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QUESTION OF CLERICAL CELIBACY. 313
hospitals, was a yet greater wrong. As Professor
Stubbs well says, "whatever may have been the results
of the stoppage of monastic charity, it was one unquestionable
cause of the growth of town pauperism.
The extant regulations and accounts of the gilds
show how this duty was carried into effect ; no doubt
there was much self-indulgence and display, but there
was also effective relief The charities of the great
London companies are a survival of a system which
was once in full working in every market town.''^
The convocation which sat in this year memorialised
the archbishop
that the canon law should be altered,
that they should have a share in the legislature and
sit in the House of Commons, and that they might
have a hand in revising the services. The question
of the celibacy of the clergy was brought under discussion.
A proposition to do away with it was carried
by a considerable majority, fifty-three being in favour
of it and only twenty-two against. In the convocation
of 1549 a similar motion had seventy supporters. But
the sanction of the legislature was required, and two
acts were passed respecting it. The first alloived
marriage, but inserted a clause to the effect that a
single life was preferable. The second act omitted
this clause.
By far the most important work carried on at this
time was the preparation of the Book of Common
Prayer. It was entrusted to certain commissioners,
composed of both parties, who met at Windsor.
Ridley tells us that they were all agreed that the
' " Constitutional Hist.," iii. p. 6cx3.