 Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, a traditionalist conservative, was determined to destroy his arch-enemy, Cromwell, by accusing him of supporting heretical preachers, thereby undoing his programme of religious reforms.At the same time, Cromwell's political rival and religious conservative, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, who had pushed hard for the Act of Six Articles to be passed in Parliament, was rising in favour and fast becoming a threat.The Act of Six Articles, which reaffirmed certain Catholic principles in Henry VIII's Church of England, had been passed in May 1539.