ABSTRACT
The pressing need in Thomas Cranmer's eyes and in those of most reforming churchmen was not a change of doctrine so much as a change of conduct, and the revival of Scriptural knowledge among both clergy and laity. In 1534, Cranmer issued a pastoral in which he enjoined silence respecting masses for the dead, prayers to saints, pilgrimages, and the celibacy of the clergy. These practices were the subject of much denunciation, and Cranmer hoped that within a year an authoritative decision on these points would be adopted. Cranmer also, in conjunction with Thomas Cromwell and Anne Boleyn, used his influence to procure the promotion of Reformers to the bench of Bishops. That the monasteries needed drastic reformation Cranmer was no doubt convinced, and he probably had little sympathy with the principle of monasticism; but he can have had no enthusiasm for the way in which their vast estates were used to bribe the laity into supporting Henry's government. The event belied both Cromwell's and Cranmer's expectations, and brought their ideas of a religious reformation into violent conflict with those of their masterful sovereign.
