Foxe's patron, the fourth duke of Norfolk, was the earl of Surrey's son, so Foxe's circumspection in discussing the case is understandable.

Fane, Sir Ralph Fane's widow, was a 'sustainer' and correspondent of numerous Marian martyrs, particularly John Philpot.

In the disputations on the Sacrament of the Eucharist held at the two universities under the auspices of the Edwardian Privy Council, the problem of biblical and patristic proof-texting arises again and again. Both traditionalist or Catholic and evangelical or protestant - the last term did not come into common usage until the reign of Mary I (1553-1558) - claimed that Scripture and the writings of the Fathers of the Church (the theologians of the approximately the first 500 years of Christianity) upheld their disputed doctrinal stances, and quoted them liberally to demonstrate their claims to the antiquity of those stances. These theologians and indeed Foxe himself falls into the trap of not looking at their sources more critically; such critical study was to been at the heart of the humanist endeavor among scholars, but this seems to have become more and more of an ideal rather than a reality among controversial theologians in the Reformation period. Often the biblical and patristic sources they employed had not been written over a thousand years previously as tools for controversy; but often as sermons or treatises that were more concerned with persuading Christians to a more devout life through rhetoric, rather than through precision of thought.

William Wizeman, SJCorpus Christi ChurchNew York CityUSA

Edward Seymour was executed for treason in October 1551.

Edward VI died on 6 July 1553.

Foxe concludes his discussion of Edward VI's reign and the religious reforms that came with it by reflecting on the state of the Edwardian Church and the Protestant religion its leaders attempted to establish in England.

According to Foxe the English nobility were conforming to Protestant changes in religion, once Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, and Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London, the leaders of traditional or Catholic faith in England, had been imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Richard Smyth, William Chedsey, John Standish, John Young, Owen Oglethorpe were among the leaders of Catholic or traditional belief in England who seemingly conformed to the Edwardian Church. Smyth had been the Henrician Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, and fled into exile after recanting. Chedsey was a canon of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. John Standish had published a book on traditional religion under Henry, but became Archdeacon of Colchester under Edward. John Young assisted in the foundation of Trinity College, Cambridge in Henry's reign. Owen Oglethorpe was President of Magdalen College, Oxford. They all became leading members of the Catholic Church hierarchy under Mary I. Only Standish conformed to the Elizabethan Settlement in 1559, the rest undergoing exile or imprisonment.

Bonner acceded to the Royal Supremacy in religious matters under both Henry VIII and Edward VI, and initially administered the Edwardian royal injunctions regarding religion in his Diocese of London. In a short time he refused to conform to the religious changes, however, and was tried, convicted, deprived of his diocese and imprisoned in the Tower.

The second edition of the Book of Common Prayer appeared in 1552 with significant changes, which made more explicit the Protestant doctrines contained in the 1549 edition. Contrary to Foxe, there is no evidence that Gardiner intended to subscribe to the second Prayer Book. He was already imprisoned partly for his Catholic interpretation of the first, which incurred the wrath of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and encouraged him to bring forth the second edition.

The Edwardian regime was careful to imprison Bonner and Gardiner and to apply pressure to Mary to conform to religious changes; but they were careful not to make martyrs of them.

Peter Martyr, Martin Bucer and Paul Fagius were important theologians of the Reformation on the Continent, and fled to England from the Holy Roman Empire after Charles V's victories over the Protestant nobility. They were given important professorships in theology at England's two universities: Martyr at Oxford and the others at Cambridge.

Disputations were held at both universities on the subject of the Eucharist, one of the most divisive issues of the Reformation. These debates were set pieces to convince fellows, students and local aristocracy of Edwardian religious positions.

Impanation (Luther's view that Christ's body and blood are present together with the bread and wine, often called consubstantiation) and Transubstantiation, in which only the outward signs of bread and wine remain), are denied.

Another denial of impanation is presented.

William Tresham, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford until the beginning of Edward's reign, William Chedsey, Canon of St George's Windsor, and Henry Morgan, who became Marian bishop of St David's in Wales, upheld the traditional views on the Eucharist.