The Book of Common Prayer is the prayer book of the Church of England and also the name for similar books used in other churches in the Anglican Communion. It has been through many revisions over the last few centuries. It contains the order to be followed in church services. Within the United Kingdom, it can only be printed by one of the privileged presses, as it is under perpetual Crown Copyright.
The earliest English-language service book of the Church of England was the Exhortation and Litany. Published in 1544, it borrowed greatly from Martin Luther's Litany and Myles Coverdale's New Testament, and was the only Protestant service to be finished within the lifetime of King Henry VIII.
In 1548, Thomas Cranmer finished work on an English Communion, necessitated by an order of Parliament declaring that Communion was to be given in both forms-bread and wine. This was the first service to show the roots of Protestantism which were beginning to take hold in the English Church. The service existed as an addition to the pre-existing Latin Mass, and much of Cranmer's language in this service has survived through the many subsequent revisions down to the present day.
One year later, in 1549, a full prayer book had been finished and was published under the leadership of Cranmer during the reign of Edward VI. The Preface to this edition, which contained Cranmer's explanation as to why a new prayer book was necessary, began: "There was never any thing by the wit of man so well devised, or so sure established, which in continuance of time hath not been corrupted." The original version was used until only 1552, when a further revision was released.
In 1553, upon the succession of Mary I to the throne, an attempt was made at a counter-reformation in England. Cranmer was punished for his work in the Protestant reformation by being burned at the stake on March 21, 1556.