religion, and for the abolishment of the contrary,' or, as it is named in the Lords' Journals, 'the bill for abolishing erroneous books.' Convocation, in response to an announcement from the Archbishop that it was the King's will that 'the service books should be reformed, by omitting all mention of the Pope and legendary and superstitious matter, and the abolition of the commemoration of saints not mentioned in Scripture or by authentical doctors,' appointed a committee for that purpose, consisting of the Bishops of Sarum and Ely, together with six members of the Lower House.[1]
It also ordered that every Sunday and holiday a chapter of the Bible should be read in English by the curate in every church, without exposition; and it sent up several petitions to the King, among them one for the ecclesiastical laws of the realm to be made according to the statute.
It likewise compiled expositions of the Sacraments, the Decalogue, the Lord's Prayer, and Twelve Articles of the Faith, and treatises on justification, works, and prayer for the dead (which, in point of fact, constituted the work entitled, as above, the King's book).
The principal Acts of the following year (1544) were:
35 Hen. VIII. c. 1, a succession Act.
35 Hen. VIII. c. 3, a bill for the King's style.
35 Hen. VIII. c. 5, a bill concerning (modifying) the Six Articles.
35 Hen. VIII. c. 16, a bill for the examination of the Canon laws by a commission of thirty-two persons.
The last being another renewal of the former legislation on this subject,
Convocation appears to have been busy mainly with questions of money, tithes, and subsidies.
- ↑ Stubbs, Appendix iv. pp. 131-2.
