CHAP. LIV.

Of Queen Mary and the Persecutions during her Reign.

KING EDWARD VI. reigned six years; during which time the reformation went on rapidly through the zeal of Cranmer, and other divines.

Edward, on his death-bed, from his attachment to the reformed religion, made a very unconstitutional will; for he set aside his sister Mary from the succession, which was claimed by lady Jane Grey, daughter to the dutchess of Suffolk, younger sister to Henry VIII. This lady, though she had scarcely reached her seventeenth year, was a prodigy of learning and virtue. But the bulk of the English nation recognized the claim of the princess Mary, who cut off lady Jane's head, and that of her husband, lord Guilford Dudley, son to the duke of Northumberland, who suffered in the same manner.

Mary being thus settled on the throne, was married to Philip II. king of Spain, who, like herself, was an unfeeling bigot to popery; and the chief praise of her reign is, that by the mar riage articles, provision was made for the independence of the English crown. By the assistance of troops, which she furnished to her husband, he gained the important battle of St. Quintin. But that victory was so ill improved, that the French, under the duke of Guise, soon

after took Calais, the only place then remaining to the English in France.

This event, together with the consciousness of being hated by her subjects, and despised by her husband, so much affected Mary, whose health had long been in a declining state, that she fell into a lingering fever, which put an end to her short and inglorious reign, in the year 1558. "When I am dead," said she to her attendants, "you will find Calais at my heart."

Mary possessed few qualities either estimable or amiable. Her person was as little engaging as her manner. And, amidst all that complica tion of vices which entered into her composi tion, obstinacy, bigotry, violence, cruelty, we scarcely find any virtue but sincerity, unless we add vigor of mind, a quality which seems to have been inherent in her family.

During this queen's reign, persecution for religion was carried to the most terrible height. The mild counsels of cardinal Pole, who was inclined to toleration, were over-ruled by Gardiner and Bonner; and multitudes of all conditions, ages and sexes, were committed to the flames.

The persecutors began with Rogers, prebendary of St. Paul's, a man equally distinguished by his piety and learning, but whose domestic situation, it was hoped, would bring him to compliance. He had a wife whom he tenderly loved, and ten children; yet did he continue firm in his principles; and such was his serenity, after condemnation, that the jailers, it is said, awaked him from a sound sleep, when the hour of his execution approached. He suffered in Smithfield.

Hooper, bishop of Gloucester, was condemned at the same time with Rogers, but sent to his own diocese to be punished, in order to strike the greater terror into his flock. The constancy of his death, however, had a very contrary effect. It was a scene of consolation to Hooper, to die in their sight, bearing testimony to that doctrine which he had formerly taught among them; and continued to exhort them, till his tongue, swollen by the violence of his agony, denied him utterance.

Ferrar, bishop of St. David's, also suffered this terrible punishment in his own diocese; and Ridley, bishop of London, and Latimer, formerly bishop of Worcester, two prelates venerable by their years, their learning and their piety, perished together in the same fire at Oxford, supporting each other's constancy, by their mutual exhortations. Latimer, when tied to the stake, called to his companion, "Be of good cheer, my brother; we shall this day, kindle such a flame in England, as, I trust in God, will never be extinguished."

Sanders, a respectable clergyman, was committed to the flames at Coventry. A pardon was offered him if he would recant. But he rejected it with disdain, and embraced the stake, saying, "Welcome, cross of Christ! Welcome, everlasting life!"

Cranmer had less courage at first. Terrified at the prospect of those tortures which awaited him, or overcome by the fond love of life, and by the flattery of artful men, who pompously represented the dignities to which his character still

entitled him, if he would merit them by a recantation, he agreed, in an unguarded hour, to subscribe to the doctrines of the papal supremacy, and the real presence.

But the court, no less perfidious than cruel, determined that his recantation should avail him nothing; that he should acknowledge his errors in the church before the people, and afterwards be led to execution.

Whether Cranmer received secret intelligence of their designs, or repented of his weakness, or both, is uncertain; but he surprized the audience by a declaration very different from what was expected. After explaining the sense of what he owed to God and his sovereign, "There is one miscarriage in my life," said he, "of which, above all others, I severely repent,-the insincere declaration of faith, to which I had the weakness to subscribe. But I take this opportunity of atoning for my error, by a sincere and open recantation, and am willing to seal with my blood that doctrine, which I firmly believe to be communicated from heaven."

As his hand, he added, had erred, by betray. ing his heart, it should first be punished by a severe, but just doom. He accordingly stretched it out, as soon as he came to the stake, to which he was instantly led, and without discovering, either by his looks or motions, the least sign of weakness, or even of feeling, he held it in the flames till it was entirely consumed. His thoughts, to use the words of an elegant and learned historian, appeared to be totally occupied in reflecting on his former fault; and he called

aloud several times, "This hand has offended!" When it dropped off, he discovered a serenity in his countenance, as if satisfied with sacrificing to divine justice the instrument of his crime and when the fire attacked his body, his soul, totally collected within itself, seemed superior to every external accident, and altogether inaccessible to pain.

CHAP. LV.

Of Charles V. King of Spain, and Emperor of Germany.

CHARLES V. grandson of Maximilian, of the house of Austria, was elected emperor in the year 1519. His extensive possessions in Europe, Africa, and, above all, America, from whence he drew immense treasures, began to alarm the jealousy of the neighboring princes, but could not satisfy the ambition of Charles; and we find him constantly engaged in foreign wars, or with his own protestant subjects, whom he in vain attempted to bring back to the catholic church. At last, after a long and turbulent reign, he came to a resolution that filled all Europe with astonishment.

Though he was no more than fifty-six, an age when objects of ambition operate with full force on the mind, and are generally pursued with the greatest ardor, he determined to resign his hereditary dominions to his son Philip, and to with

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