art from the Act during the two or three
years that followed. One incident, however, calls for
notice. There were in London at this time numerous
refugees of the reformed persuasion, chiefly from the
Belgic provinces. These men organized themselves
into a congregation, worshipping after their own
rites. The King granted them the disused church
of the Austin Friars. Here they came under the
notice of the Lord Mayor, and of Ridley, the bishop
of London, who attempted to enforce the Act of
Uniformity against them. The matter was debated
with much acrimony, and the Council intervened with
a royal letter forbidding any interference with the
congregation. So far as I know, this was the only
act of toleration perpetrated during the reign of
Edward VI. [11]

The second Act of Uniformity need not detain
us. The Prayer-book had been elaborately revised,
still without the initiative or concurrence of Parliament.
The statute of 1549, however, hindered the use of the
revised Book; to use it was a penal offence. It was
therefore necessary to put the revised Book in the
legal position occupied by the unrevised Book. This
was done by the Act of the fifth and sixth of
Edward VI., in which opportunity was taken to add
some pious reflections, which may breathe the spirit
of Northumberland and the Council, and some further
penalties, which may seem to us more in accordance
with the spirit of the time. There was a clause
cautiously relaxing the bonds in which the ecclesiastical
jurisdiction was held, in order that it might
come to the assistance of the champions of Uniformity.
The only other point of interest is the statement that
the revised Book was "annexed and joined" to the
statute, a precedent which was followed in 1662.

In the second session of Mary's first Parliament
the Acts of Uniformity were repealed. But the
appetite for legislation was aroused. Mary, too, had
ideas about legal uniformity. She had no handy and
comprehensive service-book, the use of which could
be enforced; but the vague standard of what was
customary at a certain date was set up:

All such Divine Service and Administration of Sacraments,
as were most commonly used in the Realm of
England in the last year of the reign of our late
Sovereign Lord King Henry the Eight,

were alone to be used. Strangely enough, no penalties
were appointed for the disobedient. [12]

Elizabeth, immediately upon her accession, began
to take measures quietly and