<P> Parliament was summoned in 1559 to consider a Reformation Bill and to recreate an independent Church of England . The drafted Reformation Bill defined Holy Communion in terms of Reformed Protestant theology, as opposed to the transubstantiation of the Roman Catholic Mass, included abuse of the Pope in the litany, and ordered that ministers should wear the surplice only and not other Roman Catholic vestments . It allowed priests to marry, banned images from churches, and confirmed Elizabeth as Supreme Governor of the Church of England . </P> <P> The bill met heavy resistance in the House of Lords, as Roman Catholic bishops and lay peers opposed and voted against it . They reworked much of the bill, changed the proposed liturgy to allow for belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Communion, made allowance for the wearing of liturgical vestments, the celebration of the Communion in the customary place (altar or table against the east wall), and refused to grant Elizabeth the title of Supreme Head of the Church . Parliament was prorogued over Easter, and when it resumed, the government entered two new bills into the Houses; the Act of Supremacy and the Act of Uniformity . The Black Rubric of 1552 which permitted kneeling to receive communion out of reverence and not to imply the "real and essential" presence, was repealed at the express order of the Queen . Henceforth kneeling was customary and Real Presence implied without defining it with a doctrine such as transubstantiation . In 1662 the Rubric was restored but the words were changed to "corporal" to exclude the meaning that Christ was present physically in flesh and blood . </P> <P> Under Elizabeth, factionalism in the council and conflicts at court greatly diminished . The Act of Supremacy 1558 revived ten acts of Henry VIII that Mary had repealed and confirmed Elizabeth as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and passed without difficulty . Use of the term "Supreme Governor" instead of "Supreme Head" pacified many who were concerned about a female leader of the church . All but one of the bishops (the octogenarian Anthony Kitchin of Llandaff) lost their posts, and a hundred fellows of Oxford colleges were deprived . Many dignitaries resigned rather than take the oath, and the bishops who were removed from the ecclesiastical bench were replaced by appointees who agreed to the reforms . </P> <P> On the question of images, Elizabeth's initial reaction was to allow crucifixes and candlesticks and the restoration of roods, but some of the new bishops whom she had elevated protested . In 1560 Edmund Grindal, one of the Marian exiles now made Bishop of London, was allowed to enforce the demolition of rood lofts in London, and in 1561 the Queen herself ordered the demolition of all lofts, although she sometimes displayed a cross and candlesticks in her own chapel . Thereafter, the determination to prevent any further restoration of "popery" was evidenced by the more thoroughgoing destruction of roods, vestments, stone altars, dooms, statues and other ornaments . </P>

Explain what was important about the succession issue in elizabethan england