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Justin DiCharia
King Edward VI of Englands biblical fulfillment
King Edward VI assumed the throne at the age of nine. Satisfying the wishes of
Edwards father, Henry VIII, a regency council was appointed to aid the young king in ruling
England. Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, a leading member on the Regency
Council, created a biblical analogy for Edwards kingship during his speech at the coronation.
Cranmer called Edward Englands Josiah a biblical reference to the young king of Judah who
discovered the book of Deuteronomy and from its contents reinstated the Passover and destroyed
all signs of paganism within Judah. The analogy attempted to bind Edward to a predetermined
fate; Edward fit the role given to him, but broke the boundaries of Josiah, exceeding the
protestants expectations. Although Edwards rule lasted a short six years, he successfully
fulfilled the role of Josiah through his religious reforms that would lay the groundwork for the
Anglican Church that exists today, including establishing the practice of remembrance and
ridding churches of imagery and relics. The role of Josiah allowed Protestant reformers to guide
Edwards path in a direction opposite of his father, inspired Edward in his religious role as king,
and reminded Edward of faithfulness to the Protestant cause when traditionalists stood in his
way.
Josiahs rigorous reform began when he was 16, whereas Edwards came much earlier.

Arguably, Edward surpassed Josiah in terms of religious reform accomplished during youth.
Due to Josiahs lack in description of Josiahs youth, Cranmer and ministers like Hugh Latimer
and Nicholas Ridley formed their analogy of Josiah to stress the youth of the Hebrew king. Peter
Martyr wrote to Henry Bullinger that the tender age, too, of our Josiah is no slight hinderance to
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the business.
1
Martyr, a continental reformer invited to stay in England by Cranmer, wrote
about Edwards great faith, without political motive. While Martyr had been exiled from many
of the continental countries and a necessity to keep his English residency existed, his excitement
for religious reform was genuine:
But, on the other hand, we derive no little comfort from having a king who is truly holy,
and who is inflamed with so much zeal for godliness. He is endued with so much
erudition for his age, and already expresses himself with so much prudence and gravity,
as to fill all his hearers with admiration and astonishment.
2

Martyr may have exhibited sincerity in his excitement for Edwards reign and his
comparison of the king to Josiah, but other members of the protestant camp used the Josiah
comparison to steer Edward into staying within the historical boundaries of the biblical role.
After the unpredictable rule of Henry VIII, protestant leaders wanted to ensure reform from
traditionalist values. Josiah created the perfect role model for the young king. The propaganda
using the Josiah comparison was both an internal and external tool for reformers; it not only
implied the path Edward was to take as a reformist king, but it also gave the people a positive
biblical character to relate to when thinking of their new, nine-year-old king ruling England.
John Hooper, a protestant reformer, described an England of chaos and a cruel tyranny of
antichrist, subtly relating Englands condition before Edward to Judahs condition before
Josiah.
3
Hooper then sets the boundaries that Edward is to follow:

1
Peter Martyr, 1551 Letter to Henry Bullinger, in Peter Martyr A Reformer in Exile (1542-1562): A
chronology of biblical writings in England & Europe, trans. Marvin Anderson (B. De Graaf, 1975), 131.
2
Peter Martyr, 1550 Letter to Henry Bullinger, 113.
3
John Hooper, Epistle Dedicatory to Edward VI and the his council, in Writings of Dr. John Hooper:
Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1853), 86.

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For those mens foolishness, or rather I should say their malice, is condemned by the
word of God, which teaches how a king in his young age, with his wise and godly
council, should abolish idolatry, and set forth the true and godly religion of the living
God. Thus declares the notable and godly deed of Josiah, who followed the religion of
his father, not Amon the idolater, but of David, declining not to the right hand, neither to
the left hand: and destroyed not only the images of his father, but also those of Jeroboam
and of Solomon. 2 Kings xxii. xxiii. This fruit of Josiah, his godly counsellors and
virtuous priests helped.
4

Hoopers description of the role the king is to take lays out Edwards duties required of him to
become Englands Josiah. For the Protestants, the Act of Six Articles epitomized traditionalist
idolatry through its advocacy of transubstantiation, and Edward was destined to abolish
idolatry, which he fulfilled by eliminating the Act of Six Articles and beginning the practice of
the protestant celebration of the Eucharist, remembrance. The abolition of idolatry also occurred
in the form of iconoclasm throughout Europe. The government did not immediately stop the
widespread citizen acts of iconoclasm that occurred at the outset of Edwards kingship, and later
they even created the Visitation Injunctions, which rendered pilgrimages, relics, and images
worthless and illegal. Hoopers reference to Josiah following in Davids footsteps, but not his
immediate father Amons footsteps quietly denounces the reforms of Henrys reign. Josiahs
obedience to David, in this case, would be symbolic for Jesus and the early church. The most
direct sign that the Protestants wanted Edward to be guided by the image of Josiah, in order to
assure reform, was the reference to Josiahs advisors, which considers Josiahs success possible
with the aid of his counsellors and priests. Hooper, once again, uses an example of another

4
John Hooper, Epistle Dedicatory to Edward VI and the his council, 87.

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young, Hebrew king, Joash, to emphasize the success achieved by the king listening to his
counsellors: Even so Joash, being but a child, was helped by his counsellors in the like
proceedings and reformation of religion.
5
The repeated idea of counsellors helping the king was
an attempt to move Edward toward accepting the advice of his regency council and clergy in
terms of religious reform, as to prevent a reoccurrence of Henrys reign.
Edward exceeded the boundaries created by the biblical persona of Josiah. The young
kings education from the Protestant tutors Richard Cox and John Cheke implanted Protestant
ideology within Edwards mind, before his kingship began. The boundaries Josiahs persona
created may have aided in his decisions to reform the church, but it was through his own
religious faith that the necessity of Protestant reformation was realized. The King and his
regency council worked more in cooperation, rather than through the council attempting
manipulation.
6
Edward followed Josiahs path and took counsel from his advisors. Cranmer
provides evidence of the cooperation between king and counsel through his correspondence with
Edward on the passage of a translation of the Catechism of Justus Jonas into law. Cranmer
presents the logical reasoning behind his request: Hath not the commandments of Almighty
God, the articles of the Christian faith, and the Lords Prayer, been ever necessarily, since
Christs time, required of all, both young and old, that professed Christs name, yea though they
were not learned to read?
7
Cranmers arguments to the King prove that the relationship was
two-sided; the Regency Council was not in control of the King. The propaganda of Josiah in
terms of the aid provided by his counsellors may have affected Edward during his youth and

5
John Hooper, Epistle Dedicatory to Edward VI and the his council, 87.
6
Stephen Alford, Kingship and Politics in The Reign of Edward VI (NY: Cambridge University Press,
2002), 64.
7
Thomas Cranmer, 1549 Letter to King Edward VI, in The Work of Thomas Cranmer, ed. G.E.
Duffield (Appleford, UK: Sutton Courtenay Press, 1965), 269.

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allowed for a more symbiotic relationship between the leading Protestant reformers and their
zealous king.
Although, an emphasis on Josiahs counsellors existed within early propaganda during
Edwards rule, the role of Josiah could not truly be fulfilled in the biblical sense unless Edward
assumed a highly involved role within the reformation. Not only does Edwards cooperation
with the Regency Council provide evidence of his involvement at a young age, but his firm
stance with his sister Mary at her request for private mass also proves his role of independent,
Protestant leadership. Edward and Marys relationship was relatively close for that of royalty
during the 16
th
century. Despite their close ties, when Mary attempts to have Edward make
exception to her Roman beliefs of holding private mass in Latin, the young, Josiah does not falter
before what he believed to be idolatry. Edwards dedication to his beliefs may have stemmed
from the biblical reminder of Hebrew kings who failed to carry out Gods will:
Behold the displeasure of God to a young king for a false religion. Jehoiachin, who was
crowned in the eighth year of his age, for the evil he did in the sight of the Lord, was
taken prisoner by the king of Babylon, (2 Chron. Xxxvi.) with all the goodly vessels of
the Lord. This King reigned but three months and ten days before the Lord punished the
false doctrine he maintained.
8
Allowing Mary to keep her Latin mass would surely be false doctrine that would lead to
Edwards demise. The king did not fall from Gods graces as Jehoiachin did, but he kept to the
ways of Josiah, and he refused Marys request to keep her mass and have her priest released from
prison.

8
John Hooper, Epistle Dedicatory to Edward VI and the his council, 89.

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They [the Council] answered that because of their duties to their king, country, and
friends, they were compelled to give her answer that they would see not only him but also
all other mass-sayers and breakers of order straitly punished, and that as for promise they
had nor would give none to make her free from the punishment of the law in that behalf.
9
Edward goes as far as reminding his sister that he is the king and she is his subject.
10
The Kings
hierarchy of religion over all things made him Englands true Josiah in the eyes of Protestant
reformers.
King Edward VI, Englands Josiah, created the foundations of the Anglican Church,
groundwork that would allow his sister Elizabeth to continue the his religious legacy. Despite
his young age and short time as king, Henry VIIIs son accomplished great feats for the
Protestant reformation. The abolition of the Act of Six Articles cut the ties to traditionalist views
of religion by eliminating the notion of transubstantiation. Just as Josiah destroyed the pagan
idolatry and reestablished Davids kingdom, Edward destroyed what he believed to be pagan
idolatry in the form of the Latin mass, pilgrimages, relics, and images and reestablished what the
Protestants believed the early church to be. The Regency Councils successful use of the Josiah
comparison put Edward on a path that would have given him a historical legacy that may have
grown more powerful than that of his father. The young king stood against his Roman leaning
sister, Mary, and against all traditionalists with the help of his title, biblical persona. Englands
Josiah far exceeded the original expectations of the comparison, and it was only through his early
death that his biblical mission was laid to rest.


9
Edward VI, The Chronicle of Edward VI, June 24, 1551, ed. W.K. Jordan (Ithaca, New York: Cornell
University Press, 1966), 67.
10
Edward VI, The Chronicle of Edward VI, 58.