and some other inferior persons: they were all women but one.* After the condemnation pronounced upon Cranmer by the Pope in Rome, two months elapsed before the formulary for the degradation of a great ecclesiastic was composed and sent to England. The interval was passed by Cranmer in a severe struggle: and it is to this period that the first symptoms of a shaken resolution in him are to be assigned. He had already intimated a wish to confer: a step which we have seen many of the most steadfast martyrs refusing to take: and he had named Tunstall, whose book on the Sacrament he had with him in prison, as the prelate with whom he desired to hold colloquy. But Tunstall had declined the office, saying that Cranmer would rather shake him than be convinced by him. Pole had sent Soto to him before the death Fox. Martyrs of the beginning of 1556. London, Jan. 27. Thos. Whittle. Bartlet Green. John Judson. Jn. Went. Thos. Brown. Isabel Forster. Joan Warne Joan Lashford. Canterbury, Jan. 31. Jn. Lomas. Joan Catmer. "Ille contra conditionis qua olim uti consuevisset memor, flagitare pontificum colloquia, in iis maxime Tonstalli Dunelmensis antistitis, quem jam affecta ætate commode iter facere non posse cognorat. Quod ut ingeniosus Pater audivit, peterentque ab eo viri, boni profecto, veruntamen Cranmeri morum ignari, ne eum laborem tanto reipublicæ commodo graveretur exantlare, Tantum inquit abest,' Tunstallus, ut ego Cranmero in Eucharistiæ causa prodesse possim ut etiam is mihi se scrupulos in eo genere injecturum confidat.' Quod equidem puto verissime ab eo dictum." Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons, p. 23. This rare and curious tract, which has not been applied in history before, contains many particulars to be found nowhere else: and is indispensable to the student of Cranmer's last days. The original, a Latin manuscript with the English title "Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons" written upon it, was discovered in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris by the late Lord Houghton, and edited by Mr. Gairdner, the eminent historical antiquarian, to whom I am indebted for of Ridley and Latimer:* and Soto, though he had no success for his own part, yet was able at length to report that the heretic showed himself to be less pertinacious, and evinced a desire to confer with Pole in person, a request which it by no means suited the Legate to grant.† Another of the Spanish friars, John de Villa Garcina, who was anon to play a great part in this tragedy, was invited to conference by Cranmer himself, though Cranmer after several conversations rejected his arguments as sophistical. But it is characteristic of the Archbishop that he was more moved by the artful absence of his gaoler, a stout Romanensian, of whom he had grown fond, than by the reasoning of theologians: and it is curious to find, if true, that the smile of Nicholas Wodson, who alternately shed and withdrew the light of his countenance as his prisoner seemed to waver or stand firm, was the the gift of a copy. It was once among Harpsfield's papers, and he may be the author, though Mr. Gairdner thinks it was Alan Cope, who afterwards under his own name edited Harpsfield's Dialogues. If Harpsfield were not the author, it might have been one of the friars who attended Cranmer, or some one who had direct information from them. It is a cruel and superstitious performance, bitterly hostile to Cranmer. * "Polus cardinalis ad Academiam virum singulari doctrina, continentia, pietate misit Petrum de Soto, fratrem ordinis Divi Dominici. Is cum Cranmero diebus jam pluribus de catholicæ ecclesiæ auctoritate agens primum discipulum habuit, satis deinde permolestum auditorem, post etiam apertum hostem." Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons, p. 43. + "Qui olim Cantuariensi Ecclesiæ præfuit, cujus damnationis sententia Roma nunc expectatur, is non ita se pertinacem ostendit, aitque se cupere mecum loqui: Si ad pœnitentiam revocari possit, ex proximis literis P. Soti expectamus." Pole to King Philip. Epist. v. 47. The letter is undated, but plainly belongs to this interval. Friar John was at first unwilling to go to Cranmer: but went at length on the last day of December, 1555: after which he had several conversations with him, of which an account is given in Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons, p. 51-64. The question in debate was the Roman superiority, and also Purgatory. Friar John, who may have been the informant of the writer, gives the advantage to himself: but the end of all is, "Commoveri Cranmerus cæpit, et Sophistam Joannem clamare, convitiumque ei quasi homini syllabas et voces aucupanti maximum facere." immediate cause why Cranmer wrote the first of the several instruments of his fall. After repeated delays, in miserable conflict, he composed a brief declaration, or Submission; that since the King, Queen and Parliament had admitted the authority of the Pope, he submitted himself to their laws, and acknowledged the Pope to be chief head of the Church of England, so far as the laws of God and of the realm allowed.* This was instantly sent to London, to the Queen and Council. The unhappy prelate, a few days afterwards, cancelled it, or substituted for it a more unreserved formulary, the second instrument of his fall, in which he said merely that he submitted himself to the Catholic Church, to the Pope Supreme Head thereof, and to the laws and customs of their Majesties. To London to the Queen and Council the second Submission followed the first.+ * Custos ei fuerat appositus homo diligens virtuteque præditus Nicholaus Wodsonus. Is in magnam spem Cranmeri verbis adductus fore uti heresim facto, jam verbo quoque, ipsius brevi condemnatam audiret; dies multos id expectans, ubi tempus proferri opinionumque revocationem commentitiis causis produci intellexit, iratus domum discedit, neque, uti consueverat, rem opera (sic) consolatione illum sublevat. Cranmerus desiderium hominis amicissimi, cui vel intimos animi sensus aliquando posset aperire, graviter molesteque ferens, quinto Kalendas Februarii bene mane Wodsonum advocat, quid esse quare tam diu abfuerit rogat. “Quid,” inquit Wodsonus, “mihi tecum rei est ? aut quousque me inani spe jactabis, si noster es? sin autem alienus, ejus laboris quem suscepi vehementer pœnitet." Tum Cranmerus, "Posterius," inquit, "ista videbimus, interim volo apud me sis hodie." "Hac conditione," inquit Wodsonus, "ut te colligas, nostroque esse in numero velis." Qui, quando alio pacto teneri non poterat, Cranmerus a prandio se pollicetur id curaturum. Admonitus autem a prandio sui promissi ait sibi non liquere, et ea causa rem ampliari deposcit. Wodsonus destitutione illa perculsus Deum cæpit testari posthac se perpetuo Cranmeri consuetudine cariturum, neque unquam hominis et heretici et perfidi usurum familiaritate." Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons, p. 65. On his departure Cranmer falls into a fainting fit, "Vix ostium abiens occlusit, cum Cranmeri membra repentinus horror occupat, quo acerbissime perculsus examinatus pene concidit:" and on his 'covery he writes his first Submission. These two Submissions were written in English: and in their original form I shall consider them further on. Here I will give the Latin version In the meantime the expected Bull of degradation had arrived from Rome, accompanied by letters executory from the high pontiff. As if in answer to the Archbishop's efforts for reconciliation, it was forthwith consigned to two bishops, Bonner and Thirlby,* to be put in force, February 14. It was a curious ritual. "In public," it enjoined, "in an elevated place beyond the body of the church,† large enough for the purpose, let there be set a credence covered with a simple napkin: upon the credence a cruet of wine and a cruet of water: a gospel book, an epistolary, an exorcism book, a lectionary, an antiphoner: a basin with an ewer and towels: a candle of them which is in Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons: and a very exact version it is. The first is, "Quando regis reginæque majestas ex Parliamenti consensu Papæ auctoritatem in hoc regnum admisit, contentus sum me in ea re illorum legibus subjicere, et Papam agnoscere summum caput hujus ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, quatenus Dei leges et hujus regni leges et instituta permittunt. THOMAS CRANMER." Note here the word summum for supremum. In Cranmer's own English it is "chief," at the first plunge. Note also that he attempts as to the Pope the same limitation that the clergy of Henry VIII. made as to the King, with regard to the title of supreme head. The second Submission is, "Ego Thomas Cranmer, in theologia doctor, submitto me catholicæ ecclesiæ Christi, et Papæ supremo capiti ejusdem ecclesiæ, et majestati regis et reginæ, omnibus eorum legibus et institutis. THOMAS CRANMER." p. 68. The Grey Friars' Chronicle adds White: but seems unsupported. It also makes the degradation take place nine days later, February 23. "Item, the xxiii of February was Shrove Sunday, and then was leap year and that day the bishop of London Edward Bonner, the bishop of Lincoln then being (John White) and the bishop of Ely Doctor Thirlby, sat at Oxford in commissioners for the pope upon Thomas Cranmer sometime archbishop of Canterbury, upon his great heresy that he was in, and there he was degraded of his legateship and of his archbishopship, and priesthood, and all other ecclesiastical degrees, and so committed unto the temporal hands and jurisdiction." p. 96. + "Extra ecclesiam." This expression seems to have led Hook to describe the degradation as taking place in a yard outside Christchurch cathedral church. But it is certain that it took place inside, before the altar, in the choir. The word ecclesia is used technically, for the nave or part of the church, not the whole. I may add that this instrument, like the Roman Consistorial Acts, and other Roman writings of the age, is sometimes in very odd Latin. stick with an extinguished candle; keys, shears, a knife or a piece of glass: a cup and a paten. The furniture required for the degradation is a surplice, sandals and boots, an amice, an alb, a girdle, a maniple, a tunicle, a stole or dalmatic, gloves, another stole or cope, a mitre, a pontifical ring, a pall, a pastoral staff, and some lay garment. For the degrading prelate there must be a faldstool, for his officials sedilia. A temporal judge must be present, to whom the degraded may be committed, and a notary to read the process, if it be requisite, and a barber. The degradand is to be brought in his daily or ordinary dress : and indued by the clergy in all the vestments pertaining to his ecclesiastical degree. The degrading prelate habited in amice, alb, girdle, stole, and red cope and mitre, having his staff in the left hand, shall ascend the place aforesaid and sit on the faldstool facing the people, the secular judge standing beside him. The degradand, being now fully vested, and bearing in hand the vessels and instruments of his office, shall be brought, and shall kneel before him. Then the degrading pontiff shall declare to the people in their own language the reason of the degradation and shall in Latin pronounce sentence, if it have not been already pronounced, thus: 'In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; whereas we, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See bishop,' and the rest. Then, from a degradand of archiepiscopal degree the degradator shall first remove the pall, with the words in Latin, "The prerogative of pontifical dignity, which is designated in the pall, we remove from thee, for that thou hast evilly used it.' Then the mitre, saying, 'Of the mitre, ornament of the dignity pontifical, because thou hast defiled it by governing ill, we denude thy head.' The Evangelary, or Gospel Book, saying, 'Render back the Gospel, for we deprive thee of the office of preaching, by despising which |