Abstract
This analysis explores how the accessibility of the newly popular Book of Hours factored into the Protestant reformations in England. Accessibility through printed books created a demanding reading culture and changed the intent of the object to represent popularized prayers, as seen in rubrics. The results of this examination demonstrate that the increasing use of the Book of Hours by large numbers of laymen within public settings drew attention to the laity’s lack of understanding of theology and depth of spiritual interiority; this heightened awareness created another reason for Protestant reform and its teachings. The reception of this object by evangelical reformers was met with contempt; the content of these books were recognized as potentially regressive to foundational theology and the spiritual intellect of lay individuals. Evangelical reformers designed alternative books to mitigate their anxieties, some of which were legally officiated. Ownership of the Book of Hours as a platform for the practice of devotion was a step toward humanism, and its evolution and later reformed versions presented material to deepen the faith and intellectual participation of the laity. The slowly rising authority of the laity following the collapse of papal authority was complemented by the change in reformed church services from gazing at the Eucharist to more engagingly listening to sermons, as well as reformed books that abolished ritual rubric promises while offering content reflecting the bible as a whole rather than singling out the psalms and clerically-selected scripture.