ABSTRACT
Thomas Cranmer had never been in a position to dictate the ecclesiastical policy of the Government, and his continuance in the Primacy no more proves that the Second Book of Common Prayer was the natural and inevitable outcome of the First than it proves that the Six were the natural and inevitable outcome of the Ten Articles. The First Act of Uniformity and the First Book of Common Prayer represented the maximum of religious reform which the nation, as a whole, was prepared in 1549 to accept. Among those who arrived in 1547 was Pietro Martire Vermigli, a native of Florence, who was better known as Peter Martyr, and like Luther had been an Augustinian monk. He came from Strassburg, stayed for a time with Cranmer before becoming Regius Professor at Oxford, and was invited by the Archbishop to suggest emendations on the First Book of Common Prayer.
