A Child's History of England.151

Many of the bystanders [旁观者] rushed forward and steeped [浸泡] their handkerchiefs in his blood, as a mark of their affection. He had, indeed, been capable of many good acts, and one of them was discovered after he was no more. The Bishop of Durham, a very good man, had been informed [告发] against to the Council, when the Duke was in power, as having answered a treacherous letter proposing a rebellion against the reformed religion. As the answer could not be found, he could not be declared guilty; but it was now discovered, hidden by the Duke himself among some private papers, in his regard [敬重] for that good man. The Bishop lost his office [职位], and was deprived of his possessions.

It is not very pleasant to know that while his uncle lay in prison under sentence of death, the young King was being vastly entertained by plays, and dances, and sham [假的] fights: but there is no doubt of it, for he kept a journal himself. It is pleasanter to know that not a single Roman Catholic was burnt in this reign for holding that religion; though two wretched victims suffered for heresy. One, a woman named Joan Bocher, for professing [公开表明] some opinions that even she could only explain in unintelligible jargon [术语]. The other, a Dutchman, named Von Paris, who practised as a surgeon in London. Edward was, to his credit [值得赞扬], exceedingly [extremely] unwilling to sign the warrant for the woman's execution: shedding tears before he did so, and telling Cranmer, who urged him to do it (though Cranmer really would have spared the woman at first, but for her own determined obstinacy), that the guilt was not his, but that of the man who so strongly urged the dreadful act. We shall see, too soon, whether the time ever came when Cranmer is likely to have remembered this with sorrow and remorse.

Cranmer and Ridley (at first Bishop of Rochester, and afterwards Bishop of London) were the most powerful of the clergy of this reign. Others were imprisoned and deprived of their property for still adhering to the unreformed religion; the most important among whom were Gardiner Bishop of Winchester, Heath Bishop of Worcester, Day Bishop of Chichester, and Bonner that Bishop of London who was superseded by Ridley. The Princess Mary, who inherited her mother's gloomy [depressed] temper, and hated the reformed religion as connected with her mother's wrongs [injustice] and sorrows - she knew nothing else about it, always refusing to read a single book in which it was truly described - held by the unreformed religion too, and was the only person in the kingdom for whom the old Mass was allowed to be performed; nor would the young King have made that exception even in her favour, but for the strong persuasions of Cranmer and Ridley. He always viewed it with horror; and when he fell into a sickly condition, after having been very ill, first of the measles [麻疹] and then of the smallpox [天花], he was greatly troubled in mind to think that if he died, and she, the next heir to the throne, succeeded, the Roman Catholic religion would be set up again.

Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was Queen regnant [摄政] of England and Ireland from 19 July 1553 until her death. She was the oldest daughter of Henry VIII, and the only child of Catherine of Aragon who survived childhood.

held by the unreformed religion too... (她自己不想看)再说the the unreformed religion也禁止她看reformed religion的书。

pox: disease that causes pock[痘]-marks.

This uneasiness [不安], the Duke of Northumberland was not slow to encourage: for, if the Princess Mary came to the throne, he, who had taken part with the Protestants, was sure to be disgraced. Now, the Duchess of Suffolk was descended from King Henry the Seventh; and, if she resigned what little or no right she had, in favour of her daughter Lady Jane Grey, [Duchess把几乎不存在的王位继承权给她女儿] that would be the succession [成功] to promote the Duke's greatness; because Lord Guilford Dudley, one of his sons, was, at this very time, newly married to her. So, he worked upon the King's fears, and persuaded him to set aside both the Princess Mary and the Princess Elizabeth, and assert his right to appoint his successor. Accordingly the young King handed to the Crown lawyers a writing signed half a dozen times over by himself, appointing Lady Jane Grey to succeed to the Crown, and requiring them to have his will made out according to law. They were much against it at first, and told the King so; but the Duke of Northumberland - being so violent about it that the lawyers even expected him to beat them, and hotly declaring that, stripped to his shirt, he would fight any man in such a quarrel - they yielded. Cranmer, also, at first hesitated; pleading that he had sworn to maintain the succession of the Crown to the Princess Mary; but, he was a weak man in his resolutions, and afterwards signed the document with the rest [其余的] of the council.

uneasy: worried or slightly afraid.

the young King handed to the Crown lawyers a writing half a dozen times; the writing was signed over by himself.

It was completed none too soon [just in time]; for Edward was now sinking in a rapid decline [病情恶化得很快]; and, by way of making him better, they handed him over to a woman-doctor who pretended to be able to cure it. He speedily got worse. On the sixth of July, in the year one thousand five hundred and fifty-three, he died, very peaceably and piously [虔诚地], praying God, with his last breath, to protect the reformed religion.

This King died in the sixteenth year of his age, and in the seventh of his reign. It is difficult to judge what the character of one so young might afterwards have become among so many bad, ambitious, quarrelling nobles. But, he was an amiable boy, of very good abilities, and had nothing coarse or cruel or brutal in his disposition [性情] - which in the son of such a father is rather surprising.

Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine.

六级/考研单词: bystander, haste, affection, bishop, notify, uprising, reform, guilt, deprive, jail, entertain, journal, catholic, reign, wretched, intelligible, jargon, warranty, execute, shed, dread, sorrow, potent, clergy, imprison, adhere, princess, gloom, temper, heir, throne, descend, gray, assert, successor, accordingly, accord, quarrel, yield, hesitate, plead, rapid, cure, pray, ambition, noble, amiable, coarse, brutal, disposition