Glory be to God on High
One of Thomas Cranmer’s great innovations in the Prayer Book service of Holy Communion was to move the Gloria to the end of the service. Previously, it was said after confession and absolution—a way of praising the Divine prior to celebrating the Eucharist. But Cranmer placed an English translation of the prayer at the end of the service, after the Eucharist had taken place, making it a final act of worship. It reads:
Glory be to God on high
And in earth peace, goodwill towards men,
We praise thee, we bless thee,
we worship thee, we glorify thee,
we give thanks to thee, for thy great glory
O Lord God, heavenly King,
God the Father Almighty.
O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesu Christ;
O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
that takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy upon us.
Thou that takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy upon us.
Thou that takest away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer.
Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father,
have mercy upon us.
For thou only art holy;
thou only art the Lord;
thou only, O Christ,
with the Holy Ghost,
art most high
in the glory of God the Father.
Amen.
Beginning with the words of the angels who announce Christ’s birth to the shepherds (Luke 2.14), the prayer continues in praise, addressing ‘God the Father.’ Then it turns to God the Son, ‘Jesu Christ’, that is Jesus Christ, his name in the vocative case, indicating that he is being addressed personally, and recognises him as the ‘Lamb of God’ (John 1.29).
This prayer has a distinguished provenance. The Tutorial Prayer Book, published in 1913, says that:
This hymn is amongst the very earliest liturgical relics outside the Bible. It is to be found in Codex Alexandrinus, the great Bible manuscript of the British Museum, known to Bible-students as ‘A.’ It is there placed at the end of the Psalter, a position which bears witness to the early regard paid to it, for that manuscript is certainly little later than 400 A.D., and possibly earlier. First used as a Morning Hymn, as it still is in the region of its origin, the East, it became incorporated into the Mass in the West, but long after its first introduction into Western services. In 1552 it was moved from the beginning of the Communion Office to the end.
When said at the end of a service, and especially when sung in a choral Eucharist in the setting written by John Merbecke, this hymn evokes a complex range of emotion, akin to a Schubert Lieder. John Dowden, in The Workmanship of the Prayer Book, said that:
The simplest and quietest of “said” Eucharists may indeed, at any season, well claim that the great thanksgiving of the Gloria forms a fitting conclusion to the rite. And again, it is to be always remembered that the Gloria is not only a hymn of adoration and of gratitude, but of suppliant entreaty. The prayer for mercy, repeated with such tender and wistful earnestness, imparts to the concluding section of the Gloria a note of penitence that is distinctly audible amid the triumphant praise.
This last remark—that the Gloria combines penitence with triumphant praise—could be said of the entire Prayer Book service of Holy Communion. In plain but beautiful language, we acknowledge our misdoings and address Christ personally, seeking his forgiveness and praising him in glory.