the episcopal system) with all its dependencies, roots and branches be abolished'. Among the 'branches' was the Book of Common Prayer which was said to be a 'Liturgy for the most part framed out of the Romish Breviary, Rituals, Mass Book'. Thus in 1641 an abridgement of Knox's Book of Common Order was presented to Parliament. In 1644 another adaptation of the same original was presented to the Westminster Assembly and printed. However, the parliamentary divines resolved to produce their own book and set up a committee which was to agree on a set of instructions for ministers in charge of congregations, not a form of devotion but a manual of directions. While the English Book of Common Prayer had early use in Scotland, it is a fixed liturgy, providing a range of fixed prayers and detailed tables of fixed lessons. It is therefore not easy to compare it with the Directory. However, the Directory does very much follow the Book of Common Order used in Scotland from 1564 which is derived from John Knox’s Forme of Prayers used in the English Congregation in Geneva. In this book there is discretion in the wording of the prayers and no fixed lectionary.
Read more about this topic: Directory Of Public Worship
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