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1547.] were to regard themselves as possessed of no authority independent of the Crown. They were not successors of the apostles, but merely ordinary officials; and, in evidence that they understood and submitted to their position, they were required to accept a renewal of their commissions. Cranmer set the willing example, in an acknowledgment that all jurisdiction, ecclesiastical as well as secular, within the realm, only emanated from the sovereign. The other prelates consented, or were compelled, to imitate him.

But for the measures which the reforming party meditated, the Protector was not yet wholly in the position which he or they desired. He was hampered by a council of which the chancellor was a member; and so long as he could do nothing without the council's consent, he could but walk in the track which Henry had marked for him. Wriothesley, however, by a fortunate