Reformers were licensed to preach. Cromwell
ordered sermons to be said which proclaimed the supremacy of the
King. He instituted registers to record baptisms, marriages, and
burials in every county, for the purpose of reducing disputes over
descent and inheritance. He dissolved all the lesser monasteries.
When Cromwell procured a foreign wife for Henry whom Henry found
unattractive, he was attainted and executed.
Henry now reconstructed his council to have a fixed membership, an
official hierarchy based on rank, a secretariat, an official
record, and formal powers to summon individuals before it by legal
process. Because it met in the King's Privy Lodgings, it was
called the "Privy Council". It met daily instead of just during
the terms of the Westminster courts from late autumn to early
summer. It communicated with the king through intermediaries, of
whom the most important was the King's Secretary. Because it was a
court council, part of it traveled with the king, while the other
part conducted London business. When Henry went to war in France,
part of the council went with him, and part of it stayed to attend
the Queen Regent.
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote the first English
Common Book of Prayer. With its use beginning in 1549, church
services were to be held in English instead of Latin. The
celebration of the Lord's Supper was a communion among the
parishoners and minister all sharing the wine and bread.
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