"The [16^th^ century Lutheran] Reformers are familiar with the Greek rite and with the liturgical pronouncements of the Fathers of the undivided Church, and they cite both in support of their doctrinal position where appropriate. The basis of their liturgical rites and ceremonies, however, is the medieval Western rite as the Church in northern Europe observed it at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Unlike the Anglican Reformers, the Lutheran Reformers are not concerned about conforming their rite either to the Eastern or to the Primitive Church.
“The sixteenth century saw the beginning of extensive innovations in Roman ritual and ceremonial. In general, these had not reached northern Europe by the time the Reformation began. Consequently they exerted only slight influence on the historic Lutheran rite. Where the historic Lutheran rite has been retained or restored, it generally reveals a purer and older form of the Western rite than the reformed Roman Catholic rite of today exhibits. This is significant. It gives us a denominationally and confessionally distinctive rite to which we have historic title and which we have not lately borrowed from alien sources. It gives us a rite which is both older than, and significantly and recognizably different from, the present Roman Catholic rite." (What the Symbolical Books of the Lutheran Church Have to Say About Worship and the Sacraments,” Concordia Publishing House, 1952, pp. 11-12. )
Early Lutheran Liturgies:
Lucas Lossius’ Psalmodia hoc est…., Wittenberg 1561 edition (expanded from the 1533)
Niels Jesperssøn’s Gradual En Almindelig Sangog, Copenhagen 1573
Matthäus Ludecus’ Missale, hoc est Cantica…, Wittenberg 1589
Andrea Bezeli’s Cantica Sacra, quo Ordine…, Magdeburg 1613
Cantica Veteris Et Novi Testamenti Selectiora: Ad Usum S. Metropolitanae Magdeburgensis Ecclesiae ... (Magdeburgi: Ecclesia; Magdeburgi: Bezelius, 1612).
Psalterium Davidis, Prophetae Et Regis: Iuxta Veterem Translationem Alicubi emendatam cum Canticis Selectis Veteris & novi Testamenti: ad usum S. Metropolitanae Magdeburgensis Ecclesiae Erschienen: Magdeburgi: Ecclesia ; Magdeburgi : Bezelius, 1613.
Formular Buch by Johannes Schrader, 1670. (http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/fs1/object/display/bsb10796996_00002.html)
The year was 1616. Johann Georg, Margrave of Brandenburg, converted to
Calvinism and sought to enforce Calvinism on his very Lutheran
territory. What changes did he demand?
All images are to be removed from the church and sent to the court.
The stone altar is to be ripped from the ground and replaced with a
wooden table.
When the Lord's Supper is held, a white cloth covers the table.
All altars, crucifixes and panels are to be completely abolished.
Instead of the host, bread is to be baked into loves, cut into strips,
and put in a dish from which the people receive it in their hands;
likewise the chalice is received by the people with their hands.
The words of the Supper are no longer to be sung, but rather spoken.
The golden chalice to be replaced by wooden.
The prayer in the place of the collect is to be spoken, not sung.
Mass vestments and other finery no longer used.
No lamps are candles to be placed upon the altar.
The houseling cloth is not to be held in front of the communicants.
The people are not to bow as if Christ were present.
The communicants shall no longer kneel.
The sign of the cross after the benediction is to be discontinued.
The priest is no longer to stand with his back to the people.
The collect and Epistle no longer to be sung, but spoken.
Individuals are no longer to go to confession before communing, but
rather register with the priest in writing.
The people are no longer to bow when the name of JESUS is mentioned, nor
are they to remove their hats.
The Our Father is no longer to be prayed aloud before the sermon, but
rather there is to be silent prayer.
Communion is not to be taken to the sick, as it is dangerous, especially
in times of pestilence.
The stone baptismal font is to be removed and a basin substituted.
Epitaphs and crucifixes are not longer to be tolerated in the Church.
The Holy Trinity is not to be depicted in any visual form.
The words of the sacrament are to be altered and considered symbolic.
The historic Epistles and Gospels no longer used, but rather a selection
of the Bible by the minister, read without commentary.
The extent to which the Lutheran Church retained and purified olden ceremonies may be got from the following description of its usages so late as the eighteenth century ([Rudolf] Rocholl, Gesch. d. ev. Kirche in Deutschland, 300):
According to the Brunswick Agenda of Duke Augustus,1657, the pastors went to the altar clad in alb, chasuble, and mass vestments. Sacristans and elders held a fair cloth before the altar during the administration, that no particle of the consecrated Elements should fall to the ground. The altar was adorned with costly stuffs, with lights and fresh flowers. “I would,” cries [Christian] Scriver, “that one could make the whole church, and especially the altar, look like a little Heaven.” Until the nineteenth century the ministers at St. Sebald in Nuremberg wore chasubles at the administration of the Holy Supper. The alb was generally worn over the Talar, even in the sermon. [Valerius] Herberger calls it his natural Säetuch [seed-cloth], from which he scatters the seed of the Divine Word. The alb was worn also in the Westphalian cities. At Closter-Lüne in 1608 the minister wore a garment of yellow gauze, and over it a chasuble on which was worked in needlework a “Passion.” The inmates and abbesses, like Dorothea von Medine, were seen in the costume of the Benedictines. The “Lutheran monks” of Laccuna until 1631 wore the white gown and black scapular of the Cistercian order. Still later they sang the Latin Hours. The beneficiaries of the Augustinian Stift at Tübingen wore the black cowl until 1750. The churches stood open all day. When the Nuremberg Council ordered that they should be closed except at the hours of service, it aroused such an uproar in the city that the council had to yield. In 1619 all the churches in the Archbishopric of Magdeburg were strictly charged to pray the Litany. In Magdeburg itself there were in 1692 four Readers, two for the Epistle, two for the Gospel. The Nicene Creed was intoned by a Deacon in Latin. Then the sermon and general prayer having been said, the Deacon with two Readers and two Vicars, clad in Mass garment and gowns, went in procession to the altar, bearing the Cup, the Bread, and what pertained to the preparation for the Holy Supper, and the Cüster [Verger] took a silver censer with glowing coals and incense, and incensed them, while another (the Citharmeister?) clothed and arranged the altar, lit two wax candles, and placed on it two books bound in red velvet and silver containing the Latin Epistles and Gospels set to notes, and on festivals set on the altar also a silver or golden crucifix, according to the order of George of Anhalt in 1542. The Preface and Sanctus were in Latin. After the Preface the communicants were summoned into the choir by a bell hanging there. The Nuremberg Officium Sacrum (1664) bids all the ministers be present in their stalls, in white chorrocken, standing or sitting, to sing after the Frühmesse [Morning Mass], “Lord, keep us steadfast.” The minister said his prayer kneeling with his face to the altar, with a deacon kneeling on either side. He arranged the wafers on the paten in piles of ten, like the shewbread, while the Introit and Kyrie were sung. The responses by the choir were in Latin. Up to 1690 the Latin service was still said at St. Sebald’s and St. Lawrence’s. Throughout this (eighteenth) century we find daily Matins and Vespers, with the singing of German psalms. There were sermons on weekdays. There were no churches in which they did not kneel in confession and at the Consecration of the Elements.
See: Zeeden, Faith and Act, 12ff for a wonderful description of the Lutheran Mass