In addition to the scanty means of instruction in a better faith which were thus extorted from the king in his last years like drops of blood, he was prevailed upon by Cranmer to issue orders for the destruction of some favourite images, of which the superstitious abuse was the most notorious[343]--those of our Lady of Walsingham, our Lady of Ipswich, St. Thomas of Canterbury, and St. Ann of Buxton, being the chief;[344] to sanction the introduction into the churches of certain prayers or suffrages--the litany which we still use, except that some objectionable clauses have been since omitted, being of the number;[345] and to permit, moreover, the use of occasional prayers, for the supply of temporary wants, or the removal of temporary calamities--for rain or for fair weather--that thus the hearts of the congregation might be enlisted in their devotions, and the lukewarmness be counteracted, which was fast alienating them from public worship, conducted, as it was, in a language of which they were ignorant, though with errors of which they were aware. Meanwhile, the same vigilant prelate supplied, as far as he had the opportunity, the livings in his gift with men devoted to the cause which he had at heart, and encouraged the more frequent delivery of sermons; whereby, though much violent collision of doctrine was produced amongst the preachers, still sparks of truth were elicited, and light, though not without heat, was dispersed.[346] Thus stood the Reformation, when Henry, who had now done all the work which such an instrument was fit for, died, pressing in his last moments the hand of Cranmer, to whom, and to whom only, through evil report and through good report, he had ever been faithful and true. To him he bequeathed a church which was little but a ruinous heap; its revenues dissipated, its ministers divided, its doctrines unsettled, its laws obsolete, impracticable, and unadapted to the great change it had sustained. It remains for us to trace the re-construction of these shattered materials--to watch the wise master-builders as they pursued their difficult task to its accomplishment; and beholding the pains, the perseverance, the study, the time which it cost them, to distrust the wild suggestions of an age of crude experiment and superficial knowledge--an age which would rush in without knowing why, upon forms and institutions which the sagest heads have grown gray in devising and perfecting; and rather listen, as far as regards our church, to the advice of the ancient, unpretending though it be--“Spartam nactus es, hanc exorna.” CHAPTER X. EDWARD VI.--ADVANCE OF THE REFORMATION.--ERASMUS’S PARAPHRASE.--HOMILIES.--CRANMER’S CATECHISM.--OFFICE OF COMMUNION.--BOOK OF COMMON-PRAYER.--TIME OF SERVICE, AND LENGTH.--PRIMER.--ARTICLES OF 1553.--MODERATION OF THE ENGLISH REFORMERS.