Paul F. M. Zahl

“Let thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of thy humble servants; and that they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things as shall please thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord.” [pg. 88, Cranmer]

Thomas Cranmer (1489 – 1556) was an Anglican theologian who lived through the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary I. Not only was he a leader in the English Reformation, he was also the Archbishop of Canterbury for over twenty years. Appointed by Henry VIII, he managed to maintain a diplomatic relationship with his king while preserving his freedom of conscience. Under Mary, however, he was convicted of treason and heresy. After two and one half years of interrogation and imprisonment, Cranmer finally agreed to recant his positions and signed a document to the effect. When brought to public trial to read the document, he instead used the occasion to repudiate his recantation and publically assert his true faith before witnesses. He was burned as a heretic and his story is included in Foxe’s account of martyrs.

As interesting as his story is, this book was not primarily about Thomas Cranmer. In fact, his life was only briefly canvassed; the main body of the book consisted of his ‘collects’. So, what is a collect?

A collect is a prayer; it is a prayer which gathers up the needs and petitions of the several members of a congregation and condenses them into one congregational prayer. A collect generally (though not necessarily) consists of five parts:

■ The Address which establishes who it is that the pray-er is praying to – God the Father, Christ, or the Holy Spirit – and includes any adjectival phrases which accompany that name.

■ The Acknowledgment which compares God’s superior qualities to our inadequacies. Usually the particular quality chosen is related to

■ The Petition which is what is requested of God.

■ The Aspiration is the reasoning behind the petition: ‘Give us grace that we may better serve You.’

■ The Pleading. The pleading makes it clear whose name it is by which we approach God’s throne and for Whose sake God should hear our pleas.

The Collects. This book followed a consistent pattern; one of the collects was presented followed by the history of the text (different translation of the Latin, what phrases would have meant at the time that they were written, etc.) and a meditation on the text (written by the editors, Barbee and Zahl).

Conclusion. Not a necessary volume for a good library, but an interesting one. The Collects of Thomas Cranmer proved to be greatly exhortative as well as a sober reminder of the centuries of Christendom which have passed before us.

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