ABSTRACT
In 1543, Convocation had recommended the uniform adoption of the Sarum Use throughout the province of Canterbury; and the task of compiling a Book of Common Prayer out of the various service-books in use had occupied much of Thomas Cranmer’s time during the later years of Henry VIII. The debate took place on 14-17 December, 1548, but the Act of Uniformity imposing the First Book of Common Prayer did not pass the House of Lords till four weeks later. The interval was used to modify Cranmer's draft of the Book of Common Prayer so as to secure a majority of episcopal votes in its favour. Perhaps the clearest traces of foreign influence may be found in the similarities between the Baptismal Office of the First Book of Common Prayer and the Pia Consultatio, compiled by Martin Bucer and Philip Melanchthon and published under the authority of Hermann von Wied, the reforming Archbishop of Cologne, in 1543.
