to avoid such evils was that he should be made Governor of the kingdom. He craftily suppressed Henry's will, and substituted another, in which Edward was declared head of the Church of England, and he was appointed Regent; he then got himself created Duke of Somerset, and took the title of Protector of the Kingdom (1).

17. No sooner had he got the supreme power into his hands as Protector than he at once took off the mask, proclaimed himself a Protestant, and appointed preachers to disseminate the heresy. He prohibited the bishops from preaching, or ordaining, without the King's permission, and he then refused permission to any one to preach, unless to the Zuinglian ministers. Among the rest the impious Cranmer, pseudo-Archbishop of Canterbury, now began publicly to preach against the Catholic Church, and published a Catechism filled with the most wicked doctrines against the Faith, and was not ashamed to marry publicly, with the approbation of the Regent, a woman who lived with him as concubine before he was made bishop (2). Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Winchester-but deposed from his See for preaching, in London, against the Real Presence was now appointed by Somerset principal preacher of the Zuinglian errors. He invited at the same time from Strasbourg three famous ministers of Satan, apostate Religious, well known through all Europe: Martin Bucer, now seventy years of age, and three times married, Peter Martyr, and Bernard Ochin, and appointed them to Professors' Chairs in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, to poison the minds of the poor youths studying there, and he banished every Catholic professor out of these colleges. To complete the work of iniquity, he appointed as tutors to the young King, Richard Crock, a priest, who violated his vows by marrying, and John Check, a layman of debauched life-fit instructors for a young prince in vice and heresy (3). He tried by sending Bucer, Peter Martyr, and Ochino, to Mary, to induce her to forsake the Church likewise (4); but she showed such determined opposition that he never tried it again. His next step was to abolish the six Articles of Henry VIII., and on the 5th of November, 1547, he obtained the sanction of Parliament for abolishing the Roman Catholic religion, the Mass, the veneration of sacred images, and for the confiscation of the sacred vessels and ornaments of the altar (5); and thus, under him, the whole plan of religion established by Henry and the Parliament (N. 10), six Articles, and all, were done away with. Here we naturally wonder how so many bishops and theologians could establish, in Henry's reign, a form of worship of such little value as to be abolished almost immediately on his

(1) Varillas, Istor. t. 2, p. 100; Nat. Alex. t. 19, c. 13, a. 4; Hermant, Ist. t. 2, c. 267; Gotti, Ver. Rel. c. 114, s. 1, n. 1. (2) Varillas, loc. cit. p. 101; Gotti, loc. cit. n. 2; Hermant, c. 267. (3) Varillas, t. 2, l. 17, p. 105, & seq.; Nat. Alex. art. 4, (5) Bossuet, n. 90.

(4) Varillas, 7. 17, p. 116.

death. Burnet says, that these theologians were ignorant of the truth. Behold, then, the reformed Faith, called by him "The Work of Light." They sanctioned articles of Faith without having a knowledge of the truth. The Reformation may, indeed, be called a work of darkness, since it upset Faith, Religion, and all Divine and human laws, in England (6). Somerset next ordained, that Communion should be administered under both kinds-that the Scripture should be generally read in the vulgar tongue-and that all bishops, or other ecclesiastics, refusing obedience to this order, should be sent to prison, and deprived of their benefices, and reformers installed in their places (7). In this he followed the advice of Calvin, who wrote him a long letter from Geneva on the subject, advising him to abolish the Catholic religion by persecution; and the prisons of London were accordingly filled with suspected Catholics. At this period, three-fourths of the clergy had shaken off the law of celibacy (8).

18. Such were the crimes of the Duke of Somerset against the Church; but the Divine vengeance soon overtook him, in a most unexpected manner (9). He had raised his brother, Thomas Seymour, to the dignity of Lord High Admiral of the kingdom, and this nobleman had gained the affection of Henry's last Queen, Catherine Parr, and had his consent to the marriage. This was highly displeasing, however, to the Duchess of Somerset, as, in case of his marriage with Catherine, she should resign to her the precedence which she enjoyed, as wife of the Protector, and, though she yielded to the Queen Dowager, she was unwilling to take rank beneath her sister-in-law; and thus a quarrel was commenced between the ladies, in which their husbands were soon engaged. John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, was an enemy to both parties, and bent on their destruction; and, to accomplish it with greater certainty, he pretended to be a mediator, while he dexterously encouraged the strife between them, and succeeded so well, that Somerset engaged Sharington to accuse his brother of high treason. He appeared to be highly displeased when the accusation was first made; but then he alleged that the King's life and honour were more dear to him than his brother's life, and he gave orders to proceed with his trial. The Admiral was condemned, and executed on the 20th of March, 1549. His lady, Queen Catherine, according to some, died of a broken heart; but we believe that she had previously died in childbirth (10).

19. On the death of the Admiral, Earl Warwick was entire master of Somerset's mind; he wound him round as he pleased, and had sufficient interest to appoint friends of his own to several

(6) Bossuet, t. 2, l. 7, n. 96. (7) Gotti, loc. cit. sec. Bossuet, Hist. l. 7, n. 86. (8) Varillas, l. 17, p. 126. (10) Varillas, 7. 17, p. 120.

coll. 2.

1, n. 3; Nat. Alex. loc. cit.; (9) Varillas, loc. cit. p. 126,

important places, by which he laid the foundation of the Duke's ruin. He strengthened his party, besides, by the adhesion of the Catholic lords-very numerous still-who were persuaded by him that there was no hope of re-establishing the Catholic religion while Somerset was in power. About the same time, the English lost Boulogne, in the ancient province of Picardy, and the Regent was severely censured, for not having sent reinforcements in time, to save it from the French. Several of the barons and nobility, likewise, had enclosed commonages in different parts of the kingdom, to the great grievance of the people, who looked to the Regent for redress, and not obtaining it, broke out into rebellion, and Warwick got the Parliament convoked. He had a very strong party in both houses, so the Regent was attainted, and sent to the Tower, and was executed on the 22nd of January, 1552, and both Catholics and Protestants rejoiced at his death (11).

20. The Earl of Warwick having now disposed of all his rivals, took the administration of affairs, even during Edward's lifetime, into his own hands, and got another step in the peerage, being created Duke of Northumberland; and not satisfied with all this, prevailed on the King to leave his crown, by will, to his daughterin-law, Lady Jane Grey, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, excluding Mary, daughter of Queen Catherine, as she was declared illegitimate in the reign of Henry VIII., and Elizabeth, as daughter of the adultress, Anna Boleyn. Edward died soon after, in the sixteenth year of his age, on the 7th of July, 1553, and Northumberland, it is said, immediately gave orders that Mary should be secured; but his secretary, a Catholic, thought it too bad that the heiress of the crown should be thus deprived of her right, and he escaped from his master, and arrived in Mary's presence two hours sooner than the person the Duke sent to arrest her (12). Mary immediately fled to Norfolk, where the people showed their attachment to her cause, by taking up arms in her defence. She collected an army of fifteen thousand men, and though Northumberland marched against her with thirty thousand, he was deserted by most of them (some say he never had more than six thousand in the beginning), and returned to London; but the citizens would not now admit him, and the fleet, likewise, declared for Mary. When Queen Mary was settled in the government, Northumberland was indicted for high treason, and, as there was no doubt of his guilt, he was condemned and executed. His sons suffered, likewise, and his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, Henry's niece, who wore the crown for ten days against her will, paid the penalty of her treason on the scaffold. Elizabeth was, likewise, kept in custody on suspicion. Northumberland had embraced Protestantism merely from political motives, but now returned again to the

(11) Varillas, t. 2, l. 17, p. 131, & l. 20, p. 1. (12) Varillas, t. 2, l. 20, p. 208.

Faith, confessed to a priest, and declared on the scaffold, that it was merely the ambition of obtaining the crown for his family that caused him to dissemble his Faith, and that he considered his punishment now a grace from God to procure his salvation. His sons and others, executed for the same crime, made a similar declaration. It is melancholy to see in this history so many persons condemned to death for trying to elevate themselves above their sphere, and how England became immediately on her loss of the Faith a field of slaughter for her children (13).

SEC. III. MARY'S REIGN.

21. Mary refuses the Title of Head of the Church; repeals her Father's and Brother's Laws; Cranmer is condemned to be burned, and dies a Heretic; Mary sends off all Heretics from her Court. 22. Cardinal Pole reconciles England with the Church; her Marriage with Philip II., and Death.

21. THE good Queen Mary, on her accession to the throne, refused to take the impious title of Head of the Church, and immediately sent ambassadors to Rome, to pay obedience to the Pope. She repealed all the decrees of her father and brother, and reestablished the public exercise of the Catholic religion (1). She imprisoned Elizabeth, who twice conspired against her, and, it is said, she owed her life to the intercession of King Philip. She opened the prisons, and gave liberty to the bishops and other Catholics who were confined; and on the 5th of October, 1553, the Parliament rescinded the iniquitous sentence of Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, by which he declared the marriage of Catherine and Henry null and void, and he was condemned to be burned as a heretic. When the unfortunate man found that he was condemned to death, he twice retracted his errors; but when all this would not save him from being burned, he cancelled his retractation, and died a Calvinist (2). By the Queen's orders, the remains of Bucer and Fagius, who died heretics, were exhumed and burned; and thirty thousand heretics were banished the kingdom, comprising Lutherans, Calvinists, Zuinglians, Anabaptists, Socinians, Seekers, and such like. The Seekers are those who are seeking the true religion, but have not yet found it, nor ever will out of the Catholic Church alone; because in every other religion, if they trace it up to the author, they will find some impostor, whose imagination furnished a mass of sophisms and errors.

22. Mary, likewise, proclaimed the innocence of Cardinal Pole, and requested Julius III. to send him to England as his Legate a latere. He arrived soon after, and, at the request of the Queen, reconciled the kingdom again to the Church, and absolved it from

(13) Varillas, l. 20, p. 202, a. 211; Nat. Alex. t. 19, c. 13, art. 5; Gotti, c. 114, sec. 1, . 4; Hermant, c. 268. (1) Bartol. l. 1, c. 3; Nat. Alex. loc. cit.; Hermant, c. 269; Varillas, t. 2, l. 20, p. 212; Gotti, c. 114, sec. 2, a. 1. (2) Varillas, l. 21, p. 252; Gotti, ibid. n. 4; Hermant, loc. cit.; Bossuet, 1st. l. 7, n. 103. (3) Nat. Alex. ibid.; Gotti, loc. cit. n. 4.

THE HISTORY OF HERESIES,

schism, on the Vigil of St. Andrew, 1554. He next restored ecclesiastical discipline, reformed the Universities, and re-established the practices of religion. He absolved all the laymen from the censures they incurred, by laying hands on the property of the Church during the time of the schism, remitted the tithes and first-fruits due to the clergy; confirmed in their sees the Catholic bishops, though installed in the time of the schism, and recognized the new sees established by Henry. All this was subsequently confirmed by Paul IV.; but, unfortunately for England, Mary died on the 15th of November, 1558, in the forty-fourth year of her age, and fifth of her reign. She was married to Philip II., King of Spain, and at first mistook her sickness, which was dropsy, for pregnancy. The Faithful all over the world mourned for her death (4).

SEC. IV. THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

23. Elizabeth proclaimed Queen; the Pope is dissatisfied, and she declares herself a Protestant. 24. She gains over the Parliament, through the Influence of three of the Nobility, and is proclaimed Head of the Church. Church Government, and, though her Belief is Calvinistic, she retains Episcopacy, &c. 25. She establishes the Form of 26. Appropriates Church Property, abolishes the Mass; the Oath of Allegiance; Persecution of the Catholics. Pope's Bull against Elizabeth. 29. She dies out of Communion with the Church. 27. Death of Edmund Campion for the Faith. 28. The 30. Her Successors on the Throne of England; deplorable State of the English Church. 31. The English Reformation refutes itself.

23. MARY died on the 13th of January, 1559, and Elizabeth, daughter of Anna Boleyn, was proclaimed Queen, according to the iniquitous will of. Henry VIII. I call it iniquitous, for the crown, by right, appertained to Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, for Elizabeth's birth was spurious, as she was born during the lifetime of Henry's first Queen and lawful wife, Catherine, and when Clement VIII. and Paul III. had already declared his marriage with Anna Boleyn null and void (1). Elizabeth was then twenty-five years of age, and highly accomplished, and learned both in science and languages. She spoke French, Italian, and Latin. She had, besides, all the natural qualities requisite for a great Queen, but obscured by the Lutheran heresy, of which she was a follower in private. During the lifetime of Mary she pretended to be a Catholic, and, perhaps, would have continued to do so when she came to the throne, or have become a Catholic in reality, if the Pope would recognize her as Queen, for in the beginning she allowed freedom of religion to all, and even took the old Coronation Oath to defend the Catholic Faith, and preserve the liberties of the Church (2). She commanded Sir Edward Cairne, the Ambassador in Rome from her sister Mary, to notify her accession and coronation to Paul IV., and present her duty, and ask his benediction. The Pope, how

(4) Nat. Alex. art. 5, in fin.; Varillas, . 21, p. 229; Gotti, sec. 2, n. 5, ad 7. (1) Gotti, c. 114, s. 3, n. 2; Varillas, t. 2, l. 22, p. 284. Berti, His. sec. 16. (2) Nat. Alex. t. 19, c. 13;