Jump to content

Page:Church and State under the Tudors.djvu/135

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
REIGN OF EDWARD VI
111

and the showering of honours and emoluments upon himself and his partisans, and then by the war with Scotland, culminating in the very complete but very unprofitable victory of Pinkie Cleugh. This victory, however, though it rendered the realisation of Henry's great object of uniting the two countries by means of a marriage between Edward and Mary more unlikely than before, yet served the purpose of increasing for the moment the popularity and reputation of Somerset. But, in the midst of these occupations, the Protector found time to proceed with certain other measures, which must have given the Catholics some foresight of what was in store for them. Thus, the bishops were compelled to take out commissions for the execution of their episcopal office, which proceeded upon the distinct assumption that all ecclesiastical, as well as all civil authority was derived from the Crown, This, it is true was no new thing, having been carried out nine years before by the late King—at least, in individual instances—and was a strictly logical result of the terms of the Act of Supremacy: now, however, it was to be made the regular condition of the episcopal jurisdiction, and the first to accept the new condition was Cranmer himself the successor of Augustine and of Becket. Injunctions were issued for the purification of churches, thou oh the curate and churchwardens of St. Martin's in London were compelled to restore the crucifix which they had removed from their church without le^al warrant. A book of Homilies was issued, and a royal visitation announced, and the bishops temporarily suspended from their functions. Bonner and Gardiner alone attempted resistance; but Bonner and Gardiner in consequence, went to the Fleet, where, in the coarse of a week, the former gave up his opposition, while