All words Any words Exact phrase

had been condemned by Convocation, was forced on the clergy and people
against the advice of the ecclesiastical authorities. In 1543,
however, an Act was passed in Parliament at the request of the king
forbidding private individuals to take it upon themselves to interpret
the Bible in any public assembly; noblemen, gentlemen householders,
and even merchants might retain the English translation and read it,
but this favour was denied to the lower classes "unless the king
perceiving their lives to be amended by the doctrines he had set forth
thought fit to give them liberty to read it."[41]

Early in 1536 Queen Catharine died. Her heart had been broken by the
conduct of the king and by separation from her daughter the Princess
Mary. Time and again she had been commanded under threat of the
severest punishment to accept the sentence of Cranmer's court, but
both herself and the Princess refused steadfastly to subscribe to such
a dishonourable verdict. After Catharine's death and merely to save
her life Mary signed a document agreeing to the abolition of papal
supremacy and the invalidity of her mother's marriage, though nobody
attached any importance to a submission that was obtained in such
circumstances. The death of Catharine was a great relief to Henry and
Anne, more especially to the latter, who had some reason for believing
that she herself had lost her hold on the affections of the king.
Henry had already grown weary of the woman for whose sake he had put
his lawful wife away and separated his kingdom from the Catholic
Church, and the disappointment of his hopes for the birth of an heir
to the throne confirmed his intention of ridding himself of a partner,
who was regarded by his own subjects and the nations of Europe only as
his concubine. She was arrested on a charge of misconduct with her
brother and other gentlemen of the court, was tried before a body of
the peers, and was put to death at Tyburn (17th May, 1536). Cranmer,
who in his heart was convinced of her innocence, promptly held a court
and pronounced her marriage with Henry null and void. On the very day
of her execution he issued a license for the king to marry Jane
Seymour, one of Anne's maids of honour, and before the end of the
month the marriage was celebrated. In June Parliament confirmed
Cranmer's sentence by declaring the invalidity of Henry's previous
marriages, and the illegitimacy of Mary and Elizabeth, and by fixing
the succession on the heirs of the king and Jane Seymour. Furthermore,
in case there might be no children it empowered the king to determine
by his will who should succeed. The object of this was to enable him
to appoint as his heir his bastard son, the Duke of Richmond, but this
intention was frustrated by the death of the Duke (July 1537).

While Parliament was in session Convocation assembled once more.
Cromwell, as the king's vicar-general in spirituals, claimed the right
to preside either in person or by proxy. Many of the new bishops who
had been appointed since 1533 were distinctly Lutheran in their ideas
and tendencies. Latimer of Worcester, who was well known to favour
German theology, was supported by five others, Shaxton, Goodrich,
Edward Foxe, Hilsey, and Barlow. Though Latimer on a former occasion
had been censured by Convocation he was selected to deliver the
opening sermon, in which he inveighed against Purgatory, images,
altars, relics, pilgrimages, the carelessness of the clergy, and the
abuses of the spiritual courts. Convocation having approved of
Cranmer's verdict regarding Henry's marriage with Anne Boleyn, a
petition was sent up from the lower house to the bishops complaining
of the erroneous views propagated by various preachers in the province
of Canterbury. The vast body of the older bishops were determined to
condemn these heretical views, which were little less than the renewal
of the Lollard teaching with a slight admixture of Lutheran theology,
but Cranmer, Latimer, and Foxe were equally determined to prevent such
a condemnation. The dispute promised to be both warm and protracted.
Cromwell, however, appeared in the assembly with a book of /Ten
Articles/ drawn up by the king for securing religious unanimity, and
insisted that the prelates should accept them. The Articles were
moderate in tone, and generally were not in opposition to the old
theology. They approved of Transubstantiation, emphasised the
importance and necessity of Baptism, Penance, and the Eucharist
without affirming that these were the only three Sacraments, declared
that good works were necessary for justification, that prayers might
be offered for those who were dead, that the use of the word Purgatory
was not to be recommended, that reverence should be shown to images
and pictures, and that the older ceremonies should be retained. The