comprehensive denunciation was directed with especial vehemence against all who in any way injured or troubled the state of holy church, by withdrawing offerings, tithes, rents, or other ecclesiastical dues-by violating the rights of sanctuary-by calling in the aid of the civil power in matters appertaining to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction-by retaining possession of houses, manors, or other property belonging to the church-or in any one of various other ways that were specified. The king's order to the bishops was to leave out in the General Sentence all such articles as tended to the glory and advancement of the Bishop of Rome; but the effect, as has been mentioned, was to cause the Curse to be soon laid aside altogether. As yet, however, with the exception only of the single doctrine, if it could be so called, of the Papal supremacy, no alteration was made in any part of the ancient national profession of faith. This very year, on the petition of the convocation, Henry issued a strict proclamation against the importation and possession of what were called heretical books. Among these, according to a list published a few years before, were Tyndal's New Testament, and the various treatises of Luther, Huss, Zwingle, and the other continental Reformers. In this and subsequent years many persons even suffered at the stake for the offence of importing and dispersing such books. The friars, it is well known, early drew upon themselves the determined hostility of the king by their almost universal opposition to him, and advocacy of the cause of Catherine, in the affair of the divorce. But the best handle which they gave him for the execution of his designs for their destruction, arose out of the business of the Holy Maid of Kent, of whose prophecies their zeal and credulity made them very generally either the dupes, or at least the pretended believers and upholders.' The Nun of Kent and her confederates, or rather those who made use of her as their instrument, were put to death in 1534. At this time, under the ascendency of Cranmer and Cromwell, and the still unimpaired influence of his young and beautiful queen Anne, Henry showed perhaps more of an inclination towards Protestantism than at any other period of his life. Some notion of the mixed religion patronized at this date by the authorities in England may be gathered from a work entitled King Henry's Primer; a second edition of which appeared, in a quarto volume, in 1535, put forth professedly by Dr. Marshal, archdeacon of Nottingham. It consisted of a collection of tracts on the different parts of Divine worship, most of which seem to have been published before at different times, but were now revised and accompanied by pre fatory admonitions in the spirit of the prevailing system. On the whole, the work inculcated, though covertly, a sort of half Protestantism. In an exposition of the Ten Commandments, with which it commenced, what we call the second commandment was, after the common Popish fashion, treated as part of the first, but in others of the pieces the Protestant distinction between the two was recognized. The topic of the unwarrantableness of the worship of the Virgin and the saints is pressed with little reserve. In one place, indeed, the writer ventures to point out the great danger of falling into idolatry by the practice of such worship, and comes to this bold conclusion: "That it was not meet, comely, nor fitting, that in our prayers we should make a god or saviour of any saint in heaven; no, not of our blessed Lady." Still, however, the Litany, although given in English, and prefaced by an argument against praying to saints, was left with all the old addresses to the Virgin, to the angels, to the twelve apostles, the martyrs, confessors, and virgins, calling upon them for their intercession in behalf of the worshipper. The Matins, Even Song, and Seven Penitential Psalms, were all likewise given in English. In a Devout and Fruitful Remembrance of Christ's Passion, an attack was made upon the superstition of thinking that any benefits could accrue from carrying about the person images, painted papers, or carvel crosses, designed, as was pretended, to be helps towards beholding the passion of Christ—that by such means, for instance, safety could be secured from fire, water, or any other peril. Perhaps, however, the most daring instance of speaking out occurs in the admonition prefixed to the Dirige, popularly called the Dirge, which was the office that used to be said for the souls of the dead. There is no alteration in the old form, except that the words are translated into English, but in the prefatory observations the writer says "Among other works of darkness and deep ignorance, wherein we have blindly wandered, following a sort of blind guides many days and years, I account this not one of the least, that we have rung and sung, mumbled, murmured, and piteously puled forth a certain sort of psalms, with responds, versicles, and lessons to the same, for the souls of our Christian brethren and sisters departed out of this world." "There is nothing," it is added, "in the Dirige, taken out of the Scripture, that makes any more mention of the souls departed, than doth the tale of Robin Hood.” In his present circumstances, threatened as he was with the vengeance of the emperor for his treatment of Catherine, the friendship of the Protestant princes of Germany was of the greatest importance to Henry; and he never, before or after, went so far in the direction of the new opinions in religion as he now did in his endea- | proctors of the lower house, and were finally convours to secure that object. After some prelim-firmed by the king, and published, with a preface inary negotiation, in the beginning of the year in his name. 1536, the Elector of Saxony and the other chiefs of the Lutheran confederacy presented their proposals to him in a "petition and request," consisting of fourteen articles, his answer to which, printed by Burnet in his supplement, from the original in the State Paper Office, exhibits him to us in the most Protestant character he ever assumed. "This negotiation," says Burnet, "sunk to a great degree upon Queen Anne's tragical fall; and as the king thought they were no more necessary to him, so they saw his intractable humour, and had no hope of succeeding with him unless they would have allowed him a dictatorship in matters of religion." In another place the same historian admits, in substance, that Henry now arrogated to himself, in matters of religion, an infallibility and authority as absolute as had ever been claimed by the most imperious or intolerant of the popes. He thought all persons were bound to regulate their belief by his dictates. In the convocation which met in June this year, and in which Cromwell occupied the chief seat as the king's vicegerent, a great deal of debate took place touching the new opinions in religion. Sixty-seven of these opinions, embracing the principal tenets of the old Lollards and Wyckliffites, of the Lutherans and other Protestant Reformers of the day, and of the fanatical Anabaptists, were complained of by the lower house as prevalent errors that demanded correction. The representation also noticed many extravagant and indecorous expressions, and irreverent jests touching confession, praying to saints, holy water, and the other ceremonies of the church, and called for their suppression, not without some oblique reflections on Cranmer and his few brethren on the bench of the same way of thinking with himself, as having neglected their duty in not putting down such abuses. Cromwell, however, still had influence enough with Henry to obtain from him a declaration rebuking, at least by implication, this officious zeal of the clergy, and rather intimating a favourable disposition towards some of the denounced opinions. It was stated to be the king's pleasure that the rites and ceremonies of the church should be reformed by the rules of Scripture, and that nothing should be maintained which did not rest on that authority. Afterwards many of the doctrinal points in dispute between the two parties were discussed at great length. In the end certain articles were agreed upon, which, after being in several places corrected and tempered by the king's own hand, were signed by Cromwell, Cranmer, and seventeen other bishops, forty abbots and priors, and fifty archdeacons and The articles began with a distinct admission of the great Protestant principle of the supremacy of the Bible, qualified only by the addition-to which few Protestants would then object--that the three ancient creeds, that of the Apostles, the Nicene, and the Athanasian, should be held to be of equal authority with the Scriptures. When particular controverted matters, however, came to be spoken of, the language employed was not always so explicit and decisive, or at least was not always perfectly consistent with this introductory announcement. In regard to baptism the opinions of the Anabaptists and Pelagians were declared to be detestable heresies. Concerning penance it was affirmed that it was instituted by Christ, and was absolutely necessary to salvation that it consisted of contrition, confession, and amendment of life, with exterior works of charity-that confession to a priest is necessary, if it may be had-that his absolution is spoken by an authority given to him by Christ in the gospel, and must be believed as if it were spoken by God himself-that therefore none were to condemn auricular confession, but to use it for the comfort of their consciences. In the article touching the sacrament of the altar the dogma of transubstantiation was laid down in the most unqualified terms. In another article the necessity of good works to salvation was distinctly asserted, and so far there was a rejection of the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith alone; but, on the other hand, it was conceded that a sinner will not be justified by God for the merit or worthiness of any good work he may have done; and it was noted with especial prominence and emphasis that the good works necessary to salvation were not only external acts, but the inward motions and graces of God's Holy Spirit. The same struggle and intermixture of opposite opinions is to be discerned in what is said on the subject of images; here, again, the old practice being retained, but guarded, and in some degree corrected and checked, by the modern principle. As for the estimation in which the saints were to be held, it was laid down, with the like ingenious indentation and dovetailing of the two classes of opinion, first, that people were not to think to obtain those things at the hands of the saints which were to be obtained only of God; secondly, nevertheless, that it was good to pray to them to pray with and for us; and thirdly, that all the days appointed by the church for the memories of the saints were to be kept, but yet that the king might at any time lessen the number of the said days, and must be obeyed if he did so. Another article sanctioned as good and laudable, and as having mystical significations in | noster, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments them, as well as being useful to lift up the mind in their mother tongue. to God, all the old customary ceremonies of religious worship-the vestments of the priest, the | sprinkling of holy water, the distribution of holy bread, the bearing of candles on Candlemas Day, the giving of ashes on Ash Wednesday, the bearing of palms on Palm Sunday, the creeping to the Cross on Good Friday, the hallowing the font, and other exorcisms and benedictions. The last of the articles related to the much controverted questions of purgatory and prayers for the dead; and here, on the whole, the Protestant notions must be considered to have prevailed, although there was still something of the usual balancing and compounding together of adverse if not absolutely contradictory views and statements. In the following year, 1537, the war of refor mation began to be carried on by Cromwell and his associates after a new fashion, by the destruction of images, relics, and shrines, which had long been the objects of popular veneration—a measure which was rather facilitated than originally provoked by the discoveries that were made in the course of the visitation of the monasteries now commenced. One of the orders given to the visitors was to make a minute examination of all the relics and images in any of these houses to which pilgrimages were wont to be made. “In this," says Burnet, "Dr. London did great service. From Reading he writes that the chief relics of idolatry in the nation were there--an angel with one wing, that brought over the spear's head that pierced our Saviour's side. To which he adds a long inventory of their other relics, and says there were as many more as would fill four sheets of paper. He also writes from other This mongrel religion, neither Romanism nor Protestantism, but an irregular patchwork or uncemented jumble of both, could not be expected, after it was manufactured and produced, to be perfectly acceptable to any part of the na-places that he had everywhere taken down their tion.' As soon as it was published, Burnet tells us it "occasioned a great variety of censures;" that is, of expressions of opinion respecting it. On the whole, however, it was generally regarded as a decided advance in a Protestant direction. images and trinkets." Some of the images were brought to London, and, for the purpose of exposing the juggling impostures of the monks, were broken up at St. Paul's Cross in the sight of all the people. The rich shrines of our Lady of Walsingham, of Ipswich, of Islington, and many others, were now brought to London, and burned by order of Cromwell. which Cromwell issued to the clergy in 1538. The publication of the articles was immediately followed by a royal proclamation, abolishing, in conformity with the authority given by one of them, a considerable number of holidays, includ- The abolition of images and pilgrimages occuing most of those in the harvest season-a mea-pied a principal place in a new set of instructions sure of policy which, however calculated to be ultimately beneficial, was, perhaps, not very wise in the temper of the popular mind at the moment, and is admitted to have had as great an effect as any of the sudden innovations that were now made, in provoking the Pilgrimage of Grace and the other serious insurrectionary movements that took place in the close of this year. A set of injunctions to the clergy was also issued by Cromwell as vicegerent in the king's name, "which," says Burnet, was the first act of pure supremacy done by the king; for in all that went before he had the concurrence of the two convocations." The injunctions, which are supposed to have been penned by Cranmer, after exhorting the clergy to see, as far as in them lay, to the observance of the new articles, and of the laws and statutes made for the extirpation of the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome, directed that all children and servants should be taught from their infancy to repeat and understand their Pater "It is yet but a mingle-mangle, a hotch-potch," said Latiner, of the Reformation, in one of his sermons; "I cannot tell what; partly Popery, and partly true religion mingled together. They say in my country, when they call their hogs to the swine At this point, however, the state of matters "began to turn." The sequel of Henry's course, in regard to doctrinal changes, was, with the exception perhaps of some momentary starts of caprice or passion, rather a going back than a going forward. Although he had thrown off the authority of the Roman pontiff, indeed, he had no notion that the English church should be left without a pope; his objection was not to the thing but to the person; and his main object in displacing the Bishop of Roine evidently was. that, in so far at least as the religion of his own subjects was concerned, he might mount the same seat of absolute authority himself. The ancient head of the Roman church never put forward greater pretensions to infallibility than were, if not distinctly advanced in words, vet constantly acted upon by the new head of the English church in his narrower empire of spiritual despotism. The Catholics, seeing they could do no better in the state to which matters had been brought, were now contented even to affect a satisfaction with the changes that had been al trough, 'Come to thy mingle-mangle-come, pur, come! Even ready made, in the hope of thereby preventing o do they make a mingle-mangle of the gospel." further innovations. After the trial and con demnation of Lambert, the Sacramentary, in November, 1538, in which Henry took personally so conspicuous a part, "the party that opposed the Reformation," says Burnet, "persuaded the king that he had got so much reputation to himself by it, that it would effectually refute all aspersions which had been cast on him as if he intended to change the faith: neither did they forget to set on him in his weak side, and magnify all that he had said, as if the oracle had uttered it, by which they said it appeared he was indeed a defender of the faith, and the supreme head of the church." In this spirit he now issued a long proclamation, prohibiting generally the importing of all English books printed abroad, and also the printing of any books at home without license, any part of the Scripture not excepted, till it had been examined and approved by the king and his council, or by the bishop of the diocese; condemning all the books of the Anabaptists and Sacramentaries, or deniers of the corporal presence of Christ in the eucharist, and denouncing punishment against all who should sell or otherwise publish them; forbidding all persons to argue against the doctrine of the real presence under pain of death and the loss of their goods; declaring that all should be punished who eschewed or neglected any rites or ceremonies not yet abolished; and ordering that all married priests should immediately be deprived, and those that should afterwards marry imprisoned or otherwise further punished at the king's pleasure. Cranmer's interest at court was now, from various causes, greatly diminished. His chief friend and ablest supporter on the episcopal bench, Fox, Bishop of Hereford, had died in May of this year; and "for the other bishops that adhered to Cranmer," says Burnet, "they were rather clogs than helps to him." The only ally Cranmer had at court upon whom he could place any reliance was Cromwell, and he had enough to do to take care of himself; for, as the right reverend historian remarks, "there was not a queen now in the king's bosom to favour their motions." Cromwell conceived the scheme of recovering his interest by bringing over Anne of Cleves. How disastrous this project proved in the issue to its contriver has been already related. But even before Henry's new marriage Cromwell's influence had been greatly weakened by the growing ascendency of the able and crafty Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, who at this moment professed himself precisely as much a Reformer and as much a follower of the old faith as his royal master, and in that way was easily enabled to guide Henry's course more and more back towards the latter, without suffering him to feel that he was either driven or drawn. In 1539 was passed by the parliament the famous act for abolishing diversity in opinions (31 Henry VIII. c. 14), popularly called the Statute of the Six Articles, or the Bloody Statute, confirming the resolutions which had already been carried in the convocation in favour of transubstantiation, against communion in both kinds, against the marriage of priests, and in favour of vows of chastity, of private masses, and of auricular confession. The prime instigator of this new law was undoubtedly the Bishop of Winchester, now the king's chief counsellor. The six articles of the Bloody Statute remained the established rule of faith of the English church, upon the several points to which they related, for the rest of Henry's reign. At this point, therefore, the history of the changes in the national religion made by Henry comes to a close, in so far as it forms a continuous narrative; but there are still a few scattered incidents in the history of the church, and of the regulation of doctrine and worship during the last years of his reign, that require a short notice. Some injunctions issued by Bonner to his clergy of the diocese of London, in 1542—which Burnet thinks "have a strain in them so far different from the rest of his life, that it is more probable they were drawn by another pen, and imposed on Bonner by an order of the king"contain a few things worthy of notice. Among the duties imposed upon all parsons, vicars, curates, and other parish priests, one is, that they read over and diligently study, every day, one chapter of the Bible, with the ordinary gloss, or that of some other approved doctor or expositor; another is, that they shall instruct, teach, and bring up in learning, in the best way that they can, all such children of their parishioners as shall come to them for that purpose—at least teaching them to read English-for which they were to be moderately paid by such as could afford it. Some of the paragraphs that follow are illustrative of the manners of the time. It is spoken of as "a detestable and abominable practice, universally reigning," that young people and others were accustomed on Sundays and holidays, during the time of Divine service, to resort to alehouses, and there exercise unlawful games, with great swearing, blasphemy, drunkenness, and other enormities. It was even thought necessary to warn the clergy themselves that they should not in future use any unlawful games, or resort frequently to alehouses, taverns, or other places of evil repute, or haunted by light company; and they were also forbidden to array themselves in unseemly and unpriestly habits or apparel, or to have unlawful tonsures, or to carry armour and weapons about with them. Another injunction forbids any manner of common plays, games, or interludes to be played, set forth, or declared, within churches or chapels. This was a singular practice, which, in the shape and spirit at least in which it now prevailed, had come in with the Reformation. The old miracleplays, indeed, seem to have originated with the clergy, and were frequently exhibited in the monasteries, and perhaps also in the churches; but these were, in the main, serious and solemn performances, and were designed to excite the reverential and devotional feelings of the spectators, which were not at all disturbed even by the rude jocularity or buffoonery, a good deal of which was usually mixed up with the representation. But the plays and interludes now acted in churches were expressly intended to turn things that had heretofore been held sacred into ridicule. Burnet tells us that, although the clergy complained of them as an introduction to atheism and all sorts of impiety, and the more grave and learned Reformers disliked and condemned them as unsuitable to the genius of true religion, yet "the political men of that party made great use of them, encouraging them all they could; for, they said, contempt being the most operative and lasting affection of the mind, nothing would more effectually drive out many of those abuses which yet remained, than to expose them to the contempt and scorn of the people." These indecent exhibitions at length attracted the attention of the government, and in 1543 an act of parliament (stat. 34 and 35, c. 1, entitled, "An Act for the advancement of True Religion, and for the abolishment of the contrary") was passed for putting them down, along with divers other abuses, or conceived abuses, which had sprung up in the fertile hot-bed of the licentious time. For reformation of these evils the act proceeds to prohibit "all manner of books of the Old and New Testament in English, being of the crafty, false, and untrue translation of Tyndal, and all other books and writings in the English tongue teaching or comprising any matters of Christian religion, articles of the faith, or Holy Scripture, or any part of them," contrary to the doctrine set forth by the king since the year 1540. Another proviso is amusing: free liberty to use any part of the Bible or Holy Scripture as they have been wont, so always it be not contrary to the doctrine of 1540, is continued to the chancellor of England, to captains of the wars, justices of peace, and others, "which heretofore have been accustomed to declare or teach any good, virtuous, or godly exhortations in any assemblies." But the most important part of this law was the new regulations with regard to the reading of the Scriptures. Not only was it forbidden to any person not having the license of the king or the ordinary to read the English Bible aloud in any church or open assembly, under the penalty of a month's imprisonment, but great restrictions were laid even upon the private reading of it. Any nobleman or gentleman, being a householder, was still permitted "to read, or cause to be read by any of his family or servants, in his house, orchard, or garden, and to his own family, any text of the Bible or New Testament, so the same be done quietly and without disturbance of good order;" and any merchant, "being a householder, and occupying the seat of merchandise,” might read to himself privately in the sacred volume. But that privilege was withdrawn from all women, artificers, apprentices, journeymen, serving-men of the degree of yeomen or under, husbandmen, and labourers; and noblewomen and gentlewomen were only allowed to read to themselves alone, and not to others. In 1537 had come out, under the title of The Godly and Pious Institution of a Christian Man, the first edition of an explanation of all the leading doctrines of the church, compiled by a body of bishops and other divines commissioned for that purpose by the king, whence it popularly received the name of the Bishops' Book. A second edition of this work, revised and put into a new form under the direction of another commission, appeared in 1540, the title now given to it being The Necessary Doctrine and Erudition of a Christian Man. In this authoritative compendium there was certainly, on the whole, much less of Protestantism than of the ancient faith. A third edition of the book, with many alterations and additions by another commission, came out in 1543, introduced by a prefatory epistle from Henry himself, whence it now came to be called The King's Book. The most remarkable passage in this epistle related to the reading of the Scriptures, which it was admitted was necessary for those whose office it was to teach others; "but for the other part of the church," continues the king, "ordained to be taught, it ought to be deemed certainly that the reading of the Old and New Testament is not so necessary for all those folks, that of duty they ought and be bound to read it, but as the prince and the policy of the realm shall think convenient so to be tolerated or taken from it." It is difficult to understand what Burnet means by describing the act of 1543 as one that freed the people from the fears in which they were before on the subject of religion, inasmuch as it delivered the laity from the hazard of burning. By one of the clauses of this new act, which, throughout, is one of restriction and abridgment of former liberties, it is expressly declared that the bloody statute of the Six Articles shall still continue in the same force, strength, and effect |