Marginalia1547.aforesayd, with speciall letters vnto the Archbishop, requiring hym seuerally to be punished by þe law for the same. But because I finde no executiō following therupon, I therefore passe ouer this story of hym.
These thinges premissed, when this vertuous and godly young Prince (endued as you haue heard wyth speciall graces from God) was nowe peaceably stablished in hys kyngdome, and had a Counsell
Henry VIII's will established a council of regency in order to govern during the minority of Edward VI. It excluded leaders of the conservative opposition: Stephen Gardiner, Edmund Bonner, and Thomas Howard II, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. On 31 January 1547, only three days following the death of King Henry, the council of regency elected Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, Lord Protector, a traditional assignment for the eldest uncle of a minor king. Seymour was created Duke of Somerset on 17 February at the same time that John Dudley became Earl of Warwick. Seymour had effected a coup d'état that enabled him to govern effectively as king and, in violation of the royal will, to replace the legitimate council of regency with a Privy council that he selected personally. Contrary to the tradition, this council did not unite in support of ensuing religious reforms. Protector Somerset acted without consulting councilors, sometimes falsifying records to suit his purposes. His overbearing circumvention of the Privy council contributed to the eventual alienation of almost all of his original supporters. Hoak, King's Council, pp. 167, 177-79, 189-90, and passim.
[Back to Top]John King
Supporters of Edward VI praised him as a New Josiah on the ground that the boy king who purged Israel of idolatrous images and shrines (2 Kings 22-23) provided a precedent for pursuing a legally dubious policy of religious reform during the minority of King Edward. King, Tudor Royal Iconography, pp. 93-94, 160; Aston, King's Bedpost, pp. 26-36.
[Back to Top]And for as much as at hys first entry (notwithstanding hys fathers good beginning in abolishing the vsurped power of Antichrist) he yet founde most of hys lawes greatly repugning against this his zelous enterprise, he therfore purposed by þe aduise of his sayd wyse and honorable Counsell, of his own regall power & authoritie
Stephen Gardiner disputed the legality of pursuing ecclesiastical reformation during a royal minority. Alford, Kingship and Politics, pp. 57-58.
MarginaliaOrder takē by Kyng Edward for reforming of religion.Whereupon intending fyrst a generall visitation
Beginning in May 1547, the royal visitation of all English bishoprics represented the opening move toward the introduction of changes in religion. It was the first action of this kind since Thomas Cromwell's vice-gerency over the Church of England. The six parties of commissioners were packed with evangelical sympathizers. MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer, pp. 369-70.
[Back to Top]Dehort: to exhort against taking action.
Foxe paraphrases the Royal Injunctions of Edward VI. The King's Printer, Richard Grafton, published Iniunccions geuen by the Kynges Maiestie in seven separate editions on 31 July 1547 (STC 10087.5-10091). In addition to reaffirming the Royal Injunctions of 1538, these injunctions advance in a firmly Protestant direction.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaEcclesiasticall persons hauing cure, to preach quarterly agaynst the Popes vsurped power.In the whych, amongest other thinges, it was first enioyned that all ecclesiasticall persons shoulde themselues obserue and cause to be obserued of others, all such Statutes as were made for the abolishing of the bishop of Romes vsurped power, and establishing of the kinges supreame authoritye
The Act for Submission of the Clergy (1534), Act of Supremacy (1534), and related legislation.
Injunction 1.
MarginaliaSermons quarterly to be made.And agayne, that euery the aforesayde ecclesiasticall person (hauing cure) should preach, or cause to be preached within their seueral cures, one sermō euery quarter of the yeare. MarginaliaDifference betwene workes cōmaunded of God, and workes of men and what they bee.In the whych they should sincerely set forth the word of God, and exhort the people vnto the workes of fayth & mercy prescribed in the same word, and not vnto workes deuised by mans fantasie, as going on pilgrimages and other like idolatrous superstitions: the which they should also to þe vttermost of their powers reproue and speake agaynst, declaring that all grace & goodnes ought onelye to be sought for at Gods hand (as the alone geuer thereof) and not at any other creature
I.e., 'creature'. Injunction 2 orders clerics at least on a quarterly basis preach in favor of the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone and against superstitious works including veneration of religious images and relics or pilgrimages to shrines containing them. The sermons on faith and good works in the Book of Homilies (see Injunction 32), almost certainly composed by Archbishop Cranmer, reinforce the forthright Protestant provisions of this article.
[Back to Top]Injunction 3 cautiously endorses iconoclastic destruction of images 'abused' by pilgrimages, offerings, or censings. It permits employment of images as objects of 'remembraunce, whereby, men may be admonished, of the holy liues and conuersacion of theim, that the saide Images do represent: whiche Images, if thei do abuse for any other intent, thei commit Ydolatrye in the same, to the great daungier of their soules' (a3v). Taken in conjunction with Injunction 28, this provision renders apparent the iconoclastic thrust of official policy.
[Back to Top]Injunction 3 forbids the burning of candles except for two on the high altar. This apparently simple alteration resulted in a radical change in the appearance of churches where, in accordance with the 1538 Royal Injunctions, candles had continued to flicker before roods (oversize crucifixes above chancel screens) and sepulchers. Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 451.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe x Commaundements and the Lordes prayer in Englishe to be read euery holy day in the Church.Also that euery holy day (hauing no sermon in theyr Church) they should immediately after the Gospell, distinctly reade in the Pulpit the Lordes prayer, the beliefe, and the ten commaundements of almighty God in the English toung
Injunction 4 represents an early, albeit radical, step in the introduction of a new vernacular worship service.
Injunction 5.
MarginaliaSacramentes to be reuerently ministred, and Pastors eyther to be resident in their cures or to depute such as be hable to instructe.And farthermore, that the sayde parsons (hauyng cure) should see the holy Sacramentes of Christ reuerently ministred wythin theyr cures: and that if any of them (by speciall licence or other cases expressed in the statutes of thys Realme) should be at any time absent from theyr benefices, that then they shoulde leaue in theyr roomes some godly, learned, and discrete Curate, that were able to instruct the people in all truth and godlynes, not seeking themselues, but rather the profit of theyr flocke
Injunction 6.
MarginaliaThe Bible in Englishe of the largest volume, to be set vp in euery Church with the Paraphrases of Erasmus.And likewyse, that they shoulde see prouided and set vp in some most conuenient and open place of euerye theyr seuerall Churches, one great Bible in Englishe, and one booke of the Paraphrases of Erasmus vpō the Gospels (both in English) that the people might reuerently (without any argument or contention) reade and heare the same at such tymes as they listed: and not to be inhibited therefrom by þe Person or Curate, but rather to bee the more encouraged and prouoked thereto
In a striking reversal of the 1543 withdrawal of permission for Bible reading by commoners (see n. 41, below), Injunction 7 mandates provision of chained copies of the Great Bible and the two-volume English translation of Erasmus's Paraphrases of the New Testament (1548-49; STC 2854-2854.7) for public reading by members of the laity.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaEcclesiasticall persons not to haunt Tauernes or to misspend their tyme in any idle and vnlawfull game.And that the sayd Persons and Curates should not at any tyme (but for necessarye causes) haunt anye tauerne or alehouse, neyther should spende their tyme idlely in vnlawfull games, but at all their conuenient leasures should geue them selues to the reading or hearing of the holy scriptures
Injunction 8.
Moreouer, that in the tyme of cōfession euery Lent, they shoulde examine theyr parishioners whether they could say the Lordes prayer, the ten cōmaundementes, and the articles of the Christian fayth: and that if they could not, they shoulde then reproue them, declaryng farther vnto them, that they ought not to presume to come vnto the Lordes table wythout the true knowledge thereof, and earnest desire to fulfil the same
Injunction 9.
Also that they shoulde not admit any man to preach wythin theyr cures, but such as were lawfullye lycenced thereunto: MarginaliaThys Iniunction seemeth to be geuen for the stoppyng of the mouthes of Popishe Preachers.and that they hauing at anye tyme before extolled and praysed any idolatrous pilgrimage, or other superstition, should now openlye recant the same before the people
Injunctions 10-11.
And if there were any open hinderer or disturber of þe reading or preaching of þe word of God within theyr parishes, that then they should forthwith detecte þe same vnto the kings Counsell, or vnto some Iustice of peace to them next inhabityng
Injunction 12.
And further, that learning and knowledge myght be the better mayntayned, it was also ordayned herein, that euery beneficed Person that mought dispende yearely twentye poundes or vpward (and not resident vpon theyr cures) should paye towardes the reliefe of the poore within theyr parishes euery yeare, the fourty part of theyr fruites and profites
Injunction 14.