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Reform-minded English church leaders in 1530 embarked on a campaign against superstitious practices to strengthen King Henry VII's position against the Catholic Church. Henry's reform efforts may have had limited scope since he advocated the retention of most rituals while eliminating popular religious practices so that he could claim legitimacy as leader of the Church of England. The most celebrated of these investigations exposed as frauds a mechanical crucifix at the Cistercian abbey of Boxley and drops of blood at the abbey of Hailes that were supposedly Christ's blood.