still be put to death by common law, and two men were actually
executed for speculations about the divinity of Christ, but such cases
were wholly exceptional.

[Sidenote: Social disorders]

The social disorders of the time, coming to a head, seemed to threaten
England with a rising of the lower classes similar to the Peasants' War
of 1525 in Germany. The events in England prove that, however much
these ebullitions might be stimulated by the atmosphere of the
religious change, they wore not the direct result of the new gospel.
In the west of England and in Oxfordshire the lower classes rebelled
{315} under the leadership of Catholic priests; in the east the rising,
known as Kett's rebellion, took on an Anabaptist character. The real
causes of discontent were the same in both cases. The growing wealth
of the commercial classes had widened the gap between rich and poor.
The inclosures continued to be a grievance, by the ejection of small
tenants and the appropriation of common lands. But by far the greatest
cause of hardship to the poor was the debasement of the coinage.
Wheat, barley, oats and cattle rose in price to two or three times
their previous cost, while wages, kept down by law, rose only 11 per
cent. No wonder that the condition of the laborer had become
impossible.

The demands of the eastern rising, centering at Norwich, bordered on
communism. The first was for the enfranchisement of all bondsmen for
the reason that Christ had made all men free. Inclosures of commons
and private property in game and fish were denounced and further
agrarian demands were voiced. The rebels committed no murder and
little sacrilege, but vented their passions by slaughtering vast
numbers of sheep. All the peasant risings were suppressed by the
government, and the economic forces continued to operate against the
wasteful agricultural system of the time and in favor of wool-growing
and manufacture.

[Sidenote: Execution of Somerset, January 22, 1552]

After five years under Protector Somerset there was a change of
government signalized, as usual under Henry VIII, by the execution of
the resigning minister. Somerset suffered from the unpopularity of the
new religious policy in some quarters and from that following the
peasants' rebellion in others. As usual, the government was blamed for
the economic evils of the time and for once, in having debased the
coinage, justly. Moreover the Protector had been {316} involved