One of the first martyrs was Robert Barnes, a personal friend of Luther.

Much stir was created by the burning, some years later, of a gentlewoman named Anne Askewe and of three men, at Smithfield.

The revulsion naturally caused by this cruelty prepared the people for the Protestant rule of Edward.

The Bible was also attacked.

The translation of 1539 was examined by Convocation in 1540 and criticized for not agreeing more closely with the Latin.