It was not enough to establish effectually the new system, or to secure convinced and faithful ministers; it was necessary also to firmly establish its doctrines. Towards the end of the year 1551, the prelates had finished drawing up the articles of the national faith; forty-two propositions contained the same principles as the thirty-nine articles subsequently voted under Queen Elizabeth, which still remain the rule of faith of the Church of England. In the main, and under different forms, they come very near to the doctrines of the reformation on the Continent, inclining, sometimes towards Calvinism, sometimes towards Lutheranism, but always resting firmly upon the Bible.
The resource of removing the bishops, had always been open to the government when it had been found impossible to triumph over their resistance, but it was more difficult to compel the Princess Mary to practice the new worship. She had been warned, by an order of the council on the occasion of the institution of the prayer book, that the celebration of the mass would no longer be permitted even in her private chapel; and for two years the intercession of the Emperor in her favour remained ineffectual; the chaplains of the princess were arrested, she was at length summoned before the council, and the young king himself vainly endeavoured to convince her. The Emperor at length declared that he would wage war with England, rather than suffer his relative to be constrained in her conscience; Cranmer counselled the young king to temporise; but Edward VI. wept, lamented the obstinacy of his sister and the obligation which he was under of allowing mass to exist in any place in his kingdom. The attempts were renewed with Mary several times; she remained inflexible in her resolution. "If the chaplains cannot repeat mass, I shall not hear it," she said; "but the new service shall not be established in my house; if it were introduced there by force, I would leave the place." "Matters remained thus," says Burnet, "and I think that Lady Mary continued to have her priests and to have masses said, so secretly that it could not be complained of."
In truth, and notwithstanding the removal of the bishops and some deplorable executions of poor heretics who attacked the very foundations of Christianity, persecution was at a standstill under the reign of Edward VI. In the new stage of the Reformation, no Catholic suffered seriously for his attachment to his faith.
The obstinacy of the Princess Mary had left a profound impression upon the mind of the young king, and thus contributed, no doubt, to the effect of the insinuations of Northumberland in favour of a Protestant succession. Edward did not wish, however, to compromise any of his councillors, and he drew up with his own hand the project for a law which was to regulate the succession to the throne; he then caused the judges to be summoned, with the attorney and solicitor-general, to commission them to prepare the act. They hesitated; the king peremptorily commanded them to obey, and only reluctantly granted them time to examine the precedents, in order to satisfy the desires of his Majesty.
When these officers returned they were still undecided, or rather they had convinced themselves that the law required of them by the sovereign would involve an act of treason both on the side of the framers of the act and on that of the council. The king insisted; the Duke of Northumberland, who was present, flew into a passion; the lords of the council, to whom the judges expounded their scruples, had been won over by the intrigues of the duke. Cranmer, who had at first been opposed to the proceedings, yielded to the solicitations of the young monarch; the measure was resolved upon, and the act, prepared by the lawyers, was sanctioned by the great seal as well as by the signatures of all the members of the council. Northumberland had made an attempt to take possession of the person of Mary; but she had been warned in time, and far from responding to the summons in the name of the king, her brother, she retired precipitately to her castle of Kenninghall, in Norfolk. It was there that she soon learnt the news of the death of Edward VI., who expired at Greenwich on the 6th of July, 1553, at the age of fifteen years and a half. The time had come for a trial of the new basis upon which Cranmer had sought to found the religion of the kingdom. The question whether England was to be Catholic or Protestant was about to be decided.
Chapter XIX.
Persecution.
Bloody Mary (1553-1558)
The Duke of Northumberland was more ambitious than able, and more bold than skillful. In seeking to disturb the natural order of succession he had undertaken a task beyond his strength; nor had he appreciated the relative power of the two religions now existing side by side; he thought the Catholics more weakened than they were, and the Protestants more disposed to sacrifice all for the accession of a Protestant sovereign than they showed themselves to be; the project of taking possession of the two princesses, Mary and Elizabeth, was thwarted from the first. The death of the young king was kept secret, and an express was despatched to the sisters to bring them to him. It was the second time that Mary had been summoned, and notwithstanding her repugnance, she had set out, when a note from the Earl of Arundel warned her of the state of affairs; she immediately retraced her steps, and shut herself up in her castle of Norfolk. Elizabeth had also been warned in time. Northumberland henceforth had to struggle against a rival, at liberty and fully aware of his sinister designs.