From Norman Teigen's Blog:
Robert Barnes was executed in 1540 in London during the rule of King Henry VIII. Poor Barnes, he didn't have a chance. Today's Treasury of Daily Prayer contains appropriate information and prayer for the occasion.
There is an abundance of good reading on the subject of Henry VIII and the Reformation in England. Henry is a giant of history.
I thought that readers of Norman's Demesne might be interested in reading about one of the statutes enacted by Henry, this one from 1539 and titled 'Statute of the Six Articles.' This was "an act abolishing diversity in opinions." The goal of the statute was for "the conservation of the Church in a true, sincere, and uniform doctrine of Christ's religion."
1. "that in the most blessed sacrament of the altar, by the strength and efficacy of Christ's mighty word, it being spoken by the priest, a present really, under the form of bread and wine, the natural body and blood of our Saviour Jesu Christ, conceived of the Virgin Mary, and that after the consecration there remaineth no substance of bread and wine, nor any other substance but the substance of Christ, God and man."
2. "Secondly, that communion in both kinds is not necessary ad salutem by the law of God to all persons. and that it is to be believed and not doubted of but that in the flesh under form of bread is the very blood, and with the blood under form of wine is the very flesh, as well as paart as though they were both together."
3. "Thirdly, that priests, after the order of priesthood received as afore, may not marry by the law of God."
4. "Fourthly, that vows of chastity or widowhood by man or woman made to God advisedly ought to be observed by the law of God, and that it exempteth them from other liberties of Christian people which without that they might enjoy."
5. Fifthly, that it is meet and necessary that private masses be continued and admitted in this the king's English Church and Congregation, as whereby good Christian people ordering themselves accordingly do receive both good and goodly consolations and benefits, and it is agreeable also to God's law."
6. "Sixthly, that auricular confession is expedient and necessary to be retained and continued, used, and frequented in the Church of God."
And what were the consequences for anyone who couldn't go along with this stuff?
"And be it further enacted . . . that if any person or persons . . . contemn or contemptuously refuse, deny, or abstain to be confessed at the time commonly accustomed within this realm and Church of England, or contemn or contemptuously refuse, deny, or abstain to receive the holy and blessed sacrament abovesaid at the time commonly used and accustomed for the same, that then every such offender . . . shall suffer such imprisonment and make such fine and ransom to the king our sovereign lord and his heirs as by his highness or by his or their council shall be ordered and adjudged in that behalf; and if any such offender . . . do eftsoons [i.e. again] . . . refyse . . . to be confessed or to be communicate . . . that then every such offence shall be deemed and adjudged felony, and the offender . . . shall suffer pains of death, and lose and forfeit all his . . . goods,lands, and tenements, as in cases of felony . . . ."
(source: 31 Henry VIII, c, 14; in Stephenson and Marcham, Sources of English Constitutional History, A Selection of Documents From A.D. 600 To the Present, Harpers, New York and London, 1937, p. 320)
