The Crucial Role of a Group in the Middle

Radical intellectuals were smuggling books into England and daring to form Protestant discussion groups well before Henry decided that Roman Catholicism was an impediment to his family planning. Even the clerics who were closest to political power were independent-minded and pushed back against royal religious dictates. We've seen that Cranmer did so while serving Henry. From the reign of Elizabeth, we might mention another Archbishop of Canterbury, Edmund Grindel. He defied the Queen in order to defend the practice of prophesying; popular preachers worked to convert audiences to a more rigorous form of Protestantism.