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Where did Henry VIII find the priests to administer the services? How were they bound? Could (or did) any priests refuse to follow the new ways? Why were only the monks targeted for dissolution?

I have found several timelines and history papers, but none of them openly address the question of what the average person would have experienced. After queen Elizabeth I Protestants and Catholics were legally allowed to live side by side (although the Church of England was still the one official Church with the Monarch at the head) but I can find nothing concerning 'indoctrination' of the priests. Did the act of supremacy just "assume" that each individual priest had made their vows to King Henry? Did they retain individual autonomy? How soon were sacrament changes introduced to church services, particularly in regard to the open confession system adopted by the Church of England? Did any priests, or entire congregations simply act on their own accord, and or continue vowing allegiance to the pope?

P.S. Please, I'm really interested primarily in the question of the open and general confession system. So if anyone knows when that was introduced please let me know!

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  • 3
    Good question. Not sure about the username. Did you hack a troll's account and commandeer it to use for good?
    – Ne Mo
    Commented Apr 23, 2016 at 22:42
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    The standard policy of the Anglican Church on private (auricular) confession to a priest is: "All may; None must; Some should". It is not forbidden by the Thirty Nine articles passed under Elizabeth; is explicitly sanctioned in The Order for the Visitation of the Sick in the Book of Common Prayer; was emphasized in the Six Articles passed under Henry VIII; and has become more common in the 20th Century. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confession_(religion)#Anglicanism)
    – Pieter Geerkens
    Commented Apr 23, 2016 at 22:48
  • Sorry, I'm voting to close as too broad - volumes have been written about the English Reformation, which was a process over decades, not a single event. If the question can be narrowed then it may become answerable.
    – TheHonRose
    Commented Apr 24, 2016 at 1:38
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    Concur with all others - as it stands, this question is just too confused and too broad. I think it should be closed, edited and reopened. I also think that the username is inappropriate to a public forum.
    – MCW ♦
    Commented Apr 24, 2016 at 11:03
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    Probably would take as is on christianity.stackexchange.com
    – user1973
    Commented Apr 25, 2016 at 3:00

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