there is no man of that age who has the least pretension to be ranked among our classics. Sir Thomas More, though he wrote in Latin, seems to come the nearest to the character of a classical author.

CHAP. XXXIV.

EDWARD VI.-1547.

1. State of the regency-2. Innovations in the regency, and the earl of Hertford chosen protector-3. Reformation completed4. Gardiner's opposition-5. Foreign affairs-6. Progress of the reformation in Scotland-7. Assassination of cardinal Beaton -8. Conduct of the war with Scotland-9. Battle of Pinkey-10. A parliament-11. Farther progress of the reformation12. Affairs of Scotland-13. Young queen of Scots sent into France-14. Cabals of lord Seymour-15. Dudley earl of Warwick-16. A parliament sanctions the attainder of lord Seymour, who is executed-17. Ecclesiastical affairs.

1. THE late king, by the regulations which he imposed on the government of his infant son, as well as by the limitations of the succession, had projected to reign even after his decease; and he imagined that his ministers, who had always been so obsequious to him during his lifetime, would never afterwards depart from the plan which he had traced out to them. He fixed the majority of the prince at the completion of his eighteenth year; and as Edward was then only a few months past nine, he appointed sixteen executors, to whom, during the minority, he entrusted the government of the kingdom. Their names were, Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury; lord Wriothesly, chancellor; lord St. John, great master; lord Russell, privy seal; the earl of Hertford, chamberlain; viscount Lisle, admiral; Tonstal, bishop of Durham; Sir Antony Brown, master of horse; Sir William Paget, secretary of state; Sir Edward North, chancellor of the court of augmentations; Sir Edward Montague, chief justice of the common pleas; judge Bromley; Sir Antony Denny and Sir William Herbert, chief gentlemen of the privy chamber; Sir Edward Wotton, treasurer of Calais;

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