to a revenue for 18 bishoprics and cathedrals; but of them he only erected six, viz. the bishoprics of Westminster, Chester, Peterborough, Oxford, Gloucester and Bristol. This was the chief of what his Majesty did for religion; which was but a small return of the immense sums that fell into his hands: for the clear rents of all the suppressed houses were cast up at one hundred thirty-one thousand, six hundred and seven pounds, six shillings and four-pence per annum, as they were then rated; but were at least ten times as much in value. Most of the abbey lands were given away among the courtiers, or sold at easy rates to the gentry, to engage them by interest against the resumption of them to the church. In the year 1515, the parliament gave the king the chauntries, colleges, free chapels, hospitals, fraternities and guilds, with their manors and estates. Seventy manors and parks were alienated from the archbishopric of York, and twelve from Canterbury, and confirmed to the crown. How easily might this King, with his immense revenues, have put an end to the being of parliaments!

The translation of the New Testament by Tyndal, already mentioned, had a wonderful spread among the people; though the bishops condemned it, and proceeded with the utmost severity against those that read it. They complained of it to the King; upon which his Majesty called it in by proclamation in the month of June 1530, and promised that a more correct translation should be published: But it was impossible to stop the curiosity of the people so long; for though the bishops bought up, and burnt all they could meet with, the Testament was reprinted abroad, and sent over to merchants at London, who dispersed the copies privately among their acquaintance and friends.

At length it was moved in convocation, that the whole Bible should be translated into English, and set up in churches; but most of the old clergy were against it. They said this would lay the foundation of innumerable heresies, as it had done in Germany; and that the people were not proper judges of the sense of Scripture: To which it was replied, that the Scriptures were written at first in the vulgar tongue; that our Savior commanded his hearers to search the Scriptures; and that it was necessary people should do so

now, that they might be satisfied that the alterations the King had made in religion were not contrary to the word of God. These arguments prevailed with the majority to consent that the petition should be presented to the King, that his majesty would please to give order about it.

But the old bishops were too much disinclined to move in it. The reformers therefore were forced to have recourse to Mr. Tyndal's Bible, which had been printed at Hamburgh 1532, and reprinted three or four years after by Grafton and Whitchurch. The translators were Tyndal, assisted by Miles Coverdale, and Mr. John Rogers the protomartyr: The Apocrypha was done by Rogers, and some marginal notes were inserted to the whole, which gave offence, and occasioned that Bible to be prohibited. But Archbishop Cranmer, having now reviewed and corrected it, left out the prologue and notes, and added a preface of his own; and because Tyndal was now put to death for an heretic, his name was laid aside, and it was called Thomas Matthew's Bible, and by some Cranmer's Bible; though it was no more than Tyndal's translation corrected.* This Bible was allowed by authority, and eagerly read by all sorts of people.

The fall of Queen Anne Bullen mother of Queen Elizabeth, was a great prejudice to the reformation. She was a virtuous and pious lady, but airy and indiscreet in her behavior: The Popish party hated her for her religion, and having awakened the King's jealousy, put him upon a nice observance of her carriage, by which she quickly fell under his Majesty's displeasure, who ordered her to be sent to the Tower May 1. On the 15th of the same month she was tried by her peers for incontinence, for a precontract of marriage,and for conspiring the King's death; and though there was little or no evidence, the lords found her guilty for fear of offending the King; and four days after she was beheaded within the Tower, protesting her innocence to the last.— Soon after her execution the King called a parliament, to set aside the succession of the lady Elizabeth her daughter, which was done, and the King was empowered to nominate his successor by his last will and testament; so that both his Majesty's daughters were now declared illegitimate;

Strype's Life of Cranmer, p. 59, 82.

But the King having power to settle the succession as he pleased, in case of failure of male heirs, they were still in hopes, and quietly submitted to their father's pleasure.

Complaint being sent to court of the diversity of doctrines delivered in pulpits, the King sent a circular letter to all the bishops, July 12th, [1536] forbidding all preaching till Michaelmas; by which time certain articles of religion, most Catholic, should be set forth. The King himself framed the articles and sent them into convocation, where they were agreed to by both houses. An abstract of them

will shew the state of the reformation at this time.

1. "All preachers were to instruct the people to believe "the whole bible, and the three creeds, viz. the Apostles, "the Nicene, and Athanasian, and to interpret all things "according to them.

2. "That baptism was a sacrament instituted by Christ; "that it was necessary to salvation; that infants were to be baptised for the pardon of original sin; and that the o"pinions of the Anabaptists and Pelagians were detestable "heresies: [And that those of ripe age, who desired bap"tism, must join with it repentance and contrition for their "sins, with a firm belief of the articles of the faith.]

3. "That penance, that is, contrition, confession, and "amendment of life, with works of charity, was necessary "to salvation; to which must be added faith in the mercy "of God, that he will justify and pardon us, not for the "worthiness of any merit or work done by us, but for the "only merits of the blood and passion of Jesus Christ; "nevertheless, that confession to a priest was necessary if it "might be had; and that the absolution of a priest was the "same as if it were spoken by God himself, according to "our Savior's words. That auricular confession was of "use for the comfort of men's consciences. And though we "are justified only by the satisfaction of Christ, yet the peo"ple were to be instructed in the necessity of good works. 4. "That in the sacrament of the altar, under the form "of bread and wine, there was, truly and substantially, the "same body of Christ that was born of the Virgin.

5. "That justification signified the remission of sins, and a perfect renovation of nature in Christ,

6. "Concerning images-that the use of them was war. "ranted in Scripture; that they served to stir up devotion; "and that it was meet they should stand in churches: but "the people were to be taught, that in kneeling or wor"shipping before them they were not to do it to the image "but to God.

7. "Concerning honoring of saints, they were to be in"structed not to expect those favors from them which are "to be obtained only from God, but they were to honor "them, to praise God for them, and to imitate their vir

❝tues.

8. "

pray

For praying to saints-That it was good to

to them to pray for us and with us.

9. "Of ceremonies. The people were to be taught that "they were good and lawful, having mystical significations "in them such were the vestments in the worship of God, "sprinkling holy water to put us in mind of our baptism "and the blood of Christ; giving holy bread, in sign of our "union to Christ; bearing candles on Candlemas-day, in "remembrance of Christ the spiritual light; giving ashes "on Ish-wednesday, to put us in mind of penance and our "mortality; bearing palms on Palm-Sunday, to shew our "desire to receive Christ into our hearts as he entered in❝to Jerusalem; creeping to the cross on Good-friday, and "kissing it, in memory of his death; with the setting up of "the sepulchre on that day, the hallowing the font, and "other exorcisms and benedictions.

Lastly, "As to purgatory, they were to declare it good "and charitable to pray for souls departed; but since the "place they were in, and the pains they suffered, were un"certain by scripture, they ought to remit them to God's "mercy. Therefore all abuses of this doctrine were to be "put away, and the people disengaged from believing that "the Pope's pardons or masses said in certain places, or "before certain images, could deliver souls out of purga"tory."

These articles were signed by the archbishop of Canterbury, 17 bishops, 40 abbots and priors, and 50 archdeacons and proctors of the lower house of convocation: They were published by the King's authority, with a preface in his

name requiring all his subjects to accept them, which would encourage him to take farther pains for the honor of God and the welfare of his people. One sees here the dawn of the reformation; the scriptures and the ancient creeds are made the standards of faith without the tradition of the Church or decrees of the Pope; the doctrine of the justifition by faith is well stated; four of the seven sacraments are passed over, and purgatory is left doubtful. But transubstantiation, auricular confession, the worshipping of images and saints, still remained.

The Court of Rome were not idle spectators of these proceedings; they threatened the King, and spirited up the elergy to rebellion; and when all hopes of accommodation were at an end, the Pope pronounced sentence of excommunication against the whole kingdom, depriving his Majesty of his crown and dignity, forbidding his subjects to obey him, and all foreign princes to correspond with him; all his leagues with them were dissolved, and his own clergy were commanded to depart the kingdom, and his nobility to rise in arms against them. The King laying hold of this opportunity called a parliament, and obtained an act, requiring all his subjects, under the pains of treason, to swear that the King was supreme head of the Church of England; and to strike terror into the Popish party, three priors and a monk of the Carthusian order, and three monks of the CharterHouse, were executed as traitors, for refusing the oath, and for saying that the King was not supreme head under Christ of the Church of England; but the two greatest sacrifices were John Fisher,bishop of Rochester, and Sir Thomas More late lord chancellor of England, who were both beheaded last year within a fortnight of each other. This quieted the people for a time, but soon after there was an insurrection in Lincolnshire of 20,000 men, headed by a churchman and directed by a monk; but upon a proclamation of pardon they dispersed themselves: The same year there was another more formidable in the north, but after some time the rebels were defeated by the Duke of Norfolk, and the heads of them executed, among whom were divers abbots and priests. These commotions incensed the King against the religious houses, as nurseries of sedition, and made him resolve to suppress them all.