How the Legenda Aurea became a banned book

1534 Act of Supremacy (Henry VIII declared by Parliament to be the head of the Church of England)

1538  lighting candles before saints’ images forbidden by royal decree; Thomas a Becket "attainted" as a traitor for opposing Henry II, and his shrine and relics are destroyed.  All mention of him is ordered removed from books, including his name, his “vita” or “life,” and the Mass for his saint’s day (29 December).

1536-1540 Dissolution of the Monasteries (their buildings, libraries, real estate, and other property seized by Crown agents and redistributed to loyal nobles and wealthy commoners)

1547 Royal Injunctions of 1547 forbid church processions, praying the rosary, and prayers before images considered to be idolatrous. 

21 February 1548, the Privy Council ordered the elimination of all church images in the nation, an iconoclasm (image-breaking) that destroyed illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, statues, paintings, i.e., most vestiges of medieval Christian imagery.  Acts of silent resistance preserved some images and others were hidden or sent to Romanist enclaves on the Continent.

1549 Act of Uniformity establishes the government sanctioned sacraments of the English Church of England, and the Book of Common Prayer as the nation’s official service book.