Uneven Course.

The Reformation came late to England and began only because the Pope refused to annul the marriage of Henry VIII so that he might marry again and have a male heir. Henry broke with the Pope in 1533 and 1534, pressuring Parliament to dissolve his marriage and proclaim him supreme head of the Church of England. He retained the theology, church organization, ecclesiastical courts, and religious practices of the Catholic Church. As the Reformation spread on the Continent, many Englishmen called for more-substantive changes that might purify their church of its Catholic aspects and return to the theology and religious practices that were sanctioned in the Scriptures. Under Edward VI these Puritans prevailed as the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, established contacts with John Calvin and other continental leaders of the Protestant movements who aided him in introducing such Protestant reforms as sanctioning clerical...