Devotions in the Ancient Way of Offices: Medieval Domestic Devotion in the Seventeenth Century

Jantina Ellens

doi:10.3390/rel10100546

Abstract

Devotions in the Ancient Way of Offices was first published as a Catholic primer for worship between intimates, then reformed for individual Protestant worship, and then reformed again for Protestant worship between intimates. Each adaptation engages the so-called “ancient” quality of its offices, primarily medieval, as authorization for the kinds of domestic worship it promotes. I examine how the author and adapters of the text authorize their creative and adaptive devotional texts through a nostalgic interpretation of medieval worship practices as uniquely representative of the worship practices of the early church. While confessional debates had polarized discussions about the lineage of the church, this text represents a trend in seventeenth-century Protestant devotional primers attempting to reconcile spiritual divisions by re-introducing Protestant believers to pre-Reformation practices of domestic devotion.

Highlights

Devotions in the Ancient Way of Offices was first published as a Catholic primer for worship between intimates, reformed for individual Protestant worship, and reformed again for Protestant worship between intimates
Austin’s text creatively adapts the so-called “ancient way of offices” from the Catholic breviary for a seventeenth-century recusant community, but the model that his text provides for structured worship between intimates held much broader appeal
The text was popular across confessional boundaries and was republished in four more editions before Theophilus Dorrington took it upon himself to reform the text for Protestant worshippers in 1686

Summary

Introduction

Devotions in the Ancient Way of Offices was first published as a Catholic primer for worship between intimates, reformed for individual Protestant worship, and reformed again for Protestant worship between intimates. The Protestant response to the Catholic John Austin’s popular Devotions in the Ancient Way of Offices first published in 1668 and adapted for Protestant worship in 1686 and 1700, highlights the continuing import of “ancient,” i.e., medieval, devotional methods in the seventeenth century.1

Results

Conclusion