Jordan: 'Few monarchies in
history have been as well
equipped for their task as
was Edward VI'
Penry
Williams:
Edward was 'a
cypher in
politics'
Hoak:
Northumberland's
political 'genius'
was to see that
his political
survival and his
continued
dominance
depended on his
control of the
Council
Northumberland's
reform of Privy
Council procedures
marked 'revival' of
government by the
Council (Hoak)
Social policies
Bush: Somerset's social programme was not particularly
advanced and 'was in keeping with the age'
The Vagrancy Act was a
unpopular law that involved 'a
savage attack on vagrants
looking for work' - Heard
Religion
Loades: the Chantries Act
was more significant as a
gesture of reform than it was
as an act of plunder
With the advent of the
second Prayer Book
the worship of the
English Church could
be described as fully
reformed (Loades)
Hutton: the
new service
was
introduced in
every parish
in the sample
within the
prescribed
period of
1552-3
Jordan:
ending the
prayers for the
dead was
'probably the
most
shattering and
irreversible
action of the
Reformation in
England
Guy: Northumberland's
religious position was an
'enigma' (Tudor England).
Northumblerland may have
been influenced by 'public
order considerations' as
Protestantism more
naturally lent itself to social
control
Cranmer's significance, according to Loades, was 'not because
he was a saint, or a great theologian, but because he was able to
take the unique ecclesiastical polity devised in England between
1530-40, to develop it and make it work