were they likely, as Edward thought, to yield in any way to the most correct formula of justification. The 'medicines to cure these sores' were to be looked for in good education, good laws, and 'just execution of the laws without respect of persons, in the example of rulers, the punishment of misdoers, and the encouragement of the good.' Corrupt magistrates should be deposed, seeing that those who were themselves guilty would not enforce the laws against their own faults; and all gentlemen and noblemen should be compelled to reside on their estates, and fulfil the duties of their place.[1]
A king who at fifteen could sketch the work which was before him so distinctly, would in a few years have demanded a sharp account of the stewardship of the Duke of Northumberland. Unfortunately for the country, those who would have assisted him in commencing his intended improvements, Lord Derby, Lord Oxford, Lord Huntingdon, Lord Sussex, or Lord Paget, were far away in the country, sitting gloomily inactive till a change of times. Ridley was working manfully, as we have seen, in restoring the London hospitals; but Cranmer, after the destruction of Somerset, shrunk from confronting Northumberland; and, the Liturgy being completed, he was now spending his strength in the pursuit of objects which were either unattainable or would have been mischievous if attained. In the spring of 1552 he was endeavouring to take away the reproach of Protestantism by bringing the Reformed Churches
- ↑ Discourse on the Reformation of Abuses: Burnet's Collectanea.
