Directory for Public Worship

The Directory for Public Worship (known in Scotland as the Westminster Directory having been approved by the Scottish Parliament in 1645) was a manual of directions for worship approved by an ordinance of Parliament early in 1645 to replace the Book of Common Prayer (and which was denounced by a counter-proclamation from Charles I).

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, [and] 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.

The Directory was produced by a parliamentary subcommittee. The chair of the subcommittee was Stephen Marshal. Other members included Thomas Young, Herbert Palmer and Charles Herlie. Representing the independent congregations there was Philip Nye and Thomas Goodwin, and representing Scotland were Alexander Henderson, Robert Baillie, George Gillespie and Samuel Rutherford. The text appears to be in the style of Philip Nye's writing.

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