ABSTRACT
Thomas More may have mocked this felyng fayth of the English Gospellers as a German import foreign to the faith and faithfulness of the English church. However, the cultivation of the affections had long been deeply rooted in medieval English spirituality. As required reading in parish churches in seriatim every Sunday, in repetition throughout the year, the sermons were also intended to harness the persuasive power of the local pulpit to convert the hearts of the English people to embrace the new religious orientation. So important was hearing these homilies to the regimes plans for societal reformation, that the Second Act of Uniformity made church attendance compulsory. As an affective theologian, at the heart of Cranmers preaching programme was rumination on the true Word of God in order to cultivate a right desire for God. The very first homily was on Scripture which established biblical knowledge as the foundation of every Christian's relationship with God.
