Seymour had been appointed lord high admiral, but aspired to supplant his brother, whose superior in abilities he knew himself to be.

Seymour was indeed a man of great powers of flattery and address, and had won so much on the go. 1 opinion of ન the dowager queen, Catharine Parr, that she ma ried him very soon after Henry's death. After living with him one year she died; and his ambition then aspired to the princess Elizabeth, who, it is supposed, would have listened to his suit, had it not been opposed by the other officers of the

state.

Dudley, earl of Warwick, son of that wicked Dudley who was a judge in Henry the Seventh's reign, used every means to increase the disagreements between the protector and his brother, hoping to raise his own greatness on the ruin of theirs. He led on the admiral to commit many rash and violent actions, and persuaded Somerset to commit him for high treason. His condemnation and execution soon followed.

Somerset never lost sight of the affairs of the church, and many important changes were made. The law forbidding the clergy to marry, was repealed; and a law was passed which inflicted severe penalties on those who persevered in the old worship, and rejected the service which was now appointed. The princess Mary, who was a rigid papist, alone refused to conform to this law.

On this Mary's chaplains were imprisoned, and she herself threatened with punishment: but when she appealed to her cousin the emperor, and made an attempt to escape from England, it was deemed prudent to allow of her having mass performed privately in her house. But this concession cost the young king many tears, so criminal did he esteem the popish faith in which she persevered.

Although the destruction of the religious houses has probably been a great benefit to us who live in after ages, it must have been a very bad measure at the time. Many thousand people were reduced at once from wealth or com

Who persuaded Somerset to prosecute his brother?

Did Somerset persecute the Catholics?

Was the princess Mary a papist?

What became of the monks and nuns who were expelled from the reli gious houses?

petence tc absolute want. Some of the heads of the suppressed houses had small pittances allowed them for their lives; but the monks and nuns were turned adrift, a helpless race of creatures, who could do little towards their own mainte.ance.

It was a hard measure to those countrymen and farmers who had enjoyed the church lands at easy rents; and there remained also a still more numerous body of sufferers, the idle poor, who had been daily fed at the convent gates, and scarcely knew how to work. All these were now reduced to want and obliged to seek their bread by labor.

These causes, with others, made the year 1549 a period of insurrections and tumults all over England. The protector, who really compassionated the poor, did all in his power to relieve their distresses. But, while he was befriending them, he gave offence to the rich, by the great state and almost royal dignity which he assumed.

A confederacy, headed by the earl of Warwick, was formed against him. He soon saw himself deserted by all except Cranmer, and by Paget, his secretary; and, sinking into despondency, he resigned the protectorship. He was then committed to the Tower; and after a few weeks' imprisonment, was heavily fined, deprived of all his offices, and then restored to liberty. A new council of regency was appointed, and the earl of Warwick placed at the head of it.

Warwick, not satisfied with the degradation of Somerset, determined on his death, and accused him, in 1551, of a plot to raise a rebellion, and to assassinate himself and other privy counsellors. On these charges he was tried, condemned, and executed, to the sincere grief of the people, to whom his goodness of heart had much endeared him.

The work of the Reformation was still continued, but with more intemperance, under Warwick, than had been ever visible while the affairs of the nation were conducted

What effect had the destruction of the religious houses upon the cond 1.on of the poor in England?

How did Somerset regard the poor?

By whom was Somerset deprived of the regency?

By what false charge was Somerset degraded and destroyed?

Did the reformers commit any acts of injustice in the reign of Edware

Gardiner was de

by the milder counsels of Somerset. prived of his bishopric, and thrown into prison. Bonner, bishop of London, was also committed to the Tower; and many of the clergy were obliged to have recourse to trades for a maintenance, being reduced to poverty by the greedy courtiers, who seized on a large portion of the revenues of the church.

The earldom of Northumberland having some years since become extinct, Warwick, a short time before the death of Somerset, had prevailed with Edward to make him duke of Northumberland, and to bestow on him the estates which had belonged to the earldom, and which had been forfeited to the crown.

The young king was now entirely in the power of Northumberland, who placed his son, Robert Dudley, about his person. Edward's health declined from that time, and Northumberland formed 'the project of raising one of his own sons to the throne. He began by persuading Edward, that as both his sisters had been declared illegitimate, they could not possibly succeed to the crown, and that, therefore, by virtue of his father's will, the succession devolved on the children of Mary, the dowager queen of France, by her second husband the duke of Suffolk, whose eldest daughter, the duchess of Dorset, was the undoubted heir to the crown. The duchess, who had no son, was willing to resign her claim to her eldest daughter, lady Jane Grey, and Northumberland married her to his son, Guildford Dudley.

Edward felt no scruple about depriving his sister Mary of her birthright, fearing that her bigotry would be hurtful to the Protestant cause. But he felt many regrets in regard to the princess Elizabeth, whom he affectionately loved. He however, consented to settle the succession on lady Jane Grey; and the patent of settlement was signed by all the great officers of state.

The king, who had been for many months in a very delicate state of health, grew rapidly worse; and soon after

How was the earl of Warwick rendered more powerful than ever? How did Northumberland overrule the succession, and what was Lady Jane Grey's title to the crown of England?

Upon whom was the succession settled?
Where did Edward IV. die?

died, on the 6th of July, 1553, in the sixteenth year of his age, and seventh of his reign.

Though during this reign the country was in a distracted and divided state on the score of religion, and though the officers of the state were not less divided and distracted by their own private jealousies and cabals, still there never had been any former time when the commerce of England flourished so much.

An expedition, consisting of two ships and a bark, was sent out by Edward VI. under the command of sir Hugh Willoughby, for the discovery of a north-east passage to India; but the attempt failed; and sir Hugh, and all the people both of his own ship, and of the bark which kept company with him, were frozen to death in a harbor of Lapland. Richard Chancellor, the captain of the other vessel, was more fortunate, and returned home after wintering at Archangel. This voyage first led the way to a lucrative trade with Russia.

A code of articles in relation to public worship having been thought advisable, the better to bring the people to a conformity in religion, Cranmer was appointed to make one; and he drew up forty-two articles, from which, with some slight alterations and retrenchments, the present Thirty-nine Articles are formed.

The Thirty-nine Articles are articles of belief, which contain a short summary of the doctrines of the church of England. Besides the forty-two articles, Cranmer also drew up the church catechism, which he compiled in great measure from that used by the German reformers, making some additions of his own. The latter part of the catechism concerning the sacraments, was added in the reign of James I.

Cranmer, notwithstanding the natural moderation of his mind, was at times betrayed into the furious zeal of the age; and it must be lamented that he condemned two persons, if not more, to be burned, for being Anabaptists,

Did commerce flourish in the reign of Edward VI.?

What voyage of discovery was undertaken in this reign?

What articles of faith to be acknowledged by all members of the Church of England were promulgated?

What are the thirty-nine articles?

Were there any martyrs in the time of Edward VI. ?

and this, notwithstanding the entreaties of the young king, hat they might be spared to live, and to be converted from their errors.

Edward's early promise was very great, and his abilities were of a high order. His Latin exercises have been preserved, and, if he was not much assisted by his masters, do him great credit. His chief study was theology, and his greatest delight was listening to sermons.

It will be interesting to know what became of all the old monasteries and nunneries. Some were leveled with the ground; others, stripped of their timber and lead, were left in ruin, and still remain objects of admiration to all who delight in the relics of antiquity. Many were given or sold to laymen, who converted them into dwellinghouses, and others were turned into hospitals.

Henry bestowed many of the religious houses on those who attended on his person. One of his attendants was rewarded with some abbey lands for having wheeled his chair farther from the fire; and a lady, whose name is not handed down to us, had a monastic house given to her for making the king a pudding which he liked.

In this reign the convenience of ladies' dress was very much assisted by the invention of pins. To serve the purposes for which we employ that article, there were previously to the invention of pins, a variety of contrivances, buttons, hooks and eyes, laces and loops; and ladies used even wooden skewers to fasten on their dress. A needle was a very valuable implement at this time. None were made in England till the next reign, when a Spanish negro came to London, and made some.

CHAPTER XXVII

MARY.

[Years after Christ, 1553-1558.]

As soon as Edward had breathed his last, the duke of Northumberland went to Sion-house, where lady Jane

What were the favorite pursuits of Edward VI. ?

What became of the religious houses sequestered by Henry VIII. ? Were the useful arts improved in this reign?

Who saluted lady Jane Grey as queen of England?