ABSTRACT
The Second Book of Common Prayer was ushered into the world amid signs and portents which boded ill for its long life and prosperity. It was imposed on the nation by a new Act of Uniformity which for the first time threatened penalties against the “great number of people in divers parts of the realm” who did “wilfully and damnably refuse to come to their parish churches”. The great scheme with which Thomas Cranmer was busily occupied during these last years of his power did not prove abortive. He had endowed the Church with a Bible in English, with her own English liturgy, and had sought to establish her jurisdiction; he brought forth a confession of faith which she and none other professed. The first controversial article came not first but fifth in place. Freedom of the Will was explicitly asserted, and Justification by Faith only was affirmed in brief and moderate terms, while the much-contested Good Works were undefined.
