beheaded her on the pretext of adultery. The day after, he married Jane Seymour, who had been a Maid of Honor to Anne, as the latter had been to Catherine. His third wife died in a year, after giving birth to a son. The fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, he repudiated by Act of Parliament, and then married Catherine Howard, grand-child of the Duke of Norfolk. He beheaded her two years afterwards on the charge of infidelity, and married Catherine Parr, the widow of Lord Latimer, who survived him.

Henry wound up his turbulent career by restoring to the Crown some of its "ancient prerogatives" granted away by his progenitors. Parliament ventured on no resistance to his tyrannical instincts, satisfied with their emancipation from the gripe of the Church. The reckoning with Royalty was reserved for hereafter. During this reign the first Bankrupt law on record was passed.

Edward VI., son of Jane Seymour, succeeded in 1547. Being only nine years old, the Kingdom was administered by his uncle, the Duke of Somerset, as Lord Protector, with a Council of which Archbishop Cranmer was the head.

Parliament under the influence of these two distinguished men continued its legislation against

Rome.

It was declared High Treason to say or write that the King was not Head of the Church, or that the Pope was. The Parliament also took away benefit of Clergy, or Sanctuary, from persons convicted of murder and sundry other offences, but declared that "a Lord of Parliament or Peer of the realm, should of common grace have benefit of clergy, though he could not read, for the

first offence." It likewise repealed many of the late tyrannical statutes of Henry VIII.

The reign of Edward lasted only six years; but the Schism in the Church was actively promoted by Archbishop Cranmer and Bishops Latimer and Ridley. The Protestant sect made rapid progress. The Book of Common Prayer now used dates from this reign.

Mary, daughter of Catherine of Arragon, succeeded in 1553, being then thirty-seven years old. She was the first Queen Regnant since the Conquest. Mary inherited her father's barbarous disposition, and began her bloody reign by executing Lady Jane Grey-a descendant of Henry VII., and only seventeen years of age for aspiring to the throne. This accomplished Princess was involved in this attempt against her will by the intrigues of the Duke of Northumberland, who was also beheaded.

Mary was a rigid Catholic, and married her relative, the bigot Philip, son of Charles V. of Spain, 1554. The Queen and her husband began a fierce crusade against the Protestant converts. Archbishop Cranmer was arrested as a heretic, and though he retracted, was executed. During Mary's brief reign of five years, one Archbishop, three Bishops, and many Clergymen, with three hundred of the laity, perished at the stake, whilst many others died in prison.

!

Parliament was forced to pass a Law repealing all the Acts of Henry and Edward against the See Apostolic of Rome; but it was found impossible to restore the Church property granted away, and Her Majesty was less anxious on this point, as a good deal of it still belonged to the Crown. The power of the Monarchy at this time may be measured from the fact

that Parliament could thus be forced to abolish all its recent legislation against the Papacy.

Mary died, in 1558, of grief at the neglect of Philip,* who abandoned her two years after their marriage. The loss of Calais, which had been reconquered by the French, is said to have hastened her demise.

Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn, succeeded in 1558, being then twenty-five years old. Her father at first excluded her from the throne, calling her illegitimate, and consigned her to seclusion. This hardened her character, and stimulated her intellect. She acquired extensive knowledge, and was mistress of the French, Italian, Latin, and Greek languages.

No one contested her title in England, but the Pope forbade her to assume the Crown without his consent, and claimed England as a fief of the Papacy from the time of King John; at the same time assuring the Queen of his friendly disposition, if she would acknowledge his Supremacy. Elizabeth recalled her Ambassador from Rome, and set the Pope at defiance. She gave liberty to all imprisoned for their religion, and selected. for her Ministers those favorable to the new Sect. A Parliament was called, which readily restored to the Crown the ecclesiastical supremacy vested by Mary in the Pope; re-enacted the laws of Henry and Edward, and then went heartily to work to build up the new worship. The new church, or Church of England, was organized on the basis of the "Thirty-nine Articles "

* It would seem that Philip was much fonder of pork than his wife, for he used to dine on it daily, and eat so much as to be frequently ill. Even up to this time pork was in general consumption, and some centuries earlier it constituted almost the only article of food, as beef, veal and mutton were comparatively unknown. In France, Charlemagne kept in his forests immense droves of swine.

agreed on by the Convocation of Bishops, where it reposes to this day.

more severe.

Elizabeth inherited the domineering spirit of her father, and she was resolved that no one should govern in England but herself-neither Pope, Nobility, nor Middle Class. She displayed great vigor in extinguishing the old religion, and such was the jealousy of foreign influence that popular feeling sustained her. The legislation against the Catholics became more and An Insurrection at last broke out in the north of England to supersede Elizabeth by raising Mary Queen of Scots to the throne. The Pope encouraged the effort, and issued a Bull, excommunicating Elizabeth, and depriving her of the Crown for "her heinous crimes against the Church." The rising was unsuccessful, and new laws of greater rigor followed. Every kind of penalty up to death was distributed against those who read or listened to Bulls, or who brought into the realm "things called Agnus Dei, or any pictures, crosses, beads, or such like superstitious things, consecrated, as it is termed, by the Bishop of Rome."

In nearly every Parliament of her long reign, Popery in all its phases was passionately denounced. In that of 1581, penalties were decreed against "every one who should say or sing Mass." In that of 1585, an Act was passed, expelling "Jesuits, seminary priests, and other such like disobedient persons." In that of 1593, a Law was made, "restraining Popish recusants to some certain places of abode.”

All these statutes were meant to establish the supremacy of the Crown, as against all foreign Potentates, as well as to settle the national religion. This extreme legislation was acceptable to the Nation, not so

much out of love for the new doctrines, as the desire to be independent of all foreign domination. Great misery must have ensued from these cruel edicts, but no complete record exists of the thousands who suffered from fines, imprisonment, and banishment. Historians compute that some two hundred Catholics were put to death in this reign of forty-five years.

During most of her sway, "Queen Bess" had been so engrossed in her struggle with the Catholics, that she failed to perceive a New Sect had developed itself until it was actually standing upright before her. Well might the Queen be puzzled by the appearance, and more still by the novel ideas of this Sect. This mysterious band of devotees entirely approved the persecution of the Catholics; did not dispute, like the Papists, the temporal authority of the Queen; did not even desire to separate from the new national Church, but only to reform it. Here had Elizabeth spent nearly all her life enforcing on the poor Catholics her Reformed religion, and now a new-born organization had sprung up which proposed to reform that! Luther, too, who had so recently picked holes in the time-worn garments of Catholicism, now had his new drapery of German manufacture disparaged even before its gloss had gone. One form of scepticism had already created another. Heresy was on its march. Elizabeth and her advisers must have been perplexed by these new-comers, who were not only anxious to carry out the Reformation, then all the vogue, but wished to carry it further than the Protestant Elizabeth or her Protestant Ministers of State had ever meditated. They proposed dropping all forms and ceremonies which the express word of Scripture did not support. They did not approve of