The reigns of Edward VI (1547-53) and Mary I (1553-8) exemplify sharply contrasting responses to the use of the book-trade as an ideological and political instrument and to the dissemination of religious propaganda. A massive amount of publication appeared during the early part of Edward VI's reign, when English printers produced books at a higher rate than at any point since William Caxton's establishment of the first English printing press. Protestant propaganda comprised the great bulk of the flood of Edwardian publication. Provincial printing was a distinctive feature of the Edwardian booktrade. Mary's coronation heralded defeat for the Protestant reformers in England. A sequence of proclamations, injunctions and other measures forbade the printing and sale of works of religious controversy. Parliament also revived the medieval statutes against heresy. Under Mary, reformist printers and publishers reverted to the Henrician practice of relying upon surreptitious publication. The chapter also gives the STC statistical data of book production for the years 1547-1558.