Edwardian Reformation

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The Edwardian Reformation was the period when England, Wales, and parts of Ireland moved quickly toward Protestant church life during the reign of Edward VI (1547–1553). Edward was only nine when he became king after Henry VIII died. He was raised with a Protestant, humanist education, and many church reformers hoped he would lead a strong break with the old Catholic practices, much like a biblical reformer Josiah who cleaned out idols.

At first, real power lay with the regency council, which chose Edward Seymour, the Duke of Somerset, to be Lord Protector. Somerset moved reform forward but cautiously, partly because his authority was contested. The Six Articles of Henry VIII remained the law for a time, and in May 1547 a proclamation urged people not to fear changes in religion. Still, Somerset and Thomas Cranmer planned more reform.

In July 1547 the Book of Homilies was published, telling clergy to preach Protestant sermons on Sundays. The homilies attacked relics, images, rosaries, holy water, and other practices seen as “papistical.” They also proclaimed that people are justified by faith alone, not by good works. In August, about thirty Protestant commissioners were sent to visit churches, and the Royal Injunctions of 1547 urged a radical shift toward Protestantism. Public processions were banned, and imagery and sacraments were questioned or attacked. Images, shrines, and candles were often removed or whitewashed, and even relics were destroyed in many places.

Conservative bishops opposed the changes and were punished or imprisoned. Some parishes tried to hide or rescue sacred objects rather than give them up. The pace of reform varied by location, and in some spots people resisted or delayed implementing the new policies.

In Parliament in late 1547, old laws protecting traditional religion were overturned. The Six Articles were repealed, allowing freer debate about religion. The Sacrament Act of 1547 allowed laypeople to receive both bread and wine, which Protestants liked but some conservatives opposed. The Chantries Act 1547 abolished chantries—institutions that prayed for souls after death—and confiscated their assets. The money helped fund other ambitious royal policies.

The second year of Edward’s reign, 1548, brought further changes. Candlemas candles, ashes on Ash Wednesday, and palm leaves on Palm Sunday were reduced or banned, and the use of church images was ordered to stop. A new Mass reform, the Order of the Communion, began to reshape how the Eucharist was celebrated. It moved toward Protestant ideas, replacing the old belief in the real presence with a focus on faith and remembrance. Confession to a priest was made optional, and laypeople were told to “spiritually eat the flesh of Christ” when receiving communion.

By 1548, Cranmer and other leaders leaned toward a Reformed view of the Eucharist. A new English prayer book was created, and Parliament approved the Book of Common Prayer. The Book of Common Prayer, issued in 1549, replaced the various Latin rites with one English service. It kept a familiar structure—Matins, Mass, Evensong—and the church calendar, but the service was Protestant in content. It also allowed clerical marriages and kept some traditional elements, like baptism and the order of marriage, but with important Protestant changes. Music was limited at first, and many parts of the old liturgy were removed.

The 1549 prayer book faced resistance. In the West Country, uprisings broke out in 1549 in response to the new prayer book and because of economic changes like the enclosure of common land. The Prayer Book Rebellion and Kett’s Rebellion in East Anglia involved thousands of people and were harshly suppressed. Somerset was blamed for the trouble and was removed from power in October 1549.

After Somerset, John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, gained influence and pushed reform further to gain Protestant support and to defeat conservatives. From 1550 to 1551, many bishops opposed to reform were removed or replaced by Protestants. The old mass practices—such as elevating the Eucharist—faced increasing challenges. Altars began to be replaced with wooden communion tables in many places, and the push to remove traditional vestments began.

In 1551–1552, the crown ordered the confiscation of church plate and vestments “to raise money for the king.” Spare items were kept to prevent a future take-over, and some church goods were hidden or sold to raise funds for local projects. Tensions grew between reformers like Cranmer and the Duke of Northumberland, who sometimes distrusted each other.

A major doctrinal statement, the Forty-two Articles, was completed in 1553 and expressed a more Reformed theology, leaning toward Calvinist ideas like predestination and the authority of the king over the church.

Edward VI fell seriously ill in February 1553 and died in July. Before his death, he worried that his sister Mary, a devout Catholic, would overturn the reforms. A new plan of succession favored the Protestant Jane Grey, but most people opposed it. On July 19, 1553, Mary was proclaimed queen in London, ending Edward’s attempts to transform the church and beginning Mary's effort to restore Catholicism.