In the years from the Long Parliament to the Restoration, the Church of England underwent an extraordinary and violent series of changes. As a result of legislation - Parliamentary ordinances in the 1640s, reinforced by Parliamentary acts and the Protector's declarations in the 1650s - the government, liturgy, ceremonies and fabric of the reformed Church of England, established by law in the reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I, were all transformed. Archbishops, bishops and cathedral deans and chapters were abolished; the Book of Common Prayer was suppressed, its place offi- cially taken by the Directory for Public Worship, and its use made a crime; the ancient pattern of the Christian year and the Church festivals of Christmas, Easter and Whitsun were eliminated; many of the surviving medieval crucifixes and images of the persons of the Trinity and of angels and saints in stone, wood, paint and glass were destroyed or defaced, as were organs, fonts and priests' vestments; rails in front of altars were removed and raised chancels levelled; cathedrals were damaged and used for secular purposes, and their complete demolition was considered, though not carried out.