Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/77

1552.] of intricate assertions on theological subtleties which the most polemical divines will not call vital, or on questions of public and private morality, where the conscience should be the only guide.

The death of the Duke of Somerset was followed by the trial and execution of Yane, Partridge, Stanhope, and Sir Thomas Arundel. The condemnation of Arundel was effected with great difficulty. The jury were shut up on a day in January twenty-four hours, without fire, food, or drink, before they would agree upon a verdict, and the four sufferers died protesting their innocence.

On the 30th of January Northumberland met Parliament.

The Prayer-book passed without difficulty. Cuthbert Tunstal, the last bishop who would have opposed it, had joined Gardiner in the Tower, the letter found among Somerset's papers having furnished an excuse to lay hands upon him; and a second Act was passed for uniformity of religious worship—persons who refused to come to church being liable to censure or excommunication, those who attended any other service to imprisonment.

A zeal was affected also for the more practical parts of religion, the humour of the people becoming dangerous, and the more earnest among the Reformers insisting on being heard. In a sermon before the King, Ridley had spoken of the distress to which the spoliation of public charities had reduced the London poor. Edward sent for him afterwards, thanked him for what he