ular movement the formal
sanction of the Government. Injunctions were issued for the general
purification of the churches. The Book of Homilies was issued as a guide
to doctrine, care was taken that copies of the Bible were accessible in
the parish churches, and translations of Erasmus's "Paraphrase of the
New Testament" were provided as a commentary.

Somerset was a brave general as well as a great statesman. He invaded
Scotland during the first year of his protectorate, on account of the
refusal of the Scottish government to ratify the contract entered into
with Henry VIII., by which it was agreed that Mary Queen of Scots should
marry Edward. At the memorable battle of Pinkie, on September 10, 1547,
the Scots were completely beaten. But Somerset was hastily summoned
southward. His brother, Lord Seymour, had been caballing against him,
and was arrested, tried, and beheaded on Tower Hill, on March 20, 1549.
But the fall of the protector himself was not long delayed, for under
his administration of three years his policy gradually excited wide
discontent. In various parts of the country insurrections had to be
suppressed. The French king had taken away the young Scottish queen, the
king's majesty's espouse, by which marriage the realms of England and
Scotland should have been united in perpetual peace. Money had been
wasted on the royal household. The alliance with Charles V. had been
trifled away. The princely name and princely splendour which Somerset
affected, the vast fortune which he amassed amidst the ruin of the
national finances, and the palace--now known as Somerset House,
London--which was rising before the eyes of the world amidst the
national defeats and misfortunes, combined to embitter the irritation
with which the council regarded him.

His great rival, John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, by constant insinuations
both in and out of parliament, excited the national feeling against him
to such a degree that at length the young king was constrained to sign
his deposition. He seems to have entertained no strong attachment to his
uncle. On December I, 1551, he was tried before the lords for high
treason and condemned. He was beheaded on Tower Hill on January 22,
1582. The English public, often wildly wrong on general questions, are
good judges, for the most part, of personal character; and so
passionately was Somerset loved, that those who were nearest the
scaffold started forward to dip their handkerchiefs in his b