that he still maintained the ascendency of the Protestant faction. How completely the general condition of affairs was, in these respects, unchanged, is shown by the two ecclesiastical Acts of the session which commenced in November—one (3 and 4 Edw. VI. c. 10) for the abolition of images, and ancient service books, and the other (3 and 4 Edw. VI. c. 11) a renewal of the old Act of Henry VIII., for the appointment by the King of two-and-thirty persons to revise the ecclesiastical laws—and also by the fact that Bonner's and Gardiner's petitions for a rehearing of their cause were either unnoticed or rejected.
Almost with the beginning of the year 1550 appeared the first form for the ordination of bishops, priests, and deacons. This had been arranged for by an Act passed in the session just referred to.[1]
It was drawn up by the same committee of twelve—six bishops and six other divines—as had composed the first liturgy, and it is remarkable, as a sign of the times, that Heath, Bishop of Worcester (afterwards Chancellor and Archbishop of York under Mary), who was one of them, was sent to the Fleet for declining to agree with his colleagues in accepting it.[2] The committee was appointed by council, and the use of the form which they should draw up was provided for, as we have seen, in advance by Act of Parliament; but whether the form itself was ever accepted by, or even submitted to, Convocation does not appear to be equally clear.[3] In the early part of this year, also, the bishopric of Westminster, first instituted by Henry VIII., was dissolved, and Ridley was translated from Rochester to London, to fill the place of the deprived Bonner. The year was,
