Edward VI of England
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were also a response to criticism from such reformers as John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, and the Scot John Knox, who was employed as a minister in Newcastle under the Duke of Northumberland and whose preaching at court prompted the king to oppose kneeling at communion. Cranmer was also influenced by the views of the continental reformer Martin Bucer, who died in England in 1551, by Peter Martyr, who was teaching at Oxford, and by other foreign theologians. The progress of the Reformation was further speeded by the appointment of more reformers as bishops. In the winter of 1551–52, Cranmer rewrote the Book of Common Prayer in less ambiguous reformist terms, revised canon law, and prepared a doctrinal statement, the Forty-two Articles, to clarify the practice of the reformed religion, particularly in the divisive matter of the communion service. Cranmer's formulation of the reformed religion, finally divesting the communion service of any notion of the real presence of God in the bread and the wine, effectively abolished the mass. According to Elton, the publication of Cranmer's revised prayer book in 1552, supported by a second Act of Uniformity, "marked the arrival of the English Church at protestantism". The prayer book of 1552 remains the foundation of the Church of England's services. However, Cranmer was unable to implement all these reforms once it became clear in spring 1553 that King Edward, upon whom the whole Reformation in England depended, was dying.
Succession crisis
Device for the succession
In January 1553, Edward VI became ill, and by June, after several improvements and relapses, he was in a hopeless condition. The king's death and the succession of his Catholic sister Mary would jeopardise the English Reformation and Edward's Council and officers had many reasons to fear it. Edward opposed Mary's succession, not only on religious grounds but also on those of legitimacy and male inheritance, which also applied to Elizabeth. In February 1553, Mary made an official visit to Edward, welcomed by the Privy Council "as if she had been Queen of England", in the words of the imperial ambassador. Nevertheless, shortly before Edward's death, an attempt was made to subvert the succession.
Henry VIII had set a precedent in that a king had nominated and excluded heirs of his own volition, independently of traditional rules of descent. With his draft document headed "My devise for the succession", King Edward also undertook to change the succession; he passed over the claims of the princesses Mary and Elizabeth and, at last, settled the Crown on his first cousin once removed, the sixteen-year-old Lady Jane Grey. On 21 May 1553, in what was a triple marriage ceremony "with a display truly regal", Lady Jane married Guildford Dudley, the fourth son of the Duke of Northumberland. Her sister Katherine wedded the son of the Earl of Pembroke, and a sister of Guildford was matched with a descendant of the Plantagenets, England's former royal family.