I remember the first time I attended worship at an Episcopal Church. I was shocked that the worship service was nearly identical to what I was used to as a Lutheran. What's up with that?
I was hardly the first to observe the relationship, and yet often this was ignored as well.
Over a hundred years ago, the Lutheran Theologian and Historian, Henry Jacobs, studied early Lutheran Texts in English and found that there was quite a bit more than he expected. The discovery turned into a set of articles in a church periodical and eventually this book - a study of the largely Lutheran roots of the English reformation during Henry VIII and Edward VI.
Of course, it is more nuanced that this. Henry VIII had, at best, a love-hate relationship with the Lutherans who were more no more interested than the Pope in giving the annulment he wanted, and many of those who returned from the Continent after Mary died had more sympathy with Geneva than Wittenberg. But, IMHO, he shows that there was quite a Lutheran influence on Tyndale and Cramner, among others which has remained in not only in the 39 Articles (where probably most will admit a heavy Lutheran influence) but also on the Book of Common Prayer.
Probably the most significant research in this book is giving evidence for the influence of Lutheran Church Orders on the Book of Common Prayer, the extent of which is still highly debated. Part of the difficulty is that even now, those German church orders are often obscure. I think that Jacobs makes an impressive case that those Lutheran orders were a significant source.
Main source for this edition was http://archive.org/details/lutheranmovement00jacouoft. I have tried to tag reference to the 39 articles and the Book of Concord.
SDG
Ken McGuire
