Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/94

 1534 efforts were made to reform corrupt doctrines. The spirit of the Continent had affected England, and the desire was expressed that the Bible should be placed in the people's hands. Convocation requested that the king should authorize a translation. Tyndale, before this time, had turned the Bible into English, but through the means of Tunstall as many copies of this as could be found were burnt. Ten Articles were drawn up in 1536 to unite the clergy, but their tone was Roman Catholic. Injunctions were given at the same time to the clergy to assert the king's supremacy and, by preaching, to condemn the Pope's usurpation in England. The Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments were ordered to be said in our mother tongue, instead of in the Latin as before. About this time a deputation came to England from the Protestant Princes of the Continent, to request the English Church to ally itself with the Lutheran Church. But this failed. In answer to this request for the Bible, the clergy, in 1538, were ordered to chain a copy of that precious book in their Churches, that the people might gather there to read it. This same year orders were given for the removal from the Churches of all relics and superstitious ornaments.

In the next place, attention was given to the liturgy, that the Pope's name might be expunged from the services of the Church, and that the name of Thomas à Becket might be removed from the Calendar of Saints. A new edition of the Sarum use was, therefore, issued and commanded to be used in the province of Canterbury. Books of devotion were drawn up to take the place of those books used by the Pope's men.