This comes from a predecessor to the current Episcopal/Anglican Book of Common Prayer.
It was published in The Standard, January 22, 1887 p. 5
A Prayer for Landlords
The following prayer was offered in the Episcopal churches in England until the end of Edward VI's reign, when, landlordism becoming dominant in the church, it was stricken out of the prayer book: "The earth is thine, O Lord, and all that is contained therein; notwithstanding thou hast given the possession thereof to the children of men, to pass over the time of their short pilgrimage in this vale of misery. We heartily pray thee to send thy holy spirit into the hearts of those that possess the grounds, pastures and dwelling places of the earth, that they, remembering themselves to be thy tenants, may not rack or stretch out the rents of their houses or lands; not yet take unreasonable fines and incomes, after the manner of covetous worldlings; but, so let them out to others that the inhabitants thereof may be able both to pay their rents, and also honestly to live, to nourish their family and to relieve the poor. Give them grace also to consider that they are but strangers and pilgrims in this world, having here no dwelling-place, but seeking one to come; that they, remembering the short continuance of their lives, may be content with what is sufficient, and not join house to house, nor couple land to land, to the impoverishment of others; but so behave themselves in letting out their tenements, lands and pastures, that after this life they may be received into everlasting dwelling-places, through Jesus Christ our Lord."
A letter to the editor in the NYT in 1922, prefaced a very similar prayer with these paragraphs:
In these days when our cities are being overcrowded at the expense of the towns, villages and farms, and especially at this season, when, because of the extortionate increase in rents now being demanded, so many people are looking forward to May 1 as a day of great hardship and, in many cases, a day of black despair -- one could wish that the landlords in every great city might "read, mark, learn and inwardly digest" the remarkable "Prayer for Landlords" given below and, so to speak, answer that prayer themselves.
The prayer in question was included in the "Primer : or Book of Private Prayer, needful to be used of all Christians. Authorized and set forth by order of King Edward VI." (In 1553) -- such is the quaint title of the original. The prayer itself is among "Sundry Godly Prayers for Divers Purposes," and may be found on page 458 of the "Liturgies of King Edward VI.," published by the Parker Society.
The prayer was followed in the LTE by this:
What a poignant "Prayer for the Times" in which we now live!
With certain commodities, such as the luxuries one can do without, it may be proper, in accordance with the law of "supply and demand," for an owner or vendor to charge as much as he can get. But, in the case of the necessities of life, that law ought surely to be modified by another standard, namely, "What is a reasonable and fair return on one's investment?"
Land and houses are limited commodities, and a roof over one's head is a fundamental necessity. In these days of overcrowded cities and the shortage of houses, if a landlord were to force the rent up to the maximum of what can be squeezed out of a tenant -- far beyond the amount necessary to cover taxes, insurance, repairs and deterioration, and to leave a reasonable net income on the landlord's investment -- he would thereby be guilty of a wanton denial of that demand for "social justice" which, more and more, is coming to be one of the standards of that new civilization for which the patriotic citizens of every free country are now working.
The landlord class is small in numbers; and in these days of universal suffrage, unless the landlords themselves are wise and farsighted enough to answer that "Prayer for Landlords," the time will soon come when a "government of the people, by the people and for the people" will be forced by the votes of the long-suffering masses to enact stern laws for dealing with such landlords as are rapacious.
In the England of the sixteenth century the official sympathies of the Established Church were strongly incluned to the side of the squirearchy and the landed gentry, and at that period the official attitude of the Church, generally speaking, was to admonish tenants to be content with the conditions of their life. It is, therefore, all the more noteworthy that a prayer that might have been interpreted as being almost a "prayer against landlords," instead of being one for the good of their own souls, should have been included at that time, by the order of an English King, in even a Book of Private Prayer.
Because that ancient and very human "Prayer for Landlords" is so full of the "social spirit" of modern Christianity, it might well be inserted in our twentieth century liturgies -- at least among those "prayers for private use" that are still "needful to be used of all Christians."
Richard D. Harlan
New York times, April 2, 1922
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