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bequeathed by generous benefactors for the education of the poor.[50]

Convocation had met on the day after the assembly of Parliament. The
lower house presented four petitions to the bishops, the most
important of which was that the proctors of the clergy should be
admitted to Parliament, or at least that ecclesiastical legislation
should not pass until the clergy had been consulted, but the bishops
were too conscious of their helplessness to support such an appeal. It
is doubtful if the bill regarding Communion under both kinds was ever
submitted regularly to Convocation, though later on a proposal to
abolish the canons enforcing clerical celibacy was carried by a
majority. It is asserted, and apparently on good authority, that the
higher and more learned of the clergy consented to this proposal only
under pressure.

The year 1548 opened ominously for the Catholic party. Preachers,
licensed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and protected openly by the
court, delivered wild harangues against Catholic doctrines and
practices. Pamphlets, for the most part translations of heretical
works published in Germany or Switzerland attacking the Mass,
Transubstantiation, and the Real Presence, were sold publicly in the
market places without any interference from the authorities. In
January a royal proclamation was issued enjoining the observance of
the Lenten fasts, but ten days later an order was made forbidding the
use of candles on Candlemas Day, of ashes on Ash Wednesday, or of
palms on Palm Sunday. This was followed quickly by a command for the
removal of all statues, images, pictures, etc. from the churches. The
use of Communion under both kinds was to come into force at Easter
1548, and to prepare for this a royal proclamation was set forth
making obligatory the English /Order for Communion/. As the new rite
regarded only the Communion of the laity, the Latin Mass was to remain
in use as heretofore "without any varying of any rite or
ceremony."[51] The clergy were commanded to announce the Sunday on
which they proposed to distribute Communion to their flocks. After the
priest had himself communicated, the communicants, who did not wish to
go to confession, should make a general confession, and should receive
Communion under both kinds, the whole service being completed by the
usual blessing. This was a clever trick to prepare the way for still
greater changes. Owing to the retention of the Latin Mass it was
expected that the new Communion service would not lead to serious
trouble, while at the same time it would accustom the people to
portions of the Mass being read in English, and would imply both that
auricular confession was unnecessary and that Mass without Communion
of the laity was of no particular importance. The council anticipated
that the Communion service would prove unacceptable to many of the
clergy, and their anticipations were fulfilled, though, as shall be
seen, they adopted a novel method of allaying the trouble.

Bishop Gardiner, who had been kept in prison while Parliament was in
session lest his presence in the Upper House might lead to trouble,
was released in January 1548, but in May a peremptory summons was
issued commanding him to come to London without delay. He obeyed, and
for some time negotiations were carried on, until at last he was
ordered to preach against the Pope, monasteries, confession, and in
favour of the English Communion service (29th June). He was urged not
to treat of the sacrifice of the Mass, or of Transubstantiation, and
warned of the serious consequences that might ensue in case he
disobeyed; but Gardiner was a man who could not be deterred by such
means from speaking his mind, and as a consequence he was again placed
under arrest, and sent as a prisoner to the Tower. Cranmer, who had
rejected the authority of the Pope because he was a foreigner, finding
that he could get no support from the clergy or the universities--for
in spite of everything that had taken place the theology of Oxford and
Cambridge was still frankly conservative--invited preachers to come
from abroad to assist in weaning the English nation from the Catholic
faith. The men who responded to his call formed a motley crowd. They
were Germans like Martin Bucer and Paul Fagius, Italian apostate
friars like Peter Martyr (Pietro Martire Vermigli) and Ochino,
Frenchmen like Jean Véron, Poles like John ŕ Lasco, Belgians like
Charles Utenhove, ŕ Lasco's disciple, and Jews like Emmanuel
Tremellius.[52] The order for the total removal of images and for the
Communion service in English led to serious disturbances even in the
London churches, where the new opinions should have found the
strongest support, and confusion reigned throughout the country.

The Communion service in England was, however, only the prelude to the
total abolition of the Mass. Early in 1548 a series of questions had