medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Possibly already known to you, or too late or both, but the invitation in
the Communion Service in the Book of Common Prayer (1662) begins
"Let us pray for the whole state of Christ's church militant here in earth."
Since this great prayer goes on to say
"grant that all they that do confess thy holy name may agree in the truth of
thy holy word ...
"Save and defend all Christian Kings, Princes and Governors ...
"Give grace ... to all Bishops and Curates ...
"And to all thy people give thy heavenly grace; and especially to this
congregation here present ..."
I have always assumed that this comprises the Church Militant: The Princes,
the Priests and the People.
And in this context the BCP seems to be including all Christians not just
those in the Church of England but "all Christian people" even those in
doctrinal error however defined.
The Church Militant is the church-on-earth.
But even before the liturgical reforms of the last 30 years, some priests
were regularly omitting the phrase "militant here in earth" even when using
the rest of the prayer.
Brenda M.C.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Kirkman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 6:01 PM
Subject: Re: [M-R] Church Militant
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Many thanks to those who replied to my earlier message (esp. to Tom
> Izbicki for the passages from PL).
>
> I hope you will all forgive me if I sharpen my question: what I'm mainly
> looking for is the source (and spread) of the notion of the 'Church
> militant': do we have any sense of where the notion may have arisen? In
> what senses was the idea of 'militancy' being applied (spreading the
> faith/ the soul battling with the devil/ etc.?). The standard reference
> works are surprisingly recalcitrant on such points.
>
> Thank you!
>
> Andrew Kirkman
>
> --
> Andrew Kirkman
> Tel: (001) 609 434 1559
> Personal website: http://music.rutgers.edu/info/fac-bio/kirkman/
> The Binchois Consort: http://www.binchoisconsort.com/
>
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