on Sundays and Festivals, conspicuous and popular
ceremonies, had been stopped on rather flimsy grounds,
and a Litany in English substituted--the "English
Procession," as it was called. Many images in the
churches had been destroyed, as superstitious; the
censing of those remaining had ceased. The peculiar
ceremonies of Candlemas, Ash Wednesday, and Palm
Sunday had been omitted in many places. A chapter
of the Bible in English was being read after the
lessons at Mattins, and at Evensong after _Magnificat_.

It was not very clear by what authority these
innovations had been made. There had been royal
proclamations and injunctions; episcopal injunctions
and orders on visitation. There was another change,
perhaps the most striking of all, in which Parliament
had intervened. The first Act of the first Parliament
of Edward VI. required the administration of the Holy
Sacrament of the Altar in both kinds. No penalties
were annexed, though elsewhere in the same statute
severe penalties were appointed for depravers of the
Sacrament. Convocation had concurred, adopting on
December 2, 1547, a resolution of some sort in favour
of communion in both kinds. [1] The records are too
scanty to show exactly what was done. An _Order of
the Communion_ with English prayers, to be inserted
in the usual order of the Mass, was afterwards published,
and brought into general use, on the command
apparently of the King and his Council. Nothing
was said in the Act of Parliament about the mode of
giving communion, and therefore,

lest every man phantasing and devising a sundry way by
himself, in the use of this most blessed Sacrament of
unity, there might thereby arise any unseemly and ungodly
diversity,

the King put forth this Order to be exclusively
followed. [2] A letter from the Council to the bishops
of the realm explains the source of the Order. It was
drawn up at the King's desire, by

sundry of his majesty's most grave and well learned
prelates, and other learned men in the scripture. [3]

This, then, was commanded by public authority. But
there were other innovations of more doubtful origin.
On May 12, 1548, at the commemoration of Henry
VII. in Westminster Abbey, Wriothesley tells us of

the masse song all in English, with the consecration of the
sacrament also spoken in English,

the priest afterwards "ministering the communion
after the Kinges booke." In September, at the consecration
of Fernir by Cranme