tried in vain to make an unwilling clergy accept their own dogmatic
standard, and the striking success of the Council of Trent in
vindicating Catholic doctrine, made it necessary to show the English
people what could be done by the supreme head of the Church at home
even though he was only a helpless boy. In 1549 Cranmer drew up a
series of Articles to be accepted by all preachers in his diocese.
These he submitted to the body of the bishops in 1551, and later at
the request of the privy council to a commission of six amongst whom
was John Knox. They were returned with annotations to Cranmer, who
having revised them besought the council to authorise their
publication. Finally in June 1553 Edward VI., four weeks before his
death, approved them, and commanded that they should be accepted by
all his subjects. The /Forty-two Articles/ represented the first
attempt to provide the English Church with a distinct dogmatic creed.
In the title page it was stated that the Articles had been agreed upon
"by the bishops and other learned and godly men in the last
Convocation held in London in the year of Our Lord 1552"; but
notwithstanding this very explicit statement, it is now practically
certain that the Articles were never submitted to or approved by
Convocation. In other words, as Gairdner puts it,[67] the title page
is "nothing but a shameful piece of official mendacity" resorted to in
order to deceive the people, and to prevent them from being influenced
by the successful work accomplished by the Fathers of Trent.

The Duke of Northumberland, who had scrambled into power on the
shoulders of the Catholic party, deserted his former allies, and went
over completely to the party of Cranmer, Ridley, and Hooper. Taking
advantage of England's peaceful relations with France and Scotland and
of the difficulties of the Emperor in Germany, he had risked
everything to make England a Protestant nation. He had removed the