Handout #176

The Act of Uniformity of 1559 A.D.

This restored a version of Edward VI's second English Prayer Book of 1552. The clause about ornaments quoted last, rather puzzlingly gave a date before the publication of the 1549 A.D. Prayer Book; this was to cause trouble later.

Where at the death our late sovereign lord King Edward the Sixth there remained one uniform order of common service and prayer and of the administration of sacraments, rites and ceremonies in the Church of England... the which was repealed and taken away by Act of Parliament in the first year of the reign of our late sovereign lady Queen Mary, to the great decay of the due honor of God and discomfort to the professors of the truth of Christ's religion: Be it therefore enacted by the authority of this present Parliament that the said statute of repeal ... shall be void and of none effect from and after the feast of the Nativity of St John Baptist next coming (29 August 1559 A.D.) ... and that if any manner of person... shall... us any other rite... or shall preach, declare or speak anything in the derogation or depraving of the said book or anything therein contained.. (he shall suffer forfeiture of a year's income and six months' imprisonment for a first offence, one year's imprisonment and loss of office for a second and loss of office and imprisonment for life for a third offence)... provided always and be in enacted that such ornaments of the church and of the ministers thereof shall be retained and be in use as was in the Church of England by authority of Parliament in the second year of the reign of King Edward the Sixth until other order shall be therein taken by the authority of the Queen's Majesty. Text quoted in Elton, The Tudor Constitution, 401-3.

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