to the world, they might all again be painted to the life out of the story of this king." On that dismal winter night when the wretched creature lay dying, he sent for Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, to receive his last words, and passed away, "unwept, unhonored, and unsung." The world was well rid of him, and yet it is a strange truth, shown not for the first time in the life of Henry VIII., that England owed one of the greatest of all debts to the worst of men; for he hushed her turbulent mediavalism, encouraged her middle classes, and started her toward the highest plane of progress.

Parliament had given Henry special powers regarding the succession. His son Edward, who was only nine years old, was of course the rightful heir, but Henry ordered that, if his son died childless, the kingdom should go to Henry's daughters, first to Mary and her heirs, and then to Elizabeth and her heirs. After these two, it was to pass to the descendants of his younger sister Mary. You must keep these facts in mind in order to understand the events that follow. The throne went first to the feeble, sickly son of Jane Seymour, who was crowned as Edward VI. in 1547, entering London in triumphal procession, more than three centuries and a half before the next Edward, the seventh, was to follow him.

On account of the old troubles over Henry's divorce, that question was sure to turn up and plague the kingdom and the prospective heirs of the throne. The Duke of Somerset, uncle of Edward, was appointed to reign during the new king's minority. England then had two great parties-Roman Catholics and Protestants-and the momentous question was which was to become the master of the kingdom. Somerset, the Protector, was a Protestant, and he brought that faith to the front. He really cared nothing for religion itself, but was politic and selfish in all he did. He was ambitious, but the plain people liked him, for he treated them well.

He was a fine soldier, and in the first year of his rule invaded Scotland with the purpose of compelling the marriage of Mary with the young English King; but Mary eluded him, and, being sent to France the next year, became the betrothed of the French Dauphin, who was afterward Francis II. Somerset showed a brutal ferocity toward the Catholics, inspired thereto by his rapacity and his contempt for all forms of religion. Disregarding law and order, he sent savage mobs to throw down altars, to shatter the colored windows in the parish churches, and to rob the Catholics of their wealth. Many of the Protestants were horrified by these wanton outrages of the sacred convictions of those whose faith was different from their own. furious fights, and bloodshed, all in the name of Him who and good-will to men.

But they who sow the wind, must reap the whirlwind.

There were riotings, taught peace on earth

The bitterest enemy

England-The Accession of Mary

1041 of Somerset was his own brother, Thomas Lord Seymour of Sudeley, High Admiral of England, who had married Katharine Parr, the widow of Henry VIII. He aimed to supplant the Protector, but was destroyed by a bill of attainder, shut out from making any defence, and beheaded March 20, 1549. Somerset was not long in following him, for his rule was detested at home and was a failure abroad, and in 1552 he was beheaded on a charge of conspiring against his rival John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, and against other lords of the council.

Northumberland, who now took the management of affairs, resembled Somerset whom he had supplanted, for he had no religion, but professed to be a rigid Protestant. Seeing that Edward could not live long, he feared the coming to the throne of Lady Mary, who was sure to make an end of his arbitrary power. He, therefore, persuaded Edward to do an illegal thing by altering the succession, and, shutting out his sisters, to settle the crown on his cousin Lady Jane Grey, daughter of the Duke of Suffolk and granddaughter of Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon. The hope of Northumberland was to raise his fourth son, Lord Guilford Dudley, who had just married Lady Jane, to the throne of England. Edward died July 6th, 1553, and some believed that Northumberland used poison to hasten his death.

Lady Jane Grey had married at the age of sixteen, and she and her husband were devotedly attached to each other. They lived in a castle in the beautiful park near Leicester, her prayer being that they would be left alone to enjoy their quiet existence. She and her husband found the sweetest happiness in their admirable life, looking prayerfully forward to a serene future for both, and dreading above all things any step that would force them into the stormy political affairs of the country.

But one day her father-in-law and several nobles came into Lady Jane's presence, and kneeling at her feet, hailed her as the Queen of England. She was terrified, and assured them that she had no wish to reign, and would not do so. They insisted, and when her father and mother urged her for their sakes to accept the honor, she most unwillingly consented; but it was with a sinking heart, and the conviction that the end to all happiness for her had come. She was proclaimed on the 10th of July; but Mary was the rightful heir, and at Norwich on the 19th of the same month was also proclaimed Queen. Mary entered London at the head of a band of friends, without a single hand being aised to defend Lady Jane Grey, whom none were ready to accept as their Queen, since, as I have said, she had no moral or legal claim to that honor. The Duke of Northumberland was brought to trial and beheaded, and Lady Jane and Guilford Dudley were sent to the Tower. If you ever visit that famous building you may see the name "Jane" cut in the wall of the Beau

champ Tower, which is a part of the main structure, among scores of other names that are a sad reminder of those gloomy days of that long-ago. Lady Jane and her husband were beheaded February 12, 1554.

He

Returning to Mary Tudor, whose reign began in July, 1553, she was a devout Catholic, the daughter of Henry VIII., and in her veins ran the blood of those Spanish kings to whom mercy was unknown. She married her cousin Philip II. of Spain, who was a languid bigot, and who married her because it suited his father's policy. She was eleven years older than he, a sunken, cadaverous little woman, for whom he did not feel a particle of affection. When he came to England he was received with coldness and distrust. went back to his own land to become King of Spain and of the Netherlands, after which he never returned, except once to urge the Queen to join him in a war against France. She did so, and the results were disastrous to England. In January, 1558, Calais was captured by the French, after the English standard, planted there by Edward III., had waved above its walls for more than two hundred years. It was destined to fall in the course of time, and its loss was no harm to England, though Mary was so oppressed and humiliated that she declared that when she died "Calais " would be found written on her heart.

She was a fanatic, but a sincere one. The dearest ambition of her life was to restore England to the Church of Rome. Like most people of those times, and, sad to say, like some in the present age, she believed that those who thought differently from her, should be compelled to renounce their opinions, and, if they refused to do so, should be punished with death. It is a ferocious violation of the sweet charity taught by the Founder of Christianity, and has been the cause of crimes beyond the power of human computation.

The fires of persecution that blazed during Mary's reign have led to her being called " Bloody Mary." John Rogers, a canon of St. Paul's, who was working upon a translation of the Bible, was the first victim, and by the close of her reign more than two hundred men and women had perished at the stake. The most notable of the martyrs were John Hooper, late Bishop of Gloucester, Ridley, late Bishop of London, and the venerable Latimer. Ridley and Latimer were burned together at Oxford, October 16, 1555. Latimer, exhorting his friend to die like a man, declared, "We shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." Cranmer, the leader of the church of Henry VIII., recoiled and recanted, but was again brought to the stake. In the brief respite given him, he had pulled himself together, and, abjuring his recantation, bravely thrust the hand which had signed it into the flames and held it there while it shrivelled in the heat. Yet both Cranmer and Latimer had been zealous in sending others to the stake who differed with them. Let it be remembered, too, that persecution in Eng