urged her to make good the illegalities by an exercise of her royal
authority. In the end the consecration of Parker was carried out in
the chapel of Lambeth Palace on the morning of the 17th December,
1559. The story of the Nag's Head is a pure legend used by
controversialists for impugning the validity of Anglican Orders. As a
matter of fact the main argument against these Orders is drawn neither
from the fable of the Nag's Head nor from the want of episcopal orders
in the case of Barlow, the consecrator of Parker, though his
consecration has not been proved, but from the use of a corrupt form,
which was then as it is now rejected as insufficient by the Catholic
Church, and from the want of the proper intention implied both by the
corruption of the form and by the teaching of those who corrupted
it.[10] Once the difficulty about Parker's consecration had been
settled other bishops were appointed by the queen, and consecrated by
the new archbishop, so that before March 1560 good progress had been
made in the establishment of the new hierarchy in England.

With the establishment of the ecclesiastical commission (1559) to
search out and punish heresy and generally to carry out the provisions
of the Supremacy Act, and with the appointment of new bishops (1559-
60) the work of reforming the faith of England was well under way.
Still the new bishops were confronted with grave difficulties. From
the reports of the Spanish ambassador, who had exceptional
opportunities of knowing the facts but whose opinions for obvious
reasons cannot always be accepted, the great majority of the people
outside London were still Catholic, and even in London itself the
adherents of the old faith could not be despised. Quite apart,
however, from his reports, sufficient evidence can be adduced from the
episcopal and official letters and documents to show that the change
was not welcomed by a great body in the country. As the best means of