Note 564 — Chapter IV

May 20th, Cox to Weidner: “The sincere religion of Christ is therefore established among us in all parts of the kingdom, just in the same manner as it was formerly promulgated under our Edward of blessed memory” (Zurich Letters, i. 28).

May 21st, Parkhurst to Bullinger: “The Book of Common Prayer, set forth in the time of King Edward, is now again in general use throughout England, and will be everywhere, in spite of the struggles and opposition of the pseudo-bishops” (Zurich Letters, i. 29).

May 22nd, Jewel to Bullinger: “Religion is again placed on the same footing on which it stood in King Edward’s time; to which event I doubt not but that your own letters and those of your republic have powerfully contributed” (Zurich Letters, i. 33).

May 23rd, Grindal to Conrad Hubert: “But now at last, by the blessing of God, during the prorogation of Parliament, there has been published a proclamation to banish the Pope and his jurisdiction altogether, and to restore religion to that form which we had in the time of Edward VI.” (Zurich Letters, ii. 19).

Dr. Gee seems to beg an important historical question when he says that these letters must have been written before the writers knew that the Prayer-Book had been actually altered in more than the three points mentioned in the Act of Uniformity. Grindal, writing again to Hubert on July 14th, when he must have known everything, says: “The state of our Church (to come to that subject) is pretty much the same as when I last wrote to you, except only that what had heretofore been settled by proclamations and laws with respect to the reformation of the churches is now daily being carried into effect.” Cf. Gee’s Elizabethan Prayer-Book, etc. p. 104 n., for the actual differences between the Edwardine Book of 1552 and the Elizabethan Book of 1559.