Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/445

Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 325 III. ENGLAND BECOMES PROTESTANT 550. Edward VI's Ministers introduce Protestant Practices. While the revolt of England against the papacy was carried through by the government at a time when the greater part of the nation was still Catholic, there was undoubtedly, under Henry VIII, an ever-increasing number of aggressive and ardent Protestants who approved the change. During the six years of the boy Edward's reign he died in 1553 at the age of sixteen those in charge of the government favored the Protestant party and did what they could to change the faith of the people by bringing Protestant teachers from the Continent. A general destruction of all the sacred images was ordered ; even the beautiful stained glass, the glory of the cathedrals, was demolished, because it often represented saints and angels. The king was to appoint bishops, and Protestants began to be put into the high offices of the Church. Parliament decreed that thereafter the clergy should be free to marry. 551. Queen Mary (isss-isss) and the Catholic Restoration. Edward VI was succeeded in 1553 by his half sister Mary, the daughter of Catherine, who had been brought up in the Catholic faith and held firmly to it. Her ardent hope of bringing her king- dom back once more to her religion did not seem altogether ill- founded, for the majority of the people were still Catholics at heart, and many who were not Catholics disapproved of the policy of Edward's ministers, who had removed abuses "in the devil's own way, by breaking in pieces." The Catholic cause appeared, moreover, to be strengthened by Mary's marriage with the Spanish prince, Philip II, the son of the orthodox Charles V. But although Philip later distinguished himself, as we shall see, by the merciless way in which he strove to put down heresy within his own realms, the English took care that he should have no hand in the government nor by any means be permitted to succeed his wife on the English throne. Mary succeeded in bringing about a nominal reconciliation be- tween England and the Roman Church. In 1554 the papal legate