the reading of the English Scriptures in churches and to the poor, and all other Acts or sentences regarding doctrine or religion. It repealed also statutes passed in Henry VIII.'s reign, making new felonies, and those giving the authority of law to the King's proclamation. To the treasons of the statute of Edward were added twoa proved public attack in words three times repeated against the King's supremacy, and a similar attack in writing, printing, or by overt act. It was added that two witnesses were necessary in cases of treason. The preamble to this statute explains exceedingly well the change of plan which Somerset advocated. It acknowledges the occasional necessity of severity, "but," it continues, "as in tempest or winter one course and garment is convenient, in calm or warm weather a more liberal case or lighter garment both may and ought to be followed and used, so we have seen divers strait and sore laws made in one Parliament, in a more calm and quiet reign of another Prince repealed and taken away, the which most high clemency and royal example of his Majesty's most noble progenitors, the King's Highness, of his tender and godly nature most given to mercy and love of his subjects willing to follow, and minding further to provoke his said subjects with great indulgency and clemency, showed on his Highness' behalf to more love and kindness toward his Majesty, and upon trust that they will not abuse the same, but rather be encouraged thereby more faithfully and with more diligence and care for his Majesty to serve His Highness now in this his tender age, is contented and pleased that the severity of certain laws be mitigated and remitted.” At the same time that this Act was passed, all the remaining property of ecclesiastical corporations was intrusted to the Crown, with the exception of the Universities, Winchester, Eton, St. George's, Windsor, and the Cathedral Chapters, and the collation to bishoprics was placed entirely in the King's hands. Together with this completion of the work of the Reformation was passed a Bill which was intended to put a finishing stroke to the legislation of the last reign with regard to vagrants and able-bodied paupers. The GovernVagrant Act. ment had not yet been brought to understand that men cannot be forced to work unless there is work to give them, and that natural laws were in operation which, till fresh sources of industry were opened, could not but throw large masses of unemployed labour upon the market. It was now ordered that any determinately idle and able-bodied vagrant might be adjudged by two magistrates to any one wanting him as a slave, branded with the letter V, and to be

1 31 Hen. VIII., c. 8; 35 Hen. VIII., c. 23.

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kept in slavery for two years. If he refused still to work, he might be made a slave for life, or finally punished as a felon. Two years later, it was found necessary to repeal this severe Act.

Now that they had gained the upper hand, the Protestants pushed their advantage vigorously, and their teachers spread through England, preaching with rude and destructive vehemence against Religious the doctrines of the Roman Church, which were still differences. cherished by the mass of the people, who saw too these noisy innovators supported by those who were laying their hand right and left on the property of the old Church, and treating with scorn all that had been held holy. Somerset himself was seen appropriating mass after mass of ecclesiastical property, and thinking it no harm to pull down parish churches and chapels to supply room and material for his new palace of Somerset House.

The social difficulty which the last Parliament had tried to deal with, and the unrestrained triumph of the reforming Consequent party, produced two insurrections, which were the im- insurrections. mediate precursors to the fall of the Protector. Before they broke out it is necessary to mention a fresh difficulty which he found upon his hands. His brother, Lord Seymour of Sudeley, a man of violent temper and ambition, aspired to some share in the Protector's influence, and felt injured that, contrary to the usual precedent in such cases, both the Protectorship of the kingdom and the personal guardianship of the King should be in one man's hands. He sought to strengthen his position by marriage; the Council refused him the Princess Elizabeth, but he succeeded in marrying Catherine Parr, only two months after King Henry's death. He obtained also the guardianship of both Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey, the daughter of the Marchioness of Dorset, niece of Henry VIII. His con- Seymour of duct in other respects was lawless and threatening. He rejected, although High Admiral, the command of the fleet on the occasion of the late Scotch war. He had secret correspondence with the pirates in the Channel, for whose advantage he purchased the Scilly Isles, as a convenient place of refuge. He obtained from Sir William Sharington, master of the mint at Bristol, money for his purposes; he even established two cannon foundries. He won over several Lords to his interest, and on the death of his wife again sought the hand of the Princess Elizabeth. Everything went to show that he conceived the idea of supplanting his brother. It seems that he intrusted some of his plans to Southampton (Wriothesley), supposing that he was still Somerset's enemy. From him information reached

Treason of Lord

Sudeley.

the Protector, who had no choice but to arrest Lord Seymour. A Bill of Attainder was brought in against him, and although no opportunity was allowed him of speaking in his own defence, he was declared guilty and executed.

Act of

The next session of the Parliament was principally devoted to religious questions. A complete English Service Book Uniformity. was approved, in which the critical doctrine of the Lord's Supper was left uncertain; fasting was continued, but chiefly on the ground of its advantage to the fisheries; and the first Act of Uniformity was passed. Somerset probably believed that this and his other reforming measures were acceptable to the people, and would tend to bring in that reign of peace and charity which he desired. For the same reason he turned a willing ear to the complaints of the lower orders.

Popular tendencies of Somerset.

The changes in agriculture had thrown adrift great numbers of the labouring class. The same spirit which had made the landlords decrease their arable land urged them to pursue a new method of obtaining pasture. The unenclosed common lands of England were very large, and much of the livelihood of the labourers was derived from them. These were now taken in and enclosed by the neighbouring landlords, and the labourer's livelihood was thus cut off at both ends; he could neither find work, nor were his common rights respected. There was naturally much discontent, more especially as prices were rising under the influence of the restricted supply of corn and the depreciation of the coinage. The country was full of poverty and vagrancy and crime. Acts of violence occurred, and the destruction of enclosures became frequent. Instead of repressing them sharply, as would have been done in the last reign, Somerset, with his liberal tendencies, sympathized with the offenders. Laws had been made during the last two reigns to keep in check the growing evils of which the poor complained, and Somerset now issued a commission to see that those laws were carried out; and at the same time, thinking that the poor received scanty justice from the existing Law Courts, he established a private Court of Requests, through which they might have immediate access to him, and by means of which he did not scruple to set aside the process of law. The ills complained of and the object of the commission are well shown in a charge of Mr. Hales, one of the commissioners :-"There have been many good laws made for the maintenance of houses and husbandry and tillage, as in the fourth year of Henry VII., and in the seventh year of the reign of the

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King's Majesty's father, that no man should keep upon his own lands or farms, or upon his farms only, above the number of 2000 sheep; and in the same year, that no man should have or occupy more than two houses of husbandry in one town, parish, or hamlet. ... Yet, because the same laws were not reverently obeyed and obediently observed, we see they do little or no good. Towns, villages, and parishes do daily decay in great numbers; houses of husbandry and poor men's habitations be utterly destroyed everywhere, and in no small number. Husbandry and tillage, which is the very paunch of the Commonwealth, that is that that nourisheth the whole body of the realm, greatly abated, and finally the King's subjects wonderfully diminished; and albeit the commission extendeth to five principal points, that is for the decay of towns, villages, houses of husbandry, converting arable ground into pasture, the multitude of sheep, the heaping together of farms, the not keeping hospitality in households on the sites of the monasteries and religious houses which were dissolved by statutes made in the twenty-seventh year of the King's Majesty that dead is, and occupying of tillage on the demesnes of the same monasteries, yet doth altogether shoot but at one mark, and prick but at one prick, that is to remove the self-love that is in many men, to take away the inordinate desire of riches wherewith many be cumbered. And to plant brotherly love among us, to increase love and godly charity among us, and make us know and remember that we all, poor and rich, noble and ignoble, gentlemen and husbandmen, and all other of whatsoever estate they be, be but members of one body mystical of our Saviour Christ, and of the body of the realm."

Such a commission, however noble in its intention, could not fail to raise feelings akin to socialism in the minds of the poor, and call into existence hopes which could hardly be realized. The fruit of Somerset's revolutionary and meddling disposition was now ripe. In all directions he had exhibited a feverish activity; in all directions too he had shown a sympathy with the lower orders, and with the ultra-Protestants, quite at variance with the tradition of Henry VIII.'s masterful government; and Paget, the wisest statesman of the time, who had throughout supported Somerset, could with justice write to him in such terms as these-"What seeth your Grace over the King's subjects out of all discipline, out of obedience, caring neither for Protector nor King, and much less for any other mean officer? And what is the cause? Your own lenity, your softness, your opinion to be good to the poor. By and by the com

Revolutionary outbreaks

mons must be pleased; you must take pity upon the poor men's children and of the conversation and stay of this realm: and put no more so many irons in the fire at once as you have had within this twelvemonth. War with Scotland, with France, though it be not so termed: commissions out for this matter: new laws for this, proclamation for another: one on another's neck so thick that they be not set by among the people." Paget wrote these words upon the receipt of the news that the rebellion had broken out in the West. Discontent there assumed the form of opposition to the introduction of the new Service Book required by the Act of Uniformity. The Liturgy was read for the first time on Whitsunday, the 1st of June. On Whit-Monday the villagers of Sampford Courtenay insisted upon the priest's resuming his old dress and reading Mass in Latin. The insurrection soon spread through Cornwall and Devonshire, and broke out at St. Mary's Clyst, near Exeter. Lord Russell was appointed to suppress the movement, but, previous to his arrival, Sir Peter Carew took some unsuccessful steps in the same direction which seemed rather to augment the flame. The demands of the Western insurgents, which were put forward in a very imperious form, asked for the restoration of the Mass and of the Six Articles, the re-establishment of images, and the abolition of the English Liturgy. They named as their leaders Humphrey Arundel, and Boyer, the Mayor of Bodmin.

in the West.

In the East.

In the same letter which has before been quoted, Paget urged on the Lord Protector a vigorous line of action. He begged him to act in unison with the Council, to summon his German auxiliaries from Calais, and to use all his exertions to nip the insurrection in the bud, and afterwards execute vigorous justice in every rebellious county. But affairs were now complicated by insurrections in various parts of England, and especially one in the Eastern Counties, which, under the command of Robert Ket of Wymondham, a tanner, was assuming a formidable aspect. The causes of complaint here, however, were not religious but social. With these, as we have seen, Somerset sympathized. He was therefore in a dilemma, feeling it wrong to act with vigour against the Eastern rebels, and being unable to repress those of the West without losing his popularity. His action was therefore vacillating. Fresh commissions and lukewarm proclamations were issued; but with regard to the East he distinctly asserted that reformation should begin with the gentlemen, and not with the commonalty. The Council took the 1 Strype's Memorials, Repository of Originals, Letter HH.