Practically, the right of administering injunctions relating to the discipline of the Clergy, and such matters as we should in these days class under the head of Ritual, was retained by the Crown as a privilege belonging to itself by reason of its supremacy, and not to be relegated to Parliament. One reason of this, no doubt, was that the Ornaments of the Church were sometimes almost as valuable as their possessions in land, and thus King Henry VIII. appears to have reserved the dealing with them, in order that their confiscation might be to his own benefit. The last clause of the Injunctions sets forth the jurisdiction exercised by the Crown:-

"All which singular injunctions the king's majesty ministereth unto bis clergy and their successors, and to all his loving subjects: straitly charging and commanding them to observe and keep the same upon pain of deprivation, sequestration of fruits or benefices, suspension, excommunication, and such other coercion, as to ordinaries or other having ecclesiastical jurisdiction, whom his majesty hath appointed for the due execution of the same, shall be seen convenient: charging and commanding them to see these injunctions observed and kept of all persons, being under their jurisdiction, as they will answer to his majesty for the contrary; and his majesty's pleasure is, that every justice of peace (being required) shall assist the ordinaries and every of them for the due execution of the said injunctionsd".

These Injunctions may be said to consist of some thirty-six clauses; the third, which is the chief one concerning the Ornaments of the Church, runs as follows: -

"Item. That such images as they [i.e. Deans, Archdeacons, Parsons, &c] know in any of their cures to be or to have been abused with pilgrimage or offering of anything made thereunto, or shall be hereafter censed unto, they (and none other private persons) shall for the avoiding of that most detestable offence of idolatry, forthwith take down, or cause to be taken down, and destroy the same; and shall suffer from henceforth no torches nor candles; tapers or images of wax, to be set afore any image or picture, but only two lights upon the high altar, before the Sacrament, which for the signification that Christ is the very true light of the world, they shall suffer to remain still; admonishing their parishioners, that images serve for no other purpose but to be a remembrance, whereby men may be admonished of the holy lives and conversation of them that the said images do represent: which images if they do abuse for any other intent, they commit idolatry in the same, to the great danger of their souls".

d Printed in Cardwell's "Documentary Annals," p. 22. (Oxford, 1844).

One of the later Injunctions orders the clergy "to destroy shrines, coverings of shrines; tables, candlesticks; trindles of wax; pictures, paintings and all other monuments of feigned miracles, pilgrimage, idolatry, and superstition".

The same Injunction orders the churchwardens to provide at the charge of the parishioners "a comely and honest pulpit," "a strong chest with a hole in the upper part," and "having three keys".

There are no further Ornaments enjoined than these, nor any other existing Ornaments condemned beyond those which were legitimately included under the " monuments of superstition".

The operation of the taking down of images was found to be attended with difficulties, for by the mandate issued to Archbishop Cranmer, a copy of which is preserved in his register, it appears that the council went a step further than they had at first deemed necessary. Contentions arose in many places as to what images had been abused, and what not:

"Whether this or that image hath been offered onto, kyssed, censed, or otherwise abused".

And in consequence of this, and this only, the order was made much more stringent.

"To the intent that all contention in every part of this realm for this matter may be clearly taken away .... we have thought good to signify unto you that his highnes' pleasure, with the advyce and consent of us the Lord Protector and the rest of the Counsel!, is ... . that all images remaining in any church or chapel be removed and taken away".

The Archbishop issued his letters to this effect, Feb. 24, 1548.

It will be well, before proceeding further, to speak of the Ornaments of the Minister. The Prayer-Book of 1549 has fuller directions for these than for the "Ornaments of the Church," although the terms in which they are couched are not very definite. The Rubricks which touch upon the question are, 1. the general rubrick printed in 1549 at the end of the Prayer-Book, and in 1552 transferred to the beginning, and which was the basis of the Ornaments Rubrick; this ran as follows:-

"In the saying or singing of Matins or Evensong, baptizing and burying, the Minister in parish churches and chapels shall use a surplice".

There is reference in the same rubrick also to the graduates wearing their hoods besides their surplices when in the quire, and the bishop, besides his rochet, wearing a surplice or albe, and a cope or vestment at the Holy Communion, or any public ministration [such, for instance, as Confirmation, Ordination, etc.].

But a second rubrick was more important, and appeared just before the Order for Holy Communion. It ran:-

"Upon the day, and at the time appointed for the ministration of the Holy Communion, the Priest that shall exercise the holy ministry, shall pat upon him the vesture appointed for that ministration, that is to say, a white albe, plain, with a vestment or cope. And where there be many priests or deacons, then so many shall be ready to help the priest in the ministration as shall be requisite : and shall have upon them likewise the vestures appointed for their ministry, that is to say, albes with tunicles".