chester, and Day of Chichester, were deprived of their bishopricks, and committed to several prisons, as Baker tells us, p. 323. And thus we see the politic and violent means made use of to establish the English reformation in the reign of Edward VI. The scandalous sacrileges committed by the most zealous promoters of it; and the vile motives that spurred them on to it. Which if it suffices not to convince any man, that it was not the work of God, it is in vain to argue with him.

SECTION XII.

Death of Edward VI. The usurper, Jane Grey, executed. Mary's reign and death.

Edward, who was a poor sickly lad, seems to have had no distinctive characteristic except that of hatred to the Catholics and their religion, in which hatred Cranmer, and others, had brought him up. His life was not likely to be long, and Northumberland, who was now his keeper, conceived the project of getting the crown in his own family; a project quite worthy of a hero of the "Reformation."

In order to carry this project into effect, he married one of his sons, Lord Guilford Dudley, to Lady Jane Grey, who next after Mary and Elizabeth, and Mary Queen of Scotland, was

heiress to the throne. Having done this, he got Edward to make a will, settling the crown on this Lady Jane, to the exclusion of his two sisters, merely because she was "a sincere protestant." The judges, the Lord Chancelfor, the Secretaries of State, the Privy Council; all were afraid to put their names to this transfer of the crown. The thing was, however, at last accomplished, and with the signature of Cranmer to it, though he, as one of the late king's executors, and the first upon that list, had sworn in the most solemn manner, to maintain his will; according to which will the two sisters, in case of no issue by the brother, were to succeed that brother on the throne. Thus in addition to his fourth act of notorious perjury, this maker of the book of common prayer become clearly guilty of high treason. now, at last, in spite of all his craft, had woven his own halter, and that too, beyond all doubt, for the purpose of preserving his bisho-prick.

He

The Princess Mary, was next heir to the throne. He had divorced her mother; he had been the principal agent in that unjust and most wicked transaction; and, besides, he knew that Mary was immovably a Catholic, and that of course, her accession must be the death ot his office and his church. Therefore he now committed the greatest crime known to the laws, and that, too, from the basest of motives.

It was on the evening of the sixth of July, 1553, that Edward expired at Greenwich, in the sixteenth year of his age, and the seventh

of his reign, expiring on the same day of the year that his savage father had brought Sir Thomas Moore to the block. To conceal the knowledge of his death, the guards had been doubled in the palace, and all communication had been intercepted between his chamber and the other apartments. Yet that very night, while the lords sat in deliberation, the secret was communicated to Mary by a note from the Earl of Arundel, unfolding the design of the conspirators.

The

She was then at Hoddesdon, in the neighborhood of London, and, had she hesitated, would by the next morning have been a prisoner in the Tower. Without losing a moment, she mounted her horse, and rode with the servants of her household to Kinninghall, in Norfolk.The council broke up after midnight; and Clinton, the Lord Admiral, took possession of the Tower, with the Royal Treasury, the munitions of war and prisoners of state. three next days were employed in making such previous arrangements as were thought neces sary for the success of the enterprise. While the death of Edward was yet unknown, the officers of the guards and of the household, the Lord Mayor, six Aldermen, and twelve of the principal citizens, were summoned before the council. All these were informed of the recent settlement of the crown, and required to take an oath of allegiance to the new sovereign: The latter were dismissed with an injunction not to betray the secret, and to watch over the tranquillity of the city. On the fourth morning

it was determined to publish the important intelligence, and the chief of the Lords, attended by a numerous escort, rode to Sion house, to announce to the Lady Jane her succession to the throne of her royal cousin.

Jane has been described to us as a young woman of gentle manners, and superior talents; addicted to the study of the scriptures and the classics, but fonder of dress than suited the austere notions of the reformed preachers. Of the designs of the Duke of Northumberland in her favor, and the arts by which he had deceived the simplicity of Edward, she knew nothing: Nor had she suffered the dark and mysterious predictions of the Dutchess to make impression on her mind. Her love of privacy had induced her to solicit, what in the uncertain state of the King's health was readily granted, permission to leave London, and to spend a few days at Chelsea. She was enjoying herself in this retirement, when she received by the Lady Sidney, her husband's sister, an order from the council to return immediately to Sion house, and await there the command of the king.

She obeyed; and the next morning was visited by the duke of Northumberland, the marquis of Northampton, and the earls of Arundel, Huntingdon and Pembroke. At first the conversation turned on indifferent subjects, but there was in their manner an air of respect, which awakened some uneasiness in her mind, and seemed to explain the hints already given to her by her mother-in-law. Soon afterwards

that lady entered, accompanied by the dutchessof Suffolk, and the marchioness of Northampton; and the duke, addressing the lady Jane, informed her that the king her cousin was dead; that before he expired, he had prayed to God to preserve the realm from the infection of papistry, and the misrule of his sisters Mary and Elizabeth; that, on account of their being bastards, and by act of parliament incapable of succession, he had resolved to pass them by, and to leave the crown in the right line; and that he had therefore commanded the council to proclaim her, the lady Jane, his lawful heir, and in default of her and her issue, her two sisters, Catharine and Mary. At these words the lords fell on their knees, declared that they took her for their sovereign, and swore that they were ready to shed their blood in support of her right.

The reader may easily conceive the agitation of spirits which a communication so important and unlooked for, was likely to create in a young woman of timid habits and delicate health. She trembled, uttered a shriek, and shrunk to the ground. On her recovery she observed to those around her, that she seemed to herself a very unfit person to be a queen, but that, if the right were hers, she trusted God would give her strength to wield the sceptre to his honor and the benefit of the nation. Such is the account of this transaction given by Jane herself, in a letter from the tower to queen Mary. The feelings which she describes, are such as we might expect; surprise