repared
the people for the Protestant rule of Edward. The Bible was also
attacked. The translation of 1539 was examined by Convocation in 1540
and criticized for not agreeing more closely with the Latin. In 1543
all marginal notes were obliterated and the lower classes forbidden to
read the Bible at all.

Henry's reign ended as it began with war on France and Scotland, but
with little success. The government was put to dire straits to raise
money. A forced loan of 10 per cent. on property was exacted in 1542
and repudiated by law the next year. An income tax rising from four
pence to two shillings in the pound on goods and from eight pence to
three shillings on revenue from land, was imposed. Crown lands were
sold or mortgaged. The last and most disastrous expedient was the
debasement of the coinage, the old equivalent of the modern issue of
irredeemable paper. As a consequence of this prices rose enormously.

[1] The metaphor came from Erasmus, _De lingua_, 1525, _Opera_, iv,
682, where the words are attributed to Caecilius Metellus.

{310}

SECTION 2. THE REFORMATION UNDER EDWARD VI. 1547-1553

[Sidenote: Accession of Edward VI, January 28, 1547]

The real test of the popularity of Henry's double revolution,
constitutional and religious, came when England was no longer guided by
his strong personality, but was ruled by a child and governed by a weak
and shifting regency. It is significant that, whereas the prerogative
of the crown was considerably relaxed, though substantially handed on
to Edward's stronger successors, the Reformation proceeded at
accelerated pace.

[Sidenote: Somerset Regent]

Henry himself, not so much to insure further change as to safeguard
that already made, appointed Reformers as his son's tutors and made the
majority of the Council of Regency Protestant. The young king's
maternal uncle, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, was chosen by the
council as Protector and created Duke of Somerset. [Sidenote: 1547]
Mildness was the characteristic of his rule. He ignored Henry's
treason and heresy acts even before they had been repealed.

[Sidenote: Repeal of treason and heresy laws]

The first general election was held with little government
interference. Parliament may be assumed to have expressed the will of
the nation when it repealed Henry's treason and heresy laws, the
ancient act _De Haeretico comburendo_, the Act of the Six Articles, and
the Statute of Proclamations