which they were imposed, but this it is far from easy to do. Strype states distinctly, quoting the Warrant Book as his authority, that they were 'agreed upon by the bishops and other learned men in the synod at London, in the year of our Lord 1552, and many other authorities[1] follow on the same side; and, on the whole, it seems probable that it was the case. With respect to the Prayer Book of 1552 there is greater doubt. The Act of Parliament by which it was authorised was passed early in the year 1552, and is called 5 and 6 Ed. VI. c. 1. It does not seem by any means clear that it ever was formally submitted to Convocation. It was drawn up by a committee of bishops and other divines appointed by the King—i.e. by the Council—but Cranmer himself was its principal author.
The comparison of the second Book of Edward VI. with the first, as well as the consideration of the Articles and of all the facts that have come to light concerning their history, seems to point to the theory of Mr. Pocock—at least, with a slight modification—as that which best accords with them. For while the doctrine has visibly progressed in a direction towards a Swiss rather than a German form of Protestantism, the persons responsible for the authorship of the two books are mainly the same; and as the distance of time is very short, it affords an excuse for suspecting that they may have intended to proceed to still greater extremes. At the same time, as already noticed, the opinions of Cranmer, and probably also of many of his coadjutors,
- ↑ E.g. Lathbury, quoting Wilkins and Heylin, Bishop Harold Browne, who cites the authority of Cardwell, &c. On the other hand Canon Dixon, Hist. of the Church of England, vol. iii. pp. 513-14, perhaps turns the balance once more in the opposite direction. The practice, however, of the times tended so greatly to the exaltation of the royal supremacy, that the authority of Convocation was gradually becoming of little account.
