ABSTRACT
The polemical works of English and continental reformers had established the lifting of the prohibition on clerical marriage as a central feature of a reformed religious settlement. Compulsory clerical celibacy had been condemned as the mark of the Antichrist, an idol to be purged from the church, a discipline which opposed the word of God in Scripture and ran contrary to the practice of the early church. In discussing the events of 1547-49, William Jordan, Anne Barstow and Eric Carlson have emphasized the essentially apologetic nature of the legislation on clerical marriage. With the death of Edward VI the situation of married priests and bishops altered dramatically. The level of deprivations for marriage in the reign of Mary varied greatly across the country, affecting one third of the clergy in London, yet barely one tenth in the diocese of York.
