year, which in those days would go as far as forty would do now. It appears that a great many of the younger, both monks and nuns, were overjoyed at receiving their liberty.

19. Immense riches were thus thrown into the hands of the government. Some of it, but not much, was used for religious purposes, for founding new bishoprics, colleges, and schools; the greater part the king used in rewarding his friends and courtiers. Thus it is that, even now, many laymen, nobles, and others live in what are still called abbeys and priories. Though there is little doubt that it was for the lasting good of the country that all this took place, it gave Henry and the Reformation a bad name, as being robbers and spoilers, that they kept so much of this great wealth for their own uses.

20. Now too came the end of Becket's shrine and the Canterbury pilgrimages. The king gave forth a proclamation, saying

that he and his council, having looked into the matter, 1538. found that Thomas à Becket, far from being a saint, was a rebel and a traitor. Henceforth no more honour was to be paid to him; no more pilgrims were to kneel at his tomb. The beautiful and costly shrine was broken up. That precious and miraculous jewel which the King of France had bestowed was set in a ring, which Henry wore upon his thumb, and was afterwards placed in a necklace by his daughter Mary.

The king's domestic life.

21. All these wonderful changes have produced lasting effects on the thoughts, characters, and lives of Englishmen. The other events of the reign must be passed over hastily. Everybody knows that Henry VIII. had six wives, and we need not waste time over them. Gossip and scandal are still gossip and scandal, even when they are 300 years old. Two of the six wives were divorced; it was in making the match for one of these, Anne of Cleves, that Cromwell fell into disgrace and lost his head. Two were beheaded one of whom was Anne Boleyn, for whose sake poor Queen Katherine had been set aside, and who was the mother of Queen Elizabeth. One died a natural death while the king was still alive; and the last, after being in some danger now and then, survived him. Yet he had but three children. Of those three not one left a child, and only one was considered by everybody to be legitimate.*

Henry's wives :

1. Katherine of Aragon, divorced. 2. Anne Boleyn, beheaded.

3. Jane Seymour, died a natural death.

4. Anne of Cleves, divorced.
5. Katherine Howard, beheaded.
6. Katherine Parr, survived him.

He had some

22. Henry's latter days were not glorious. unimportant wars both in France and Scotland, which brought neither profit nor renown. After the fall of Cromwell, who was

a staunch Protestant, he fell back under the influence of the Romanist party. He published six articles (1539), containing many of the principal Roman Catholic doctrines, to which every one was bound to conform. But as it was not so easy for reasonable and thinking men to alter their opinions merely because the king had altered his, some more Protestants were 1547. burnt as heretics. Henry died, old before his time, His death. in 1547.

23. With all his faults and inconsistencies, it ought to be remembered that, compared with other countries of Europe, he guided England through a most dangerous and exciting crisis prudently and successfully. In Germany the Reformation was the cause of a most long and terrible war before it could be established in the countries which longed for it. The same was the case in Holland. In France and Spain the tyrannical kings crushed it altogether. In England, as we have seen, it was established almost peaceably, and soon, though not all at once, took firm root in the hearts of the people.

LECTURE XLIII.-THE STRUGGLE OF THE CHURCHES.

Edward VI. Protector Somerset. The Reformation urged forward. Revolt in the west. Revolt in the east. Death of Somerset. Death of Edward. Lady Jane Grey. Mary and Philip. Romanism restored. The Protestant martyrs.

1. At the end of the Wars of the Roses, which had been caused by rival families fighting for the throne, it was hoped that through the marriage of Henry of Lancaster with Elizabeth of York all such difficulties were ended for ever, and that their children and children's children would succeed each other in peace. But all these hopes proved vain; and though there were no more civil wars on these grounds, yet there were great disquiets and disputes, and many terrible deaths of innocent people, caused by the confusion of rival claimants.

of

2. Henry VIII., who was so anxious to have lawful heirs, and had put that forth, indeed, as the excuse for his matrimonial adventures, had really made the confusion greater. The House of Parliament had endeavoured to cut the knot by The children recognizing the claims of all his three children, Henry VIII. though there were doubts about the legitimacy of two of them, the princesses Mary and Elizabeth. Those who believed that Katherine of Aragon had been Henry's lawful wife, and that the divorce made without the Pope's consent was illegal, looked on Anne Boleyn's daughter Elizabeth as illegitimate; those who considered the marriage between Henry and his brother's widow no marriage, and thought the divorce a real one, looked on Katherine's daughter Mary as illegitimate. But parliament had decided that both should be considered as lawful heirs to the crown in due order after their brother.

3. It did not seem very likely that all these three would die childless (though it fell out so in fact), but if they did, the crown was then to go to the descendants of Henry's younger sister. The elder one, who had married the King of Scotland, was set aside; but it was her grandson, who came to

One cannot help

the throne at last. Meanwhile, we have to attend to the reigns of Henry's three children, all of which were very important. The eldest of the three was the Princess Mary, Mary. daughter of Katherine of Aragon. feeling great pity for her; her young days were made very bitter by the undeserved disgrace of her mother. After being looked on as princess royal, and heir to the crown, she had to endure the mortification of being treated as illegitimate, and seeing her mother divorced and sent away from the court, whilst a gay young rival was set up in her place. Moreover, both she and her mother were devoted to the old religion, the Spaniards being always the most fervent of Romanists. And as the fall of Katherine and of Romanism went hand in hand, so the personal and religious feeling went hand in hand in Mary's mind, and she grew up with an intolerable sense of wrong on both grounds. She does not seem to have been either beautiful or clever, and she was self-willed, like all the Tudors; but she was sincere and honest, and at this time more to be pitied than blamed.

Elizabeth.

4. The next daughter, Elizabeth, who at the death of her father was about fourteen, was the child of Anne Boleyn. She had her strong will too, but then she was clever, hearty, and good-looking. She was gay and vain, like her mother, and, moreover, stingy, untruthful, and artful; but she had many fine and strong points of character, and when her turn came to reign she was as much loved as her unfortunate sister was hated. She was brought up a Protestant, and Cranmer was her godfather, but she does not seem to have cared for religion half as much as for politics.

1547. Edward.

5. Next came young Edward, who was now about nine years old, and, whose mother having lived an irreproachable life, and died a natural death, as Henry's wife, was the undisputed heir to the throne. It is rather difficult to find out the truth about the character of those who lived at this period, because their biographers nearly always judged them according to which religious side they took. If they were Protestants, the Protestant writers make them out to be perfect, and like saints and angels, while the Roman Catholic ones can hardly find words had enough for them; and just the contrary if they were on the other side; no one seemed able to judge dispassionately. It is perhaps difficult even for ourselves to do so, as most English people cannot help still feeling strongly about the disputes of that time. None of us care in the least now about the Red or the White Rose, or whether York or

F F

Lancaster gained the victory; but most of us still care a great deal about our Protestant religion, our Bibles and Prayer-books, and should be quite ready to flame up at the idea of the Pope using any authority over our country. This makes the period of the Reformation so interesting.

6. But making all allowances for the partiality of Protestant writers, it is impossible not to see that Edward VI. was really a most remarkable boy, with wonderful intelligence, and a sweet and noble nature. He was described by one of his tutors as "the beautifullest creature that liveth under the sun, the liveliest, the most amiable, and the gentlest thing of all the world; such a spirit of capacity in learning the things taught him by his schoolmasters, that it is a wonder to hear say; and, finally, he hath such a grace of port and gesture in gravity when he cometh into any presence, that it should seem he were already a father, and yet passeth he not the age of ten years." When he was about thirteen years old it is said that he had learnt seven languages, and was thoroughly acquainted with his own, as well as with French and Latin. "Nor was he ignorant of logic, of the principles of natural philosophy, or of music." He also took great interest in affairs of State. One can hardly wonder that a boy who had received such an education, and had such a precocious mind, never lived to grow up. "That child was so educated, possessed such abilities, and caused such expectations that he appeared a miracle."

7. He was also a very religious child, and we are particularly told with what wonderful pleasure he listened to the long sermons which it was the custom of the reforming bishops to preach before him. But if they were all as lively and racy as Bishop Latimer's, this appears less surprising.

Somerset

8. The king being so young, the government was placed in the hands of a council, at the head of which was Edward's uncle, the Duke of Somerset, brother to his mother. This Protector duke was a most decided Protestant, far more decided than Henry VIII. had been, and he and testantism. Archbishop Cranmer pushed on the Reformation most vigorously. The greatest changes they made were these, which had been partly attempted before, but had not been definitely settled :

and Pro

(1) The Church service was to be in English instead of in Latin. (2) Images, crosses, pictures, and the like were no longer to be treated with excessive veneration, and in most cases were destroyed.