bishop of York, and afterwards by Stokesly, bishop of London, for preaching against the Romish religion; especially the invocation of saints, and the worshipping of images. He afterwards withdrew to the Continent, and lived for eight years in Germany, avoiding the persecutions to which persons holding his sentiments were subjected in the latter years of King Henry's reign. On the accession of Edward, he returned to England, and after residing there for some time, was promoted, by the king's own choice, to the bishopric in Ireland.

Immediately after his consecration, Bishop Bale betook himself to Kilkenny, the place of his cathedral church, and his episcopal residence; and engaged in preaching the Gospel, in which practice he constantly persevered, notwithstanding the opposition and contradiction which assailed him from the greater part of his prebendaries, and from the advocates of the papacy in general. For as yet the principles and practices of the Reformation appear to have taken very faint hold of the minds of the people here; and even where the provisions of the English liturgy were avowedly adopted, they were corrupted by an intermixture of Romish super

stitions. The Holy Communion of the Lord's Supper was accompanied with various unprofitable and vain ceremonies, such as "bowings and beckings, kneelings and knockings, the Lord's death, after St. Paul's doctrine, neither preached nor yet spoken of:" and the dead were bewailed with "prodigious howlings and patterings," as if the redemption by Christ's passion were not sufficient to procure quiet for the souls of the deceased, and to deliver them out of hell without these "sorrowful sorceries." These and many other superstitious usages of those times, Bishop Bale censures in no very measured terms.

Of his own preaching he gives the following account:- "I earnestly exhorted the people to repentance for sin, and required them to give credit. to the Gospel of salvation; to acknowledge and believe, that there was but one God; and Him alone, without any other, sincerely to worship: to confess one Christ for an only Saviour and Redeemer, and to trust in none other man's prayers, merits, nor yet deservings, but in His alone for salvation. I treated at large both of the heavenly and political state of the Christian Church, and

helpers I found none among my prebendaries and clergy, but adversaries a great number." He told them also "that their prayers for the dead procured no redemption to the souls departed; redemption of souls being only in Christ, of Christ, and by Christ;" adding "that the priest's office, by Christ's straight commandment, was chiefly to preach and instruct the people in the doctrine and ways of God, and not to occupy so much of the time in chanting, piping, and singing." And further, he used every exertion to have the Book of Common Prayer introduced into the churches of his diocese, but found to his great vexation that the opposition of his clergy rendered these endeavours unsuccessful.

However, unassisted as he was by those whose co-operation he might have looked for, he exerted himself so far as an individual could, in promoting the great work on which his heart was set; and continued diligently discharging his pastoral duties, and preaching continually in his cathedral of Kilkenny, until after midsummer; "quietly setting forth Christ and salvation by Him alone, to his people," and labouring to withdraw them from the old superstitions. But the period of his labours

was short; for he had scarcely occupied his place six months when the king died, and the work of reformation was altogether suspended for a time during the reign of his successor.

to To sum up briefly the most important features of the reign of Edward VI., so far as our Church was concerned, we may see that they were chiefly these the establishment of the king's supremacy, displayed particularly in his appointment of bishops irrespectively of the pope's authority; the advancement of the work of reformation in the Church, by selecting judicious and suitable persons for the episcopal office; and the introduction of the English liturgy into the churches of Ireland; which latter arrangement at once exhibited the progress already made in the work of reforming religion, and the principles on which that reform was conducted, and at the same time tended to confirm the improvements made by recommending them thus to the judgment of all well-disposed, sensible, and pious Christians.

§ 27. THE WORK OF REFORMATION CHECKED FOR A TIME BY QUEEN MARY'S ACCESSION.

On the death of King Edward VI. his sister Mary came to the throne. Most of my readers have probably heard something of her cruel persecution of those who embraced the reformed doctrines, and how in her reign, by the instigation of the followers of the bishop of Rome, and by her authority, many good and pious persons were put to death in England for their religion; and how in particular the venerable bishops Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, who had done most to reform the state of religion there, were for this offence burned alive at Oxford.

But in Ireland, by the great mercy of God, the effects of her reign were not quite so disastrous; for although provision was made in the instructions given to her viceroy in this country, and also in parliamentary enactments, for the persecution, imprisonment, and burning of heretics here, yet those heretics, as the professors of the reformed religion were called, were not made the subjects of public and general persecution to the extent to which