'An unimportant variation': the union of the 1549 and 1552 words of administration in the Prayer Book Communion
In his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801), John Shepherd places the 1662 words of administration in the context of patristic usage: In the primitive Church the Priest pronounced these words, "The Body of Christ, or the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ," and the communicant answered "Amen." Afterwards the priests said, " The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy soul unto eternal life," as appears from the Sacramentary of Gregory. The latter was, of course, preserved in the first reformed English liturgy of 1549, as Shepherd notes: The forms in Edward's first book, were "The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life." And when the cup was presented, "The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life." Once again, Shepherd - decades before 1833 - understands th...