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missals, antiphonals, processionals, manuals, ordinals, etc., used
formerly in the service of the Church and not approved of by the
king's majesty, as well as for the removal of all images "except any
image or picture set or graven upon any tomb in any church, chapel or
churchyard only for a monument of any king, prince, nobleman or other
dead person who had not been commonly reputed and taken for a
saint."[62] As a result of this measure a wholesale destruction of
valuable books and manuscripts took place in the king's own library at
Westminster and throughout the country. The royal visitors, entrusted
with the difficult work of Protestantising Oxford, acting under the
guidance of Dr. Cox, chancellor of the University or "cancellor" as he
was called, ransacked the college libraries, tore up and burned
priceless manuscripts or sold them as waste paper, and even went so
far as to demand the destruction of the chapel windows, lest these
beautiful specimens of art might encourage loyalty to the old religion
that had inspired their artists and donors.

As it had been determined to abandon completely the religious
conservatism of the former reign it was felt absolutely necessary to
remove the Catholic-minded bishops, to make way for men of the new
school on whom the government could rely with confidence. Gardiner of
Winchester and Bonner of London were already in prison. Heath of
Worcester, who had refused to agree to the new Ordinal, was arrested
in March 1550, as was also Day of Chichester in October. Tunstall of
Durham, whose conservative views were well known to all, was placed
under surveillance in May 1551, and thrown into prison together with
his dean in the following November. In a short time a sentence of
deprivation was issued against Bonner, Heath, Day and Gardiner. Bishop
Thirlby of Westminster, who had given great offence by his
uncompromising attitude regarding the Blessed Eucharist, was removed
from Westminster, where his presence was highly inconvenient, to
Norwich, and the aged Bishop Voysey was forced to resign the See of
Exeter to make way for a more reliable and more active man. At the
same time steps were taken in the universities to drive out the men
whose influence might be used against the government's plans. The Sees
of Westminster and London were combined and handed over to Ridley of
Rochester, one of Cranmer's ablest and most advanced lieutenants.
Hooper, who looked to Zwingli as his religious guide, was appointed to
Gloucester; but as he objected to the episcopal oath, and episcopal
vestments, and as he insisted on his rights of private judgment so far
as to write publicly against those things that had been sanctioned by
the supreme head of the Church, it was necessary to imprison him[63]
before he could be reduced to a proper frame of mind for the
imposition of Cranmer's hands (March 1551). Ponet was appointed to
Rochester, and on the deprivation of Gardiner, to Winchester, where
his scandalous and public connexion with the wife of a Nottingham
burgher[64] was not calculated to influence the longing of his flock
for the new teaching. Scory was appointed to Rochester and afterwards
to Chichester, and Miles Coverdale to Oxford.

The zeal of the new bishops in seeking out the suppression of
papistical practices and their readiness to place the property of the
churches at Northumberland's disposal soon showed that those who
selected them had made no mistake. On Ridley's arrival in London he
held a conference for the purpose of compelling the clergy to adopt
the new liturgy in place of the Mass. He issued an order for the
removal of altars, and for the erection in their places of "honest
tables decently covered," whereon Communion might be celebrated. The
high altar in the Cathedral of St. Paul was pulled down, and a plain
Communion table set up in its stead. As such a sacrilegious innovation
was resented by a great body of both clergy and people, the council
felt it necessary to instruct the sheriff of Middlesex to enforce the
commands of the bishop. The example thus set in the capital was to be
followed throughout the country. In November 1550 letters were sent
out to all the bishops in the name of the youthful head of the Church,
commanding them to pull down the altars in their dioceses, and for
disobedience to this order Bishop Day was arrested. Hooper, once his
scruples regarding the episcopal oath and vestments had been removed,
threw himself with ardour into the work of reforming the clergy of his
dioceses of Worcester and Gloucester, but only to find that nothing
less than a royal decree could serve to detach them from their old
"superstitions" (1552). While the wholesale work of destruction was
being pushed forward care was taken that none of the spoils derived