The passiveness with which the people appeared to submit encouraged the Government to go further. On the 4th of May a royal visitation, after the pattern set by Cromwell, was announced as to take effect throughout England. The country was divided into six circuits; a Book of Homilies as a guide to doctrine, a body of instructions for the ordinaries, and of injunctions for the clergy, were drawn up simultaneously under the direction of Cranmer, and the bishops were suspended from their functions until their duties should recommence under a new system.
The Crown visitors were to inquire how far the bishops had obeyed the orders of the late King; whether the English Litany had been in due use; whether the Pope's authority had been preached against; whether the old scandals of the bishops' courts continued, 'the commuting of penance for money,' and 'the excommunication for lucre;' whether 'excessive sums were taken' for 'religious services,' for the 'concealment of vice,' or 'for induction into benefices;' whether the long-standing grievance was yet abandoned of summoning persons ex officio suspected of heresy, and putting them to the shame of purgation. All this was well. Inveterate evils could be extirpated only with watchfulness and habitual investigation. Further, there
'Two priests were arraigned and condemned in the Guildhall for keeping of certain relics, amongst the which was a left arm and shoulder of a monk of the Charterhouse, on the which arm was written, it was the arm of such a monk which suffered martyrdom under King Henry VIII.'
