ing, produced so extraordinary an effect, that the Romish clergy becoming alarmed, Cardinal Beaton ordered him to be seized and burned at the stake; and for this he was assassinated by a body of Wishart's disciples, 28th May 1546. The conspirators had sent a deputation to Henry VIII. to explain the circumstances and crave his support, which was promised. After Henry's death, the Protector prepared to march into Scotland at the head of 18,000 men, supported by a fleet under Lord Clinton, announcing that he would listen to no negotiations for peace that did not involve the marriage of Edward and Mary. The Scotch Government prepared for resistance. Both armies met at Pinkeycleugh, 10th September (1547). At the beginning of the battle, the Scotch infantry were so successful that, had they been supported by cavalry, they would have gained the victory. They were, however, defeated. Somerset, anxious to return to England, agreed to open negotiations at Berwick. But the Scotch sent no commissioners, and the negotiations consequently fell to the ground.

The Protector, on his arrival in England, 4th November, assembled Parliament, which, though retaining the Act which imposed a penalty on the denial of the king's supremacy, repealed the persecuting laws on the subject of religion and the publication and diffusion of books. The Council, at the same time, abolished many superstitious practices. They ordered images to be removed from churches, forbade private masses, and imposed a new Communion Service, written in the English language, and in conformity with the changes already established. By these Acts Protestantism gained a firm footing in the kingdom. The Scotch, in the meantime, having received the assistance of 6000 French and German soldiers, became resolute in resisting a union with England, which, whatever might be its advantages, would be dishonouring to the nation, because extorted by force of arms. The young queen was sent to France, where she afterwards married Francis II. king of France. The Scots recovered several fortresses, and repulsed the English under Lord Seymour, first in Fife and next at Montrose. At length the Protector withdrew his

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forces, finding that he had too much on his hands at home to allow of his prosecuting his designs upon Scotland.

The Protector's brother, Lord Seymour, aspired to become the personal governor of the young king; and as he had married the late king's widow, Catherine Parr, his ambition to divide power with his brother seemed the more likely to be gratified. His wife having died, he secretly paid his addresses to the Princess Elizabeth, tried to create partisans amongst the nobility, secretly enlisted armed followers, and prepared, by all means, to wrest authority from his brother the Protector's hands. The latter, in self-defence, committed him to the Tower, and deprived him of his office of Lord Admiral; but offered to desist from prosecution, if the latter would promise to renounce his ambitious hopes. As Seymour met his brother's proposal with defiance, the Protector had a bill of attainder presented to the Parliament, which passed 20th March 1549, and the prisoner was soon after beheaded on Tower Hill. From the justice and moderation of Somerset's character, it is to be supposed that nothing short of inexorable necessity could have induced him to put into execution this sentence of death upon his own brother.

In the year 1549, further measures were adopted for advancing and consolidating the Reformation. By a committee of divines, a new liturgy was composed; a law was passed permitting priests to marry, and the obnoxious tenets and practices of the Roman Catholic religion were abolished. A commission was also appointed by the Council to search out Anabaptists, heretics, or contemners of the Book of Common Prayer, with power to inflict penalties, and the new forms of worship were imposed in some cases with great rigour.

About this time insurrections broke out in several counties of England, caused to a great extent, it is believed, by the sufferings of the people in consequence of the suppression of the monasteries and abbeys which had employed labourers extensively, and dispensed charity, and of the practice that had grown up of turning large tracts of arable land into sheep pastures for the purposes of

the wool-trade. These two causes threw many out of work, and raised the price of corn. Many also of the new proprietors of the Church demesnes had enclosed large tracts of land formerly commons. These, it is true, were only temporary evils, and the country ere long recovered from them, but for a time they caused much trouble to the Government. Many wandered about idle, and several laws had to be passed against vagabonds. In the southwest of England also, the people rose in great numbers against the reformed religion, but, after a vigorous resistance, were forced to give way before disciplined troops. Order was restored only after much bloodshed.

The Protector laboured to satisfy the people's complaints. But his popularity was on the decline, his weakness and arrogance having alienated his supporters; and his enemies at the Council board seeing that he had no longer much hold on the public, formed a secret committee for his overthrow, composed of Lord St. John, the Earls of Warwick, Southampton, and Arundel, with five others, who were soon joined by powerful adherents. When they found themselves strong enough to act, they openly accused the Protector of usurpation and of violation of the laws, and committed him to the Tower. After this, a Council of Regency was formed, Somerset made submission on his knees, and was liberated. Warwick, now in the ascendant, even allowed him to take his seat at the Council board, and agreed to a marriage between his son Lord Dudley and Lady Jane Seymour, the daughter of Somerset. The new Regency made peace with France, in which Scotland was included.

The Council were now threatened with hostilities by the Emperor Charles v. if they did not refrain from attempts to force on the Princess Mary a creed opposed to that to which she was so devoutly attached. The young king bewailed with tears his sister's obstinate adherence to the tenets and practices of the Romish Church, but his efforts to bring her over to the Protestant faith were unsuccessful. The Council deprived Bonner, Gardiner, and other Roman Catholic bishops of their sees, and, dreading the

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vigour and perseverance with which they opposed the reformed doctrines, committed them to prison. The Book of Common Prayer underwent revision, and the reformed doctrines were reduced to forty-two articles, forming a Confession of Faith.

Nor did the Council of Regency neglect the material interests of the country. They revoked the patent held by a foreign company called the Steelyard,-which conferred a virtual monopoly of trade with the north of Europe, and thus gave a beneficial impulse to commerce. A favourable commercial treaty was opened with Sweden; the old base coinage was recalled, and a new one issued.

Those wise proceedings of the Council were interrupted by the ambitious Warwick, who contrived to get possession of the estates and title of the lately deceased Duke of Northumberland, and then, in order to get rid of his former rival the Duke of Somerset, whose power he still feared, caused him and his wife to be arrested (16th October 1551), along with some of the duke's adherents, on the charge of having formed a design for his assassination, and for an insurrection in the north. Somerset having been pronounced guilty of the former part of the charge, was brought to the block 22d January 1552. The people, who loved him, dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood, which they preserved as a precious relic of their benefactor; and as the House of Commons refused to pass a bill ratifying Somerset's attainder, it was dissolved (15th April). The same House had previously rejected a bill for the attainder of Tonstal, bishop of Durham, the property of whose see the rapacious Northumberland coveted for himself.

The new Parliament, packed through Northumberland's intrigues, proved more obsequious, and the duke, dividing the see of Durham, helped himself to a large share of its ample estates. Hoping that his influence over the young sickly king would be sufficient to induce him to make a will setting aside his sisters, Mary, on account of her religion, and Elizabeth on the score of illegitimacy,-in favour of Lady Jane Grey,

who was of royal descent, he contrived to have a marriage concluded between that lady and his own son Lord Guildford Dudley, and to strengthen his family connexions by other powerful alliances. The declining health of the king, whose complaint was consumption, excited Northumberland to carry his designs into effect. He succeeded in obtaining supreme control over the king; and, removing his physician, gave him over to the care of an ignorant woman, under whose treatment he languished till he died at Greenwich, 16th July 1553, in the sixteenth year of his age, and seventh of his reign. All historians agree that he was a prince of great promise, being as amiable in his disposition as he was learned and thoughtful beyond his years. His dying prayer was

an expression of his attachment to the faith which had made such rapid progress during his reign: "O Lord God, save thy chosen people of England: 0, my Lord God, defend this nation from papistry, and maintain thy true religion."

In this reign the Act was repealed which gave the force of Acts of Parliament to the King's decree, a step towards the recovery by the House of Commons of that independence which it had almost totally lost under the despotic Henry VIII. Under the mild influence of Edward, a good deal was done, by the institution of hospitals and grammar schools, to repair the evils which had arisen in the country from the breaking up of the old system of things, with which the charities and education of the country had been intimately bound up.

Cotemporary Sovereigns.-France: Francis 1. Henry II.

Scotland: Mary.

Questions.-1. Who was raised to the Protectorate during Edward vi.'s minority; and what steps did he take to advance the Reformation? 2. What was the cause and the object of the war with Scotland in 1547, and how did it end? 3. Give a further account of the progress of Protestantism in this reign. 4. By whom was Somerset succeeded in the Regency; and what was his fate?