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288 YORK.
CHAPTER XX.
The year before Henry's Primer was issued witnessed
a vacancy in the see of York, by the death of
Archbishop Lee, who died in 1544. Nothing was
done by him in the northern province to promote
the spread of the Reformation within its borders.
He
His sympathies were all with the Old Learning.
had indeed, like many other prelates, acceded to the
king's wishes and issued his mandate to the Archdeacon
of York ad pradicandtim abolitionem auctorifatis
Roinani pontificis, and had declared the king's
supremacy, but we do not find that he took any part
in the efforts which were indirectly made under
Cranmer's cautious guidance for the reformation of
the Church's services. His episcopate was marked
by the issue of new statutes under the Great Seal in
1541, with the authority of Parliament, for the
rectification of certain abuses which had crept into
the internal administration of the Minster by the
Dean and canons. Whether the Archbishop took
any part in procuring their issue does not appear.
They are said to be due to the influence of Richard
Layton, who was appointed in 1539 as successor to
Dean Higden. They are addressed to the Archbishop
and the Dean and Chapter. The chief reason
for the framing of new statutes seems to have arisen