Book of Common Prayer (1559)

Part of a series on the
History of the Church of England
Westminster Abbey (1749) by Canaletto
Middle Ages (597–1500) Anglo-Saxon Christianity Religion in Medieval England Convocations of Canterbury and York Development of dioceses
Reformation (1509–1559) Reformation Parliament Dissolution of the Monasteries Thomas Cranmer Book of Common Prayer (1549) Edwardine Ordinals Book of Common Prayer (1552) Forty-two Articles Martyrs Marian exiles
Elizabethan Church (1558–1603) Book of Common Prayer (1559) Thirty-nine Articles Convocation of 1563 The Books of Homilies History of the Puritans under Elizabeth I Vestments controversy Richard Hooker Foxe's Book of Martyrs Marprelate Controversy
Jacobean period (1603–1625) James I and religious issues History of the Puritans under King James I Millenary Petition Hampton Court Conference Book of Common Prayer (1604) King James Version
Caroline period (1625–1649) Arminianism in the Church of England Caroline Divines Laudianism History of the Puritans under King Charles I
1649–1688 History of the Puritans from 1649 Westminster Assembly Savoy Conference Book of Common Prayer (1662) Great Ejection Nonjuring schism
1700–1950 Bangorian Controversy Evangelical Revival Oxford Movement Disestablishmentarianism Prayer Book Crisis History of the Anglican Communion
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The 1559 Book of Common Prayer,^{[note 1]} also called the Elizabethan prayer book, is the third edition of the Book of Common Prayer and the text that served as an official liturgical book of the Church of England throughout the Elizabethan era.

Elizabeth I became Queen of England in 1558 following the death of her Catholic half-sister Mary I. After a brief period of uncertainty regarding how much the new queen would embrace the English Reformation, the 1559 prayer book was approved as part of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement. The 1559 prayer book was largely derived from the 1552 Book of Common Prayer approved under Edward VI. Retaining much of Thomas Cranmer's work from the prior edition, it was used in Anglican liturgy until a minor revision in 1604 under Elizabeth's successor, James I. The 1559 pattern was again retained by the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which remains in use by the Church of England.

The 1559 prayer book and its use throughout Elizabeth's 45-year reign secured the Book of Common Prayer's prominence in the Church of England and is considered by many historians as embodying the Elizabethan church's drive for a via media between Protestant and Catholic impulses and cementing the church's particular strain of Protestantism. Others have assessed it as an achievement in Elizabeth's commitment to an evangelical and stridently Protestant faith.

The text became integrated with late 16th-century English society and the diction used within the 1559 prayer book has been credited with helping mould the English language's modern form. Historian Eamon Duffy considered the Elizabethan prayer book an embedded and stable "re-formed" development out of medieval piety that "entered and possessed" the minds of the English people. A. L. Rowse asserted that "it is impossible to over-estimate the influence of the Church's routine of prayer".

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