out a royal license.1 A Book of Homilies 2 was at the same time put forth as a guide to doctrine, and the commissioners were armed with seventy-four " Articles of Enquiry," and with thirty-seven general injunctions, from whose terms may be gathered a very definite idea of the plan of reform devised by Cranmer as the basis of the new system. Foremost among the churchmen of the old school who ventured to resist the resisted by fresh tide of innovation were Bonner, bishop of London, and Bonner and Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, both of whom were impris oned. While Cranmer was thus advancing the new ecclesiastical movement within the realm, Somerset had crossed the border and had won his great victory at Pinkie Cleugh, from which he returned to London in triumph in September. With the political influence of the protector thus at its height, the parliament met, on the 4th of November, in which the religious revolution inaugurated by the privy council was to receive the sanction of legislation. Gardiner, who were imprisoned; necessary legislation enacted in the parlia ment which met on November 4, 1547; In order that the subject of ecclesiastical reform might be discussed without danger, it was first necessary to repeal the repeal of bloody Act of the Six Articles, in which Henry had attempted necessity for the the Six Articles defining heresy ; statutory definitions of heresy prior to that act; to put forth for the first time a positive statutory definition of the crime of heresy. An account has heretofore been given of the civil and ecclesiastical law upon that subject prior to the enactment in 1382 of the statute of 5 Richard II. st. 2, c. 5, which was followed in 1400 by 2 Hen. IV. c. 15 (De hæretico comburendo), and in 1414 by 2 Hen. V. c. 7, which dealt mainly with the question of procedure. The statutory system as thus established continued in full force down to 1533, when Henry VIII. undertook to improve it by the enactment of 25 Hen. VIII. c. 14, which, after repealing 2 Hen. IV. c. 15, because it failed to "decline any certain cases of heresy," and because it gave the bishops an unlimited power to put men on trial for heresy on bare suspicion, confirmed and reenacted the statute of 5 Rich. II. c. 5, and 2 Hen. V. c. 7. The negative definitions of heresy contained 1 Wilkins, Conc., vol. iv. pp. 10-14; Burnet, Hist. Reform., vol. i. p. 308. 2 These had been prepared some years before by Cranmer and others for the use of convocation, but never published. 8 See Strype's Eccl. Mem., II. i. 7583; Burnet, Hist. Reform., vol. i. p. 309; Blount, Reform. of the Church of Eng., vol. ii. pp. 43-59. 4 Vol. i. pp. 537-540. statutes in Henry's act of 1533 were supplemented in 1539 by the positive and emphatic declarations contained in the Act of the Six Articles (31 Hen. VIII. c. 14), whose terms were extended four years later by 34 & 35 Hen. VIII. c. I. In order to wipe out this whole statutory system for the punish- all prior ment of heresy was passed the statute of Edw. VI. c. 12, upon the in which not only the Act of the Six Articles, but all "acts of subject repealed by parliament and statutes touching, mentioning, or in any wise i Edw. VI. concerning religion and opinions" were repealed.1 Thus was restored "the common law as to heresy," but the law so common restored was understood to be the law as settled in Sawtre's heresy as case at the beginning of the reign of Henry IV., which author- settled in ized the burning of a heretic by the writ De hæretico combu- case rendo after a conviction by a provincial council." C. 12; law as to Sawtre's revived. by the com act of 26 pealed, and Edw. III. The mass which the Act of the Six Articles had so resolutely The mass retained was superseded in 1547 by the communion under the superseded authority of an act which, after providing punishment for munion; such as should revile the sacrament, enjoined the receiving of it under both kinds on the laity as well as the clergy, an act which after repeal and revival is still in force. While the treasons Act of Supremacy remained unrepealed until the next reign, Hen. VIII. the famous treasons act (26 Hen. VIII. c. 13) by which it c. 13, rewas supplemented was now wiped out by 1 Edw. VI. c. 12, act of 25 providing that nothing should be held to be treason except c. 3, with a offences against the old treasons act of 25 Edw. III. c. 3, ments, and such as were created by its own terms. In 1552, after restored; the fall of Somerset, some of the abolished treasons were in 1552 reënacted and some new ones created, subject, however, to made for the all-important constitutional limitation which provided that two wit no person should henceforth be indicted or attainted for any cases of kind of treason except on his voluntary confession, or upon the testimony of two lawful witnesses with whom the accused should be confronted on the trial. The traditional form of 1 A masterful exposition of the whole subject may be found in Sir J. F. Stephen's Hist. of the Crim. Law of Eng., vol. ii. pp. 438-475. 2 As to Sawtre's case, see vol. i. P. 537, note 6. For Sir J. F. Stephen's review of that case, see vol. ii. pp. 445459. 81 Edw. VI. c. I. That act confirmed a canon passed by convocation in December, 1547, providing for com- p. 16. The act of 5 & 6 Edw. VI. c. 2 provided for "two lawful accusers; which said accusers, at the time of the arraignment of the party accused, if they be then living, shall be brought in person before the party so accused few amend provision nesses in treason; d'élire abolished, and their appoint ment vested in royal pro the force elections of electing bishops by congé d'élire was abolished by an act which bishops by congé completely swept away the ancient fiction by the provision "that from henceforth no congé d'élire be granted, nor election of any archbishop or bishop by the dean and chapter made, but that the king may, by his letters patent, at all times when the king; any archbishoprick or bishoprick is void, confer the same to any person whom the king shall think meet."1 By the same act giving act 2 which abolished the new treasons created during the clamations reign of Henry VIII. was repealed the act that had given to his proclamations the force of law. In painful contrast with the liberal spirit of such legislation as this stands the vagrancy act of Edw. VI. c. 2, which, after repealing the prior statutes upon that subject as not sufficiently severe, substituted a 1 Edw. VI. new set of penalties against unfortunates of that class that culminated in the provision that if the vagrant should run away from the temporary bondage to which he was first consigned, he should be adjudged a slave for life, branded with the letter S, and hanged if he should run away a second time.3 of law repealed; cruel vagrancy act of C. 2. Origin and fate of the chantry lands; Apart from the estates of the monasteries, and despite the statutes of mortmain, gifts of land had for a long time been made to the use of parish churches, chapels, guilds, fraternities, companies, or brotherhoods, erected for devotion, or by common assent, without incorporation. The perpetuity of such grants was secured by the conveyance of lands to perprimary sons in trust, and the primary object of the trust was to mainobjects of tain the saying of masses for the benefit of the souls of the donations; donors or their relations; or the trust was created primarily for the benefit of a church chapel, hospital, school, college, or other charitable, religious, or educational institution with the obligation of obits or prayers for the souls of the donors or others superadded as an incidental object. In order to prevent the such and avow and maintain that that they 11 Edw. VI. c. 2. 21 Edw. VI. c. 12. Despite the statute, however, the practice of issu ing proclamations continued for a long time thereafter. See below, p. 179. 3 The best history of the vagrancy statutes may be found in Sir J. F. Stephen's Hist. of the Crim. Law, vol. iii. pp. 266–275. 4 Reeves' Hist. of English Law, vol. iii. pp. 269-271 and notes (Finlason ed.). An excellent statement of the whole matter is contained in note (b). ,, between Hen. VIII. c. 4, giving lands to making in future of grants of this character, embracing not distinction only "superstitious uses," but also "good and charitable uses "superstias afterwards defined, was passed the statute of 23 Hen. VIII. tious" and "good and c. 10, which declared all such dispositions void. After the con- charitable uses; " fiscation of the monastic property by the acts passed in the 27th and 32d years of Henry's reign, a restrospective act1act of 37 was passed in the 37th of that reign giving the lands granted in trust as above described, and generally known as the chantry the chantry lands, to the king. As the execution of that act was pre- the king; vented by Henry's death, another of the same character was passed in Edward's first parliament,2 under which commission- act of 1 ers were appointed who soon placed the chantry lands under 14, declarthe control of the privy council. Although this act declared ing that that the property so appropriated was to be applied "to good should be applied "to and godly uses," as in erecting grammar schools, few were in good and fact established, the bulk of the chantry endowments being uses." dispersed and wasted as the monastic lands had been.3 Edw. VI. c. such lands godly ful attempt gain repre "in the An account has heretofore been given of the opposition of Unsuccessthe clergy to the scheme of Edward I., who designed, by means of the of the præmunientes clause contained in the writs addressed clergy to to the bishops, to incorporate their representatives as a dis- sentation tinct parliamentary estate. Under the persistent opposition nether of the clergy themselves, who preferred to vote their aids in house of parlia their provincial councils and convocations, Edward's plan broke ment;" down, and the præmunientes clause, though still inserted in the writs, became merely an empty formula. After the loss of power that the clerical assemblies suffered, through the submission which the whole clerical body was forced to make to Henry VIII., they attempted to regain something of their old influence first by petitions to Cranmer that statutes concerning religion and ecclesiastical ordinances should not pass without their sanction, and when such requests were ignored, they asked that they might now be "associated with the commons in the nether house of parliament." 5 No disposition. was shown, however, to disturb existing relations, and the im 1 37 Hen. VIII. c. 4. 2 i Edw. VI. c. 14. 3 As to the disposition actually made of the chantry lands and their probable value, see Reform. of the Church of Eng., Blount, vol. ii. pp. 60-66. 4 Vol. i. pp. 480, 481. 5 Wilkins, Conc., vol. iv. p. 15; Cardwell's Synodalia, vol. ii. p. 420; Burnet's Hist. Reform., vol. i. p. 323. priests be lawful; and the Book of Common Prayer; the com munion; portant work of ecclesiastical reform was continued as before without clerical coöperation in the lower house. marriage of In the second session of Edward's first parliament, which declared to met in November, 1548, the work of the English Reformation was materially advanced by the enactment of a statute declaring the marriage of priests to be lawful;1 and by the adoption of the changes of creed and ritual brought forward by Cranmer in the first Book of Common Prayer, which received the sanction of the state by being annexed as a schedule to first Act of the first Act of Uniformity 2 providing that it should go into Uniformity effect throughout the Church of England on the 9th of July, 1549. Although the details of the making of this famous and melodious compilation are obscure, it seems to be clear that it was built up out of the old Latin service-book of the Church of England under the guiding hand of Cranmer, who, after conference with continental reformers of every school, submitted the completed work to both houses of convocation and the privy council, prior to its submission for parliamentary question of approval. The supreme question involved was that of the communion, a question that had already been passed upon in the previous session by the act which, without materially changing the catholic dogma, commended the giving of the elements in both kinds to clergy and laity alike. In order to adapt the change thus made to the service of the mass, an "Order of Communion" had been promulgated by the crown,5 prior to the adoption of the first prayer-book, consisting of a brief service in English which, beginning after the communion of the priest, regulated the administration of the sacrament to the laity. In the first or "high church" prayer-book of 1549 the communion service so arranged was retained without prayer-book material alteration. The devotional changes thus brought about were not to be accepted, however, without a protest from at least a part of the nation. The day after the new liturgy called an expurgated and condensed English version of the ancient Missal, Breviary, and Manual, by which the services of the Church of England had been conducted during mediaval times."- Blount, Reform. of the Church of Eng., vol. ii. p. 93. 4 1 Edw. VI. c. I. first or of 1549; 1 2 & 3 Edw. VI. c. 21. The act of 5 & 6 Edw. VI. c. 12 was afterwards passed in order to counteract the effects of the preamble of the first act, which seriously reflected upon clerical marriages while it permitted them. 2 2 & 3 Edw. VI. c. 1. 8 "The Book of Common Prayer, thus set forth with the full authority of church and state, may very fairly be 5 By proclamation dated March 8, 1548. |