1547–1553

Protestant reforms under Edward VI

After Henry VIII's death in 1547 the throne passed to the young Edward VI. The regents – Somerset, and then Northumberland – backed a genuine Protestantization of the Church of England.

Archbishop Cranmer introduced communion in both kinds and permitted clerical marriage. He drew up an English-language "Book of Common Prayer". A cautious version appeared in 1549, followed by an openly Protestant revision in 1552, which spoke of a "table" rather than an "altar".

Protestants returned from continental exile, and Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr Vermigli came to England. Together they tilted the English Reformation toward a Calvinist and Zwinglian understanding of the sacraments. In 1553 Cranmer drew up the "Forty-Two Articles" of doctrine.