The malecontent counsellors found the disposition of the nation favorable to their designs. The nobility and gentry were in general displeased with the preference which Somerset seemed to have given to the people; and as they ascribed all the insults to which they had been lately exposed to his procrastination, and to the countenance shown to the multitude, they apprehended a renewal of the same disorders from his present affectation of popularity. He had erected a court of requests in his own house for the relief of the people,[*] and he interposed with the judges in their behalf; a measure which might be deemed illegal, if any exertion of prerogative at that time could with certainty deserve that appellation. And this attempt, which was a stretch of power, seemed the more impolitic, because it disgusted the nobles, the surest support of monarchical authority.

But though Somerset courted the people, the interest which he had formed with them was in no degree answerable to his expectations. The Catholic party who retained influence with the lower ranks, were his declared enemies, and took advantage of every opportunity to decry his conduct. The attainder and execution of his brother bore an odious aspect: the introduction of foreign troops into the kingdom was represented in invidious colors: the great estate which he had suddenly acquired at the expense of the church and of the crown, rendered him obnoxious; and the palace which he was building in the Strand, served by its magnificence, and still more by other circumstances which attended it, to expose him to the censure of the public. The parish church of St. Mary, with three bishops’ houses, was pulled down, in order to furnish ground and materials for this structure: not content with that sacrilege, an attempt was made to demolish St. Margaret’s Westminster, and to employ the stones to the same purpose but the parishioners rose in a tumult, and chased away the protector’s tradesmen. He then laid his hands on a chapel in St. Paul’s churchyard, with a cloister and charnel-house belonging to it; and these edifices, together with a church of St. John of Jerusalem, were made use of to raise his palace. What rendered the matter more odious to the people was, that the tombs and other monuments of the dead wore defaced; and the bones, being carried away, were buried in unconsecrated ground.[*]

All these imprudences were remarked by Somerset’s enemies, who resolved to take advantage of them. Lord St. John president of the council, the earls of Warwick, Southampton and Arundel, with five members more, met at Ely House and, assuming to themselves the whole power of the council, began to act independently of the protector, whom they represented as the author of every public grievance and misfortune. They wrote letters to the chief nobility and gentry in England, informing them of the present measures, and requiring their assistance: they sent for the mayor and aldermen of London, and enjoined them to obey their orders, without regard to any contrary orders which they might receive from the duke of Somerset. They laid the same injunctions on the lieutenant of the Tower, who expressed his resolution to comply with them. Next day, Rich, lord chancellor, the marquis of Northampton, the earl of Shrewsbury, Sir Thomas Cheney, Sir John Gage, Sir Ralph Sadler, and Chief Justice Montague, joined the malecontent counsellors; and every thing bore a bad aspect for the protector’s authority. Secretary Petre, whom he had sent to treat with the council, rather chose to remain with them: the common council of the city, being applied to, declared with one voice their approbation of the new measures, and their resolution of supporting them.[**]

As soon as the protector heard of the defection of the counsellors, he removed the king from Hampton Court, where he then resided, to the Castle of Windsor; and arming his friends and servants, seemed resolute to defend himself against all his enemies. But finding that no man of rank, except Cranmer and Paget, adhered to him, that the people did not rise at his summons, that the city and Tower had declared against him, that even his best friends had deserted him, he lost all hopes of success, and began to apply to his enemies for pardon and forgiveness. No sooner was this despondency known, than Lord Russell, Sir John Baker, speaker of the house of commons, and three counsellors more, who had hitherto remained neuters, joined the party of Warwick, whom every one now regarded as master. The council informed the public, by proclamation, of their actions and intentions; they wrote to the princesses Mary and Elizabeth to the same purpose; and they made addresses to the king, in which, after the humblest protestations of duty and submission, they informed him that they were the council appointed by his father for the government of the kingdom during his minority; that they had chosen the duke of Somerset protector, under the express condition that he should guide himself by their advice and direction; that he had usurped the whole authority, and had neglected, and even in every thing opposed, their counsel; that he had proceeded to that height of presumption, as to levy forces against them and place these forces about his majesty’s person: they therefore begged that they might be admitted to his royal presence, that he would be pleased to restore them to his confidence, and that Somerset’s servants might be dismissed. Their request was complied with: Somerset capitulated only for gentle treatment, which was promised him. He was, however, sent to the Tower,[*] with some of his friends and partisans, among whom was Cecil, afterwards so much distinguished. Articles of indictment were exhibited against him;[**] of which the chief, at least the best founded, is his usurpation of the government, and his taking into his own hands the whole administration of affairs. The clause of his patent, which invested him with absolute power, unlimited by any law, was never objected to him; plainly because, according to the sentiments of those times, that power was in some degree involved in the very idea of regal authority.

The Catholics were extremely elated with this revolution; and as they had ascribed all the late innovations to Somerset’s authority, they hoped that his fall would prepare the way for the return of the ancient religion. But Warwick, who now bore chief sway in the council, was entirely indifferent with regard to all these points of controversy; and finding that the principles of the reformation had sunk deeper into Edward’s mind than to be easily eradicated, he was determined to comply with the young prince’s inclinations, and not to hazard his new-acquired power by any dangerous enterprise. He took care very early to express his intentions of supporting the reformation; and he threw such discouragements on Southampton, who stood at the head of the Romanists, and whom he considered as a dangerous rival, that that high-spirited nobleman retired from the council, and soon after died from vexation and disappointment. The other counsellors, who had concurred in the revolution, received their reward by promotions and new honors. Russel was created earl of Bedford: the marquis of Northampton obtained the office of great chamberlain; and Lord Wentworth, besides the office of chamberlain of the household, got two large manors, Stepney and Hackney, which were torn from the see of London.[*] A council of regency was formed; not that which Henry’s will had appointed for the government of the kingdom, and which, being founded on an act of parliament, was the only legal one, but composed chiefly of members who had formerly been appointed by Somerset, and who derived their seat from an authority which was now declared usurped and illegal. But such niceties were, during that age, little understood, and still less regarded, in England.

A session of parliament was held; and as it was the usual maxim of that assembly to acquiesce in every administration which was established, the council dreaded no opposition from that quarter, and had more reason to look for a corroboration of their authority. Somerset had been prevailed on to confess, on his knees, before the council, all the articles of charge against him; and he imputed these misdemeanors to his own rashness, folly, and indiscretion, not to any malignity of intention.[**] He even subscribed this confession; and the paper was given in to parliament, who, after sending a committee to examine him, and hear him acknowledge it to be genuine, passed a vote, by which they deprived him of all his offices, and fined him two thousand pounds a year in land. Lord St. John was created treasurer in his place, and Warwick earl marshal. The prosecution against him was carried no further. His fine was remitted by the king: he recovered his liberty: and Warwick, thinking that he was now sufficiently humbled, and that his authority was much lessened by his late tame and abject behavior, readmitted him into the council, and even agreed to an alliance between their families, by the marriage of his own son, Lord Dudley, with the Lady Jane Seymour, daughter of Somerset.[***]

During this session, a severe law was passed against riots.[*] It was enacted, that if any, to the number of twelve persons, should meet together for any matter of state, and being required by a lawful magistrate, should not disperse, it should be treason; and if any broke hedges, or violently pulled up pales about enclosures, without lawful authority, it should be felony: any attempt to kill a privy counsellor was subjected to the same penalty. The bishops had made an application, complaining that they were deprived of all their power by the encroachments of the civil courts, and the present suspension of the canon law; that they could summon no offender before them, punish no vice, or exert the discipline of the church; from which diminution of their authority, they pretended, immorality had every where received great encouragement and increase. The design of some was to revive the penitentiary rules of the primitive church; but others thought, that such an authority committed to the bishops would prove more oppressive than confession, penance, and all the clerical inventions of the Romish superstition. The parliament, for the present, contented themselves with empowering the king to appoint thirty-two commissioners to compile a body of canon laws, which were to be valid, though never ratified by parliament. Such implicit trust did they repose in the crown, without reflecting that all their liberties and properties might be affected by these canons.[**] The king did not live to affix the royal sanction to the new canons. Sir John Sharington, whose crimes and malversations had appeared so egregious at the condemnation of Lord Seymour, obtained from parliament a reversal of his attainder. This man sought favor with the more zealous reformers; and Bishop Latimer affirmed that, though formerly he had been a most notorious knave, he was now so penitent that he had become a very honest man.

1550.

When Warwick and the council of regency began to exercise their power, they found themselves involved in the same difficulties that had embarrassed the protector. The wars with France and Scotland could not be supported by an exhausted exchequer; seemed dangerous to a divided nation; and were now acknowledged not to have any object which even the greatest and most uninterrupted success could attain. The project of peace entertained by Somerset had served them as a pretence for clamor against his administration; yet, after sending Sir Thomas Cheney to the emperor, and making again a fruitless effort to engage him in the protection of Boulogne, they found themselves obliged to listen to the advances which Henry made them, by the canal of Guidotti, a Florentine merchant. The earl of Bedford, Sir John Mason, Paget, and Petre, were sent over to Boulogne, with full powers to negotiate. The French king absolutely refused to pay the two millions of crowns, which his predecessor had acknowledged to be due to the crown of England as arrears of pensions; and said, that he never would consent to render himself tributary to any prince: but he offered a sum for the immediate restitution of Boulogne; and four hundred thousand crowns were at last agreed on, one half to be paid immediately, the other in August following. Six hostages were given for the performance of this article. Scotland was comprehended in the treaty: the English stipulated to restore Lauder and Dunglas, and to demolish the fortresses of Roxburgh and Eymouth.[*] No sooner was peace concluded with France, than a project was entertained of a close alliance with that kingdom; and Henry willingly embraced a proposal so suitable both to his interests and his inclinations. An agreement some time after was formed for a marriage between Edward and Elizabeth, a daughter of France; and all the articles were, after a little negotiation, fully settled:[**] but this project never took effect.

The intention of marrying the king to a daughter of Henry, a violent persecutor of the Protestants, was nowise acceptable to that party in England: but in all other respects the council was steady in promoting the reformation, and in enforcing the laws against the Romanists. Several prelates were still addicted to that communion; and though they made some compliances, in order to save their bishoprics, they retarded, as much as they safely could, the execution of the new laws, and gave countenance to such incumbents as were negligent or refractory. A resolution was therefore taken to seek pretences for depriving those prelates; and the execution of this intention was the more easy, as they had all of them been obliged to take commissions, in which it was declared, that they held their sees during the king’s pleasure only. It was thought proper to begin with Gardiner, in order to strike a terror into the rest. The method of proceeding against him was violent, and had scarcely any color of law or justice. Injunctions had been given him to inculcate in a sermon the duty of obedience to a king, even during his minority; and because he had neglected this topic, he had been thrown into prison, and had been there detained during two years, without being accused of any crime except disobedience to this arbitrary command. The duke of Somerset, Secretary Petre, and some others of the council, were now sent, in order to try his temper, and endeavor to find some grounds for depriving him: he professed to them his intention of conforming to the government, of supporting the king’s laws, and of officiating by the new liturgy. This was not the disposition which they expected or desired.[*] A new deputation was therefore sent, who carried him several articles to subscribe. He was required to acknowledge his former misbehavior, and to confess the justice of his confinement: he was likewise to own, that the king was supreme head of the church; that the power of making and dispensing with holydays was part of the prerogative; that the book of common prayer was a godly and commendable form; that the king was a complete sovereign in his minority; that the law of the six articles was justly repealed; and that the king had full authority to correct and reform what was amiss in ecclesiastical discipline, government, or doctrine. The bishop was willing to set his hand to all the articles except the first: he maintained his conduct to have been inoffensive; and declared, that he would not own himself guilty of faults which he had never committed.[**]

The council, finding that he had gone such lengths, were determined to prevent his full compliance by multiplying the difficulties upon him, and sending him new articles to subscribe. A list was selected of such points as they thought would be the hardest of digestion; and, not content with this rigor, they also insisted on his submission, and his acknowledgment of past errors. To make this subscription more mortifying, they demanded a promise, that he would recommend and publish all these articles from the pulpit: but Gardiner, who saw that they intended either to ruin or dishonor him, or perhaps both, determined not to gratify his enemies by any further compliance: he still maintained his innocence; desired a fair trial; and refused to subscribe more articles till he should recover his liberty. For this pretended offence his bishopric was put under sequestration for three months; and as he then appeared no more compliant than before, a commission was appointed to try, or, more properly speaking, to condemn him.

1551.

The commissioners were, the primate, the bishops of London, Ely, and Lincoln, Secretary Petre, Sir James Hales, and some other lawyers. Gardiner objected to the legality of the commission, which was not founded on any statute or precedent; and he appealed from the commissioners to the king. His appeal was not regarded: sentence was pronounced against him; he was deprived of his bishopric, and committed to close custody; his books and papers were seized; he was secluded from all company; and it was not allowed him either to send or receive any letters or messages.[*]

Gardiner, as well as the other prelates, had agreed to hold his office during the king’s pleasure: but the council, unwilling to make use of a concession which had been so illegally and arbitrarily extorted, chose rather to employ some forms of justice; a resolution which led them to commit still greater iniquities and severities. But the violence of the reformers did not stop here. Day, bishop of Chichester, Heathe of Worcester, and Voisey of Exeter, were deprived of their bishoprics, on pretence of disobedience. Even Kitchen of Landaff, Capon of Salisbury, and Samson of Coventry, though they had complied in every thing, yet, not being supposed cordial in their obedience, were obliged to seek protection, by sacrificing the most considerable revenues of their see to the rapacious courtiers.[**]

These plunderers neglected not even smaller profits. An order was issued by council for purging the library at Westminster of all missals, legends, and other superstitious volumes, and delivering their garniture to Sir Anthony Aucher.[***]

Many of these books were plated with gold and silver, and curiously embossed; and this finery was probably the superstition that condemned them. Great havoc was likewise made on the libraries at Oxford. Books and manuscripts were destroyed without distinction: the volumes of divinity from the council books, suffered for their rich binding: those of literature were condemned as useless: those of geometry and astronomy were supposed to contain nothing but necromancy.[*] The university had not power to oppose these barbarous violences: they were in danger of losing their own revenues; and expected every moment to be swallowed up by the earl of Warwick and his associates.

Though every one besides yielded to the authority of the council, the lady Mary could never be brought to compliance; and she still continued to adhere to the mass, and to reject the new liturgy. Her behavior was, during some time, connived at; but at last her two chaplains, Mallet and Berkeley, were thrown into prison;[**] and remonstrances were made to the princess herself on account of her disobedience. The council wrote her a letter, by which they endeavored to make her change her sentiments, and to persuade her that her religious faith was very ill grounded. They asked her what warrant there was in Scripture for prayers in an unknown tongue, the use of images, or offering up the sacrament for the dead; and they desired her to peruse St. Austin, and the other ancient doctors, who would convince her of the errors of the Romish superstition, and prove that it was founded merely on false miracles and lying stories.[***] The lady Mary remained obstinate against all this advice, and declared herself willing to endure death rather than relinquish her religion; she only feared, she said, that she was not worthy to suffer martyrdom in so holy a cause: and as for Protestant books, she thanked God, that as she never had, so she hoped never to read any of them. Dreading further violence, she endeavored to make an escape to her kinsman Charles; but her design was discovered and prevented.[****] The emperor remonstrated in her behalf, and even threatened hostilities if liberty of conscience were refused her: but though the council, sensible that the kingdom was in no condition to support with honor such a war, was desirous to comply, they found great difficulty to overcome the scruples of the young king. He had been educated in such a violent abhorrence of the mass and other popish rites, which he regarded as impious and idolatrous, that he should participate, he thought, in the sin, if he allowed its commission: and when at last the importunity of Cranmer, Ridley, and Poinet prevailed somewhat over his opposition, he burst into tears; lamenting his sister’s obstinacy, and bewailing his own hard fate, that he must suffer her to continue in such an abominable mode of worship.

The great object, at this time, of antipathy among the Protestant sects was Popery, or, more properly, speaking, the Papists. These they regarded as the common enemy, who threatened every moment to overwhelm the evangelical faith, and destroy its partisans by fire and sword: they had not as yet had leisure to attend to the other minute differences among themselves, which afterwards became the object of such furious quarrels and animosities, and threw the whole kingdom into combustion. Several Lutheran divines, who had reputation in those days, Bucer, Peter Martyr, and others, were induced to take shelter in England, from the persecutions which the emperor exercised in Germany; and they received protection and encouragement. John Alasco, a Polish nobleman, being expelled his country by the rigors of the Catholics, settled during some time at Embden in East Friezland, where he became preacher to a congregation of the reformed. Foreseeing the persecutions which ensued, he removed to England, and brought his congregation along with him. The council, who regard them as industrious, useful people, and desired to invite over others of the same character, not only gave them the church of Augustine Friars for the exercise of their religion, but granted them a charter, by which they were erected into a corporation, consisting of a superintendent and four assisting ministers. This ecclesiastical establishment was quite independent of the church of England, and differed from it in some rites and ceremonies.[*]

These differences among the Protestants were matter of triumph to the Catholics; who insisted, that the moment men departed from the authority of the church, they lost all criterion of truth and falsehood in matters of religion, and must be carried away by every wind of doctrine. The continual variations of every sect of Protestants afforded them the same topic of reasoning. The book of common prayer suffered in England a new revisal, and some rites and ceremonies which had given offence were omitted.[**] * Mem. Cranm. p. 234.

The speculative doctrines, or the metaphysics of religion, were also reduced to forty-two articles. These were intended to obviate further divisions and variations; and the compiling of them had been postponed till the establishment of the liturgy, which was justly regarded as a more material object to the people. The eternity of hell torments is asserted in this confession of faith; and care is also taken to inculcate, not only that no heathen, how virtuous soever, can escape an endless state of the most exquisite misery, but also that every one who presumes to maintain that any pagan can possibly be saved, is himself exposed to the penalty of eternal perdition.[*]

The theological zeal of the council, though seemingly fervent, went not so far as to make them neglect their own temporal concerns, which seem to have ever been uppermost in their thoughts: they even found leisure to attend to the public interest; nay, to the commerce of the nation, which was at that time very little the object of general study or attention. The trade of England had anciently been carried on altogether by foreigners, chiefly the inhabitants of the Hanse Towns, or Easterlings, as they were called; and in order to encourage these merchants to settle in England, they had been erected into a corporation by Henry III., had obtained a patent, were endowed with privileges, and were exempted from several heavy duties paid by other aliens. So ignorant were the English of commerce, that this company, usually denominated the merchants of the “stil-yard,” engrossed, even down to the reign of Edward, almost the whole foreign trade of the kingdom; and as they naturally employed the shipping of their own country, the navigation of England was also in a very languishing condition. It was therefore thought proper by the council to seek pretences for annulling the privileges of this corporation, privileges which put them nearly on an equal footing with Englishmen in the duties which they paid; and as such patents were, during that age, granted by the absolute power of the king, men were the less surprised to find them revoked by the same authority. Several remonstrances were made against this innovation by Lubec, Hamburgh, and other Hanse Towns; but the council persevered in their resolution, and the good effects of it soon became visible to the nation. The English merchants, by their very situation as natives, had advantages above foreigners in the purchase of cloth, wool, and other commodities; though these advantages had not hitherto been sufficient to rouse then industry, or engage them to become rivals to this opulent company: but when aliens’ duty was also imposed upon all foreigners indiscriminately, the English were tempted to enter into commerce; and a spirit of industry began to appear in the kingdom.[*]

About the same time a treaty was made with Gustavus Ericson, king of Sweden, by which it was stipulated, that if he sent bullion into England, he might export English commodities without paying custom; that he should carry bullion to no other prince; that if he sent ozimus, steel, copper, etc., he should pay custom for English commodities as an Englishman; and that if he sent other merchandise, he should have free intercourse, paying custom as a stranger.[**] The bullion sent over by Sweden, though it could not be in great quantity, set the mint to work: good specie was coined, and much of the base metal formerly issued was recalled: a circumstance which tended extremely to the encouragement of commerce.

But all these schemes for promoting industry were likely to prove abortive by the fear of domestic convulsions, arising from the ambition of Warwick. That nobleman, not contented with the station which he had attained, carried further his pretensions, and had gained partisans who were disposed to second him in every enterprise. The last earl of Northumberland died without issue; and as Sir Thomas Piercy, his brother, had been attainted on account of the share which he had in the Yorkshire insurrection during the late reign, the title was at present extinct, and the estate was vested in the crown. Warwick now procured to himself a grant of those ample possessions, which lay chiefly in the north, the most warlike part of the kingdom; and was dignified with the title of duke of Northumberland. His friend Paulet, Lord St. John, the treasurer, was created, first, earl of Wiltshire, then marquis of Winchester: Sir William Herbert obtained the title of earl of Pembroke.

But the ambition of Northumberland made him regard all increase of possessions and titles, either to himself or his artisans, as steps only to further acquisitions. Finding that Somerset, though degraded from his dignity, and even lessened in the public opinion by his spiritless conduct, still enjoyed a considerable share of popularity, he determined to ruin the man whom he regarded as the chief obstacle to the attainment of his hopes. The alliance which had been contracted between the families had produced no cordial union, and only enabled Northumberland to compass with more certainty the destruction of his rival. He secretly gained many of the friends and servants of that unhappy nobleman: he sometimes terrified him by the appearance of danger; sometimes provoked him by ill usage. The unguarded Somerset often broke out into menacing expressions against Northumberland: at other times he formed rash projects, which he immediately abandoned his treacherous confidants carried to his enemy every passionate word which dropped from him: they revealed the schemes which they themselves had first suggested: and Northumberland, thinking that the proper season was now come, began to act in an open manner against him.

In one night, the duke of Somerset, Lord Grey, David and John Seymour, Hammond, and Neudigate, two of the duke’s servants, Sir Ralph Vane, and Sir Thomas Palmer, were arrested and committed to custody. Next day, the duchess of Somerset, with her favorites Crane and his wife, Sir Miles Partridge, Sir Michael Stanhope, Bannister, and others, was thrown into prison. Sir Thomas Palmer, who had all along acted as a spy upon Somerset, accused him of having formed a design to raise an insurrection in the north, to attack the gens d’armes on a muster day, to secure the Tower, and to raise a rebellion in London: but, what was the only probable accusation, he asserted, that Somerset had once laid a project for murdering Northumberland, Northampton, and Pembroke at a banquet which was to be given them by Lord Paget Crane and his wife confirmed Palmer’s testimony with regard to this last design; and it appears that some rash scheme of that nature had really been mentioned, though no regular conspiracy had been formed, or means prepared for its execution Hammond confessed that the duke had armed men to guard him one night in his house at Greenwich.

Somerset was brought to his trial before the marquis of Winchester, created high steward. Twenty-seven peers composed the jury, among whom were Northumberland, Pembroke, and Northampton, whom decency should have hindered from acting as judges in the trial of a man that appeared to be their capital enemy. Somerset was accused of high treason, on account of the projected insurrections, and of felony in laying a design to murder privy counsellors.

We have a very imperfect account of all state trials during that ago, which is a sensible defect in our history; but it appears that some more regularity was observed in the management of this prosecution than had usually been employed in like cases. The witnesses were at least examined by the privy council; and though they were neither produced in court, nor confronted with the prisoner, (circumstances required by the strict principles of equity,) their depositions were given in to the jury. The proof seems to have been lame with regard to the treasonable part of the charge; and Somerset’s defence was so satisfactory, that the peers gave verdict in his favor: the intention alone of assaulting the privy counsellors was supported by tolerable evidence; and the jury brought him in guilty of felony. The prisoner himself confessed that he had expressed his intention of murdering Northumberland and the other lords; but had not formed any resolution on that head: and when he received sentence, he asked pardon of those peers for the designs which he had hearkened to against them. The people, by whom Somerset was beloved, hearing the first part of his sentence, by which he was acquitted from treason, expressed their joy by loud acclamations: but their satisfaction was suddenly damped on finding that he was condemned to death for felony.[*]

1552.

Care had been taken by Northumberland’s emissaries to prepossess the young king against his uncle; and lest he should relent, no access was given to any of Somerset’s friends, and the prince was kept from reflection by a continued series of occupations and amusements. At last the prisoner was brought to the scaffold on Tower Hill, amidst great crowds of spectators, who bore him such sincere kindness, that they entertained to the last moment the fond hopes of his pardon.[**] Many of them rushed in to dip their hand-kerchiefs in his blood, which they long preserved as a precious relic; and some of them soon after, when Northumberland met with a like doom, upbraided him with this cruelty, and displayed to him these symbols of his crime. Somerset indeed, though many actions of his life were exceptionable, seems in general to have merited a better fate; and the faults which he committed were owing to weakness, not to any bad intention. His virtues were better calculated for private than for public life; and by his want of penetration and firmness, he was ill fitted to extricate himself from those cabals and violences to which that age was so much addicted. Sir Thomas Arundel, Sir Michael Stanhope, Sir Miles Partridge, and Sir Ralph Vane, all of them Somerset’s friends, were brought to their trial, condemned, and executed: great injustice seems to have been used in their prosecution.

Lord Paget, chancellor of the duchy, was on some pretence tried in the star chamber, and condemned in a fine of six thousand pounds, with the loss of his office. To mortify him the more, he was degraded from the order of the garter; as unworthy, on account of his mean birth, to share that honor.[*] Lord Rich, chancellor, was also compelled to resign his office, on the discovery of some marks of friendship which he had shown to Somerset.

The day after the execution of Somerset, a session of parliament was held, in which further advances were made towards the establishment of the reformation. The new liturgy was authorized; and penalties were enacted against all those who absented themselves from public worship.[**] To use the mass had already been prohibited under severe penalties; so that the reformers, it appears, whatever scope they had given to their own private judgment, in disputing the tenets of the ancient religion, were resolved not to allow the same privilege to others, and the practice, nay the very doctrine of toleration, was at that time equally unknown to all sects and parties. To dissent from the religion of the magistrate, was universally conceived to be as criminal as to question his title, or rebel against his authority.

A law was enacted against usury; that is, against taking any interest for money.[***] This act was the remains of ancient superstition; but being found extremely iniquitous in itself, as well as prejudicial to commerce, it was afterwards repealed in the twelfth of Elizabeth. The common rate of interest, notwithstanding the law, was at this time fourteen per cent.[****]

A bill was introduced by the ministry into the house of lords, renewing those rigorous statutes of treason which had been abrogated in the beginning of this reign; and though the peers, by their high station, stood most exposed to these tempests of state, yet had they so little regard to public security, or even to their own true interest, that they passed the bill with only one dissenting voice.[*] But the commons rejected it, and prepared a new bill, that passed into a law, by which it was enacted, that whoever should call the king, or any of his heirs named in the statute of the thirty-fifth of the last reign, heretic, schismatic, tyrant, infidel, or usurper of the crown, should forfeit, for the first offence, their goods and chattels, and be imprisoned during pleasure; for the second, should incur a “præmunire;” for the third, should be attainted for treason. But if any should unadvisedly utter such a slander in writing, printing, painting, carving, or graving, he was, for the first offence, to be held a traitor.[**] It may be worthy of notice, that the king and his next heir, the lady Mary, were professedly of different religions; and religions which threw on each other the imputation of heresy, schism, idolatry, profaneness, blasphemy, wickedness, and all the opprobrious epithets that religious zeal has invented. It was almost impossible, therefore, for the people, if they spoke at all on these subjects, not to fall into the crime so severely punished by the statute; and the jealousy of the commons for liberty, though it led them to reject the bill of treasons sent to them by the lords, appears not to have been very active, vigilant, or clearsighted.

The commons annexed to this bill a clause, which was of more importance than the bill itself, that no one should be convicted of any kind of treason, unless the crime were proved by the oaths of two witnesses, confronted with the prisoner. The lords for some time scrupled to pass this clause, though conformable to the most obvious principles of equity. But the members of that house trusted for protection to their present personal interest and power, and neglected the noblest and most permanent security, that of laws.

The house of peers passed a bill, whose object was, making a provision for the poor; but the commons, not choosing that a money bill should begin in the upper house, framed a new act to the same purpose. By this act the churchwardens were empowered to collect charitable contributions; and if any refused to give, or dissuaded others from that charity the bishop of the diocese was empowered to proceed against them. Such large discretionary powers intrusted to the prelates seem as proper an object of jealousy as the authority assumed by the peers.[*]

There was another occasion in which the parliament reposed an unusual confidence in the bishops. They empowered them to proceed against such as neglected the Sundays and holy-day.[**] But these were unguarded concessions granted to the church: the general humor of the age rather led men to bereave the ecclesiastics of all power, and even to pillage them of their property: many clergymen, about this time, were obliged for a subsistence to turn carpenters or tailors, and some kept alehouses.[***] The bishops themselves were generally reduced to poverty, and held both their revenues and spiritual office by a very precarious and uncertain tenure.

Tonstal, bishop of Durham, was one of the most eminent prelates of that age, still less for the dignity of his see, than for his own personal merit, his learning, moderation, humanity, and beneficence. He had opposed, by his vote and authority, all innovations in religion; but as soon as they were enacted, he had always submitted, and had conformed to every theological system which had been established. His known probity had made this compliance be ascribed, not to an interested or time-serving spirit, but to a sense of duty, which led him to think that all private opinion ought to be sacrificed to the great concern of public peace and tranquillity. The general regard paid to his character had protected him from any severe treatment during the administration of Somerset; but when Northumberland gained the ascendant, he was thrown into prison; and as that rapacious nobleman had formed a design of seizing the revenues of the see of Durham, and of acquiring to himself a principality in the northern counties, he was resolved, in order to effect his purpose, to deprive Tonstal of his bishopric. A bill of attainder, therefore, on pretence of misprision of treason, was introduced into the house of peers against the prelate; and it passed with the opposition only of Lord Stourton, a zealous Catholic, and of Cranmer, who always bore a cordial and sincere friendship to the bishop of Durham. But when the bill was sent down to the commons, they required that witnesses should be examined, that Tonstal should be allowed to defend himself, and that he should be confronted with his accusers; and when these demands were refused, they rejected the bill.

This equity, so unusual in the parliament during that age, was ascribed, by Northumberland and his partisans, not to any regard for liberty and justice, but to the prevalence of Somerset’s faction in a house of commons which, being chosen during the administration of that nobleman, had been almost entirely filled with his creatures. They were confirmed in this opinion, when they found that a bill, ratifying the attainder of Somerset and his accomplices, was also rejected by the commons, though it had passed the upper house. A resolution was therefore taken to dissolve the parliament, which had sitten during this whole reign; and soon after to summon a new one.

Northumberland, in order to insure to himself a house of commons entirely obsequious to his will, ventured on an expedient which could not have been practised, or even imagined, in an age when there was any idea or comprehension of liberty. He engaged the king to write circular letters to all the sheriffs, in which he enjoined them to inform the freeholders, that they were required to choose men of knowledge and experience for their representatives. After this general exhortation, the king continued in these words: “And yet, nevertheless, our pleasure is, that where our privy council, or any of them, shall, in our behalf, recommend within their jurisdiction men of learning and wisdom; in such cases their directions shall be regarded and followed, as tending to the same end which we desire; that is, to have this assembly composed of the persons in our realm the best fitted to give advice and good counsel.”[*] Several letters were sent from the king, recommending members to particular counties; Sir Richard Cotton to Hampshire; Sir William Fitzwilliams and Sir Henry Nevil to Berkshire; Sir William Drury and Sir Henry Benningfield to Suffolk, etc. But though some counties only received this species of congé d’élire from the king; the recommendations from the privy council and the counsellors, we may fairly presume, would extend to the greater part, if not the whole, of the kingdom.

It is remarkable, that this attempt was made during the reign of a minor king, when the royal authority is usually weakest that it was patiently submitted to; and that it gave so little umbrage as scarcely to be taken notice of by any historian. The painful and laborious collector above cited, who never omits the most trivial matter, is the only person that has thought this memorable letter worthy of being transmitted to posterity.

1553.

The parliament answered Northumberland’s expectations. As Tonstal had been in the interval deprived of his bishopric in an arbitrary manner, by the sentence of lay commissioners appointed to try him, the see of Durham was, by act of parliament, divided into two bishoprics, which had certain portions of the revenue assigned them. The regalities of the see, which included the jurisdiction of a count palatine, were given by the king to Northumberland; nor is it to be doubted but that noblemen had also purposed to make rich plunder of the revenue, as was then usual with the courtiers whenever a bishopric became vacant.

The commons gave the ministry another mark of attachment, which was at that time the most sincere of any, the most cordial, and the most difficult to be obtained: they granted a supply of two subsidies and two fifteenths. To render this present the more acceptable, they voted a preamble, containing a long accusation of Somerset, “for involving the king in wars, wasting his treasure, engaging him in much debt, embasing the coin, and giving occasion for a most terrible rebellion.”[*]

The debts of the crown were at this time considerable. The king had received from France four hundred thousand crowns on delivering Boulogne; he had reaped profit from the sale of some chantry lands; the churches had been spoiled of all their plate and rich ornaments, which, by a decree of council, without any pretence of law or equity, had been converted to the king’s use: [**] yet such had been the rapacity of the courtiers, that the crown owed about three hundred thousand pounds: and great dilapidations were at the same time made of the royal demesnes. The young prince showed, among other virtues, a disposition to frugality, which, had he lived, would soon have retrieved these losses; but as his health was declining very fast, the present emptiness of the exchequer was a sensible obstacle to the execution of those projects which the ambition of Northumberland had founded on the prospect of Edward’s approaching end.

That nobleman represented to the prince, whom youth and an infirm state of health made susceptible of any impression, that his two sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, had both of them been declared illegitimate by act of parliament; and though Henry by his will had restored them to a place in the succession, the nation would never submit to see the throne of England filled by a bastard: that they were the king’s sisters by the half blood only; and even if they were legitimate, could not enjoy the crown as his heirs and successors: that the queen of Scots stood excluded by the late king’s will; and being an alien, had lost by law all right of inheriting; not to mention that, as she was betrothed to the dauphin, she would, by her succession, render England, as she had already done Scotland, a province to France: that the certain consequence of his sister Mary’s succession, or that of the queen of Scots was the abolition of the Protestant religion, and the repeal of the laws enacted in favor of the reformation, and the reëstabishment of the usurpation and idolatry of the church of Rome, that, fortunately for England, the same order of succession which justice required, was also the most conformable to public interest; and there was not on any side any just ground for doubt or deliberation: that when these three princesses were excluded by such solid reasons, the succession devolved on the marchioness of Dorset, elder daughter of the French queen and the duke of Suffolk: that the next heir of the marchioness was the lady Jane Gray, a lady of the most amiable character, accomplished by the best education, both in literature and religion, and every way worthy of a crown; and that even if her title by blood were doubtful, which there was no just reason to pretend, the king was possessed of the same power that his father enjoyed, and might leave her the crown by letters patent. These reasonings made impression on the young prince; and above all, his zealous attachment to the Protestant religion made him apprehend the consequences if so bigoted a Catholic as his sister Mary should succeed to the throne. And though he bore a tender affection to the lady Elizabeth, who was liable to no such objection means were found to persuade him that he could not exclude the one sister, on account of illegitimacy, without giving also an exclusion to the other.

ENLARGE