Book of Common Prayer · The Catechism (1662)

Versions of the Catechism

The base text is the 1662 Catechism (plain text, source). Earlier and later rites are listed below, beginning with Pecham's Lambeth canon (in Johnson's translation), the Lay Folks' Catechism (modernised by AnglicanGuide) and Ælfric's Old English homilies in Benjamin Thorpe's translation. Public-domain texts are given in full; copyrighted modern rites, and texts not separately transcribed, have a short note and a link. Use the Compare tab on the Catechism page to read any of them beside 1662.

• Ælfric: The Lord's Prayer and Creeds in English (Old English) (c. 990–995) · English translation · Old English · Source: B. Thorpe (ed. and trans.), The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church, vol. 2 (Ælfric Society, 1846), pp. 596–599, 604–605 (Internet Archive)
• Pecham, Ignorantia sacerdotum: Council of Lambeth, canon 9 (Latin) (1281) · English translation · Latin · Source: J. Johnson (trans.), A Collection of the Laws and Canons of the Church of England, vol. 2 (Oxford, 1851), pp. 282–287 (Internet Archive)
• Thoresby, The Lay Folks' Catechism (York; Middle English, modernised) (1357) · English translation · Middle English · Source: T. F. Simmons and H. E. Nolloth (eds.), The Lay Folks' Catechism, EETS o.s. 118 (1901), Thoresby's English text, pp. 2–98 (Internet Archive)
• The Bishops' Book (Institution of a Christian Man) (1537)
  Not imported. A long official exposition of the Creed, the seven sacraments, the Ten Commandments, the Pater noster and Ave, justification and purgatory, prepared by the bishops in 1537. It is a doctrinal treatise rather than a question-and-answer catechism, but it fixed the English catechetical headings later used in 1549. The Institution of a Christian Man, in Formularies of Faith put forth by Authority during the Reign of Henry VIII (Oxford, 1856) (Internet Archive).
• The King's Book (Necessary Doctrine and Erudition) (1543)
  Not imported. Henry VIII's revision of the Bishops' Book (1543), more conservative in doctrine, with the same expository plan: faith, the Creed, the seven sacraments, the Commandments, the Lord's Prayer and the Ave, free will, justification and good works. A Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man, in Formularies of Faith (Oxford, 1856) (Internet Archive).
• First Prayer Book of Edward VI (1549) · full text · Source: Charles Wohlers, the 1549 Book of Common Prayer (justus.anglican.org)
• Second Prayer Book of Edward VI (1552) · full text · Source: Charles Wohlers, the 1552 Book of Common Prayer (justus.anglican.org)
• Elizabethan Prayer Book (1559) · full text · Source: Charles Wohlers, the 1559 Book of Common Prayer (justus.anglican.org)
• Alexander Nowell, Catechism (1570)
  Not imported: a book-length dialogue. The Dean of St Paul's "larger catechism", approved by Convocation in 1563 and published in Latin and in Thomas Norton's English in 1570, expounds the Law, the Creed, prayer and the sacraments on a Reformed plan; its sacramental definitions lie behind the 1604 additions to the Prayer Book catechism. A Catechism written in Latin by Alexander Nowell, translated by Thomas Norton (1570), ed. G. E. Corrie, Parker Society (1853) (Internet Archive).
• Jacobean Prayer Book: the additions on the Sacraments (1604) · full text · Source: Charles Wohlers, the 1559 Book of Common Prayer with the 1604 changes (justus.anglican.org)
• Scottish Prayer Book ("Laud's Liturgy") (1637) · full text · Source: Charles Wohlers, the 1637 Scottish Book of Common Prayer (justus.anglican.org)
• Episcopal Church (USA) Book of Common Prayer (1789) · full text · Source: Charles Wohlers, the 1789 U.S. Book of Common Prayer (justus.anglican.org)
• Episcopal Church (USA) Book of Common Prayer (1928) · full text · Source: Charles Wohlers, the 1928 U.S. Book of Common Prayer (justus.anglican.org)
• Church of England, Proposed Prayer Book (1928)
  Not separately imported: the 1928 book left the Catechism as in 1662, referring to it in the new Confirmation order as "the short Catechism". The Church of England's Revised Catechism (1962) was a separate, unofficial-status revision. Wohlers, the 1928 Proposed Book of Common Prayer, Confirmation (justus.anglican.org).
• Episcopal Church (USA) Book of Common Prayer: An Outline of the Faith (1979) · full text · Source: Charles Wohlers, the 1979 U.S. Book of Common Prayer, An Outline of the Faith (justus.anglican.org)
• Church of England, Common Worship: A Catechism (2000)
  Text under copyright and not reproduced. Common Worship keeps the 1662 Catechism and the Revised Catechism of 1962 as authorised texts for instruction, with other catechetical material in Rites on the Way. Church of England, Common Worship: Christian Initiation, Rites on the Way (official text).
• Anglican Church in North America, To Be a Christian (2020)
  Text under copyright and not reproduced. A full catechism of some 370 questions in the classic order: the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments, preceded by a section on salvation and the Gospel and drawing on the 1662 catechism, the Thirty-nine Articles and the Fathers. ACNA, To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism (official site).