The primary focus of this book is ecclesiology, and how the Edwardian bishops used the inherited polity to further the Reformation of the Church of England. Tong’s subtitle suggests that this study will centre on the 1552 Book of Common Prayer, noting that liturgists who write on this topic frequently deal with the text only. This study, he claims, will attempt to bridge the gap between various strands of historiography to provide a new perspective on the Prayer Book, arguing that it is the quintessential expression of mid-Tudor evangelical ecclesiology.

Tong sets out his case in well-researched chapters which cover preaching and common prayer, sacraments as practical ecclesiology, observance of the Sabbath, episcopacy and evangelical ecclesiology, and also a chapter on the work of Bishop John Bale in Ireland, this latter providing an archetypal definition of ecclesiology in his commentary on the Book of Revelation. The Edwardian bishops appealed to the primitive Church, and they also carefully steered a course through a national visible Church and the ‘true invisible Church’. The importance of the Book of Homilies and their teaching is invoked to show how preaching the true faith was crucial for the Reformed identity of the Edwardian Church, which was further iterated in the vernacular reading of Scripture, and in private devotion in the 1553 Primer, with the implication that the reorientation of public worship away from the mass to the Word of God came from an evangelical imagination that viewed Scripture as the only way back to the True Church. The provision of homilies for the less educated and less enthusiastic clergy ensured regular Protestant exposition of Scripture.

The chapter on sacraments discusses the attack on transubstantiation, which included retrieving the work of Ratramnus of Corbie, as well as the defence of infant baptism without necessarily accepting that all the baptised were in fact saved – Cranmer believed and taught that it was only effective for the elect, though all should behave as though they were elect or godly and quietly governed, even if not amongst the elect. Tong notes that the 1552 rite of communion put greater emphasis on communal aspects of participation than in the 1549 rite. Perhaps wisely, Tong avoids getting into discussion of what the Edwardians taught about the eucharist, and the polarisation between Geneva and Zurich (despite the Consensus Tigurinus) would resurface in the later Elizabethan and Jacobean Church.

Tong usefully demonstrates that the concern for keeping Sunday as the Sabbath has its origins in the Edwardian period; it was not invented by the Elizabethan Puritans. Of importance here is John Hooper’s A declaration of the ten holy commandments – the only English work in the Edwardian period that dealt with the Decalogue. Although in the chapter Tong speaks of Cranmer and Hooper, the main advocate for the Sabbath/Sunday equivalent was in fact Hooper. Crucial also to the programme of reform was the use of the office of bishop, which Tong discusses in dialogue with the Ordinal, though mainly that of 1550, drawing parallels with Jan Laski’s role as Superintendent of the Stranger Churches. Hooper and Bale had both viewed the office of bishop as an office of preaching, which came by election and calling, facilitated by the earthly monarch. Indeed, appointment by the monarch was key to showing obedience to the reforms set in motion by the bishops. To defy the bishop was to defy the monarch, and God’s election. The chapter on John Bale lifts a veil on this English divine made bishop for Ireland, who insisted on being made bishop according to the 1552 rite, and who attempted to introduce 1552 into Ireland. Bale insisted that Ireland was under the same king, and therefore should obey the English Act of Uniformity of 1552. Although Bale was made bishop of Ossory according to the 1552 rite, most of Ireland felt that unless the Act of Uniformity was ratified by the parliament of Ireland, it had no force, regardless of the Lord Deputy, and ignored 1552. Bale’s later autobiography, The vocacyon of John Bale, recounts his brief stay in Ireland, and the complete opposition and indifference which he met. A final complaint was that the people of Ossory knew of the death of Edward vi and the accession of Mary before he did.

The final chapter is an epilogue, discussing the Edwardian exiles in Frankfurt. Like many historians, Tong attributes too much to John Knox – the Geneva Bible was mostly the translation (New Testament) and editing (Old Testament) of William Whittingham, future dean of Durham, who almost certainly was also the editor of the so-called Knox’s Genevan liturgy 1556 (the prose is not that of Knox, and the prayer based on Knox’s Berwick liturgy is rendered into smoother English). Though the exiles at Frankfurt may have attempted to preserve, and even perfect the trajectory of the post-1552 Edwardian Church, they were not successful. As Diarmaid MacCulloch has noted, with Elizabeth the Reformation clock was stopped – in fact, she turned the minute hand back a little.

This is a well-argued book, though the subtitle is rather misleading, since there is in fact very little discussion of the 1552 Prayer Book. Tong mentions the 1553 Primer to reinforce Reformation piety, but since this was for private prayer, we have no idea how many lay people continued to use previous primers, which were more akin to their Catholic antecedents, rather than purchase the 1553 book. The ecclesiology that Tong so carefully illustrates is not given strong explicit force in the 1552 rites, other than in some phraseology in the exhortations. The discussion of Bale is very informative, but it fails to take into account Kenneth Ferguson’s observations of the early history of the Prayer Book in Ireland. Ireland printed the 1549 book in 1551, and Bale admitted his failure to introduce it much beyond those in his immediate circle and authority. Even 1549 in its 1551 printing was never widely adopted in Ireland. Interestingly, under Elizabeth, Bale did not return to his see, but became a prebendary at Canterbury Cathedral. There is much of value in this study but its subtitle might better have been ‘The contributions of John Hooper and John Bale’, who are far more prominent than the 1552 Prayer Book.