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changes in the direction of Protestantism; the other bent on upholding the ancient creed in its integrity. The Act of Supremacy, as far as it had the sympathy of the people, could not fail to shake their reverence for the entire system of which the Papacy had been deemed an essential part, and to incline many to substitute the authority of the Bible for that of the Church; for to the Bible the appeal had been made in the matter of the King's divorce, and the Bible and the constitution of the primitive Church had furnished the grounds for the overthrow of papal supremacy. At the head of the party disposed to Reform, among the bishops, was Cranmer, who had spent some time in Germany, and had married for his second wife a niece of a Lutheran theologian, Osiander. Cranmer is well characterized by Ranke as one of those natures which must have the support of the supreme authority, in order to carry out their own opinions to their consequences; as then they appear enterprising and spirited, so do they become pliant and yielding, when this favor is withdrawn from them; they do not shine by reason of any moral greatness, but they are well adapted to save a cause in difficult circumstances for a more favorable time." Latimer, who became Bishop of Worcester, was made of sterner stuff. Among the other bishops of Protestant tendencies, was Edward Fox, who, at Smalcald, had declared the Pope to be Antichrist. The leader of the Protestant party was Thomas Cromwell, who was made the King's Vicegerent in ecclesiastical affairs, who had conducted the visitation of the monasteries which preceded the destruction of them, and was an adherent of the reformed doctrine. On the other side was Gardiner,

1 Englische Geschichte, i. 204. A severe, not to say harsh, estimate of Cranmer is given by Macaulay, Hist. of England, i. 48; Review of Hallam ( Essays, i. 448). "If," says Hallam, "we weigh the character of this prelate in an equal balance, he will appear far indeed removed from the turpitude imputed to him by his enemies; yet not entitled to any extraordinary veneration." Const. Hist., ch. ii.

Bishop of Winchester, who upheld the King's Supremacy, but was an unbending advocate of the Catholic theology; together with Tunstal of Durham, and other bishops.

The King showed himself, at first, favorable to the Protestant party. The English Bible, which was issued under his authority, and a copy of which was to be placed in every church, had upon the title-page the inscription, issuing from his mouth: "Thy word is a lantern unto my feet."1 In 1536, ten articles were laid before Convocation, adopted by that body, and sent, by the King's order, to all pastors as a guide for their teaching. The Bible and the three ancient creeds were made the standard of doctrine. Salvation is by faith and without human merits. The sacrament of the altar is defined in terins to which Luther would not have objected. The use of images and various other ceremonies, auricular confession, and the invocation of saints, are approved, but cautions are given against abuses connected with these things. The admission that there is a Purgatory is coupled with the denial of any power in the Pope to deliver souls from it, and with the rejection of other superstitions connected with the old doctrine. These articles, unsatisfactory as they were, in many respects, to the Protestants, were still regarded by them as a long step in the right direction. The Catholic party were offended. A majority of the nation still clung to the ancient religion. The suppression and spoliation of the monasteries, which were prized as dispensers of hospitality and sources of pecuniary advantage to the rustic population, had excited much discontent, especially in the North and West, where the Catholics were most numerous. The disaffection, which was heightened by the leaning of the government towards Protestant doctrine, broke out in the rebellion of 1536, which, although it was put down without concessions to the promoters of it, was succeeded by a

1 On the English versions of the Bible, see Anderson, Annals of the Engl Bible (2 vols. 1845).

change in the King's ecclesiastical policy. The Catholic faction gained the ascendency, and, notwithstanding the opposition of Cranmer and his friends, the Six Articles for "abolishing diversity of opinions" in religion, were framed into a law. These decreed transubstantiation, the needlessness of communion in both kinds, the celibacy of the priesthood, the obligation of vows of chastity, the necessity and value of private masses and of auricular confession. Whoever denied transubstantiation was to be burned at the stake as a heretic. Whoever should publicly attack either of the other articles was to suffer death as a felon, without benefit of clergy. Imprisonment, confiscation of goods, and death were threatened to expressions of dissent from the last five of the articles, according to its form and degree. The execution of Anne Boleyn and the marriage of the King to Jane Seymour (1536); and still more, the fall of Cromwell (1540), the great support of the Protestant interest, which followed upon the marriage of Henry to a Protestant princess, Anna of Cleve, and his immediate divorce, increased the strength of the persecuting faction. Those who denied the King's supremacy and those who denied transubstantiation were dragged on the same hurdle to the place of execution. Earnest bishops, as Latimer and Shaxton, were imprisoned in the Tower. Cranmer was protected by his own prudence and the King's favor.2

1 The amount of persecution under the Six Articles is discussed by Maitland, Essays on the Reformation (London, 1846).

2 This is not the place to discuss at length the personal character of Henry VIII. Sir James Mackintosh, after recounting the executions of More and Anne, says: "In these two direful deeds Henry approached, perhaps, as nearly to the ideal standard of perfect wickedness as the infirmities of human nature will allow." History of England, 11. ch. vii. Macaulay pronounces him "a king whose character may be best described by saying, that he was despotism itself personified." (Review of Hallam.) Burnet gives a milder judgment: “I do not deny that he is to be numbered among the ill princes, yet I cannot rank him with the worst." Hist. of the Ref., i. p. i. b. iii. Lord Herbert, after speaking of his willfulness and jealousy, says: "These conditions, again being armed with power, produced such terrible effects as styled him, abroad and at

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The death of Henry put an end to this persecution. He had attempted to establish an Anglican Church which should be neither Protestant nor Roman Catholic, but which should differ from the Roman Catholic system only in the article of the Royal Supremacy. His success was remarkable, and has been ascribed correctly to the extraordinary force of his character, the advantageous position of England with reference to foreign powers, the enormous wealth which the confiscation of the religious houses placed at his disposal, and the support of the neutral, undecided class who embraced neither opinion.1 With the death of Henry, the two parties, as if released from a strong hand, assumed their natural antagonism. The government could maintain its independence of the Papacy only by obtaining the support of the Protestants. Henry, with the assent of Parliament, had determined the order of the succession, giving precedence to Edward, his son by Jane Seymour, over the two princesses, Mary, the daughter of Catharine, and Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne Boleyn. Edward VI. was less than ten years old at his accession in 1547; but as an example of intellectual precocity he has seldom, if ever, been surpassed. He was firmly attached to the Protestant faith. A Regency was established, in which Somerset, the King's uncle, was chief, and at the head of a Protestant majority. The Six Articles were repealed. It was the period of the

home, by the name of cruel; which also hardly can be avoided." Life and Reign of Henry VIII., p. 572. Mr. Froude, in his History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, has presented a brilliant apology for Henry VIII. But he fails to offer any adequate defense of the execution of More and of Fisher, an act of cruelty that at the time was reprobated everywhere; and still less for the destruction of Cromwell, whom Froude, whether justly or not, praises up to the very foot of the scaffold. Even if Anne Boleyn be supposed to be guilty of the charges brought against her, there was a brutality in the circumstances of her imprisonment and execution, and in the marriage with Jane Seymour the very next day, which it is impossible to excuse. The contemporaries of Henry were right in distinguishing the earlier from the latter portion of his reign. After the fall of Wolsey, he became more and more willful, suspicious, and cruel.

1 Macaulay, History of England, i. 46.

Smalcaldic war and of the Interim in Germany, and the hands of Cranmer and Ridley were strengthened by theologians from the continent. Peter Martyr and Ochino were made professors at Oxford in 1547, and Martin Bucer and Paul Fagius were called to Cambridge in 1549. The "Book of Homilies" appeared in 1547-expositions of Christian doctrine which were to be read by the clergy in their churches every Sunday. Communion had been ordered to be administered in both kinds. Transubstantiation was now formally abandoned; the second principal step, after the declaration of the Royal Supremacy, in the progress of the English Reformation. These changes gave rise to a new "Order of Communion;" but the latter was superseded, in 1548, by the "Book of Common Prayer," which was revised in 1552, when the use of consecrated oil, prayers for the dead, and auricular confession, were abolished. In 1552, the Articles were framed, at first forty-two in number. Thus the Anglican Church obtained a definite constitution and a ritual. Able and zealous preachers, among whom were Matthew Parker, Latimer, and John Knox, made many converts to the Protestant doctrine. The progress of innovation, however, was somewhat too rapid for the general sense of the nation. The spoliation of Church property for the profit of individuals, in which Somerset was conspicuous, gave just offense. Anxious to carry out the plan of Henry VIII., for the marriage of the young Queen Mary of Scotland to Edward, and desirous of uniting the two countries in one great Protestant power, Somerset invaded Scotland; but, though his arms were successful, the antipathy of the Scots to the domination of the English was too strong to be overcome; and Mary was taken to France, there to be married to the Dauphin. A Catholic rebellion in Cornwall and Devonshire was suppressed; but the opposition to Somerset on various grounds, which was led by the Duke of Northumberland, finally brought