his special request and express commandment, that no time might be lost in proposing what was convenient, and apprizing him of their proceedings. The work was zealously undertaken, Ridley himself engaging in it; and the result was, that, by their advice, he founded Christ's Hospital, for the education of poor children; St. Thomas's and St. Bartholomew's, for the relief of the sick; and Bridewell, for the correction and amendment of the vagabond and lewd; provision also being made, that the decayed housekeeper should receive weekly parochial relief. The King endowed these hospitals, and moreover granted a license, that they might take in mortmain lands, to the yearly value of 4000 marks, fixing that sum himself, and inserting it with his own hand when he signed the patent, at a time when he had scarcely strength to guide the pen. "Lord God," said he, "I yield thee most hearty thanks that thou hast given me life thus long, to finish this work to the glory of thy name!" That innocent and most exemplary life was drawing rapidly to its close, and in a few days he rendered up his spirit to his Creator, praying God to defend the realm from Papistry.

300

CHAPTER XIV.

were.

ment.

QUEEN MARY. THE PERSECUTION.

AN attempt was made, by authority of King Edward's will, to set aside both his sisters from the succession, and raise Lady Jane Grey to the throne, who had lately been married to one of Northumberland's sons. This was Northumberland's doing; he was actuated by ambition, and the other members of the Government assented to it, believing, like the late young King, that it was necessary for the preservation of the Protestant faith. Cranmer opposed the measure, but yielded when the dying Edward told him he hoped he alone would not stand out, and be more repugnant to his will than all the rest of the Council Henry VIII. had been so accustomed to have laws enacted at his pleasure, that he seems at last to have considered his pleasure equivalent to law; and had accordingly disposed of the succession at different times, and finally by his last testaHis conduct served as a precedent for his son. But the principles of succession were in fact well ascertained at that time, and, what was of more consequence, they were established in public opinion. Nor could the intended change be supported on the ground of religion, for popular feeling was decidedly against the Reformation. Queen Mary obtained possession of her rightful throne, without the loss of a single life, so completely did the nation acknowledge her claim; and an after insurrection, rashly planned, and worse conducted, served only to hasten the destruction of the Lady Jane and her husband. Their tragedy may well be omitted here, as belonging rather to civil than ecclesiastical history, . . . which, during this for ever execrable reign, has too many of its own. Yet of the Lady Jane it may be said, that, being in all respects worthy of an earthly crown, it almost seems as if she had been summoned in mercy to a heavenly one, lest the world should stain a spirit which no circumstances could render more fit for heaven.

The Suffolk men were the first who had declared for Queen Mary; the Protestant faith had taken root among them, and they obtained a promise from her, that no alteration should be made in the religion which her brother had established. But if any person may be excused for hating the Reformation, it was Mary. She regarded it as having arisen in this country from her mother's wrongs, as having aggravated those wrongs, and enabled the King to complete an iniquitous and cruel divorce. It had exposed her to inconvenience, and even danger, under her father's reign, to vexation and restraint under her brother's; and after having been bastardized in consequence of it, and again restored to her rights, when she ought to have succeeded peaceably to the throne, an attempt had been made to deprive her of the inheritance, because she continued to profess the Roman Catholic faith. Her understanding was good, and had been cultivated most carefully: she was a religious woman, according to the faith which she had imbibed; she had inherited something of her mother's constitutional melancholy, something of her father's immitigable disposition; and as the circumstances of her life hitherto had tended to foster the former propensity, those in which she now found herself were not likely to correct the latter. Had the religion of the country been settled, she might have proved a good and beneficent, as well as conscientious, queen. But she delivered her conscience to the direction of cruel men; and believing it her duty to act up to the worst principles of a persecuting Church, boasted that she was a virgin sent by God to ride and tame the people of England.'

Had there been any moderation in her councils, the object of restoring Popery might have been accomplished; . . . it was even called for by the general voice, so indignant was the nation at the havoc which had been committed, and now so sensible of the mischief which had been done. The people did not wait till the laws of King Edward were repealed; the Romish doctrines were preached, and in some places the Romish Clergy took possession of the churches, turned out the incumbents, and performed mass in jubilant anticipation of their approaching triumph. What course the new Queen would pursue, had never been doubtful; and as one of her first acts had been to make Gardiner Chancel

1 Strype's Cranmer, p. 309. Hale's Oration quoted.

lor, it was evident that a fiery persecution was at hand. Many who were obnoxious withdrew in time, some into Scotland, and more into Switzerland, and the Protestant parts of Germany. Cranmer advised others to fly; but when his friends entreated him to preserve himself by the like precaution, he replied, that it was not fitting for him to desert his post. So constant, indeed, were those Protestant Clergy who remained, with the determination of bearing their testimony to the last, that when Wyatt, in his insurrection, sent to the Marshalsea prison, to set the gates open, and ask these Confessors to join him, and assist him with their counsel, their answer was, that they had been committed there by order, and would not leave the prison, unless they were in like manner discharged. Some outrages were committed by insensate zealots; a dagger was thrown at one priest, a shot fired at another. And an attempt was made to perform a miracle, after the Romish manner, by delivering speeches against the Queen's intended marriage with Philip of Spain, and the restoration of Popery, . . . as if they had been uttered by a spirit in the wall. It was easily detected, and the girl, who had played the invisible angel, was brought upon a scaffold at St. Paul's Cross, and made to confess the imposture. But the conduct of the Protestants, as a body, was worthy of their cause.

The Queen at first inhibited all preaching or printing upon religious subjects; she could not, she said, hide that religion which God and the world knew she had ever from her infancy professed, and she much desired and would be glad the same were of all her subjects quietly and charitably embraced. Yet, of her most gracious disposition and clemency, she intended not to compel any of them thereunto, until such time as farther order, by common consent, might be taken therein; and she commanded them, meantime, to live together in Christian charity, and abstain from the new-found devilish terms of Papist or Heretic, and such like. In the same deceitful spirit, Cardinal Pole, when he arrived as Legate, protested that his commission was not to prejudice any person, for he came to reconcile, and not to condemn; not to compel, but to call again: he came not to call in question any thing already done, but his commission 1 Strype's Cranmer, p. 314.

was of grace and clemency to all such as would receive it; "for touching all matters past and done, they should be cast into the sea of forgetfulness." The fears of that class of men whose opposition was most to be dreaded, because it proceeded from worldly motives, were indeed quieted by a Bull, which allowed the holders of Abbey lands to retain their ill-gotten possessions. And it should not be forgotten, in honour to this Queen, of whom so much evil is recorded, that she voluntarily restored to the Church all such lands as had been vested in the Crown, and had not yet been squandered.

The Protestant Bishops were soon dispossessed of their sees; the marriages which the Clergy and Religioners had contracted, were declared unlawful, and their children bastardized. The heads of the reformed Clergy, having been brought forth to hold disputations for the purpose rather of intimidating than of convincing them, had been committed to different prisons, and after these preparatories the fiery process began. John Rogers, the protomartyr in the Marian persecution, and at that time a Prebendary of St. Paul's, had formerly been Chaplain to the English merchants at Antwerp, and had there been a fellow-labourer with Tindal and Coverdale, in the great work of translating the Bible. He had a large family, and having married a German woman, might have found means to support them in her country; but deeming it the duty of himself and his brethren, he said, to stand like true soldiers by the Captain of their salvation, and not traitorously run out of his tents, or out of the plain field from him, in the most jeopardy of the battle, . . . he chose to abide the worst; and in his last sermon at St. Paul's Cross, exhorted the people to remain in such true doctrine as had been taught in King Edward's day, and to beware of all pestilent Popery, idolatry, and superstition. After long imprisonment and several examinations, he was condemned for maintaining that the Church of Rome was the church of Antichrist, and for denying transubstantiation. The sentence being passed, he requested that his poor wife, being a foreigner, might come and speak with him as long as he lived; "for she hath ten children," said he, "that are hers and mine, and somewhat I would counsel her what were best for her to do." But Gardiner, with his