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The
Revd Dr Peter Toon
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Today people [even those "experts" who produce modern language services for the churches] assume that "you" was not used in 16th century English to refer to an individual person. In those far off times, it is believed, people always said to one person, "Thou art" and to more than one "You are." There is of course truth in this but it is not the whole truth. "You" is used as the second person singular and thus as equivalent grammatically to "Thou" from well before the reign of Henry VIII (See "You" the Oxford Dictionary for examples). In The Book of the Common Prayer (1549), of which the chief editor was Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the new Catechism for the English people is printed as part of the Confirmation Service. In later editions it is printed separately. This Catechism was produced so as to be a question and answer between the Catechist (or Curate) and the young person who was being prepared for Confirmation. Its aim is to communicate the rudiments of the Christian Religion via the Creed, the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer. The Catechism begins with three questions which the modern reader will tend to assume are addressed to more than one young person. This is because "you/your" is used.
However, when we think about it we see that if addressed to more than one, it should be "What are your names?" and so on. Immediately after these three questions, which use "you," the questions and directions on the Apostles' Creed all use "Thou." For example:
Then, perhaps surprisingly to the modern reader, before the section on the Ten Commandments the Catechism reverts to the use of "you."
Then immediately after the stating of the Commandments by the candidate the questions revert to the use of "thou." For example:
And from this point onwards there is only the use of the "thee/thou" by the Catechist as he addresses the candidate. Explanation Assuming that the "you" in the questions of the Catechist is addressed to one person at a time and thus the "you" is here second person singular, how are we to explain this seeming oddity? It would appear that the use of "thee, thou, thy" points to a relation of intimacy, here an intimacy with the Gospel, the Church and with God the Father through Jesus Christ because of baptism and faith in the candidate. At the same time, it would appear that the use of "you, ye, your" points to an indirect relation via Godparents, a mediated relation. All the questions using "you" presuppose the mediation of the Godparents and all the questions using "thou, thee, thy, thine" presuppose a personal appropriation of the Faith by the candidate and thus an intimacy with the Lord. Those who are familiar with the works of Shakespeare will be aware of this distinction in usage of "you" and "thou." In As You Like It, III, v, we have the following examples.
Rosalind's "you" and "your" preserve her emotional distance from Phebe, while Phebe's "thee/thou" point to a degree of personal attachment behind her words of rejection. Thus we see what these pronouns have in common and what each one is peculiarly free to do and achieve in English, written or spoken. Conclusion One point that arises from this kind of study and reflection is that the oft-repeated wide-ranging statements of the liturgical experts and bible translators (and those who accept their testimony) concerning "Elizabethan" and "Tudor" English are usually no more than half-truths and as such misleading. The English language of prayer and worship wherein the Deity is addressed as "Thou/Thee" is not merely an aspect of 16th and 17th English, but it is a deliberately chosen way from at least the 17th century onwards of maintaining both Reverence and Intimacy of Relation with the ONE to Whom the worship is addressed! Blessed art Thou, Lord God of heaven and earth!
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