ABSTRACT
A month before his appearance at Paul’s Cross, Whitgift had already prepared, in co-operation with other bishops, a schedule of ‘diven articles touching preached and other order for the Church’. These were tendered to the queen by Whitgift and Piers of Salisbury in their own names and those of the bishops of London, Rochester, Lincoln, Peterborough and Gloucester. By the end of October, Whitgift had decided to attempt something more ambitious, or perhaps the queen had decreed it. The demand for unqualified approval of the entire contents of the Prayer Book was aimed not merely at the salaried lecturen with their tenuous connection with the establishment, but at the more numerous body of moderate nonconformists among the beneficed clergy; and no action was contemplated against the lay members of the extremist movement in London, such as had been attempted in 1573.
