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" in excommunicating such as be notable offenders. Nor never devise any other way; for no man is able to devise any better than that God "hath done with excommunication to put them from the congregation, "till they be confounded. Therefore restore Christ's discipline for ex"communication; and that shall be a means both to pacify God's "wrath and indignation, and also that less abomination shall be used "then in times past hath been, or is at this day. I speak this of a conscience, and I mean to move it of a will to your grace, and your "realm. Bring into the church of England the open discipline of excommunication, that open sinners may be striken with all.'" He also complained, Burnet says, that the king's debts were not paid, and yet his officers grew vastly rich. What the Protestants understand by excommunication, and how the excommunicated are to be avoided, we may gather from the 33d of the 42 of Edward's articles, and the 39 of Elizabeth's. It says, "That person which, by open denunciation of the "church, is rightly cut off from the unity of the church, and exeommunicate, ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful as a "heathen and a publican, until he be openly reconciled by penance, and "received into the church by a judge that hath authority thereunto." And Roger's in his explanation of it tells us, "that the most severe and "uttermost punishment that the visible church can inflict upon the "wicked, is excommunication. Which is to put the wicked doer from "the company of the faithful, to deliver him unto satan, and to de"nounce him a heathen and a publican. A man so cut off from the congregation, and excommunicated, is not to be eaten withal, nor to " be received into a house.”—Such is the punishment of excommunication by the church of England; let us then not hear it alleged any more against the Catholics.

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We have said enough to shew the progress that was made in the reformation so called, during the reign this boy pope. To the nation at large the consequences were of the most afflicting nature.While some of the most unprincipled men were exalted at court, and enriched with the spoils of the church, the people were reduced to the lowest state of beggary and want, and the clergy of the new establishment were the most ignorant and debased of their profession. Dr. Heylin, in summing up the tranactions of Edward's reign, says, "that such was the rapacity "of the times, and the unfortunateness of his condition, that his mi→ nority was abused to many acts of spoil, and rapine (even to an high "degree of sacrilege) to the raising of some, and the enriching of others, " without any manner of improvement to his own estate. For notwithstanding the great and most inestimable treasures, which must needs come by the spoil of so many shrines and images, the sale of all the "lands belonging to chanteries, colleges, free chapels, &c. and the " dilapidating of the patrimony of so many bishoprics, and cathedral "churches; he was not only plunged in debt, but the crown lands were "much diminished and impaired, since his coming to it. Besides "which spoils, there were many other helps, and some great ones too, " of keeping him from being both before-hand, and full of money, had they been used to his advantage. The lands of divers of the halls "and companies in London were charged with annual pensions for the "finding of such lights, obits, and chantry priests, as were founded

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"by the donors of them: for the redeeming whereof they were con"strained to pay the sum of twenty thousand pounds to the use of the king, by an order from the council table ; not long before the pay"ment of the first money for the sale of Boulogne, anno 1550. And "somewhat was also paid by the city to the king for the purchase of "the borough of Southwark, which they bought of him the next year. "But the main glut of treasure was that of the four hundred thousand crowns, amounting in our money to 133,333h. 138. 4d. paid by the "French king on the surrendry of the town and territory of Boulogne, " before remembered. Of which vast sum (but small in reference to "the loss of so great a strength) no less then four score thousand "pounds was laid up in the Tower, the rest assigned to public uses for "the peace and safety of the kingdom. Not to say any thing of that great yearly profit which came in from the Mint, after the intercourse settled betwixt him and the king of Sweden, and the decrying 66 so much base money, had begun to set the same on work. Which great advantage notwithstanding. He is now found to be in debt to "the bankers of Antwerp, and elsewhere, no less then 251,000l. of "English money."

Such was the deplorable state of England, brought on by the reformers in religion. By the same authority we learn too, that these state cormorants, when they found the kingdom placed in such difficulties, adopted similar notable means to retrieve it from embarrassment that we have seen put in practice in our time, when the ery of reform became too loud to be passed unheaded.—The doctor tells us "they fell upon a course to lessen the expenses of his court and family, by sup"pressing the tables formerly appointed for young lords, the masters " of the requests, serjeants at arms, &c. which though it saved some "money, yet it brought in none. In the next place it was resolved to "call such officers to a present and public reckoning, who either had " embezzled any of the crown lands, or inverted any of the king's money to their private use. On which course they were the more intent, because they did both serve the king, and content the people; "but might be used by them as a scourge, for the whipping of these "against whom they had any cause to quarrel. Amongst which I find "the new lord Paget to have been fined six thousand pounds (as before was said) for divers offences of that nature, which were charged upon "him, Beaumont, then master of the rolls, had purchased lands with "the king's money, made longer leases of some other crown lands than " he was authorised to do by his commission, and was otherwise guilty "of much corrupt and fraudulent dealings: forexpiating of which crimes "he surrendered all his lands and goods to the king, and seems to have "been well befriended that he sped no worse. The like offences proved against one Whaley, one of the king's receivers for the county of York, for which he was punished with the loss of his offices, and "adjudged to stand to any such fine, as by his majesty and the lords of his council should be set upon him. Which manner of proceeding, "though it be for the most part pleasing to the common people, and "profitable to the commonwealth, yet were it more unto the honour of "a prince, to make choice of such officers whom he thinks not likely

"to offend, than to sacrifice them to the people, and his own displea"sures, having thus offended."

FATE OF THE PRINCIPAL ACTORS,

We have given a detail of the evil effects produced by the Reformation on the people, we shall now proceed to shew the fate of some of the leading characters in the unholy transactions of this reign. The king was the child of Jane Seymour, from whose body he was ripped, and was of course the death of his mother, under his father's order. This queen had two brothers, Edward and Thomas, who rose to great favour under Henry, and to higher honours when their nephew came to the throne. Edward was made lord protector, and Thomas had the post of lord high admiral. The latter besides married Catherine Parr, the queen dowager, and the former took for his wife one Anne Stanhope, who is represented as a woman of an ambitious temper, and envious that her husband's brother's wife should have been a queen. She knew no will but her own, and she could not brook that she being the wife of the lord protector, should give way to the wife of his younger brother, who claimed precedency of her as queen dowager. Dr. Heylin tells us she thus said within herself, "Am I not wife to the protector, “who is king in power though not in title, a duke in order and degree, "lord treasurer, and earl marshal, and what else he pleased, and one who hath ennobled his highest honours by his late great victory? "And did not Henry marry Catharine Parr in his doting days, when he "had brought himself to such a condition by his lusts and cruelty, that "no lady who stood upon her honour would adventure on him? Do not "all knees bow before me, and all tongues celebrate my praises, and "all hands pay the tribute of obedience to me, and all eyes look upon me, as the first in state; through whose hands the principal officers “in the court, and chief referments in the church, are observed to pass? "Have I so long commanded him, who commands two kingdoms, and "shall I now give place to her, who, in her former best estate was but “Latimer's widow, and is now fain to cast herself for support and coun"tenance into the despised bed of a younger brother? If Mr. Admiral "teach his wife no better manners, I am she that will; and will choose " rather to remove them both, (whether out of the court, or out of the "world, shall be no great matter) than be outshined in my own sphere, " and trampled on within the verge of my jurisdiction."

With this disposition she went to work with her husband, and it was not long before she contrived to fill his head with an implacable jealousy against his brother. The lord admiral was equally as ambitious as the lord protector, and superior in abilities; he not only married a queen, but he aspired to the hand of the king's sister Elizabeth, while his dowager queen was alive. Dr. Lingard says, "his attentions to the princess were remarked; and their familiarity was so undisguised, "that it afforded employment to the propagators of scandal, and awakened the jealousy of his wife, by whom he was one day surprised "with Elizabeth in his arms. But the queen in a short time died in "child-birth; and her death happened so opportunely for his project,

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OF

Fox's Book of Martyrs,

CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL.

No. 47. Printed and Published by W. E. ANDREWS, 3, Chapter Price 3d. house-court, St. Paul's Churchyard, London.

EXPLANATION OF THE ENGRAVING. When the destruction of the monasteries was meditated, the most infamous means were re adopted to traduce and slander the monks and priests belonging to them. Ilaving thus excited a prejudice against them among the unthinking part of the people, some of the religious were occasionally exposed to the gaze and mock of the populace in the pillory, and sometimes, as a torture, to make them conform to the new doctrines.

"that by the malice of his enemies it was attributed to poison." He now redoubled his suit to the princess Elizabeth, began to intrigue with some of the discontented courtiers, and thus raised an excuse for his brother to have him arrested. This was accordingly done, he was committed to the tower, charges of high treason were preferred against him, a bill of attainder was brought into the house of lords, where his brother attended every stage of the bill, the third reading of which was agreed to without a division. In the commons it met with some opposition, but was eventually passed, and received the royal assent at the end of the session. Three days after the warrant for his execution was signed by the council, and, among other names, appear those of SEYMOUR and CRANMER, "both of whom," Dr. Lingard justly observes, "might, it was thought, have abstained from that ungracious

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"office, the one on account of his relationship to the prisoner, the other "because the canons prohibited to clergymen all participation in judgments of blood." Thus fell one of the uncles of the youthful pope and king. He was a partaker in the spoils of the church and the poor, and now received his reward for conniving at such unhallowed sacrileges, Dr. Heylin tells us, he had a grant of 100 marks annually, and a convenient house out of the property of the dissolved order of St. John of Jerusalem. He was afterwards created Lord Seymour of Sudley, having obtained possession of the manor and castle of Sudley by the attainder of the rightful owner Lord Botteler, whose greatest crime, Heylin says, was the being owner of so goodly a manor, which the greedy courtiers had cast their eyes upon. The lord high admiral obtained it with the title, but had scarcely got possession of it, when he lost it with his head and the title, and it fell once more into the hands of the crown, where it remained till queen Mary conferred it upon sir John Bruges, who derived his pedigree from the ancient inheritors of the

estate.

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The lord protector having removed his brother, the object of his jealousy, but the prop of his house, now thought himself omnipotent, and projected the erection of a magnificent palace, which should exalt him in the eyes of the nation. To give the reader an idea of the veneration in which the reformers of religion held the temples of the living God in these days, we will here give the account of the erection of this structure as told by Dr. Heylin." He had," writes the doctor, “ been "bought out of his purpose for building on the deanery and close of "Westminster, and casts his eye upon a piece of ground in the Strand, on which stood three episcopal houses and one parish church; the parish church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the houses belonging to "the bishops of Worcester, Lichfield, aud Landaff. All these he takes. "into his hands, the owners not daring to oppose, and therefore will"ingly consenting to it. Having cleared the place, and projected the "intended fabric, the workmen found that more materials would be wanting to go through with it than the demolished church and houses "could afford unto them. He thereupon resolves for taking down the parish church of St. Margaret's in Westminster, and turning the parishioners for the celebrating of all divine offices into some part of "the nave, or main body of the Abbey-church, which should be marked "out for that purpose. But the workmen had no sooner advanced "their scaffolds, when the parishioners gathered together in great "multitudes with bows and arrows, staves and clubs, and other such "offensive weapons; which so terrified the workmen, that they ran away in great amazement, and never could be brought again upon "that employment. In the next place he is informed of some super"fluous, or rather superstitious, buildings on the north side of St. Paul's "that is to say, a goodly cloister, environing a goodly piece of ground, "called Pardon-church-yard, with a chapel in the midst thereof, and "beautified with a piece of most curious workmanship, called the dance "of death, together with a fair charnel house, on the south side of the church, and a chapel thereunto belonging. This was conceived to "be the safer undertaking, the bishop then standing on his good behaviour, and the dean and chapter of that church (as of all the rest)