Prayer Book Rebellion in Cornwall

1549

Devon and Cornish commoners rose in protest at the imposition of the new English Book of Common Prayer, which they complained was like a Christmas game and did not match the Latin Mass they remembered. Government troops, with the help of German mercenaries, crushed the rebellion with considerable bloodshed. The rebels' complaint that the English service was unintelligible revealed the linguistic diversity the Reformation's vernacular emphasis exposed.