he apprehended, the business of Canterbury now drew on.

The eyes of the Reformers, from the opening of the persecutions, had been fixed on Oxford. Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer had been there condemned of heresy, and had received the sentence of a court of priests and doctors, even before the reconciliation with Rome. They had then appeared ready to be offered: it was expected that they would be the leaders destined to pass first into the battle with death. For months the expectation of the confessors who crowded the prisons of London had been directed to them. To the great men at Oxford, as they called them, they referred their own conduct: to them they appealed on every question: they sought their advice, and quoted their authority, as the precious accents of voices that were soon to be heard no more. But it had fallen otherwise. The struggle had been begun in London, not in Oxford. Rogers, Hooper, Bradford, Taylor, others had led the way: and the prisons in which these men had lain had been refilled and emptied again and again, while still the great men at Oxford remained unsummoned to their part. The reason was that it had been resolved to treat their previous condemnation as a nullity. It had taken place before the reconciliation with Rome and, like some other parts of the Queen's proceedings, in the eyes of Rome it lacked discretion and authority. It was premature: it bore the marks of a zeal that was not according to knowledge. No burning had taken place before the reconciliation: no burning had taken place in consequence of any process held before the reconciliation, though many who had been burned since the reconciliation had been troubled and imprisoned long before. It seems to have been resolved to neglect the former process, and proceed anew. The beginning was made now with Cranmer. The King and Queen of

England petitioned the Pope that the Archbishop might be tried. The Pope proceeded to summon Cranmer to appear in Rome, personally or by proxy, within a limited time and assigned the business to Cardinal del Pozzo, or de Puteo, James of the Pit; whom he had made prefect of his Roman Inquisition. De Puteo appointed as his delegate, and so subdelegate of the Pope, an English bishop, Brooks of Gloucester, Hooper's successor, formerly one of Gardiner's chaplains, along with the Dean of St. Paul's and the Archdeacon of Canterbury. This tribunal could boast at least of one man of the episcopal order for the trial of a bishop, though Rome was never famous for regarding the episcopal order: and Brooks was the only one of the three who acted.

The Subdelegate, who was thus appointed, made his way to Oxford, and served Cranmer, September 7, with a summonition to appear in Rome in person or by proxy within eighty days.* Two days afterwards, September 9, he opened his court in St. Mary's church, in the presence of a large company of doctors. The King and Queen of England, who in this humiliation of the realm held the position of Denouncers,† appeared by their proctors, two civilians named Martin and Story, well known in the London persecutions; who presented their papers,

"Upon Saturday, being the seventh of this month, I was cited to appear at Rome the eightieth day after, there to make answer to such matter as should be objected against me upon the behalf of the king and your most excellent majesty." Cranmer's Lett. to the Queen. Remains, 447. In his other letter to the Queen (of which below), he says on this point, "As for mine appearance in Rome, if your majesty will give me leave, I will appear there; and I trust that God will put it in my mouth to defend His truth as well there as here." Ib. See further on.

+ And so they were called by the Pope, "Philippum Regem et Mariam Reginam Angliæ illustres, denuntiatores ex una, et quendam Thomam Cranmerum olim Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem reum et denuntiatum," &c. Acta Consist. ap. Poli Epist. v. 140. Denouncers were a sort of ecclesiastical accusers. Hooper was once denouncer of Bonner. See Vol. III. 132 of this work.

and arranged the preliminaries with the popish commissioners. All was ready for the public gaze when, September 12, the doors were thrown wide, and Brooks was discovered seated in the chancel upon a scaffold ten feet high over the high altar on either hand, on lower seats, Martin and Story (a third royal proctor, Lewis, seems not to have been there), who were honoured beyond the usual measure of parties in suits.*_A numerous auditory soon filled the place: and Cranmer was brought in from prison, habited in his gown and hood, with his cap on his head. Summoned by an appointed doctor under the name of Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, he was bidden to make answer to the charges of blasphemy, incontinency, and heresy. Hereupon he bowed with reverence to the proctors of the King and Queen: but to the representative of the Pope he made no sign of obeisance. "It might well become you," said Brooks, "weighing the authority I represent, to do your duty to me."-"I once took a solemn oath," answered Cranmer, "never to consent to the admitting of the Pope's authority into this realm of England. I mean by God's grace to keep it: and therefore I will commit nothing either by sign or token that might argue my consent to the receiving of the same. Judge of me that this is not for any contempt of your person: which I would have as well honoured as the others, if your commission had come from as good an authority as theirs." The Subdelegate then proceeded to address the prisoner at length, in courteous terms, giving him the title of

and

*The chancel of St. Mary's remains still in the same condition as when it was the scene of Cranmer's trial. The same stalls are there the wooden cusps at the ends of them, which were deprived of their upper limbs by the saw, that the platform on which the judge and the proctors sat, might rest securely on them, still exhibit the treatment that they received. This was pointed out to me by the present Vicar, the Revd. E. S. Ffoulkes.

Lord, which belongs to bishops: that they were there, under their various commissions, not to judge him, but to remind him of what he had been, and of what he might be; not to dispute, but to examine and report: that if the first, the recapitulation, were well taken, and he brought to conformity, the second, the examination, would be joy. He therefore went on to tell him, not without eloquence and good feeling, from what he was fallen and how from the Universal and Catholic Church, from the received faith of all Christendom, by an open heresy:* by open preaching, marriage and adultery from his promise to God, from his fidelity and allegiance: by open treason from his sovereign prince. That he had been raised, he told him without reproach or insult, from low to high degree, from better to better, till he became Legatus natus,+ metropolitan of England, pastor of the flock and yet that he had been an instrument by which the Church had been spoiled and brought to ruin. "Who was thought more devout: who was more religious in the face of the world? Who was thought to have more conscience of a vow-making and observing the order of the Church? Who more earnest in defence of

There are three accounts of Cranmer's examination before Brooks. The first is the one in Fox: reprinted from Cranmer's Remains. This Fox considers not very trustworthy "being reported by a papist." It is however very spirited and lifelike: and is confirmed in most points otherwise. There is also "a more full Answer" of Cranmer to Brooks, given also by Fox, with some introductory words only found in his first edition. This is also printed in the Remains. There is thirdly the Latin Processus, or official report sent to Rome by Brooks, which was first printed in the Oxford Edition of Strype's Cranmer and is reprinted in the Remains, Appendix, p. 541. This contains the various instruments, the commissions, proxies, articles, depositions. There is also a general account in "Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons" (a curious book, of which anon). See also Todd and Hook, in their lives of Cranmer. I have constructed my account from all of them, trying to give what is essential.

:

+ This was well put in for one of Cranmer's achievements had been to disown the title of Legatus natus. See Vol. I. 239 of this work.

the Real Presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the altar? But you began to fall by schism in not acknowledging the Pope as supreme head: from schism you fell to apostasy in your marriage, from apostasy to heresy in your teaching, from heresy to perjury, from perjury to treason." He urged him to accept the mercy, in hope of which the Queen had prolonged his life and that, if he would repent, "it is ten to one that where you were Archbishop of Canterbury and Metropolitan of England, you shall be as well still, and rather better" a remarkable proffer, considering what ensued, which came perhaps from the speaker's kindness. Brooks's oration was an able exposition of the opinion that "the true church was only Rome," as he said. He argued well from the usual authorities alleged for that position, such as Cyprian: and he regarded the Reformation as a defection. "If you had seen abuses,” he said to Cranmer," you should rather have endeavoured for a reformation than a defection." He had an easy task in pointing out the inconsistencies of Cranmer's long career: and he discharged it without insolence.

Doctor Martin made an oration of the power of the keys and the power of the sword: exhibiting the Articles to be ministered, and handing in the books of heresies written by Cranmer, whom he termed the author of all mischief. Cranmer then proceeded to make his reply, in an oration which seems to have been delivered with much emotion. He began by rehearsing the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, adding, "I make this protestation, which I desire you to note, that I will never consent that the Bishop of Rome should have any jurisdiction within this realm." Perhaps he would have been more consistent, as he denied the competency, to have kept silence altogether, after protesting: but he preferred to speak, and even to answer articles, under the protestation which