Edward VI
Edward VI
King of England and Ireland , born Greenwich, England , 1537; died there, 1553. He was the only son of Henry VIII by Jane Seymour. Crowned at the age of nine, he died when he was but sixteen, and was buried in Henry VII’s Chapel by Cranmer with Protestant rites, while his sister Mary, whom he had continually harassed for her adherence to the Faith, had Mass said for him in the Tower. Before dying, he “willed” the throne to Lady Jane Grey to exclude a Catholic from succession. Under Edward, brought up a Protestant, dominated by his uncle, the Protector Somerset, and by Archbishop Cranmer, great doctrinal and liturgical changes came about, chief among them the introduction of the first and second Books of Common Prayer (indubitably by Cranmer, 1549; 1552). The first replaced the Latin Mass with an English Communion Service; the second denied the Real Presence and the Sacrifice of the Mass; the Acts of Uniformity compelled their use. Gardiner and other Catholic -minded bishops were incarcerated. “Grammar schools” imputed to Edward’s foundation, were but the partial restoration of the chantry and monastery schools disbanded under Henry; the necessity for “temperance” and “poor” laws was the result of the disappearance of the moral and material influence of the old religious order.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Edward VI
king of England, son of Henry VIII by his wife Jane Seymour, was born at Hampton Court, October 12,1537. He is mentioned here rather for the great events of his reign than for his personal qualities, though these were excellent. He was crowned in 1547, and his uncle, Edward Seymour, afterwards earl of Somerset, became Protector of the kingdom. “He was attached to the principles of the Reformation, and during his rule great strides were made towards the establishment of Protestantism in England. The images were removed from the churches; refractory Roman Catholic bishops were imprisoned; the laity were allowed the cup at the ceremony of the Lord’s Supper; all ecclesiastical processes were ordered to run in the king’s name; Henry’s famous six articles (known as the Bloody Statute) were repealed; a new service-book, compiled by Cranmer and Ridley, assisted by eleven other divines, was drawn up, and ordered to be used, and is known as the First Prayer-book of Edward VI, SEE COMMON PRAYERBOOK; and the celibacy of the clergy ceased to be obligatory” (Chambers, Encyclopaedia, s.v.). The young king was in full sympathy with the Reformation; but his plans, and those of his counselors were arrested by his death, July 6,1553.