The New Learning had made great strides in England, and was leavening all the more cultured classes, and it naturally led to the discredit of the old theology. The English advanced Reformers who had taken refuge abroad, and who now returned,—men like Ridley and Hooper,—could not fail to have had some influence on their countrymen; they had almost all become imbued with the Zwinglian type of theology, and Bullinger was their trusted adviser. It seemed as if the feelings of the populace were changing, for the mobs, instead of resenting the destruction of images, were rather inspired by too much iconoclastic zeal, and tried to destroy stained-glass windows and to harry priests. Cranmer’s influence, always on the side of reform, had much more weight with the Council than was the case under Henry VIII. He had abandoned long ago his belief in transubstantiation, he had given up the Lutheran doctrine of consubstantiation, if he ever held it, and had now accepted a theory of a real but spiritual Presence in the communion elements which did not greatly differ from the more moderate Zwinglian view. The clergy, many of them, were making changes which went far beyond the Act of Uniformity. The removal of restrictions on printing the Bible had resulted in the publication of more than twenty editions, most of them with annotations which explained and enforced the new theology on the authority of Scripture.
In these circumstances the Council enforced the Act of Uniformity in a one-sided way—against the Romanist sympathisers. Many Romanist Bishops were deprived of their sees, and their places were filled by such men as Coverdale, Ridley, Ponet, and Scovey—all advanced Reformers. John Knox himself, freed from his slavery in the French galleys by the intervention of the English Government and made one of the King’s preachers, was offered the bishopric of Rochester, which he declined. It must be remembered, however, that the Lord Protector and his entourage seem to have been quite as much animated by a desire to fill their own pockets as by zeal to promote the cause of the Reformation. Indeed, there came to be in England at this time something like the tulchan Bishops of a later period in Scotland; great nobles got possession of the episcopal revenues and allowed the new Bishops a stipend out of them.[487]
Then came a second revision of the Prayer-Book—The Boke of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacramentes and other Rites and Ceremonies in the Churche of England (1552). It is commonly called the Second Prayer-Book of King Edward the Sixth.[488] Cranmer had conferences with some of the Bishops as early as Jan. 1551 on the subject, and also with some of the foreign divines then resident in England; and it is more than probable that his intention was to frame such a liturgy as would bring the worship of the Church of England into harmony with that of the continental Reformers. There is no proof that the book was ever presented to Convocation for revision, or that it was subject to a debate in Parliament, as was its predecessor. The authoritative proclamation says:
“The King’s most excellent majesty, with the assent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, has caused the aforesaid order of common service, entitled The Book of Common Prayer, to be faithfully and godly perused, explained, and made fully perfect, and by the aforesaid authority has annexed and joined it, so explained and perfected, to this present statute.”[489]
This Book of Common Prayer deserves special notice, because, although some important changes were made, it is largely reproduced in the Book of Common Prayer which is at present used in the Church of England. The main differences between it and the First Prayer-Book of King Edward appear for the most part in the communion service, and were evidently introduced to do away with all thought of a propitiatory Mass. The word altar is expunged, and table is used instead: minister and priest are used indifferently as equivalent terms. “The minister at the time of the communion, and at all other times in his ministration, shall use neither Alb, Vestment, nor Cope; but being an archbishop or bishop, he shall have or wear a rochet: and being a priest or deacon, he shall have and wear a surplice only.” Instead of “standing humbly afore the midst of the altar,” he was to stand “at the north side of the table”; and the communion table was ordered to be removed from the east end of the church and to be placed in the chancel. Ordinary instead of unleavened bread was ordered to be used. In the older book the prayer, Have mercy on us, O Lord, had been used as an invocation of God present in the sacramental elements; in the new it became an ordinary prayer to keep the commandments. The Ten Commandments were introduced for the first time. Some rubrics—that enjoining the minister to add a little water to the wine—were omitted. Similar changes were made in the services for baptism and confirmation, and in the directions for ordination. One rubric was retained which the more advanced Reformers wished done away with. Communicants were required to receive the elements kneeling. But the difficulties were removed by a later rubric:
“Yet lest the same kneeling might be thought or taken otherwise, we do declare that it is not meant thereby, that any adoration is done, or ought to be done, either unto the sacramental bread or wine there bodily received, or to any real or essential presence there being of Christ’s natural flesh and blood.”
This addition is said, on somewhat uncertain evidence, to have been suggested by John Knox.
The most important change, however, was that made in the words to be addressed to the communicant in the act of partaking. In the First Prayer-Book the words were:
“When the priest delivereth the sacrament of the Body of Christ, he shall say to every one these words:
‘The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given, for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life.’
And the minister delivering the sacrament of the Blood, and giving every one once to drink and no more, shall say:
‘The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life.’”[490]