When Henry died in 1547 the English Church was Roman in appearance. Excepting the litany in English, he left the ritual very much as he found it, as he did nearly the whole framework of religious belief. He was, however, the instrument whereby three great barriers to improvement—the papacy, monasticism, and Biblical ignorance—were broken down. The course of national events during Henry’s latter years prepared the country for that reformation which it subsequently embraced. A remarkable thing connected with the issuing of the Bible, in English, is that Tyndale’s New Testament, which had been publicly condemned in England at the council called by his majesty in May, 1530, and copies of it had been burned in St. Paul’s churchyard, while Tyndale himself had been tracked like a wild beast by the emissaries of the English Government in the Netherlands, was published in 1538, by the king’s command, to be “sold and read by every person without danger of any act, proclamation, or ordinance heretofore granted to the contrary.” Copies of it were placed in the churches for the people to read, and portions of it were read from the pulpit every Sunday. When Henry died the situation was difficult for those who came after him. A religious revolution had been half accomplished; a social revolution was in progress, creating popular ferment; evicted tenants and uncloistered monks formed raw material for revolt; the treasury was empty, the kingdom in debt, and the coinage debased. CHANGES MADE BY EDWARD VI. Edward VI, “a child in years, but, mature in wisdom, intelligence and virtue,” was crowned king, February 20, 1547. He collected learned men around him from every quarter, and ordered the kingdom to be purged entirely of popish fictions, and a better religion to be publicly taught. On July 31st the council began the changes. A series of injunctions was issued to the clergy, ordering them to preach against “the bishops of Rome’s usurped power and jurisdiction; to see that all images which had been objects of pilgrimages should be destroyed; to read the Gospel and Epistles in English during the service, and to see that the litany was no longer recited or sung in processions, but said devoutly kneeling.” The council were evidently anxious that the whole service should be conducted in English, and that a sermon should always be a part of the service.