the severity of the laws against vagrancy. The work thus begun was carried on by the council, who had already regulated preaching by the publication of twelve homilies to be read in all churches, and who now issued proclamations against superstitious popular customs (1548). A committee of bishops and divines was appointed to amend the offices of the church; and the result of their labours was the FIRST BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, the use of which was enjoined by parliament in the first Act of Uniformity (Jan. 1549). A revised edition, called the Second Book, was published in 1552. This work was, in all essential points, the basis of our present Prayer-book. The chief subsequent alterations were made in the reigns of Elizabeth and Charles II. Perfect liberty was given for the use of the English Bible, many editions of which were published during Edward's reign. The same parliament permitted the marriage of the clergy; and they continued fasting, not as a religious act, but to encourage the fisheries.

But a change more important than all the rest was the establishment of the theological doctrines of the continental reformers. Luther's articulum stantis aut labentis ecclesiæ, the doctrine of justification by faith, was fully adopted by the English reformers; while in most points they followed the guidance of JOHN CALVIN.

Meanwhile the course of politics was far from running smooth. The opposition of Gardiner and Bonner was again silenced by imprisonment, soon followed by deprivation of their sees; but a more formidable danger arose from the intrigues of the protector's brother, lord Seymour of Sudeley, admiral of England. He had married queen Catherine Parr, and on her death he had formed a plan to marry the princess Elizabeth and to obtain possession of the king's person. He was attainted by parliament and executed on Tower Hill (March 20, 1549), his brother, the protector, reluctantly consenting to sign his death-warrant.

The following summer was marked by popular insurrections, partly against the new order of things and partly caused by pressing social disorders which had arisen during the state of transition. While prices were vastly enhanced by the discoveries of gold and silver in the New World, the coin had been repeatedly debased to meet the necessities of the court. While the suppression of monasteries had not only deprived the poor of the alms they gave, but thrown monks and friars upon the world, the means of subsistence were narrowed by the enclosure of vast parks, chiefly by the new nobility, and the poor were crushed by the vagrant laws. Somerset's efforts to give redress by a personal hearing of complaints, and by a proclamation against enclosures, had only sanctioned the popular discontent. An insurrection in the west,

demanding the complete restoration of Romanism, was put down by lord RUSSELL, who was created in the next year earl of Bedford, and was the ancestor of the ducal house. "Ket's rebellion," in Norfolk, was suppressed still more severely by Warwick.

These disorders were laid at the door of Somerset, who was also accused of desiring to make peace with France and Scotland, without gaining any success in war. Besides, he had made himself unpopular by his arrogance, and especially by his demolition of several churches and bishops' palaces to clear a site for his mansion in the Strand. (That mansion, "old Somerset House," deserves notice as the first specimen of Italian architecture in England. Its site is now occupied by the noble Italian edifice designed by sir William Chambers for George III.) A party was formed in the council by Warwick and Southampton against Somerset, who was deserted by nearly all his friends save Cranmer and the secretary CECIL, afterwards the great lord Burleigh. He sought safety in submission, and confessed, on his knees, the charges against him. An act of parliament deprived him of all his offices and sentenced him to a fine of 2000l. a year in land (Dec. 1549). The king, however, remitted the fine, and Somerset was soon restored to the council and apparently reconciled to Warwick (April 1550).

Warwick had to cope with the same difficulties as Somerset and, with more than Somerset's imprudence, he wanted his sincerity. He concluded peace with France and Scotland, giving up Boulogne for 400,000 crowns (March 1550). While his partisans were enriched by the forfeiture of several Catholic bishops, he obtained for himself the dukedom of Northumberland (1551), and signalized his elevation by the destruction of his old rival. Somerset had formed a conspiracy to recover his power and seize the persons of his enemies at the council. He was arrested at the council-board (Oct.), tried at Westminster Hall, and beheaded on Tower Hill, Jan. 22, 1552.

The Reformation proceeded meanwhile under the auspices of Cranmer and his friends; of whom RIDLEY had been made bishop of the united sees of London and Westminster, HOOPER bishop of Gloucester, and Miles COVERDALE bishop of Exeter. Forty-two Articles of Religion were drawn up (1551), a second Act of Uniformity was passed, and fasts and holidays were regulated by parliament (1552). Though there were no executions of Catholics, to excuse the cruelties of the next reign, yet the pains of heresy were enforced against Protestant schismatics; and, among others, Joan Bocher was burnt as an Anabaptist (1550). Great efforts were made to induce the lady Mary to conform, but she stead

This same year, 1539, witnessed a great check to the Reformation. In doctrine Henry had always been a Catholic, though the influence of Cromwell and Cranmer, and the preaching of Latimer and other earnest Protestants, seemed to have had an effect upon him, the chief sign of which was his authorizing the general reading of the English Bible. But he now attempted to establish uniformity of opinion; and he caused the new parliament (which met April 28, 1539) to enact the Statute of the Six Articles, or, as the Protestants called it, the Bloody Bill. It adopted the Romish doctrines of the real presence, communion in one kind, private masses, vows of chastity, clerical celibacy, and auricular confession, as a part of the national creed, all dissent from which was to be visited with the extreme punishment of heresy. The great adviser of this act was STEPHEN GARDINER, bishop of Winchester, the chief rival of Cranmer and Cromwell. Cranmer opposed the bill in the house, but regained the king's favour by dismissing his wife. Bishops Latimer and Shaxton resigned their sees and were imprisoned, a fate which was shared by 500 persons accused under the new act. Cromwell, however, obtained their liberation, and the king granted some compensation to the Protestants by permitting every family to possess the new translation of the Bible. The parliament of 1539 struck also a heavy blow at the civil constitution by giving to the king's proclamations the same force as acts of parliament.

Cromwell was meanwhile planning to draw Henry closer to the Protestant princes of the continent by his union with Anne, daughter of John III., duke of Cleves. The marriage took place Jan. 6, 1540; but Henry conceived, at the first sight, an aversion to his bride, who could not even converse with him, as she only spoke Dutch. The marriage was pronounced invalid by convocation, on the ground of a pre-contract (July 10), and dissolved by parliament (July 24), with the consent of Anne, who accepted a pension of 30007. with rank next to the royal family. She died at Chelsea in 1557, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

The divorce of Anne was accompanied by the fall of Cromwell, whose enemies, embittered by the suppression of the monasteries, had a powerful leader in the duke of Norfolk. The duke arrested him at the council-board and carried him to the Tower on the charge of heresy and treason (June 10), and he was attainted by parliament, June 28. In vain did he implore mercy from the king, who was weary of so able and faithful a servant. He was executed on Tower Hill, July 28, 1540.

On the same day Henry married Catherine Howard, the niece of the duke of Norfolk. This alliance, and the removal of Cromwell,

restored the ascendency of the Catholic party, headed by Norfolk and Gardiner, and the Six Articles were rigorously enforced. But the king was equally severe against the deniers of his supremacy; Catholic and Protestant "traitors" were dragged to execution on the same hurdles; and, as was wittily said at the time, those who were against the pope were burned, and those who were for him were hanged. A new rebellion in Yorkshire afforded a pretext for the execution of the aged countess of Salisbury, mother of cardinal Pole, who had been attainted in 1539. She was beheaded on the green within the Tower, May 27, 1541. The same fate was soon shared by queen Catherine Howard, who was clearly convicted of unchastity both before and after her marriage. She was attainted for treason, with her accomplice lady Rochfort, who had contributed to the death of her own sister-in-law, queen Anne Boleyn, and both were executed on Tower Hill, Feb. 12, 1542.

From these scenes of blood it is some relief to turn even to the disorders of the sister kingdoms. Ireland had been for some years the scene of wars between her own native parties, and of rebellions against Henry fomented by the Romanists. These tumults were only partially appeased, when Henry assumed the title of king of Ireland, instead of "lord” (Jan. 23, 1541), an act which was sanctioned by parliament in 1544.

On the Scottish frontier there had been for many years a succession of petty wars and of armed truces. In 1542 Henry declared war against the Scots, who suffered a defeat at Halidon Hill (Aug. 25), and one still more disastrous in Cumberland, near the Solway Moss (Nov. 25). This disaster is said to have broken the heart of JAMES V., who expired (Dec. 14, 1542), leaving an infant daughter MARY, whose fate was afterwards so deeply involved in the destinies of England.

Once more, as in the case of the Maid of Norway (see p. 72), there appeared an opportunity of uniting the crowns by a marriage of the young prince of Wales with the infant queen of Scots. The alliance was nearly concluded by Henry and the regent earl of Arran, when it was broken off by the influence of cardinal Beaton, the head of the Catholics in Scotland, who was already engaged in his conflict with the Scottish reformers; and an alliance was made between Scotland and France, against which country Henry had lately formed a league with the emperor (Feb. 11, 1543).

On the 10th of July, 1543, Henry made his sixth and last Inarriage, with Catherine, widow of lord Latimer, commonly known by her maiden name of Catherine Parr. She was a woman of virtue and good sense. It is said, though on doubtful authority, that her leaning to the reformed doctrine at one time endangered her; but

she escaped by her tact in managing the king's temper. At Gardiner's instigation he had given orders for her arrest, when the following scene took place: "Kate," said he, sharply, "you are a doctor." "No, sir," she replied, "I only wished to divert you from your pain by an argument in which you so much shine." "Is it so, sweetheart?" exclaimed the king, "then we are friends again." She had the rare fortune to survive her husband. The same year that Henry died (1547) she married sir Thomas Seymour, admiral of England, and died in 1548.

The wars with Scotland and France were actively prosecuted in 1544 and the following years. In May the English burnt Edinburgh and Leith, and they continued to ravage the south of Scotland. In July Henry himself invaded France and took Boulogne; but the emperor suddenly concluded a separate peace with Francis at Crêpy, and Henry returned to England (Sept. 30). In the next year (1545) the French fleet harassed the English coast, and an indecisive action was fought off the Isle of Wight. At length peace was concluded both with France and Scotland, June 7, 1546. The chief obstacle to an accommodation with the latter country had been removed by the assassination of cardinal Beaton, at St. Andrews, just when his triumph over the reformers seemed complete (May 28).

At home these last years of Henry's reign are filled with events illustrating the increasing power of the Reformation, the violent resistance of its enemies, and the inconsistencies and cruelty of the king. In 1544 Henry sent to Cranmer a translation of the Litany, for general use in solemn processions; and in the following year he added forms of morning and evening prayer, in English, to be used instead of the Breviary.

Henry's last parliament met Nov. 23, 1545; and, after voting a subsidy for the war, and passing a new law against heretics, it proceeded to settle the question of ecclesiastical property. The property of all hospitals, colleges, and chantries was vested in the crown; and the uneasiness created by the measure was removed by the magnificent foundations of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Hospital of St. Bartholomew.

On Christmas eve it was prorogued by the king in person. His speech, the last he uttered in parliament, exhibits the state of his mind in a most interesting light. Bursting into tears, he deplored the want of charity between man and man, and the prevalent religious dissensions. He exhorted his hearers to reform these evils in themselves, and the bishops and clergy to agree in teaching truth, which is one. Though the use of the Scriptures had been permitted in the English tongue, they must not be expounded by