1549 to the Reformation, says that all endeavours were too weak to overcome the aversion of the people; and he intimates that some German troops were sent for from Calais, on account of the bigotry with which the majority of the nation adhered to the old superstition.* inclosures the of distress. 22. Popular discontent in Edward's reign not to be attributed to the Reformation. It would, however, be exceedingly wrong to suppose that the general dissatisfaction which existed in the reign of Edward the Sixth, was owing to the changes which had been made in religion. The national distress, which was very great at that time, was entirely owing to circumstances of a totally different character, and it was the selfishness and oppressions of the upper classes who accepted the Reformation, which induced a belief in the minds of many that the Reformed doctrines were in fault. A social revolution was being enacted, parallel with the religious one. Feudalism was gradually giving way, and the relations between landowners and their tenants were fast becoming tinged with the modern commercial spirit. The gentlemen and the peasantry began to talk of their rights. The former amalgamated their farms, and pastured sheep, which was more profit- Sheep able than cultivation; but it threw the people out of farming and employment. The peasantry loudly complained of this, chief causes of the inclosure of commons, and the conversion of forests into parks, which deprived them of many of the means of support which they had enjoyed for generations. Less land being thus under cultivation, corn was scarce, and rose in value to famine prices, an evil which was further aggravated by the regular debasement of the coin by the government. ment of the The distress which followed upon these things was so another great, that the highways and villages were covered, it was said, with forlorn and outcast families; while thousands of the ejected tenantry made their way to London, and clamoured in vain for redress at the courts in Westminster. The leading reformers were greatly concerned at these troubles; they were perplexed at the fact, which seemed apparent to their limited knowledge, that the increased light of the Gospel which the Reformation brought, only appeared to increase men's Latimer's wickedness; and Latimer, labouring under this conviction, Sermon of in his Sermon of the Plough, boldly addressed the landlords on the evil of their doings. Bernard Gilpin, nephew of Tunstal, Bishop of Durham, followed in the same strain. History of the Reformation, III., 327. The debase coin was cause. the Plough. CHAP. III, These popular troubles righted of themselves in the course of the next twenty years; the grazing farms were broken up; the peasantry had again their patches of ground attached to the cottages, and a greater breadth of land became subject to the plough than had been broken for a century. By that time, also, religious matters had become settled; the use of the new ceremonies had grown familiar, and the principles of the Reformation were beginning to produce their just and natural influence upon the character and conduct of the people. In the meantime, however, the reformed doctrines were unjustly made responsible for the national troubles, which really resulted from the social revolution which was then going on.* 23. The first effects of the Reformation not good for the people. But while the Reformation was thus free of these evils, it must be noticed that the sudden and violent change in religion had not, at first, a beneficial effect upon the multitude. removal of the restraints of an established and recognised Sacred The The belief gave the people an excuse for ridiculing holy things, things were and for neglecting their ordinary religious duties. ridiculed. highest men in the land set an example of ungodly living, and of a disregard for the teachings of the Christian faith; and they daily plundered the church which they affected to reform. Every bishopric was despoiled; an estate was raised out of the see of Lichfield for Lord Paget; Somerset erected his famous palace in the Strand, with the materials of churches he pulled down; and he compelled the chapter of Westminster Abbey to make him a grant of some of their estates; Exeter and Llandaff, from being among the richest, fell into the class of the poorest sees, and London, Winchester, and Canterbury suffered in like manner. Learning The exhibitions for the support of poor scholars at Oxford were taken, and professorships suppressed, so that the declined. students fell off in large numbers, and learning declined. Under the pretence of putting down superstition, the undergraduates left at Oxford openly mocked the service of the mass, and trampled the consecrated bread under foot; they chopped the missals in pieces with hatchets, and plundered and burnt the college libraries. The cathedrals and churches of London were the chosen scenes of riot and profanity. St. Paul's was the stock exchange of the day, where the merchants of the city met for Froude, V., 108-122. See further, also, in chapter IV.. paragraph 4; and chapter VII., section II. 1549 The " illiterate. business, and the gallants lounged, gambled, and fought. transepts and aisles were even used as stables for horses. In the country districts religion met with as little respect. The patron of a benefice cared no longer whom he presented to a living, and gave it to his steward, his huntsman, or his gamekeeper. The rural The consequence was, that the services of the church clergy were were neglected, for even "the rude lobs of the country complained that these unlettered incumbents "slubbered" the service, and could not read. Hospitals were gone, schools broken up, almshouses swept away, all the old charitable foundations were either abolished or suspended till they could be organised anew; but, meanwhile, the people were suffering and sinking down into a state of anarchy and barbarism, and were rapidly losing all faith in the judgment and sincerity of their rulers. The public administration of the country was grossly corrupt; the Public receivers-general of the crown embezzled the revenues wholesale, and the auditors demanded bribes before they dishonest. would certify their accounts. The like corruption infected the traders, and English woollen cloths, once held in credit, were rejected in the continental markets, because they were fraudulent in make, weight, and size. All these things were fiercely denounced by Latimer, in one of his sermons before the King, and by Lever, at Paul's Cross. officers were Signs of ment. 1 There were not wanting, however, many symptoms of the return of a better and wiser spirit to the people, and it was while the charitable and scholastic endowments were being improvefraudulently made away with, that the free grammar schools which are found in every county in England were first established and endowed. The citizens of London were almost among the earliest to set an example in this respect, Sir Free schools Rowland Hill, the Lord Mayor, establishing a free school founded. at Drayton, in Shropshire, in 1549, and his successor erecting 66 a notable free school at Tunbridge" in the following year, besides building a cluster of almshouses for poor men there. William Cholmley, another citizen of London, in order to relieve Trade the general distress, suggested a plan for finding work on extended. a large scale for the men whom the grazing system had thrown out of employment. Assuming that sheep-farming and clothmaking would form the chief occupations of the country, he set himself to turn the change to advantage, and imported a number of Flemish dyers to teach his own men the secret of their trade. The result of this was, that English cloth was not taken to the CHAP. III. Netherlands to be dyed, as had formerly been the custom, and that a new trade was established for the occupation of the unemployed.* The as intole rant as the Roman 24. The persecutions for Heresy during Edward's Reign. Although freedom of opinion was one of the most essential principles of the Reformation, the early reformers, of Reformers whatever persuasion, considered toleration in religion as altogether impracticable and unreasonable. In the new Catholics. canon law, which Cranmer and his colleagues drew up, the denial of the Christian religion was declared to be punishable with death and forfeiture; and obstinate heretics, though they were not condemned to capital punishment, were yet declared infamous, and without the pale of the law. The difference, therefore, between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants, as regarded religious toleration, was only in degree. "Persecution," says Hallam, "is the deadly original sin of the reformed churches; that which cools every honest man's zeal for their cause, in proportion as his reading becomes more extensive." It was worse in the reformers than in the Roman Catholics, because they were men hardly escaped from persecution themselves; they pleaded for themselves the right of private judgment, and yet denied it to others; they had defied the prescriptive authority of past ages; and especially because, on many occasions, they persecuted men for those opinions they afterwards embraced themselves, and on other occasions for opinions they had once held, and had now given up. The Lutherans of Germany stigmatised the mass as an idolatrous service, and would not tolerate its use; it was equally proscribed in England, and many persons were imprisoned for attending it. The Princess Mary vainly supplicated for the exercise of her own religion at home, and Charles, as well as Cranmer and the council, several times interceded for her; but her brother refused his sanction. Gardiner, Bonner, Tunstal, Day (of Chichester), and Heath (of Worcester), the chief Roman Catholic prelates, were all deprived of their sees, and imprisoned for the rest of the reign. No Roman Catholic put to death. No Roman Catholic, however, was put to death during Edward's reign on account of his religion. The only martyrs were Protestants; and these were the extreme ones, Anabaptists and Arians, whose opinions were generally odious Only Ana- and unpopular, and considered by the founders of the were burnt. Anglican church to be dangerous to the safety of the Reformation. baptists * Froude, V., 269. + Mackintosh, II., 160. 1549 These sects came from the Netherlands, and had existed before the time of Luther; but the Reformation brought them out of their obscurity, and to escape persecution they migrated in great numbers to England. They denied the divinity of Christ, but acknowledged with reverence his divine mission; they disbelieved the validity of infant baptism, rejected oaths, and held the doctrine of non-resistance, since adopted by the Quakers; they denied the lawfulness of magistracy, obedience to human laws, and the legitimacy of separate property.* In 1549, commissions were issued to Cranmer, "to inquire into heretical pravity;" and the Anabaptists and their disciples were rigorously persecuted. Many of them confessed their errors, recanted, and were pardoned; but Joan Boucher, called Joan of Kent, and Von Paris, a Dutch surgeon, of London, were burnt to death, the first on the 2nd of May, 1550 the second on the 24th of May, 1551. Joan Boucher was Martyrdom a zealous Protestant, who had privately imported Lutheran of Joan books for the ladies of the court in the late reign, and had hardly escaped martyrdom with Anne Ascue. "She denied that Christ was truly incarnate of the Virgin, whose flesh being sinful, he could take none of it; but the Word, by the consent of the inward man in the Virgin, took flesh of her." Such was the unintelligible jargon for which she suffered. Her execution was delayed for a year, owing, it is said, to the compassionate scruples of Edward, who refused to sign the warrant, but whose hesitation was borne down by the authority and importunity of Cranmer. This story is much doubted. * Mackintosh, II., 161. Boucher. ); |