[9] However, late in 1552 after the new prayer book had passed through Parliament, John Knox launched a strong attack on the requirement to kneel to receive communion.

[10] Notably, following Elizabeth I assuming the throne, the 1552 ordinal that had accompanied the 1552 Book of Common Prayer was thought to have been authorized under the Act of Uniformity 1558.

Later on, her husband Philip II of Spain persuaded Parliament to repeal all of Henry VIII's religious laws, thereby returning England to the control of the Church in Rome.

[12] When Mary I died in 1558 and her sister Elizabeth came to the throne, Catholic clergy sought to block her wish to make reforms that would turn the Church in England back in the direction of Protestantism.

Elizabeth was fortunate in that many of the bishoprics of the country were vacant, which meant that the remaining bishops could not outvote the lay members of the House of Lords who supported reform.