AHRC-funded project 2007-10 

For four hundred years, from the 1540s to the 1940s, English monarchs and British governments summoned the nation to special acts of public worship, whether in times of crisis (e.g. conspiracies, plague, bad weather) or celebration (e.g. military victories, royal births). Most of these events are unstudied, and their long history - a remarkable continuity between early-modern and recent times - remains obscure. This project will for the first time bring together information and texts for these special observances, define their nature and purposes, and demonstrate their wider religious, political and cultural significance.

State prayers, fasts and thanksgivings were significant occasions, rich in meaning, purpose and consequence. They were ordered for England and Wales, for Scotland and Ireland, and from the late 17th century became British occasions. They were central in shaping ideas of national identity in terms of Protestantism, godliness and divine providence, and helped consolidate the idea of a British state. They had considerable political and social significance, and illuminate church-state relations. They commanded considerable popular reverence but they could also be a focus for expressions of religious and political dissent.

Few of these special acts of national worship have been studied, no list of the some 450 occasions exists, and their full history has never been investigated. This project, led by Philip Williamson (Durham; 19th-20th century) with Natalie Mears (Durham; 16th-17th century) and Stephen Taylor (Reading; 18th century), is the first extended study of state prayers and holy-days. It will be a major contribution to historical understanding, addressing broad religious and political issues and connecting with other areas of recent research interest. For instance, by exploring issues of commissioning, content, dissemination and reception, the project will contribute to allied fields of literature (e.g. household and private prayer), book history (printing and dissemination) and theology (practice of prayer, providentialism).

The project will produce an edition containing a complete list of prayers and days, and extracts from the orders and forms of prayer. A co-authored monograph will analyse these texts, the conditions which produced them and the responses they evoked, revealing much about religious and political doctrine, state ideological ‘projection', and popular religiosity. It will provide a fresh perspective on particular political and religious episodes and on the character of the British Protestant alliance between state and church. A volume of essays, arising from an international conference in 2009-10, will explore their wider significance for studies in politics, religion and culture over the four centuries.