![]() ![]() ![]() The Act of Succession was nailed to the door of every parish church in the country, and the clergy were ordered to preach against the pretensions of the pope they were forbidden to speak of disputed matters such as purgatory and the veneration of the saints. ‘Taletellers’ and ‘counterfeiters of news’ were to be apprehended. The clergy were asked to supervise their parishioners, and the local justices were supposed to watch the bishops to see if they ‘do truly, sincerely, and without all manner of cloak, colour or dissimulation execute and accomplish our will and commandment’. It was God’s law, against which there could be no appeal. In every schoolroom, and from every pulpit, the virtue of obedience was emphasized. If it was asked, ‘May I not do as I wish with what belongs to me?’, the answer came that no man may do what is wrong. The individuals of every community were under endless scrutiny from their neighbours, and were subject to ridicule or even punishment if they breached generally accepted standards. ![]() * There was in any case no sense of privacy in the sixteenth-century world men commonly shared beds, and princes dined in public. ![]()
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