Protestantism in England From the Times of Henry VIII - James Aitken Wylie

scheme took its rise with the domineering
Northumberland, who, having married one of his
sons to Lady Jane, hoped thus to bring the crown
into his own family. The argument, however, that
the duke urged on the king, was that Mary, being a
bigoted adherent of the Romish faith, would
overthrow the Reformation in England should she
succeed to the throne. The king, therefore, in his
will set aside his sister, and nominated Lady Jane
Grey in her room. The archbishop strongly
withstood the proposed alteration, but, persuaded
by the king, who ceased not to entreat him, he put
his name, the last of all the privy councilors, to the
king's will.[8] This was not forgotten by Mary, as
we shall see, when she came to reign. The zeal of
Edward for the Reformation continued unabated:
his piety was not only unfeigned, but deep; but
many of the noblemen of his court led lives
shamefully immoral and vicious, and there was,
alas, no Calvin to smite the evil-doers with the
lightnings of his wrath. With the death of Edward
VI, in his sixteenth year (July 6, 1553), the night
again closes around the Reformation in England.
260