[4] It consisted chiefly of very short intercessory petitions to God and the saints said by the priest and a brief standard response from the choir or congregation.
[3] On 20 August 1543, Henry VIII had ordered "general rogations and processions to be made" on account of the multiple troubles England was experiencing, but public response was slack.
[5] Therefore, an English version was composed by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, for use in the processions ordered by Henry when England was simultaneously at war with both Scotland and France.
[6] For the litany, Cranmer drew heavily on both traditional and recent sources ranging from John Chrysostom to Martin Luther, the bulk of the material coming from the Sarum Rite.
[8] In all, Cranmer's revision reduced what had once been the major part of the litany into just three petitions:[9] to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the angels, and all the saints.
[3] Cranmer also produced an English translation of the Processionale, the Latin service-book containing other processional services for Sundays and saints days; however, this project was abandoned.