Reformation Steamroller

September 5, 1538 Thomas Cromwell’s “Second Royal Injunctions of Henry VIII” were issued to the clergy in the Church of England. Among the 17 orders was the command to have placed in every parish church a copy of the Bible in English for everyone to have access and read. 

“That ye shall provide on this side the feast of Easter next coming, one book of the whole Bible of the largest volume in English, and the same set up in some convenient place within the said church that you have cure of, whereas your parishioners may most commodiously resort to the same and read it, the charge of which book shall be ratably born between you the parson and the parishioners aforesaid, that is to say one half by you, and the other half by them.”

This was ten years before there would be a liturgy in English for common worship. Since this was just three years after the Bible was printed in the English, it clearly shows that the steamroller of Reformation that began with John Wycliffe and William Tyndale would not be stopped. The Bible was Kryptonite to Medieval Catholic practice and theology because of its central message of salvation by grace through faith alone. It taught another righteousness beyond our self-righteous attempts to reach God by our own pious actions. It was only ten years later that English men and women would hear and pray Thomas Cranmer’s words: “Almighty God, who hast caused all Holy Scripture to be written for our learning. . .”