the denial of the cup to the laity; the profitableness of private masses; the enforcement of confession to a priest; the unlawfulness of marriage in a priest; the obligation of vows of celibacy. This act was called "The Bloody Statute," and "The Whip with Six Strings," from the vast number of executions which it occasioned. Reformers were burnt for refusing assent to these articles; while Romanists suffered for denying the king's supremacy.

It was not until almost the end of his reign that the king would sanction a return to the English language in the public service of the Church. Two Primers (or first books) had indeed been set forth, one by William Marshall, in A.D. 1535, and another by Thomas Hilsey, bishop of Rochester, in A.D. 1539, the latter of which had received Cromwell's sanction. But these were rather indications of a public want, devotions for private use, and awkward adaptations of old offices, than authoritative documents for the use of the Church. But in 1545, what was called King Henry the Eighth's Primer was published by royal authority. In the preface the king says, "We have set out and given to our subjects a determinate form of prayer in our own mother tongue, to the intent that such as are ignorant of any strange or foreign speech, may have what to pray in their own acquainted and familiar language." And again, "We have judged it to be of no small force for the avoiding of strife and contention, to have one uniform manner or course of praying throughout all our dominions." This Primer contained in English the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments, together with prayers, suffrages, hymns, and select passages of Scripture, for morning and evening devotion. It gave also in English the Litany,-nearly the same as that now in use, to be said alternately by the priest and the people. It embraced also other prayers, rather suited for private than for public use, but no form in English for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. The king insisted to the last on retaining the Romish expression of that doctrine, and would not allow the office relating to it to be meddled with. The task of restoring the cup to the laity, and preparing men's minds for an intelligent reception of the blessing conveyed in that sacrament, was reserved for the purer hands of his successor.

As the king advanced in years, he suffered most severely from an ulcer in his thigh; he had become so unwieldy in person that machines were invented to move him; his temper, never good, now grew even ferocious; and his caprice and cruelty were such that even his attendants feared to approach him. He seemed to live for severity. The fatal axe in the Tower was constantly employed, and the fires in Smithfield blazed with innocent victims. The most distinguished of these was Anne Askew, who had been put to the torture by the Chancellor Wriottesly with his own hands, and died with remarkable faith and devotion. The last victim of Henry's tyranny was the accomplished Earl of Surrey, who was beheaded in the Tower, on the most slender and ill-supported charges. His father, the Duke of Norfolk, escaped a similar fate only by the death of Henry on the night before he had been ordered for execution. The king breathed his last Jan. 1547, and was succeeded by Prince Edward, his only son.

Henry was never unpopular with his subjects. His measures, indeed, occasioned at times some partial insurrections, the principal of which (called the Pilgrimage of Grace) was in the year 1536; but they were put down without difficulty. The people remembered the early magnificence of his reign; and, among all his vices, he possessed that blunt courtesy and openness of hand, which are so captivating in persons of his exalted rank.

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CHAPTER XXVI.

EDWARD VI.

Born at Hampton Court. Buried in Westminster Abbey. Reigned 6 years. From A.D. 1547 to A.D. 1553.

Archbishop of Canterbury.

Thomas Cranmer, A.D. 1533—1555.

EDWARD was little more than nine years old when he became king. He had been trained in the principles of those who had sought and found, amid the additions of Romanism, the elements of the pure and primitive faith. His intelligence was beyond his years, and his early piety was a pattern to all around him. When the three swords were (as was usual) carried before him at his coronation, he said, "There is yet one wanting," and called for a Bible. "For," said he, "that is the sword of the Spirit, without which we are nothing." His uncle, who became Duke of Somerset, and was declared Protector, was a firm friend to the Reformation, which was now zealously promoted. Englishmen cannot be sufficiently thankful that this great religious movement was, under the Divine Providence, guided by a prelate of Cranmer's moderation and judgment. In Germany and Scotland it was, to a great degree, conducted by persons whom their zeal against popery made blind to the apostolic origin of many established practices. Thus excesses were committed by the mobs in many places; churches were profaned and mutilated, and wild and extravagant doctrines were preached. In England, by God's blessing, a milder spirit pervaded all the changes that were made; and it was a great advantage that these changes were made by the authorities in Church and State, not by the zeal of individuals nor by the lawlessness of mobs. The principle on which changes were made was not a mere antipathy to Rome, but a desire to return to Scripture and primitive usage. Thus the use of a prescribed form for public worship was retained, together with the apostolic institution of Episcopacy, while the comparatively modern corruptions of Romanism were removed. The principal of

these were, the practice of praying in an unknown tongue; the withholding the Bible from general use; the enforced celibacy of the clergy; the doctrine called transubstantiation, which we have already explained; the denial of the cup to the laity; the undue honour paid to saints and images; the worship paid to the Virgin Mary; and the doctrine of purgatory, with the notion connected with it, that remission can be purchased from the pope in favour of ourselves or others. In the course of this reign, and chiefly under the influence of Cranmer, and Ridley, bishop of London, the Liturgy' was cleansed from these errors, and brought into nearly its present form.

In the first year of King Edward's reign, Dec. 1547, it was ordered that the Lord's Supper should be distributed to the people, and that the cup in particular should be no longer withheld from them. A commission was issued about the same time to draw up an Office for the Holy Eucharist. This was completed on the 8th of March, 1548, and enjoined to be used forthwith. A considerable portion of it, however, was still in Latin. A new commission, therefore, was soon issued (chiefly to the same divines) directing them to prepare a complete collection of Divine Offices for public worship. The members of it met at Windsor in May, 1548, and drew up a Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, &c., which was approved by the Church in Convocation, and enjoined by act of parliament in the ensuing January, "to be used from the feast of Whit-Sunday, 1549." The principles on which it was compiled were, a desire to retain whatever was sanctioned by ancient usage, (provided it did not give occasion to superstition,) and an avoidance of novelty as such. This Prayer Book is substantially the same as that now in use. Modifications of it were made in 1552, some of which seem scarcely to have been required; but several

4

3 The word Liturgy, in the language of the ancient Church, was used to denote the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. By a natural transition of meaning, it next signified the Office, or Form of Words, in which it was celebrated. Hence it became gradually used to denote the Church's Offices in general, viz. the whole Prayer Book.

4 The two editions of the Prayer Book set forth in 1549 and 1552, are called respectively the First and Second Books of King Edward the Sixth. It is worth noticing that the Second Book was never authorized by Convocation.

of these were rejected on reconsideration of the subject in later reigns.

A Book for Consecrating and Ordaining Bishops, Priests, and Deacons was drawn up in 1550.

It would be foreign to our purpose to enter more minutely upon the contents of the Prayer Book, its relation to the forms of prayer used in other Churches, and in the Church of England itself before the Reformation, or the exact nature of the changes introduced into it at the successive revisions, which will be noticed in their proper place 5.

To secure soberness of speculation on the part of the clergy, forty-two Articles of Religion were agreed upon, in A.D. 1552, which were almost the same with the present Thirty-nine Articles of our Church. To ensure soundness in the practical teaching given to the people, and to remedy, as far as might be, the existing want of persons able to preach, homilies or sermons were drawn up, A.D. 1547, to be read in churches on Sundays and Holy-days. All this was done by the Church itself, under the direction of Cranmer, by the assistance of the most eminent divines of the day, with the sanction and approval of Convocation. The Church proved its vitality by existing through such troublous times, and by its activity in reforming its abuses. The civil power stepped in to aid it, and all the measures which it carried through received external confirmation from the king and the three estates of the realm in parliament. These changes were not made without occasioning some discontent and risings of the peasantry, who suffered severely from the suppression of monasteries; but the Protector, with all his ambition, was humane and gentle, and succeeded in quieting the excitement of the people.

6

Somerset was very desirous of obtaining for his nephew the hand of the young Queen of Scots, and led an army into Scotland to enforce his demand. This rough method of wooing was not very likely to succeed; and though he

5 The student is referred to Palmer's "Origines Liturgicæ," and Wheatly "On the Common Prayer;" but a plain and popular account of this interesting subject may be found in Archdeacon Berens' "History of the Prayer Book," published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

• The three estates are, the Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal, and the Commons.